Johnson names new CPS Board after resignations

Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed six new members to the Chicago Board of Education on Monday following an uproar over the resignation of the entire board last week.

The appointments include: Olga Bautista, a Southeast Side environmental activist; Michilla Blaise, a longtime political consultant and chief of staff for Cook County commissioner Frank Aguilar; West Side activist Mary Gardner; the Rev. Mitchell Johnson, an economic and community development expert; and Debby Pope, a retired teacher and former Chicago Teachers Union staffer.

Blaise had been a candidate for a seat on the elected school board but withdrew, and may be able to stay on as an appointed member after the Nov. 5 election.

The announcement of resignations of all board members on Friday was a stunner, drawing concern from city and state officials.

The resignations were preceded by months of strife between Johnson, the teachers union and CPS Chief Executive Pedro Martinez over how to address the school system’s financial shortfall. Johnson and the CTU — the mayor’s former employer that helped vault him into office — had pushed for Martinez to be fired or resign, but the school board has the final say over the CEO’s contract. Sources said board members were resigning as some of them grew tired of the position they were put in and of Johnson’s desire for a change.

Johnson’s quick turnaround appointments will aim to project stability and control of a situation that has rocked the city’s political landscape, with a supermajority of City Council members signing a letter over the weekend signaling deep concern over the developments at the city’s school district.

All but nine of 50 City Council members signed the letter, including several mayoral allies and 13 of 19 members of the council’s Progressive Caucus.

The alderpeople called for a hearing before the new board members are seated and said they wanted a full vetting of Johnson’s appointees. But, by law, City Council members have no official say in who the mayor appoints.

Johnson’s appointments come less than one month before Chicagoans will vote for school board members for the first time. That new, partially elected and partially appointed board will be seated in January.

In the face of those political pressures, the new school board will likely be tasked with executing Johnson’s orders to fire Martinez, land a contract deal with the CTU and move forward with a loan to pay for part of the forthcoming teachers’ contract and a pension payment.