The Board of Schooling is shifting to oust Chicago Public Colleges CEO Pedro Martinez at a particular assembly Friday night, doubtlessly ending a months-long management saga that has introduced an onslaught of political pressure to the varsity system.
The board positioned two voting gadgets on its agenda and will select to pursue both: Martinez’s termination or a buyout settlement.
The faculties chief’s ouster on the Friday night earlier than the Christmas vacation — with lessons having been dismissed for winter break — would make for a rare decision to the battle between Martinez and Mayor Brandon Johnson. And it will come days earlier than a deadline set by the Chicago Academics Union to achieve a contract settlement.
The Chicago Solar-Instances and WBEZ first reported in August that the mayor’s administration was laying the groundwork to interchange Martinez.
Martinez has already fought off two makes an attempt to take away him from what he has known as his “dream job” on the helm of the nation’s fourth-largest faculty system. Martinez mentioned publicly that he rejected Johnson’s resignation request in September, and he didn’t settle for a separation settlement earlier this month.
However Martinez’s hand could possibly be pressured this week, with the board ready to think about gadgets on Friday night to both approve a settlement settlement or fireplace him. Sources have mentioned Martinez needed to remain till at the very least the top of the varsity yr.
Martinez’s legal professional, Invoice Quinlan, didn’t instantly remark.
The assembly was introduced Wednesday morning and set for 11 a.m. Friday. However the agenda, which is required by regulation to be posted 48 hours upfront of a public assembly, didn’t embrace any votes on Martinez — solely closed session dialogue of personnel issues. CPS officers and authorized specialists have mentioned voting gadgets must be explicitly listed to ensure that the board to take motion.
Hours later, the board up to date the agenda to incorporate the votes on Martinez and moved the assembly to five:45 p.m. Friday.
The brand new agenda included a vote to approve a settlement with Martinez and a separate vote to terminate his contract. Both vote may proceed or be postponed, in accordance with the agenda.
The college board has been hesitant to fireside him due to language in his contract.
The Board of Schooling amended Martinez’s contract in December 2022 — in former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s final months in workplace — to require six months’ discover of termination with out trigger. Throughout that point, Martinez would proceed working and transition his duties to a brand new CEO. In that situation, his contract requires 20 weeks’ severance, which might come out to $138,733. Martinez’s five-year contract runs by way of June 30, 2026.
If the varsity board moved to fireside Martinez for trigger, it must cite misconduct, felony exercise, failure to carry out his duties, fraud or different wrongdoing. His contract’s 2022 modification says “every other conduct inconsistent with the CEO’s duties and obligations to CPS or the Board, or which may be fairly perceived to have a cloth adversarial impression on the great identify and integrity of CPS or the Board.”
That call needs to be made “within the sole judgment of the Board,” in accordance with Martinez’s contract.
Supporters of Martinez have mentioned that this language provides him the leverage to sue the varsity district and maybe even faculty board members themselves. It was this impediment, partially, that led all members of the varsity board to resign in October.
This comes because the CTU is attempting to settle its contract by Christmas and is more and more calling on Martinez to “present clear monetary data.” The union for months has known as for Martinez to get replaced, blaming him for sluggish contract negotiations. Johnson, the CTU’s staunch ally who rose to workplace with the union’s in depth marketing campaign assist, has not publicly mentioned he needed to interchange Martinez, however his administration and handpicked faculty board have pushed behind the scenes to do exactly that.
CTU President Stacy Davis Gates mentioned earlier Wednesday that Martinez wanted to clarify how he would deal with the monetary implications of a brand new CTU contract, noting that she wouldn’t take a deal simply to have her members face furloughs or layoffs within the spring. CPS has mentioned it doesn’t have the funds for to pay for a brand new CTU contract.
Gates additionally raised the prospect once more that the varsity district would possibly have to take a short-term mortgage to get by way of this faculty yr with out funds cuts.
“This concept that he can’t get a short-term mortgage is completely ridiculous,” she informed reporters throughout a media briefing.
The demand by the mayor’s workplace that the varsity district take a short-term mortgage to fill a funds deficit was the preliminary breaking level between the mayor and Martinez, who refused, saying it was fiscally irresponsible. However Martinez additionally didn’t embrace cash within the district’s funds to pay for anticipated raises for lecturers and principals, who had been within the midst of contract negotiations. Nor did he put cash within the funds to pay for a pension cost that Metropolis Corridor had demanded CPS tackle.
