CHICAGO (WLS) — Mayor Brandon Johnson’s interim Chicago Board of Education voted unanimously to fire Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez without cause on Friday night.
Martinez called the decision a disappointment but promised to stay on the job while the school board transitions to a new leader. He will continue to serve as CPS CEO for the next 180 days on top of being given 20 weeks worth of severance pay.
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“If there’s a silver lining, it’s that educators, families and especially our students will be spared from the disruption of a mid-year change in leadership,” Martinez said.
Friday’s vote followed a tumultuous meeting with some criticizing the school district leader about his tenure.
“Pedro Martinez was entrusted with the leadership of CPS to bring stability to our schools, and yet schools on the West Side, where I live, remain in constant state of crisis,” said District 1 Cook County Commissioner Tara Stamps.
Others called the vote a political game with repercussions.
“You’re not just firing a CEO. You are intentionally clearing a way to saddle taxpayers with billions in costs, and the district and yourselves personally with costly litigation,” said 23rd Ward Ald. Silvana Tabares. “You are being used. The mayor is a walking conflict of interest.”
Attempts to oust Martinez by Johnson and the Chicago Teachers’ Union have been months in the making.
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It all began when Martinez and the previous school board refused to secure a $300 million short-term high-interest loan to pay for a costly teachers’ contract.
Before Friday’s board meeting, Martinez’s lawyer, Bill Quinlan, tried to stop the vote by filing a temporary restraining order, saying the decision to fire Martinez is a violation of his contract.
And before filing that TRO, in a letter sent to each individual board member Friday, Quinlan asked members to reconsider terminating Martinez or diminishing his duties.
Quinlan wrote that any attempt to name a co-CEO, which sources say is under consideration, without Martinez’s consent is a violation of his contract.
The letter gave the board a deadline to respond, but they did not.
Instead, after voting in favor of a plan to keep seven Acero charter schools slated for closure open through next year, the board went into a closed session.
Board members later returned and voted to fire Martinez in front of the public.
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“It’s important that we have a smooth transition to a new CEO instead of throwing everything into chaos in the middle of a school year. It is not right!” Martinez said.
This comes as some newly-elected school board members called any decision on Martinez’s future to be delayed until the hybrid school board is sworn in next month.
“All I’ve ever asked from this board and the previous board, all I ever asked is, if you want to move on from me, just honor the terms of my contract,” Martinez said.
Meanwhile, according to an internal memo obtained by the Chicago Tribune, Johnson’s labor advisor told previous board members that the mayor expected Martinez out by Sept. 26 and wanted to land a teachers’ contract.
CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said she is hoping to get a deal done before Christmas and before the new elected hybrid school board is sworn in on Jan. 15.
CPS said with over 700 contract demands, it doubts there will be an agreement by next week.
Despite Friday night’s vote, Martinez garnered support from former CPS CEOs, seven new elected school board members, several alderpersons and nearly 700 principals and assistant principals. They all called for continued stability for the school district.
Sources told ABC7 the school board is already considering naming a co-CEO.
Attorneys for Martinez told ABC7 they plan to go to court as soon as possible to reverse Friday night’s decision.
The CTU issued a statement on Friday’s vote, saying, “For nearly a year, Chicago educators have been laser-focused on securing a contract that guarantees every CPS student a quality school day, protects recent academic gains, and provides classrooms with the resources our students and families deserve.
Through all of this, CEO Pedro Martinez stalled.
Mr. Martinez put his personal politics, career goals, and media stardom ahead of the needs of our students and their families. As educators, we saw and felt the true impact of Martinez’s lack of leadership up close and personal.
We saw his unwillingness to hire more school nurses for our vulnerable school communities. We saw it in his reluctance to provide the resources for our neighborhood public schools struggling to meet the needs of an expanding migrant population. We saw him struggle to find real solutions for the ACERO families.
Regrettably, we saw it at the bargaining table, where he was unwilling to join us in the solution-driven work of locking in many of the academic gains made by our young people over the past three years.
Chicago’s students and their families deserve a fighter as CEO: Martinez seemed willing to put up a bigger fight for his job than he was for the students and families of this city and the funding their schools desperately need. But instead of proactively leading our school district and fighting for full funding of our schools, he always sat on his hands-putting CPS and the ACERO students and families in jeopardy.
As we approach the year’s end and face the realities of a second Trump term in public education, we don’t have time to waste responding to baseless claims made by Mr. Martinez and his high-priced attorneys.
Let’s be clear: battles with former Blagojevich attorneys will not improve the school day for our students and their families, provide resources for our classrooms, or provide protection for our students, staff, and their families.
Now more than ever, Chicago needs a real champion for public schools. We need a leader who is unwilling to accept overcrowded classrooms, staffing vacancies, and failure to meet the needs of special education and English language learning students as standard operating procedures.
The Mayor, Board of Education, and next CEO will have to reorient the culture of district leadership toward collaboration, championing equity in more than just lip service, and providing proactive leadership to fight against the coming attacks and for the full funding our schools need and deserve.
We need a leader to fight with us to reclaim the promise of public education for our city, its students, and their families. We need a leader who sees the historic opportunity in front of CPS, Chicago, and the state of Illinois to end generations of disinvestment, reverse the trend of balancing its budget on Black and Brown students, and create a baseline of excellence for every school in every neighborhood.
We look forward to the road ahead for CPS, and we urge the board and the mayor to step into the leadership gap that the CEO has created and choose a future candidate who understands the assignment.
The video in the player above is from an earlier report.
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