Chicago Board of Education meeting called, schools’ chief job could be discussed

Chicago Public Schools called a special board meeting Friday amid brewing tension over the schools chief Pedro Martinez’s employment status.

The meeting will be held Dec. 20, at 11:00 a.m. at a Chicago Public Schools administrative building on the South Side. The current seven-member board will vote on just a few items before the body expands to 21 members in January.

If the board were to vote to fire Martinez, it would happen in closed session. There is a motion for a closed session on the agenda to discuss the employment of CPS personnel, but it is not clear if the board’s lawyers will move to oust the district’s leader. Anything can technically be discussed in a closed session.

The special meeting is the latest update in what has been a tense, monthslong power struggle between the Chicago Teachers Union, Mayor Brandon Johnson and the district.

The power struggle began in late September when the mayor requested Martinez resign after the CPS CEO refused to take out a $300 million high-interest loan to cover a new teachers contract and a pension payment to the city. With the district facing deficits of around $500 million in each of the next five years, Martinez refused, saying a loan would be fiscally irresponsible.

Then, at a meeting in mid-November, the board hired an outside law firm which legal experts said was the first step forward in potentially firing Martinez. Those lawyers offered Martinez a buy-out before a meeting on Dec. 4, according to sources close to the conversations. Martinez declined the offer.

The board can terminate Martinez’s employment contract — expiring in June 2026 — in two ways: for cause or without cause.

By firing Martinez “for cause,” according to the contract, the board would have to cite misconduct or criminal activity, incompetence in the performance of job duties, fraud or other wrongdoing. In this scenario, Martinez would not be eligible for severance pay, but he can pursue a wrongful termination lawsuit.

If the board fires Martinez “without cause,” Martinez can remain in his position for 180 days and will receive 20 weeks of his base salary of $340,000 in 2022, according to public records.

CPS to absorb five Acero schools

According to the agenda, the board’s first order of business is a motion to elect Sean B. Harden as president, formalizing the business consultant’s appointment to the role by Johnson Monday. The move to swear in Harden comes after the former board president, the Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson, resigned in late October due to controversy surrounding his social media posts.

Mary Russell Gardner, the board’s vice president, had been leading meetings following the Rev. Johnson’s resignation. Harden, in his new role, will lead future board meetings and sign off contracts and other documents on behalf of the board.

Members will also vote on a resolution directing Martinez and Chief Portfolio Officer Alfonso Carmona to create a detailed plan to begin operating five of the seven Acero charter schools slated for closure at the end of this school year, as district-run schools for 2026-2027.

Parents, teachers and students have protested the closures for weeks since Acero leadership first announced the news in October. The closures would affect about 2,000 mostly Latino students and over 250 staff members.

Sandra Cisneros Elementary School, Bartolomé de Las Casas Elementary School, Carlos Fuentes Elementary, Rufino Tamayo Elementary and Esmeralda Santiago Elementary are the schools where the district is to assume operations, according to the resolution included in meeting agenda materials.

Octavio Paz Elementary in Little Village and the K-12 Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in West Ridge — the two Acero locations that the board did not dictate be transitioned to district-run schools — are some of the largest contributors to the charter network’s debt, Carmona said at a recent board meeting.

To keep all seven schools open next school year, the resolution requires district leadership to meet with Acero “in a timely fashion to ensure that the needed steps are taken” so that the charter network continues to operate the schools through the end of the 2025-2026 school year. Acero leadership has not shown up to recent board meetings to discuss the closures with the board, despite board requests for them to do so.

If the resolution passes Friday, district staff will be required to develop a memorandum of understanding with Acero — and cover funding shortfalls that the charter operator said required the school closures.

CPS has not offered financial assistance to 12 other charter schools that have voluntarily closed doors since 2013, district officials have said. But the board is still asking CPS to to assume responsibility.

“The Board and District will take into account operational savings, other potential revenue, and Acero’s unspent reserves,” states the resolution, which also implies that Acero’s degree of cooperation will inform the board’s future determinations on the operator’s remaining schools.

Regarding the two Acero locations that the board did not dictate be transitioned to district-run schools, Octavio Paz Elementary and the K-12 Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the resolution requires district staff to evaluate the viability of their potential absorption by CPS in the future.

“Acero’s closure of Paz and Cruz must include the provision of any and all support and information necessary to ease the transition,” the resolution states.

CPS leaders are also directed to provide support among the five other schools where it is to assume operations in a way that maximizes student and staff retention, according to the board’s proposed order.