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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s hand-picked faculty board voted Friday to fireside Chicago Public Colleges 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 faculties chief.
The board voted unanimously to fireside Martinez with out trigger, which underneath the phrases of his contract means he’ll keep on the job for six extra months — by the top of the present faculty 12 months — 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 choice tonight,” he mentioned. “Main the system that formed me has been a possibility 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 in search of to dam his ouster, alleging that board members have been appointed “to do the bidding” of Johnson and his Chicago Lecturers Union allies.
Martinez beforehand refused a buyout provide and declined to step down when the mayor first requested in September.
The firing was a dramatic fruits to months of turmoil in CPS that pitted the mayor and the lecturers union — an in depth ally that catapulted Johnson into workplace — towards Martinez. The unprecedented improvement comes weeks earlier than Chicago’s new, 21-person, partially elected faculty board takes workplace. It additionally comes because the district enters a decisive part in its high-stakes negotiations with the Chicago Lecturers Union over a brand new contract.
Board members emerged from a closed session that lasted about 90 minutes and voted with out further feedback shortly after 9 p.m. The board then left with out taking any questions from reporters.
Forward of the vote, incoming elected faculty board members, training organizations, and former CPS CEOs Arne Duncan and Janice Jackson issued public statements in help of letting the brand new board resolve Martinez’s destiny. That listing grew Friday to incorporate U.S. Rep. Chuy Garcia and Yesenia Lopez, an incoming elected faculty board member who was endorsed by the Chicago Lecturers Union — which has criticized Martinez and solid a vote of no-confidence in him within the fall.
On the assembly, a bunch of principals expressed help 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, vp of the Chicago Lecturers Union, mentioned the union has made extra progress in negotiations this week and desires a swift deal.
This can be a growing story.
