WOWSAHS
This Hatfield and McCoy feud between Brandon Johnson/Chicago Teachers Union(CTU)/Toadie School Board and now 'fired' Chief Executive Office (aka superintendent) of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system Pedro Martinez/newly-elected but unseated schoolboard members/taxpayers is really getting to be something.
The cut-throat aspect is more Game of Thrones, while the execution is straight out of Good Fellas.
The gobsmacking part is it's not playing out on some swampy rutted track buried at the back of the Meadow Lands behind Giant Stadium (traditional mob waste disposal area if a dock on the Hudson was too busy to load 'cargo' in concrete shoes unobtrusively). No, Mayor Brandon Johnson and his handpicked wise guys are brazenly going about their hit business in prime time, with news cameras rolling for everyone to see.
Even better, the local press is helping the viewing public out by ensuring everyone watching keeps all the pieces connected.
I've never seen anything like this before in my life.
Okay, quick Cliff Notes "on last week's show" edition for those who missed the earlier episodes.
Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, Chicago Teachers' Union (CTU) tool extraordinaire, has been at loggerheads with the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, Pedro Martinez. Johnson is all over Martinez to resign because the darn man will not sign off on Hizzoner's plans to take out a one-year, $300M payday loan (read: usurious interest rates) to do the CTU's bidding.
Everyone BUT Johnson and the CTU thought Pedro Martinez was basically the bees' knees.
MUST WATCH: Maybe the best opening line in public comment history. Former Chicago Public Schools Board Member Dwayne Truss goes off on the Chicago Teachers Union and Mayor Brandon Johnson for their fight to oust CPS CEO Pedro Martinez and issue a $300M payday loan to fund the… pic.twitter.com/kngaYBI8Yx
— Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) September 27, 2024
As he'd made no headway with Martinez as far as getting him to quit voluntarily, Johnson turned his powers of persuasion on the school board. Johnson pressed members to pressure Martinez to either agree to the loan or get him to quit so Johnson could appoint his own toady in the CEO's spot, thereby eliminating the loan obstacle. The mayor's unbridled enthusiasm for exercising pure political muscle on behalf of the CTU annoyed the crap out of the entire school board, they all threatened to resign themselves rather than deal with his horse Schlitz.
All I know is that Brandon Johnson is the Mayor of Crazytown and is doing his best to prove it with every whackjob word that comes out of his mouth.
He's been on a roll.
Now, to start, there's some sort of massive feud simmering between the Chicago Board of Education (snort) and Johnson over someone the mayor is trying to force to resign so he can put his own chosen toady in that spot. The entire board has threatened to resign in protest.
It got to the point where, in what I consider to be a foolhardy and counterproductive move when you're supposedly trying to prevent a wrong from happening, that's precisely what the entire school board did - they walked out.
This flashy but completely contrary protest enabled Brandon Johnson to appoint a board of nothing but yes men for the couple of months between the walkout and the transition to a new hybrid board of elected (in the November elections) and appointed members who would be taking their seats in January.
Dutifully, the mayor's handpicked board of temporary political assassins had one mission, and it wasn't in the interests of the school children of Chicago. It was to rid the mayor and the CTU of that troublesome Chicago Public Schools CEO. Obligingly, they scheduled a meeting to do so last Friday, and whack.
The axe fell on honest, rational Pedro Martinez in "The Christmas Massacre," as one of the ward alderman and a Martinez supporter called it.
Every last Johnson toadie voted for it.
BREAKING: Chicago school board unanimously voted to FIRE the CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Pedro Martinez 🚨
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) December 21, 2024
He was terminated without cause.
The vote was 6 to 0.
👇🧵 pic.twitter.com/QebZVOhRnb
Speculation about why Johnson was so hep on disposing of Martinez was already running rampant and had everything to do with the CTU.
