Embattled CPS CEO criticized in meeting with Mayor Brandon Johnson
Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez got chewed out this week by allies of Mayor Brandon Johnson over impending charter school closures, in a contentious City Hall meeting that could spell the next step in Johnson’s monthslong push to oust the embattled schools chief.
The Monday meeting, which the mayor attended, featured a presentation by Martinez over the looming closures of seven Acero charter schools, according to attendees. It took a hostile turn when several progressive aldermen began grilling Martinez on the slideshow.
Though the network is governed by a separate board of directors that voted on these closures, Martinez came under fire for what the aldermen on Johnson’s leadership team said was a lack of a plan for the more than 2,000 students and about 270 educators who would be impacted, attendees said.
The latest flashpoint came as Johnson’s team since September has maneuvered to fire Martinez over major disagreements about the school district’s tight budget, including Martinez’s opposition to a high-interest loan that would address a big pension obligation payment and help fund raises for teachers as part of the upcoming Chicago Teachers Union contract. The CEO’s refusal to step down has lead to a remarkable shakeup of the mayor’s handpicked school board that has the sole power to remove him.
But because Martinez’s contract says termination without cause requires about six months’ notice, Johnson and his latest iteration of the Board of Education are looking for a reason to fire him with cause.
A special school board meeting is scheduled for Thursday in which members are expected to take up the prospect of hiring the law firm Cozen O’Connor as outside counsel, as well as a resolution “to maintain” Acero schools, per an agenda released Tuesday.
Johnson, a former CTU organizer, has traditionally been against charter school expansion. However, in 2017 the teachers union merged with the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, meaning Acero teachers are represented by CTU.
In a Tuesday news conference, Johnson said “yes and yes” when asked whether he is against the Acero closures and is concerned with CPS leadership’s response.
“These privatization schemes have created the type of environment that has destabilized our school district, and leadership of the Chicago Public Schools has to have a contingency plan,” Johnson told reporters. “And right now, we haven’t seen that type of leadership.”
Asked whether that is enough reason to fire Martinez with cause, the mayor said, “You know I don’t discuss personnel issues, but nice try.”
In a Tuesday statement, a CPS spokesperson wrote: “CPS cannot unilaterally require Acero to keep the seven campuses open. While Acero did not provide advance notice to CPS, they operated within the scope of their agreement with the district. That said, the district has been working with a high sense of urgency to evaluate and create viable options for the impacted Acero students and families.”
District actions cited in the CPS statement include a “joint initial parent town hall” and “individual student support including guaranteed placement in neighborhood schools.”
Besides the mayor and Martinez, those present at the Monday meeting were Johnson’s chief of staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Deputy Mayor of Labor Bridget Early, two of his handpicked Board of Education members and several progressive aldermen, sources with knowledge of the meeting told the Tribune. Martinez’s presentation on why he cannot legally force Acero to stop the closures quickly got derailed when aldermen began grilling him.
The aldermen most vocal with concerns on Martinez’s leadership in that meeting were Aldermen Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, Jeanette Taylor, 20th, and Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, sources said. The appointed school board members present were Frank Thomas and Olga Bautista.
Taylor, the City Council Education Committee’s chair, said the meeting was indeed heated but did not go as far to say she thinks Martinez should face consequences for the closures and fallout.
“He got his a– handed to him,” she said. “And rightfully so.”
Taylor, 20th, said she does not blame Martinez for the closures but takes issue with his response to the students and parents now looking for answers. Martinez was short on data and ideas to cater to Acero students when he met with aldermen, she said.
“I’m not his boss, that’s between him and his boss. I didn’t hire him,” she said. “But it’s unacceptable for him not to have a plan in place.”
Ald. Gilbert Villegas, a mayoral critic, wasn’t at the meeting but heard about the tense discussion. He described the disagreement over Martinez’s Acero response as an effort to find a pretext to fire the CEO.
“CTU and the mayor have been looking for the boogeyman,” he said. “This is all a ploy to fire Pedro Martinez. Because that’s what CTU wants, and the mayor is going to do what CTU wants.”
But Sigcho-Lopez, one of Johnson’s closest allies, said Martinez had little to say about what could be immediately done for Acero students. Martinez’s lack of “contingency plans” for Acero gives City Hall “grounds for firing him,” he said.
“I think the fact that he doesn’t have a plan is likely going to start getting more people to go that way,” Sigcho-Lopez said.
Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, added Martinez could have offered to seek lower rents for the schools housed in Archdiocese of Chicago buildings or outlined a plan to lobby for legislation to help make them CPS neighborhood schools but “instead, what we got was a handful of slide decks with a bunch of fluff and a bunch of buzzwords.”
The Northwest Side alderman said he is “noticing a pattern” of Martinez failing to respond in tough situations.
“I think it’s another example of his failed leadership,” he said.
The Acero charter school network operates a string of publicly funded schools authorized and overseen by the district, operating primarily in the Latino community. The schools receive funding from CPS but are responsible for managing their day-to-day operations with those funds. In January, the Chicago Board of Education extended Acero’s charter through 2026.
Factors cited by Acero’s board on shutting down the seven of 15 schools include: insufficient funds due to a lack of federal and state dollars and CPS’ budget shortfall; declining enrollment; changes in the neighborhoods the schools serve; and inadequate spaces to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
When the closures were announced last month, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates sent a letter to Martinez urging CPS to assume management of the schools.
Johnson, a former educator, has in the past opposed charter expansion. But he has also pledged not to close any schools.
Earlier this summer, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon said he passed on putting an amendment to extend a moratorium on public school closings in Chicago to a vote because he accepted Johnson’s promise not to shut down any schools or unfairly diminish funding. The bill initially was aimed at protecting selective enrollment schools from closures before it was amended to all schools, including regular neighborhood schools.
But in correspondence between Johnson and Harmon’s offices obtained by the Tribune in a public records request, the mayor had questioned in one letter why the bill “makes no distinction between traditional public schools and charter schools that are also funded by public dollars but have not been held to the same standards.”
Acero Schools formerly operated under the charter school network United Neighborhood Organization or UNO, which stopped managing its 16 charter schools at the end of the 2014 school year due to a scandal over hiring practices. The Acero school network became completely self-managed in June 2015, when its management contract with UNO expired, according to the Acero website.
Later on in Tuesday’s news conference, Johnson pivoted from speaking just on Acero and said “there is still a long-term systemic problem” on the long-term sustainability of charter schools that Martinez must address.
“I don’t want any family to endure that type of trauma,” Johnson said about school closings. “Now, listen, I didn’t say (Martinez) did anything wrong. … Here’s what we’re saying, is that there is a trend that’s happening here, and CPS’s leadership has to put together contingency plans to ensure that this trend doesn’t become a part of the regular dynamic within our school district.”
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