CPS board candidates vow independence after Mayor Brandon Johnson announces 6 nominees

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Amid a wide-ranging discussion about student achievement, teacher retention, and host of other issues, those school board candidates for districts 6, 9, and 10 weighed in on the recent board shakeup.

"Never in the history of Chicago have seven members resigned. It's time for a change, and it ain't the board," said District 6 school board candidate Andre Smith.

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The candidates vowed independence as the school board shifts in January to a hybrid elected and mayoral-appointed body.

"If you want to know how someone's going to govern on this school board, don't listen to what they say. Go look at who gave them some money," said District 10 school board candidate Che "Rhymefest" Smith.

The candidates' forum at Chicago State University came days after the entire seven-member school board announced their resignations after declining to fire CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who has battled with Mayor Brandon Johnson over a loan that would help pay for a new teachers' contract.

"A short-term, high-interest loan with no plan for repaying it is irresponsible!" said District 10 school board candidate Karin Norington-Reaves.

"I think there needs to be an entire evaluation of everybody, not just the CEO of CPS," said District 9 school board candidate La'Mont Raymond Williams.

At a Monday morning announcement interrupted by protesters, the mayor introduced six new interim board members, but refused to let them answer where they stood on the loan issue.

"No, no, we're not doing that. We're not doing that. We're not doing that," Johnson said.

The mayor's proposed appointees are invited to testify at a special Chicago City Council meeting to address any potential conflicts of interest on Wednesday. So far, no one has responded.

"We think it would be appropriate to have the board members there, at least, to allow the body to ask them questions around what their vision is," said 36th Ward Ald. Gil Villegas.

Villegas says some council members are eager to vet the proposed appointees to find out if there are conflicts of interest, especially regarding the Chicago Teachers Union.

"We have vacancies on boards and commissions throughout the city that have been vacant for months. But yet, miraculously, he finds six members in 48 hours," Villegas said.

One of the mayor's picks, Deborah Pope, was recently a CTU employee who participated in contract talks with CPS.

"So, the first order of business is not giving the CTU a contract that you don't have the money to pay for," said former CPS CEO Paul Vallas, who was also a mayoral candidate.

Vallas weighed in after Johnson on Monday blamed him and former CEO Arne Duncan for being fiscally irresponsible years ago, which the mayor says is why CPS is in a crisis now. That's a claim Duncan and Vallas say is false.

"I left a school district with a billion dollars in cash balances, 100,000 more children, 12 bond rating upgrades and six years of improved test scores," Vallas said.

In the meantime, Johnson's supporters say regardless of what he says or who he appoints, since 1995, mayors have power over the school board, rather than the City Council.

"I've always acquiesced to them, allow then to appoint who they want to appoint, allow them to fire who they want to fire, and we hope for the best of it," said 27th Ward Ald. Walter Burnett.

At Tuesday night's forum, two candidates, Robert Jones in District 10 and Anusha Thotakura in District 6, acknowledged accepting CTU money.

"I've had the opinions I've had before my endorsement. I'll have them after my endorsement, and when I'm on the board I will remain an independent voice," Thotakura said.

"You have a right to hold us accountable to do what we're supposed to do, and if we don't do it, you vote us out," Jones said.

School board candidates from 10 different districts will be elected Nov. 5 to serve alongside 11 mayoral appointees in January.