Lawyers for Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez sent a cease and desist letter to Chicago Board of Education members Monday after they attended a bargaining session with the Chicago Teachers Union.
The document, sent by Martinez’s lawyers Monday, said the board’s actions “unlawfully infringe on and interfere” with Martinez’s authority as the “sole” representative of the board in negotiations. It also demands they stop any attempts to “unlawfully diminish or interfere” with Martinez’s power and authority as CEO.
In a Monday night statement, the union said the board’s participation helped land “tentative agreements for better health care” but said CPS representatives “obstructed” movement on conversations about addressing racial disparities in teacher evaluations.
“Miraculously, the stonewalling days of old disappeared,” the union said in a statement Monday night. “CEO Martinez’s decision to try to tell his bosses — the Chicago Board of Education — what to do sets a dangerous new precedent in our school district. It is just another example of how the CEO fails to understand what his job is and who he works for.”
A CPS spokesperson deferred comment to Martinez and his lawyers, who couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Monday night.
CTU vice president Jackson Potter wrote on X that it was the first time board members have attended negotiations since then-Board President David Vitale attended in 2012 as bargaining was coming to a close. Potter said the board members attended to help “both sides land an agreement.”
Today, for the first time since 2012 when Board president David Vitale joined bargaining to close the deal, we have Board of Education members present helping both sides land an agreement.
— Jackson Potter (@jacksonpCTU) December 23, 2024
It comes as a monthslong CPS saga comes to a head.
At the end of a last-minute meeting five days before Christmas, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s appointed school board fired Martinez without cause, which will keep him in his $360,706-a-year job for six months per his contract. The board said Martinez’s duties would be modified but didn’t explain how.
The board is considering installing Sean Harden — Johnson’s pick for new board president — as interim co-CEO during that six-month period to freeze Martinez out of key decisions, three sources told the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ.
Successfully pushing Martinez aside before a new 21-member partially elected, partially appointed school board is set to take over Jan. 15 could clear the way for a union contract, the district taking out a short-term loan to fill a midyear budget deficit and avoid layoffs or furloughs and pushing a pension payment for non-teacher CPS staff onto the school system’s books.
Martinez asked for a temporary restraining order to stop the board’s decision Friday, but it didn’t get in front of a judge in time. His 44-page lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, alleged the board and its members breached his contract; a hearing is set for Tuesday.
Contributing: Nader Issa, Sarah Karp