CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s hand-picked college board voted Friday to fireside Chicago Public Faculties CEO Pedro Martinez, taking a step their predecessors had resisted and capping a months-long marketing campaign by the mayor and lecturers union to oust the colleges chief.
The board voted unanimously to fireside Martinez with out trigger, which below the phrases of his contract means he’ll keep on the job for six extra months — by the top of the present college yr — after which obtain severance pay of about $130,000.
“It’s not proper,” an indignant and emotional Martinez advised reporters after the vote.
“Clearly I’m upset by the board’s determination tonight,” he stated. “Main the system that formed me has been a chance of a lifetime.”
Martinez made a last-minute authorized bid Friday to save lots of his job. His attorneys filed motions shortly earlier than the scheduled vote looking for to dam his ouster, alleging that board members have been appointed “to do the bidding” of Johnson and his Chicago Academics Union allies.
Martinez beforehand refused a buyout supply and declined to step down when the mayor first requested in September.
The firing was a dramatic end result to months of turmoil in CPS that pitted the mayor and the lecturers union — a detailed ally that catapulted Johnson into workplace — towards Martinez. The unprecedented growth comes weeks earlier than Chicago’s new, 21-person, partially elected college board takes workplace. It additionally comes because the district enters a decisive section in its high-stakes negotiations with the Chicago Academics Union over a brand new contract.
Board members emerged from a closed session that lasted about 90 minutes and voted with out extra feedback shortly after 9 p.m. The board then left with out taking any questions from reporters.
Forward of the vote, incoming elected college board members, schooling organizations, and former CPS CEOs Arne Duncan and Janice Jackson issued public statements in assist of letting the brand new board resolve Martinez’s destiny. That record grew Friday to incorporate U.S. Rep. Chuy Garcia and Yesenia Lopez, an incoming elected college board member who was endorsed by the Chicago Academics Union — which has criticized Martinez and forged a vote of no-confidence in him within the fall.
On the assembly, a gaggle of principals expressed assist for Martinez and raised considerations about CTU proposals that they really feel will take away educational time from youngsters. The principals union has expressed comparable considerations over the previous a number of weeks. In the meantime, Jackson Potter, vice chairman of the Chicago Academics Union, stated the union has made extra progress in negotiations this week and needs a swift deal.
This can be a creating story.
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