Amid contract negotiation standoff, the Chicago Teachers Union invokes school closures

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The Chicago Teachers Union is escalating a fight with CEO Pedro Martinez as its contract negotiations drag on, with the union accusing the schools chief of plotting to close or consolidate underenrolled schools.

Martinez says there are no such plans, and that the district’s recent analysis of its buildings led to the conclusion that closures were unnecessary. State law bars Chicago from closing public schools until Jan. 15, 2025.

“Let me reiterate: I will not recommend that any schools be closed during my leadership of CPS,” Martinez wrote to district families this week.

But CTU has doubled down, arguing that the existence of the analysis — which neither CTU nor the district would provide to Chalkbeat — is a problem. Jackson Potter, the union’s vice president, told Chalkbeat Wednesday that school board members should consider removing Martinez over the analysis, calling the schools chief a “huge barrier to our collective success.”

The back-and-forth is a sign that the union is looking to put additional pressure on the CEO as negotiations continue. Martinez, appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, is already on shaky ground, with Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CTU organizer and close ally of the union, reportedly considering ousting him. And in a city where the shuttering of roughly 50 campuses a decade ago still touches a nerve, the union’s allegations are eye-catching — even if it’s unlikely the schools chief would pursue politically unpopular closures under a mayor and school board that oppose them.

The war of words over closures comes as the district faces looming budget deficits and after Martinez has clashed with both the mayor and the union. The CEO recently rejected an appeal from Johnson to take out a high-interest short-term loan to cover a $175 million employee pension payment and the cost of the teacher contract. Meanwhile, the union has lambasted Martinez for limited progress in the talks over the CTU’s slate of proposals, the union’s most far-reaching and costliest to date.

In a statement to Chalkbeat, CPS spokesperson Mary Ann Fergus reiterated that there are no plans to close or consolidate schools.

School board President Jianan Shi and Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland did not respond to requests for comment.

The facilities analysis: what we know

Although the arrival of migrant families helped push enrollment up last fall, CPS has grappled for years with enrollment declines that have left many of its campuses underenrolled , especially on the city’s South and West sides. How to best address the issue of shrinking schools is a challenge districts across the country are facing post-pandemic, amplifying fears of possible closures.

In a letter to families earlier this week, Martinez said the district conducted a neighborhood-by-neighborhood facilities analysis to inform a new five-year strategic plan that prioritizes efforts to prop up neighborhood schools. In separate communication to staff, he said the school board requested the study.

In his letters to parents and staff, Martinez said the district would not consider a consolidation plan without first consulting families and residents. He noted that the district is currently looking into two specific moves: a new home for the Velma Thomas Early Childhood Center and moving the seventh and eighth grade from Kelvyn Park High School to three neighborhood elementary schools.

Officials have also pointed out the state moratorium against school closures in Chicago, which expires in January on the same day a partly-elected school board will be sworn in. Johnson’s administration and his appointed school board have said unequivocally that they have no appetite for closing campuses, though they opposed a bill in Springfield that, in part, would’ve extended the moratorium to 2027.

Despite Martinez’s reassurances, union officials have repeated their claim that the district is considering closing schools, including during public comment at the school board’s Wednesday meeting.

Potter said the analysis CTU obtained included a detailed list of roughly 70 schools that could be consolidated with 70 other campuses. He also said the union has internal budget slides that reference consolidation as one option for addressing the district’s financial woes, with staff furloughs as another possibility.

“Why would a CEO have a list of 140 consolidations? Why would that be generated in such a detailed manner if they weren’t considering it?” Potter said. “That’s a waste of time and resources.”

Fergus, the district spokesperson, reiterated that the district reviewed facility usage as part of ongoing work related to the Education Facilities Master Plan and its annual capital plan.

By state law, Fergus said, CPS is required to post guidelines by Oct. 1 for “school actions,” a term used to describe changes to a school. She said only co-locations – when schools share a building – would be considered and can only be explored by CPS once a school community has requested it.

As negotiations continue and city budget looms, more pressure on Martinez

The backdrop to this fight is the ongoing contract negotiations.

After months of little progress, the district and union brought in a mediator to oversee the contract talks last month. At the bargaining table, the district has offered teachers raises of up to 5% in the next four years, which officials say will bring the average educator salary to more than $110,000 by the end of the contract, along with benefit increases at no cost to teachers and other concessions. But the district has balked at the union’s proposals to codify class sizes and staffing minimums in the contract, among others. The two are scheduled to bargain in public next Tuesday.

Also looming is pressure on Johnson to close a $223 million deficit in the City of Chicago’s current budget and close next year’s nearly $1 billion gap. Both gaps in the city’s budget, which covers city services such as police and fire, public libraries, and streets and sanitation, exist partly because the school board passed a $9.9 billion budget this summer that did not include money for the pensions of non-teaching staff. The CTU once sharply criticized Lightfoot when she passed on this same pension payment to the school district during her tenure.

Johnson suggested CPS take out a high-interest, short-term loan, but district leaders, backed by the school board, have said short-term borrowing to cover those costs would only add to CPS’s already substantial debt. Reports that Johnson was laying the groundwork to remove Martinez emerged in August amid this disagreement.

The union has made its displeasure with Martinez clear, arguing that district officials – and Martinez specifically – have failed to lobby state lawmakers and the governor aggressively for additional funding.

Potter said union leaders to his knowledge have not spoken with board members about removing Martinez. But he noted that since reports first came out that Johnson was planning to oust the schools chief, the district and union have made more headway at the bargaining table — “improvements in the pace and seriousness of bargaining.”

Still, he said, “If every time we make incremental progress at the bargaining table it’s because we have to threaten Pedro Martinez’s job, that’s not a healthy standard. It’s an impossible one.”

The CEO still has the support of many school leaders. Earlier this month, roughly 460 principals and assistant principals wrote to the school board arguing that after years of leadership turnover, Martinez is making progress in leading the district and his removal weeks into a new school year would cause significant disruption for students and staff.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org .