A member of the Chicago Public School Board appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson asked the Vice President of the Teachers Association about the contract negotiations, while in a meeting that was closed for the public.
The records released to the tribune through a public record request show that the board member Rafael Yanez – a long -time Chicago Teachers Union Associate appointed by Johnson for the board in October – of the board meeting on 1 November During the time of CTU vice -president Jackson Potter read, “What are the biggest push from CPS Re contract negotiations?”
Potter first asked “Who is this?” Before responding to: “Academic freedom, wealth overall, staffing, assessment, class size.” The means reacted with a Thums-up emoji.
The text exchange took place on 14 November during the private executive session of the school board meeting. This was the first meeting after Johnson’s first Handpicide Board resigned on 4 October and was replaced by a new batch of appointments a few days later. An executive session occurs when a government body, which is made mandatory by the state law to hold public meetings, can discuss matters such as employment, litigation and collective bargaining.
While CTU officials have often shown school board meetings to testify during public remarks, a top union officer’s direct, between contract negotiations shows the rear reach for a board member, the contract dialogue shows this amidst the contract talks. How close has the influential labor organization reached the other side. Below table.
The means, who no longer sit on the school board after the new, partially chosen and the appointed board, did not return the message seeking comment.
On Friday, CTU replied on behalf of Potter: “As public authorities, it is understandable that the board regularly wants to think by thinking a well with all those involved in the conversation and will inform their duties. We are asking for an opportunity to present our experience with interactions for the board and the members of the board are grateful to someone else who actively seek the union’s outlook. ,
The November meeting was revealed under a cloud of controversy for former CTU organizer Johnson, which began when his power struggle against CPS CEO Pedro Martinez was blown publicly. For the displeasure of the mayor, Martinez’s 2025 $ 9.9 billion budget which was passed last July, neither agreed to CPS to absorb $ 175 million pension payment from the city budget nor high of $ 300 million. Along with the bison loans, those costs will also be covered, as well as part of the upcoming CTU. Contract.
Johnson eventually asked Martinez to step down, but he refused, temporarily tying the hands of the Mayor, seeing that the school board retains the right to set the CEO on fire and appointed its first set of the board To do. Although he soon resigned from N Mass and he was replaced, the move was extinguishing a power grab by critics, which was said to be the question whether Johnson’s loyalty was for CTU or students’ The best interests were.
Again, on December 20, Johnson’s new, seven-member, handpick school board voted to firing Martinez without any reason-which means the CEO has a six-month ramp-down before the CEO has ended its employment. There will be a period. It is that the mayor and the Hybrid elected school boards who appointed went to do so before sitting earlier this month, and further CTU critics said that the Sangh was moving forward to capture all the aspects of the bargaining table. Was.
Johnson and CTU leadership have considered these attacks inappropriate, given that the mayor still controls the school district until a fully elected board is seated in 2027. A progressive agenda to invest in poorest communities through education.
At the same time, the news of news on the relationship between Mayor and CTU continues.
On 26 December, Tribune reported that according to an internal memorandum, Johnson refused to abandon his position with Chicago public schools after raising moral concerns about possible conflicts of interests of interests, according to an internal memorandum. .
In the documents dated in June 2023, CPS Chief Talented Officer Ben Felton wrote that he told the then deputy mayor of education, Jane Johnson, who did not belong to Mayor Johnson, “It was probably a conflict of interest for Mayor Johnson and Deputy. Mayor Johnson to stay on CTU holiday from CPS.
But the deputy mayor said that the Mayor “did not want to leave his post to indicate his support for education and teachers,” according to the memo.
While the mayor’s office claimed Felton that it had consulted the city’s morality advisor, the Chicago Board of Ethics later stated that this consultation was not done. The mayor’s office told the Tribune last week that he had no record of any opinion signing Johnson’s system.
In another example, in the last summer, the Tribune reported that a letter was written by Johnson to stop a CPS bill to Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, edited directly by CTU lobists with changes that were concerned Was in schools.
During the Vaning days of the Vasant 2024 session at the Illinois General Assembly, the Mayor filed a final-minute petition for the hormone in a letter stating that he was said to have a vote on the bill to stop the closure of all Chicago public schools. Can not call for. State MLAs wanted to ink in two years of expansion to ensure that selective enrollment schools would not be closed and they would have to face opposition from the Teachers Association.
The public records provided to the tribune revealed that a CTU official helped to craft Johnson’s eleventh hour, which saved the Teachers Union and the mayor from a shameful defeat in the statehouse, as well as a first, Also to the water version.
After Johnson’s board evacuated Martinez, some members of the mayor’s top school board attended a bargain session, but later stopped from further participation by a Cook County judge, when Martinez for a prohibition After filed, it argued that the move violated his contractual rights as CEO.
The loyalty of the mayor towards the Labor Group stopped his winning 2023 campaign, which leaves an opening for the opponents, which says that more freedom is required to be operated from the 5th floor of the mayor’s office. .
In a runoff debate of March 2023, Johnson answered himself a question about the huge dependence of his campaign on CTU funds and leaving his role in the Sangh and becoming the “mayor of the city of Chicago”.
Johnson said, “I have a responsibility for the people of Chicago city, and once I am the mayor of the Chicago city, I will no longer be a member of the Chicago Teachers Union,” Johnson said.