Martinez’s opinion piece published Tuesday in the Chicago Tribune comes as the school district is expected to adopt a resolution at its monthly board meeting Thursday that prevents any district-run schools from closing through the 2026-27 school year.
By Nader Issa
Updated Sept 24, 2024, 5:56pm CDT
Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez
Sun-Times Media file photo
In an extraordinary set of comments Tuesday that brought the leadership tussle at the top of the school system further into public view, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez said he would not resign at Mayor Brandon Johnson’s direction.
He argued his departure would leave a “leadership vacuum and instability” in his wake and decried “outright lies” about his administration.
Martinez also proposed a self-imposed school closings moratorium until 2027 as a way to fend off what he called a “misinformation campaign” from the Chicago Teachers Union about plans to close schools, a union effort aimed at heightening scrutiny around Martinez’s job status.
And he received a letter of support from a group of leaders that include two former CPS CEOs and a couple dozen city and state elected officials.
The latest developments come ahead of a Board of Education meeting Thursday and during a week that could prove pivotal in the battle over Martinez’s and the district’s future as he faces increasing heat.
The schools chief confirmed last week’s report by the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ that Johnson asked him to leave. Martinez said his meeting with the mayor happened hours after the Board of Education unanimously approved a new five-year strategic plan that Martinez presented to the public.
“I have chosen not to resign because doing so would risk creating a leadership vacuum and instability that could disrupt the strategic progress we’ve made to date,” Martinez wrote in an opinion piece published Tuesday in the Chicago Tribune in which he touted CPS’ accomplishments during his tenure.
Martinez has not responded to repeated calls and text messages from the Sun-Times and WBEZ requesting comment over the past several weeks.
“I am the seventh CPS CEO in the past decade,” he wrote. “A leadership change is extraordinarily disruptive to any school system, generating a domino effect of change among key positions that can stall progress and diminish opportunities for students.
“Our long-term vision and initiatives are at a critical juncture, and leaving now would jeopardize continuity and our momentum,” Martinez wrote.
Martinez added he is “not naive — this is Chicago, after all, and I know there is always politics. But it’s deeply disappointing to navigate a fusillade of outright lies, part of a concerted effort to discredit me and my leadership team.”
He continued that he agreed with the CTU that CPS needs more funding, but he is “against exorbitant, short-term borrowing, a past practice that generated negative bond ratings for CPS and that would likely lead to additional bond rating cuts and higher borrowing interest rates.”
Johnson and his close allies at the CTU want CPS to take on a short-term, high-interest loan to pay for a new teachers’ contract and a pension payment City Hall has pushed onto CPS since Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s days.
They believe the loan will help maintain stability this school year and avoid mid-year layoffs, furloughs or other cuts that could be caused by the new union contract. Martinez’s current CPS budget doesn’t have room for any of CTU’s proposals for raises, additional staffing, help for migrant and homeless students and more. They also think the plan would buy time to fight Springfield lawmakers for more CPS funding. Martinez — with the support of the school board, so far — has refused.
A rally Tuesday in Pilsen for supporters of embattled CPS CEO Pedro Martinez was led by a group that said it represented Mexican community leaders. “Stop trying to malign Pedro Martinez’s reputation,” said Juan Rangel, a former charter school executive, at a news conference Tuesday.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
A source in the mayor’s office said the administration has been “infuriated” that Martinez has painted himself as fiscally responsible and fought against the loan idea given Martinez took out similar loans as CPS’ chief financial officer in the 2000s.
The source also criticized Martinez for not offering a strategy for how the district will pressure state officials to provide more funding for CPS.
“To me, that is not a fiscal steward,” the source said. “Why has there not been a full-blown campaign?”
CPS spokeswoman Mary Fergus said the school board is not currently planning to fire Martinez or take out a loan at Thursday’s meeting.
In an email to district staff and families earlier Tuesday, Martinez said he was “reaching out to hopefully ease your concerns about continued rumors of school closings in CPS.
“Unfortunately, the misinformation campaign around this issue is still underway,” Martinez wrote. “So let me be 100% clear — there are absolutely no plans to close, consolidate or phase out any district-managed schools. This simply is not a direction that CPS is considering as we plan for the future of our District.
“I’m disappointed that this misinformation campaign is out there, because I know it has caused unnecessary stress and worry for many in our school communities,” he said.
The CTU for the last two weeks has publicly accused Martinez of developing plans to close up to 100 schools to solve the district’s financial shortfall, citing a document showing a detailed list of schools that would close and where those students would go.
Fergus confirmed in a statement Tuesday an analysis earlier this year included “a draft list of potential schools that could be co-located, but that exploration never developed into a plan for serious consideration or further study.
“Companies, organizations and news outlets explore ideas and potential initiatives that are dismissed, that never come to fruition,” she said.
In an effort to “put this issue to rest once and for all,” CPS and the Board of Education are expected to adopt a resolution at the monthly board meeting Thursday that prevents any district-run schools from closing through the 2026-27 school year.
Martinez wrote he was “grateful for the board’s enthusiastic support” — an eye-catching statement given the board, which has the authority to hire and fire the CPS CEO, could decide as soon as this week whether to remove him.
The resolution’s moratorium on school closings runs through the rest of Martinez’s contract — if he makes it that long — and several months after the city’s first fully elected school board will be seated.
The first-ever school board elections this November will make the body partially elected, with 10 members chosen by voters and 11 by the mayor. New board members will be seated in January.
Notably, the resolution does not protect charter schools from closings.
The resolution also does not hold any legal weight — the district and school board can go back on it at any time. That’s unlike a state law that must be followed and has been in place since 2021 banning Chicago from closing any schools through January 2025.
As the teachers’ union’s effort to oust Martinez amid collective bargaining talks escalates, the CTU’s governing body took a vote of no-confidence in Martinez last week. The House of Delegates cited concerns with the pace of contract negotiations and a slew of other qualms, like inadequate support for migrant students, large class sizes and insufficient numbers of educational support staff.
Martinez, meanwhile, received support from several corners Tuesday.
“We stand in firm opposition to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s request for CEO Pedro Martinez’s resignation,” read a letter signed by Martinez’s predecessor, Janice Jackson; Arne Duncan, another ex-CPS CEO and former U.S. Education Secretary; former deputy governor Jesse Ruiz; Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza; City Clerk Anna Valencia; and 21 alderpeople, including City Council Finance Committee Chair Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) and some of the more conservative members of council.
At a Pilsen news conference held by a group that said it represented Mexican community leaders. Juan Rangel, a former charter school executive, told reporters Johnson was “disrespecting” Martinez by allowing this public turmoil and pressuring the CPS CEO to take on a loan to pay for the CTU contract and pension payment.
“That is just wrong, it’s irresponsible, and it’s reckless,” said Rangel, who’s leading a group that’s financially backing school board candidates running opposite CTU-backed hopefuls. “Stop trying to malign Pedro Martinez’s reputation.”
The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce said in a statement Tuesday they have “witnessed with dismay” the talk of firing Martinez.
“Having stability at the helm of CPS is critical if we are to improve educational quality, assure financial soundness and maintain confidence in the system among parents and children.”
Former alderman and now Cook County Board of Review Commissioner George Cardenas called Martinez a “son of immigrants and son of Pilsen.
“Pedro Martinez is a leader for us,” Cardenas said. “He’s someone who’s doing his best, doing a good job academically for these kids. Someone who speaks their language.”
Contributing: Sarah Karp
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