Preventing the CORE caucus from exercising complete control over CPS hovers over Board of Education elections far more than anything else
On November 5th, voters will cast ballots for members of the Board of Education. A first for Chicago, elected members who will be entrusted with bringing order to a schooling system which is mired in crisis and failing Chicago’s students.
A panel with immense responsibilities, Chicago’s elected school board will represent Chicago’s voice in public education, provide citizen governance and knowledge of the city’s education needs. Under the new board, members will be obliged to set standards for school performance and establish goals; hire and evaluate a Chicago Public Schools CEO and school administrators; determine spending priorities and approve budgets; approve curriculum materials; adopt the annual calendar; and create schedules, bus times and routes, supplies, safety precautions, disciplinary measures, school resources, and facility construction projects.
The consequence of the Board of Education election cannot be understated. Though voters will go to the ballot box to elect 10 members, Mayor Brandon Johnson will exercise his prerogative by appointing 11 additional panelists to be seated in January. With much at stake in Board elections, residents’ interests in electing competent, clear-eyed candidates are as clear as they are critical. Therefore, Contrarian is urging voters to elect our eight endorsed candidates for the Board, and one candidate for CTPF fiduciary.
District 1
A former chief of schools at LEARN Charter School Network and former Chief Academic Officer with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Michelle Pierre brings unrivaled experience as a candidate for the Board. A Montclare resident who once held a Local School Council seat, Ms. Pierre is a proponent of early literacy programs and extended learning opportunities.
A proposal which could aid students recoup COVID-era learning loss, Pierre also earns our plaudits for rejecting a “one-size-fits-all” in favor of allowing schools the liberty to adopt curricula and leaving educators to instruct content and learning activities.
On CPS’ budgetary issues, Pierre impresses with her rejection of raising the tax levy and her caution over school funding. Taking the position CPS funding should be carefully weighed and increased only for select areas, Pierre reveals she is mindful of budgetary excesses and desires to protect taxpayers.
A supporter of protecting select-enrollment, magnet schools, and charter schools, Pierre is also acutely aware of the need to maintain a police presence in schools to ensure student safety. Pierre is heartily endorsed.
District 2
Bruce Leon is endorsed in the 2nd District. A lifelong resident of Chicago and founder of a human resources firm, Leon also serves as the Democratic Committeeman of the 50th Ward. Running in a District in which the views of his three opponents virtually in parallel with the Chicago Teachers Union, Leon is the obvious choice for a seat on the Board.
A man with a head for business, Leon will provide a wider perspective as panel members grapple with underutilized schools or the vexing fiscal issues in front of the Board. Most important, with respect to select enrollment schools — schools which admit students based on prior academic performance and provide high-achieving students with a challenging academic experience — Leon is an unwavering opponent of dismantling the select schools.
With the CTU paying little or no attention to the priorities of struggling families whose most urgent need is to provide a decent education for their children, Leon’s willingness to preserve select-enrollment schools, keep school consolidations as an option to fix CPS, and his attention to the district’s financial issues qualify him for approval.
District 3
In the 3rd District for the Board of Education, Carlos Rivas is our preferred candidate. A Humboldt Park resident and current Director of public affairs with the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), Mr. Rivas is a CPS graduate and former CPS teacher and counselor.
Experience which allows him to speak eloquently about the state of affairs in Chicago public schools, Rivas has vowed to disassociate himself from the overbearing CTU, opting for building bridges with residents in the 3rd District. Akin to other endorsed candidates for the Board, Rivas is a favored candidate for his approval of select-enrollment, magnet, and charter schools, but believes neighborhood schools should not be forsaken. Rivas also backs restoring busing service for general education students enrolled in select-enrollment and magnet schools.
Most consequential, Rivas has taken the position professional educators should not be hamstrung by rigid directives. A reflection of his confidence in educators to manage their classrooms with some degree of independence, Rivas says a vast repository exists in Skyline Curriculum for educators to draw from for instruction.
District 4
A Family and Community Engagement (FACE) official with CPS, Ellen Rosenfeld is our pick for the 4th District.
To accommodate students with disabilities, Rosenfeld calls for each school to employ a full-time case manager and social worker. Though we disagree with Ms. Rosenfeld’s position on raising the tax levy, she does urge working in close consultation with Springfield to locate new sources of revenue to ease the growing burden on taxpayers. Comparable to the position Eva Villalobos has taken on the CPS budget, Rosenfeld, too, recognizes the need for a complete forensic audit of CPS’ $10B budget. To our satisfaction, Rosenfeld is also insisting on exploring more efficient means of spending CPS’ funds.
Apart from spending matters, Rosenfeld is adamantly opposed to gutting select-enrollment and magnet schools. Rosenfeld wisely believes neighborhood and select, magnet, and charter schools can coexist and is advancing the notion CPS should learn what allows schools enrolling higher performing students to prosper and enact similar designs to neighborhood schools.
Although Ms. Rosenfeld’s outlook on School Resource Officers (SRO) and school closures starkly differs from ours, her positions on a majority of the most important issues confronting CPS align with this website. Rosenfeld is endorsed.
CTFP fiduciary
In the race for fiduciary on the Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund of Chicago (CTPF), Philip Weiss is endorsed. The son of two CPS educators, both Weiss and his wife are also CPS teachers, and their children are enrolled in Chicago public schools.
