A newly appointed school board did not hold a closed meeting to address personnel matters Friday, a choice that would not seem unusual in a less turbulent time for the nation’s fourth-largest school district.
But Friday’s Chicago Board of Education meeting was hardly typical. It was held a day after the board president resigned due to social media posts deemed antisemitic, misogynistic, and conspiratorial by critics, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker. The former board president, the Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson, was replaced Friday with a temporary chair: Michilla “Kyla” Blaise.
The meeting culminated months of back-and-forth between the district and the mayor, following a stunning shakeup in which the entire school board resigned last month over pressure to oust the chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools, Pedro Martinez, for his refusal to take out a loan to cover a pension payment to the city and a new teachers’ contract.
“We need a level of transparency. The board needs a level of transparency. These are hard conversations, and we just need to be truthful and honest,” said board member Rafael Yañez, a hate crimes officer with the Chicago Police Department.
Martinez opened Friday’s meeting by mentioning his background as a Chicago Public Schools graduate and touting the increased graduation rates and busing for students with disabilities. He urged audience members to express their beliefs in the upcoming election, when the board—which has changed several times over the past month alone—will change again.
“In just five days to go to Chicago will hold its first ever school board election. This is an opportunity for our staff, families, and community members to select those individuals who represent their views and priorities when it comes to public education in our state,” Martinez said.
Yañez addressed the recent turmoil early on, bringing up the recently announced closures of seven Acero charter schools, which predominantly serve Latino students. Parents and students have repeatedly protested the closures since the announcement, saying they weren’t notified. CPS CEO Martinez has also said the district hadn’t been notified.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to say that (you) just got notified just around the same time that we got notified. We have to do better … it’s painful. It is truly painful,” Yañez said, to cheers.
He asked Martinez when the board would be updated about ongoing Chicago Teachers Union negotiations. CPS CEO Martinez said they were in the process of planning “very in-depth briefings” on both issues in the next few weeks.
Public comment at times grew hostile, as parents and aldermen brought up the background of the resigned president Rev. Johnson and directly accused several of the new board members of being involved in the plans of the mayor to disrupt the school board to push for his agenda to take out a loan. The mayor is a former educator and CTU organizer.
This week has been “extremely hard” for Chicago’s Jewish community due to both a shooting in Rogers Park and the Rev. Johnson’s online comments, said Dan Goldwin, chief public affairs officer of the Jewish United Fund. While the Rev. Johnson resigned as board president yesterday, Goldwin said his “departure has not ridden this board entirely of hostility towards Jews.”
Goldwin called on the school board to answer how Jewish students will be made to feel safe in the district. He questioned board member Debby Pope for her tweets boycotting Michael Rapaport’s visit to the Vic Theatre stating “Zionists aren’t welcome in Chicago” and board member Olga Bautista’s signature on a letter calling Zionists similar to white supremacists.
“Is it any wonder that Jewish students, parents, teachers, and staff feel unsafe, unheard, and unseen throughout the CPS system?” Goldwin asked. “Assuming Pope and Bautista are not planning on doing the honorable thing and resign like Reverend Johnson, I call on this board to explain to the majority of Jews who are connected to Israel how they will be made to feel safe, welcome, seen, and heard.”
In response to public comment later, Pope said she is a Jewish woman and the daughter of a woman who “witnessed firsthand the murder and brutality against our entire family in Nazi Germany.”
“I think it’s extremely important to make all students comfortable,” she said. “I think it’s important to put our ideologies aside and focus on children and focus on their well-being.”
Board member Frank Thomas addressed the controversy surrounding the board’s previous president, stating that while he “may not personally agree … that has nothing to do with the work of this board.” He said one thing the board has in common is their “dedication to securing better education for students of Chicago.
