The Board of Education is moving to oust Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez at a special meeting Friday evening, potentially ending a months-long leadership saga that has brought an onslaught of political tension to the school system.
The board placed two voting items on its agenda and could choose to pursue either: Martinez’s termination or a buyout agreement.
The schools chief’s ouster on the Friday evening before the Christmas holiday — with classes having been dismissed for winter break — would make for an extraordinary resolution to the battle between Martinez and Mayor Brandon Johnson. And it would come days before a deadline set by the Chicago Teachers Union to reach a contract agreement.
The Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ first reported in August that the mayor’s administration was laying the groundwork to replace Martinez. The two leaders have jousted over whether CPS should take on a pension payment from City Hall for non-teacher school staff — which Martinez has refused to do without help from the mayor's office — and whether to take out a short-term loan in order to pay for a new teachers union contract, a move Martinez has called fiscally irresponsible. Without other solutions, Martinez has instead floated mid-year furloughs and layoffs.
Martinez has already said publicly that he rejected Johnson’s resignation request in September, and he did not accept a separation settlement earlier this month.
But Martinez’s hand could be forced this week. Sources have said Martinez wanted to stay until at least the end of the school year.
Martinez’s attorney, Bill Quinlan, declined to comment.
The meeting was announced Wednesday morning and set for 11 a.m. Friday. But the agenda, which is required by law to be posted 48 hours in advance of a public meeting, did not include any votes on Martinez — only closed session discussion of personnel matters. CPS officials and legal experts have said voting items would have to be explicitly listed in order for the board to take action.
Hours later, the board updated the agenda to include the votes on Martinez and moved the meeting to 5:45 p.m. Friday.
The new agenda included a vote to approve a settlement with Martinez and a separate vote to terminate his contract. Either vote could proceed or be postponed, according to the agenda. The terms of the buyout offer have not been made public.
Until the announcement of the special meeting, the board’s monthly meeting last week was expected to be its last of the year and the final one before the new 21-member partially elected, partially appointed board takes over in January.
The school board has been hesitant to fire Martinez because of language in his contract.
The Board of Education amended Martinez’s contract in December 2022 — in former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s last months in office — to require six months’ notice of termination without cause. During that time, Martinez would continue working his $360,706-a-year job and transition his duties to a new CEO. In that scenario, his contract calls for 20 weeks’ severance, which would come out to $138,733. Martinez’s five-year contract runs through June 30, 2026.
If the school board moved to fire Martinez for cause, it would have to cite misconduct, criminal activity, failure to perform his duties, fraud or other wrongdoing. His contract’s 2022 amendment says “any other conduct inconsistent with the CEO’s duties and obligations to CPS or the Board, or that may be reasonably perceived to have a material adverse impact on the good name and integrity of CPS or the Board.”
That decision should be made “in the sole judgment of the Board,” according to Martinez’s contract.
Supporters of Martinez have said he could sue the school district and perhaps even school board members themselves if they were to fire him. It was this obstacle, in part, that led all members of the school board to resign in October. A decade ago, Martinez sued a school board in Nevada that attempted to fire him. They settled for $700,000, according to the Reno Gazette Journal, and board members were issued fines by state officials in the heated public dispute.
This comes as the CTU is trying to settle its contract by Christmas and is increasingly calling on Martinez to “provide transparent financial information.” That deadline is self-imposed, however, and the CTU legally can't strike for a contract until February.
The union for months has called for Martinez to be replaced, blaming him for slow contract negotiations. Johnson, the CTU’s staunch ally who rose to office with the union’s extensive campaign support, has not publicly said he wanted to replace Martinez, but his administration and handpicked school board have pushed behind the scenes to do just that.
CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said earlier Wednesday that Martinez needed to explain how he would handle the financial implications of a new CTU contract, noting that she would not take a deal just to have her members face furloughs or layoffs in the spring. CPS has said it doesn’t have enough money to pay for a new CTU contract.
Davis Gates also raised the prospect again that the school district might need to take a short-term loan to get through this school year without budget cuts.
“This idea that he cannot get a short-term loan is absolutely ridiculous,” she told reporters during a media briefing.