An accomplished investment manager, Weiss’ motivation to return as a CTPF fiduciary is to administer over the CTPF portfolio to ensure a solvent pension plan which can meet or exceed contractual pension obligations. Having prior held a seat on the CTPF board, Weiss has a broad concept of what is at stake: Since last October, CORE’s increasing influence on the panel has pioneered the transformation of the CTPF into a hyper-politicized circus, concentrating on investments to indulge their political and personal prerogatives.
With Social Security less dependable for educators, and teachers required to contribute nine percent of their annual income to the pension, it must be seen as paramount to have competent management of the teacher pension fund. A man with expansive breadth and experience investing, a critical tenet of Mr. Weiss’ investing ethos is maintaining a strong, well-structured, portfolio designed to sustain fluctuations in the market. To achieve the goal of long-term capital appreciation, Weiss similarly believes in the hire of capable investment managers who abide by licensing standards with best practice principles. Most important: Weiss believes the management of CTPF assets can only be accomplished if investments are unencumbered by political motive or intention.
Philip is a faculty member at Rickover Naval Academy School in Portage Park, where he serves as a clinical social worker. Mr. Weiss is a certified organic hydroponic grower; he moderates the coin and currency club at Rickover.
District 7
A mother of four with a compelling story, Eva Villalobos is our choice for the 7th District. A beneficiary of the Invest in Kids Act which provided tax credits for private funding to scholarships for low-income students, Villalobos drew on the deduction to enroll her daughter at Saint Gall in Gage Park.
A decision based entirely on the failure of the Chicago Public Schools to fulfill the educational needs of her daughter, Villalobos suffered a blow when the CTU leveraged its considerable political influence to lobby successfully against Invest in Kids. As a consequence of the CTU’s shady meddling, Invest in Kids expired. Left in a lurch and without an alternative to Chicago’s miserable public schools, Villalobos is seeking a seat on the Board to, in part, expand school choice.
A woman who sees charter schools as a beacon of progress amid the fiasco which defines CPS, Villalobos grasps how wider school choice uplifts students who would benefit most from the higher standards that charters can provide. Aside from her support for charter schools, Villalobos favors a complete financial audit of CPS and believes there are better alternatives to Mayor Johnson’s “payday” loan. An accountant, Villalobos understands there are real-world consequences to short-term, high-cost loans. Ms. Villalobos also earns our support for opposing the removal of Pedro Martinez as CPS CEO and for her desire to see Chicago Police in CPS schools.
District 8
In the 8th District, Angel Gutierrez receives our endorsement. A Garfield Ridge resident who was raised in Pilsen and Chicago Lawn, Gutierrez is married and the father of two.
Gutierrez has spent nearly his entire career in non-profit management. Beginning with Catholic Charities, and working closely with the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program, he most recently served at Chicago Hope Academy High School, a position in which he directed institutional advancement. A critical capacity which houses donor relations, in this role, Gutierrez oversaw the broad financial health of the Academy, by which he and his colleagues in development enhanced every aspect of student life and maintained donor programs to meet Hope’s yearly operating costs.
Experience which gives him extensive knowledge over school budgeting, Gutierrez — who also opposes raising the tax levy— will be a welcome addition to the Board as they seek solutions to what is typically a knotty annual school budget. Aside from his involvement in a school setting managing finances, Gutierrez’s support for school choice, returning Chicago Police to schools, and consolidating or closing underused CPS schools makes his candidacy more appealing.
District 9
Therese Boyle might have allowed herself a few years of comparative peace after the many years she spent with CPS. That Boyle has emerged from the comfort of retirement to pursue a seat on the Chicago Board of Education is not the act of a calculating politician seeking the next wrung on the ladder, but rather a driven educator resolved to fulfill the role of a sober and practical voice advancing enlightened ideas and realistic solutions to Board matters.
A 32-year resident of Mount Greenwood, Boyle spent over 35 years in CPS in working as both an educator and school psychologist in schools across the South Side of Chicago. Serving in a variety of roles involving student evaluation and development, Boyle’s immense experience, familiarity with, and the depth of understanding of a range of issues which affect Chicago’s public schools make her eminently qualified to be seated on the Board.
Outside her rich experience as an educator, Boyle’s candidacy brings one quality not found in her challengers: Independence. The essence of her bid to become a Board member, Boyle is untainted by any outside influence which would compel her to bend in any direction other than her noble aim for Chicago’s pupils to flourish in the classroom and look after the public good.
District 10
In the 10th District, Karin Norington-Reaves is endorsed. A licensed attorney whose background includes three decades of engagement to civic life, Norington-Reaves once served as Executive Director of Teach for America. A position in which she identified and evaluated talent for placement in the field of education, this understanding of the qualifications and requirements candidates must meet for employment in the field of education tethered to her knowledge of shaping budgets and distributing public and private funds as Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership enhances her suitability for the Board.
Though Norington-Reaves has expressed the importance of correcting the fiscal imbalance tormenting the CPS budget, safe schools, and untangling the convoluted Individualized Education Program for students with special needs, she has also put into words her view the Board should serve an ideas shop. Citing students leaving CPS without direction, Norington-Reaves recognizes the time has come to rehabilitate vocational training from its unjustified ignominy.
Unlike other candidates seeking a seat on the Board, Norington-Reaves grasps the demise of vocational education at the high school level has bred a skills shortage in the trades and with it a wealth of career opportunities for both under-employed college graduates and high school students looking for direct pathways to interesting, lucrative careers. A woman of ideas and vision, Norington-Reaves’ experience with teacher placement and budgets, together with her desire to see the vocational education option returned to be a vital segment of CPS curriculum, makes her superbly qualified for the Board.
