As speculation swirls about whether Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez could be fired as soon as this week, hundreds of principals and assistant principals are expressing support for their embattled boss.
School leaders from across the city re-released a letter Monday that was originally shared in August, this time with a couple hundred more signatures, calling on the Board of Education to keep Martinez in his position.
More than 670 principals and assistant principals — almost two-thirds of the 1,100 in CPS — praised Martinez and urged the board to “not make any personnel decisions impacting the senior CPS leadership.”
“Our opinions and voices should matter with the future of our district,” the group said. “A change of leadership would be a decision rooted in political interests, not the interest of students.”
Asked for his thoughts about the letter at an unrelated news conference Monday, Mayor Brandon Johnson said, “I actually don’t think much of it.” Asked to elaborate, he said, “Nope. I don’t think much of it at all.”
The renewed support from principals comes as Johnson’s newly appointed school board could move to fire Martinez at one of two December meetings, the first of which is on Wednesday. The six members were appointed in October after the previous board resigned en masse.
There was no vote for Martinez’s dismissal on the public agenda posted Monday, which must be released 48 hours in advance of a public meeting. Legal experts said they believed a public body would need to provide proper notification if it planned to take a vote, though a review of past agendas shows the Board of Education doesn’t always list positions or specific names of employees it plans to hire, fire or take other action on.
There was an agenda item for the board’s closed session that could include Martinez as a topic of conversation. It called for the members to “discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees …” But that language is listed on many board meeting agendas for all sorts of personnel matters in the massive school district.
If the board doesn’t take action on Martinez this week, its last meeting of the year will be on Dec. 12. That will be the final one before the new 21-member, partially elected board takes over in January. Ten members were elected Nov. 5. Johnson will appoint the other 11 members.
Whenever it happens, a move to fire Martinez would come after months of conflict between the mayor’s office and the head of the school district over a budget shortfall that a new Chicago Teachers Union contract is expected to exacerbate.
Martinez said the mayor told him earlier this fall that he wanted him out. Tension at City Hall hit a breaking point in early October, when the entire Board of Education resigned. The new board members that Johnson appointed are now tasked with deciding Martinez’s fate; they have repeatedly expressed displeasure with the CEO over his handling of sensitive topics, especially CTU negotiations and the planned closure of seven charter schools.
The contract talks remain a particular sore spot. Last week, board members sent a letter to Martinez telling him they feel a “sense of urgency” to get the contract settled and provide stability to the district before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office. The letter was first reported by NBC 5 Chicago.
Board members asked for an itemized list of differences between CTU and CPS. They also said nonmonetary demands should be resolved quickly, and that the board wanted to see a deal “in the coming days.”
The letter came after Martinez’s team, for the second time, accused the union of seeking a wildly expensive contract that would add $10 billion in additional expenses over four years. CPS officials said the district couldn’t afford those demands, which they say would plunge it into even greater than expected deficits in the coming years.
Union leadership responded by accusing Martinez of not “bargaining in good faith” and inflating the cost of the union’s current proposals. The CTU said the price tag ignored the “significant shifts and compromises made during six months of mature bargaining. It is both disheartening and dishonest.”
The board members have also strongly criticized Martinez for not being more aggressive in preventing the planned closure of the seven campuses of Acero Charter Schools.
Contributing: Mariah Woelfel, Tessa Weinberg