CHICAGO – Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson asked the CEO of the Chicago Public SchoolsPedro Martínez, who resigned from his post during a meeting on Thursday night, according to several sources.
Sources told our sister network NBC Chicago that Martinez refused.
Johnson’s decision comes just one day after the Chicago Board of Education voted unanimously to approve A five-year plan for Chicago Public SchoolsAt the same time, the Chicago Teachers Union, which supported Johnson’s mayoral bid, also called for his removal.
“We need a CEO who can truly lead in this moment, a CEO who will focus on raising the revenue needed to fully fund our schools, who will finally turn the page on the shameful days of closures and community disruption,” the union wrote in a letter to families.
The recently unveiled five-year plan for CPS was described as a list of goals and strategies the district aims to achieve by 2029.
“The plan addresses historic decisions and past mistakes that have impeded strategic investments and resulted in long-standing challenges and opportunity gaps, particularly for Black students, Latino students, students with disabilities and students in temporary housing situations, and English learners,” CPS said in a statement.
The district said it wants to redefine student success, moving forward with what it called an “ambitious, equity-driven” vision to close a long-standing opportunity gap.
Martinez offered words of support for the plan on Wednesday.
“This strategic plan says, in effect, that we’re going to organize the work of our district around a very different idea of how we measure student success, how we think about student growth,” Martinez said.
However, the Chicago Teachers Union He said that while the plan “admits that disparities exist across the district,” Martinez’s “policy is to make cuts that worsen inequity, not improve it.”
“The best parts of the Strategic Plan “The district’s contract proposals are lifted directly from our contract proposals, the very proposals the district is fighting for at the bargaining table,” the union said in a statement. “It’s another case of CEO Martinez telling the people of Chicago one thing and actually doing another.”
Martinez took over as the district’s CEO nearly three years ago, replacing Janice Jackson, who held the position for more than three years. Jose Torres served as the district’s interim CEO from July to September 2021.
