A growing chorus of Chicago Public Schools principals reiterated their support for CEO Pedro Martinez Monday, as the ongoing power struggle over the country’s fourth-largest school district showed no signs of abating as the first half of the school year winds down.
In a months long battle with the administration of former CPS teacher and Chicago Teachers Union organizer Mayor Brandon Johnson and the CTU, Martinez’s job at the helm of the district’s more than 600 schools has been on the line since the start of the school year.
The political tumult has only escalated in the interim months, with the teachers union and revamped Board of Education most recently pushing Martinez to finalize the union’s next contract. Meanwhile, school leaders’ support for the embattled schools chief has grown.
Alarmed at the prospect of his ouster, nearly 700 principals and assistant principals have signed onto a letter – originally issued in August – asking the Board “to carefully consider the potential impact that a change in leadership could have on the Chicago Public Schools community,” according to an emailed statement from principals who organized the effort. The school leaders wrote and circulated the letter independent of their union, the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association.
At least one school leader from each of the vast majority of district-run schools, 77%, wants Martinez to remain in his position, according to the group.
“School leaders are tasked with implementing the vision and policies within CPS. We play an important role in the education of our students, the development of our staff, and the relationships with our parents and communities. Our opinions and voices should matter with the future of our district,” they wrote, underlining recent gains in graduation rates and standardized test scores.
“We understand the political dynamics at play—the Board of Education hires the CEO, and the Mayor appoints the Board members,” the principals’ letter states, noting Johnson’s “connection” to the CTU, which bankrolled his campaign.
“Nevertheless, decisions about CPS leadership should not be driven by political affiliations or interests. We urge the Board to focus on the long-term success of the district,” the principals wrote.
Since school leaders first pleaded with the body, which has the sole power to hire and fire the district CEO, Board members have been entirely replaced. The prior slate of seven Board members resigned en masse in October and, among Johnson’s new appointees, a fleeting board president, Rev. Mitchell L. Ikenna Johnson, was forced to resign within days due to scandal.
The remaining members, with the exception of former CTU staffer Debby Pope, wrote Martinez a letter just before the Thanksgiving holiday, directing him to finalize the contract with the CTU.
In a media briefing, and letter updating families on the state of negotiations earlier this month, CPS said its sticking points with the union involve proposals amounting to around $10 billion in new costs over four years.
The next day, CTU sent a letter to the Board, asserting that the district’s “inaccurate and disingenuous” characterization of its proposals ignored months of compromise and risked progress made at the bargaining table.
Board members issued their letter to Martinez the same day, urging a “swift settlement” of the contract.
“We are directing you and your designees at the bargaining table to expedite the process, move negotiations to conclusion and present us with a tentative agreement,” Board members’ missive to the CEO states. “Negotiations have been ongoing since April and we all would like to see a resolution.”
Compared to the prior round of collective bargaining negotiations, CTU appears to have presented its demands later this year than in the past.
In kicking off negotiations which led to the current contract, CTU presented its demands to the Board in January 2019, according to a timeline published in a union newsletter that year.
This year, CTU presented its contract demands four months later, in April. Seven months have passed since the current negotiations began, with fact-finding hearings scheduled to occur in December and a report of resulting recommendations expected in January.
The previous round of talks ended in November 2019, around 11 months after CTU presented its demands, and three months after it rejected the recommendations in a fact-finder’s report.
The union’s formal response at that time hints at a history of displeasure with the process due to unfold again this winter. In a dissenting opinion posted on CTU’s site, union representative Robert Bloch denounced the fact-finder’s conclusions – and the method as a whole.
“After three rounds of statutory fact-finding in 2012, 2015 and now, fact-finding can also be confirmed as a total failure in identifying possible terms for contract settlements,” Bloch wrote, asserting that the vast majority, 85%, of disputed issues jointly submitted by CPS and the union were ignored.
“And of the three issues the report addresses, the recommendation fails to find a fair balance of the parties’ interests and is therefore of no use whatsoever to conclude a labor contract and avoid a strike by CPS educators,” he wrote.
A few weeks after rejecting the recommended resolution, the union went on strike in the fall of 2019. Following the 15-day labor action, CPS signed the current deal which expired in June and encompassed around $1.5 billion in new costs compared with its predecessor.
The Board will next convene Wednesday, to plan the agenda for its upcoming Dec. 12 meeting. Monthly Board meetings, in which members discuss personnel and “collective negotiating matters” in closed session, have been a focal point since September, when Johnson purportedly asked Martinez to resign.
The mayor’s request – precipitated by the CEO’s refusal to take out a loan to cover a set of contentious costs, including the CTU contract – was refused by Martinez, whose tenure has since been uncertain.
The Tribune’s Gregory Pratt and Nell Salzman contributed.
