Three weeks after the entire Chicago Board of Education resigned, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s new board will meet for the first time this Thursday and will include a seventh member whose appointment hadn’t yet been announced.
The school board’s meetings were delayed one week as the mayor’s new appointees went through an onboarding process. But the public will get a first real look at the people who will be tasked with following the mayor’s orders on a couple key issues — at least for the next two months.
The board is now scheduled to hold its monthly agenda review committee meeting — where its members and the public get an initial look at district proposals — on Thursday followed by its first full board meeting Nov. 1.
Rafael Yáñez is the newly announced board member. He’s a hate crimes and civil rights investigator at the Chicago Police Department who previously ran for City Council in the 15th Ward, calling himself the “progressive voice” in that crowded race against incumbent Ald. Ray Lopez. Yáñez was backed by the Chicago Teachers Union and allied unions and groups.
The Rev. Mitchell Johnson, who was one of six appointees Johnson unveiled at a news conference earlier this month, is set to be named Board of Education president. And Mary Gardner, another of those appointees, will be vice president.
The other new board members are Olga Bautista, Michilla Blaise, Debby Pope and Frank Thomas.
It’s unclear how many of these seven will remain on the board in January, when the new 21-member partially appointed, partially elected school board will be seated. Voters will choose 10 members on Election Day Nov. 5, and the mayor will appoint another 10 plus the board president soon after. By law, the elected and appointed members have to live on different sides of their district.
The board president can live anywhere in the city, so Mitchell Johnson, no known relation to the mayor, could stay on if he and the mayor agree.
For now, the new board will likely be asked to do what the old board didn’t: Settle a contract with the Chicago Teachers Union, fire Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez and find a solution to the school system’s budget deficit, whether that’s a short-term loan proposed by the mayor or something else.