CHICAGO – The school year is underway across Chicago, but a potential conflict is still brewing between Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Last week, hundreds of CPS administrators sent a letter to the school board urging members to keep Martinez amid reports Johnson is laying the groundwork to get rid of him.
On Tuesday, Martinez and Johnson were seen together at a ribbon cutting for a new entrance for Uplift Community High School in Uptown.
“We’re off to a great start with a brand new school year,” Johnson said at the ribbon cutting.
Judging by Tuesday’s event, you’d never know the CPS district and its teachers are locked in contentious contract talks.
“I don’t want anybody driving through this area again not knowing that this is a wonderful high school,” Martinez said at the ribbon cutting.
Both he and Johnson served as headliners for the event and barely acknowledged each other. Both also steered clear of discussing negotiations.
Before Labor Day, the school district offered the Chicago Teachers Union annual raises between four and five percent, plus expanded health and dental coverage, but CTU’s response was lukewarm.
On Tuesday, CTU posted on its website: “The pressure our union is putting on CEO Pedro Martinez is working…but these are just opening counterproposals – and more than 50% of our proposals have yet to receive any response.”
The union also posted data claiming CPS has 1,365 vacant jobs.
Johnson, a former CTU organizer whose campaign was mostly bankrolled by the CTU and other labor groups, is pushing hard to find additional education funds, even as he manages a budget deficit of nearly $1 billion.
“There’s $3.6 billion investment that the State of Illinois can make to school districts across the state, $1.1 billion conservatively for the people of Chicago,” Johnson said.
Last spring, Johnson visited Springfield looking for a CPS boost. Lawmakers said the state has increased funding for CPS, but Johnson’s request requires some heavy lifting.
“One mayor asking for $1 billion for one school district didn’t go over well. It’s not like we’re the federal government where we can print money, we’re a state government where we can only spend what we bring in, and so we don’t see $1 billion for Chicago,” State Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago) said.
Ford added he supports Johnson’s billion-dollar push, but said he needs to see a specific plan to raise the revenue for it.