Newly appointed school board members skip CPS budget council meeting, Martinez addresses committee

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The newly appointed Chicago School Board was notably absent from a city council meeting on the Chicago Public Schools budget Wednesday at City Hall.

Both current and new interim members all declined to attend, Education Committee Chair Jeanette Taylor said.

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez spoke before councilmembers in an Education Committee hearing to discuss the district's budget.

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Taylor said the hearing is not about Martinez, but instead about getting clarity on the budget and the shortfall the district faces.

She said fingers should not be pointed at the CPS CEO, and the budget deficit is something the district has dealt with for years.

"I want to be clear," she told the committee. "I want us to talk about solutions, because I hear none."

Martinez fielded questions from alders for several hours. CPS must pay for a new teachers' contract, pension payments and a nearly $500 million budget hole for the next school year.

"Without additional funding, we made it clear to the mayor and his team we would not be able to cover these items," Martinez told the council.

Martinez said there has been a plan in place for months to use the city's Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, surplus dollars to help fund CPS. Martinez said there was a formal ask for $462 million in TIF funding to pay for pensions and union contracts, including one for the teachers union, that included 4% raises.

Mayor Brandon Johnson wants the district to take out a $300 million short-term, high-interest loan, which Martinez and the outgoing school board members refused to do.

"At what point do you anticipate, if we don't get the funding increased, would you look at layoffs and cuts?" asked 9th Ward Ald. Anthony Beale.

"We would not be doing cuts this year, we would have a higher risk of cuts next year," Martinez responded.

The CPS CEO said cuts are only a last resort, and insisted underenrolled schools will not be closed, including a West Side high school with only 39 kids in it.

"It's not making good sense to me, when you have a budget deficit and you are spending millions of dollars with 39 kids, that is wrong," Beale said.

Others criticized Maritnez for using federal COVID dollars, one-time money for staffing needs.

With no real solutions, City Council Budget Committee Chairman Jason Ervin called the hearings a waste of time.

"I don't understand what we were going to get, nothing new came out of this conversation, we are still at a point where our schools are in need of revenue," he said.

Other alders expressed their disappointment about school board members not showing up. The current board and members the mayor recently nominated were invited, but were no shows.

The battle between Johnson and Martinez over this funding led to the calls for Martinez to resign, and the mass resignation of Chicago School Board members.

Mayor Johnson already revealed his nominations for some board seats last week.

CPS said the vetting process is underway now for those interim board members. It includes things like background checks, financial inquiries and conflicts of interest.

CPS does not know when the vetting process will be complete.

Meanwhile, a majority of the city's aldermen have signed onto a statement denouncing the recent board instability and the proposed high-interest loan.