Regarding the mayor’s hand picked school board firing CEO prez Pedro Martinez: A catastrophic decision, but rational from the mayor’s perspective. He will be jobless in 2 years with no prospect to ever earn this level of income again unless… he goes back to working for the CTU.
— Stuart Loren (@StuLoren) December 21, 2024
Tellingly, the CTU was doing public victory dances over the Martinez scalping, especially as the firing came during *dingdingding* teachers' contract talks (Hey, wait a minute. Teachers' contracts and $300M loan...nah...).
And about that appointed board makeup...
...The board consisted of Sean Harden, who was just appointed president of the school board by Johnson last week, Mary Gardner, Olga Bautista, Michilla Blaise, longtime Chicago Teachers Union activist Debby Pope and Frank Niles Thomas.
CTU Vice President Jackson Potter posted on social media Monday that board members have joined CTU in labor negotiations. Potter advocated for Martinez’s firing at the board meeting last Friday.
“I want to thank this board for lighting a fire and pushing both CPS and the CTU to move with all deliberate speed to come to what will become a historic agreement … and this process must continue to accelerate, because we can’t afford to slow down or stall before [President-elect Donald] Trump’s inauguration," Potter said. "Critics will claim, and have, that the board should not act too soon. We say that you cannot act soon enough.”
You'd think that was the end of it.
To their complete shock and well-laid plans horror, not a single one of the protagonists expected what newly 'fired' Martinez sprung on them.
The first thing they should have done was check the man's contract. It seems it had a rather unique clause in it.
It stated that should he ever be 'fired,' his contract was in force for six months after the date he was terminated. Martinez is golden until June of 2025 and he was staying ON the job.
At the school board meeting where he was fired, Martinez threatened to sue if they went through with it, and he filed an immediate injunction against the board.
BREAKING: Pedro Martinez has filed an injunction in Cook County Court seeking to prevent Mayor Brandon Johnson's hand-picked board from firing him. The key phrase: fiduciary duty. Martinez first came under fire from the mayor and his top campaign backer, the Chicago Teachers… https://t.co/b5g3UUUZuh pic.twitter.com/8YMdaU6rQb
— Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) December 20, 2024
However, what Martinez also did was declare war on the board from another angle. The morning after the firing, several of Johnson's board members showed up at the meeting for the teachers' union contract talks with the city. They were uninvited.
They also, according to Mr Martinez, caucused on the union side of the room, not with the Chicago Public School side.
Well...huh. That's pretty blatant.
...FOX 32 ran into three board members outside of CTU headquarters on Monday. They said they were there to support CPS. Martinez says they hindered the process, choosing instead to caucus with CTU members and pressure CPS staffers to hurry up and come to an agreement.
Martinez says the CTU, in collusion with the mayor's office and the board, have repeatedly circumvented his authority on contract negotiations.
"When board members showed up, they went directly to the CTU," Martinez said. "When the representative from the city shows up, she talks to CTU. She doesn't speak with our district. What we have seen, and the message was sent since day one, we are in control, we have the power, so therefore, you're not going to say no, you're gonna say yes in how you're going to do it."
Martinez went to court to have the school board completely thrown out of the negotiations, and on Christmas Eve, he won.
Do watch this little report to get a sense of the corruption involved. None of these people are remotely interested in hiding any of it as they work overtime trying to get rid of Martinez. I guarantee it will blow your mind.
The board may have "breached" Martinez's contract...among the other disgraceful things on what appears to be a very long list.
Cook County Judge Joel Chupak ruled that Chicago school board members must not meddle in contract negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union and that their actions have kneecapped Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez's ability to do his job on behalf of students and taxpayers.
Martinez says Chicago school board members intimidated CPS staffers on Monday, saying, "We hold all the cards," when they showed up during CTU contract talks. A judge issued a temporary restraining order against the board, saying the move caused irreparable harm to Martinez and his ability to bargain on behalf of CPS.
WE HOLD ALL THE CARDS
Remember, Mayor Johnson is the one pushing this at the behest of the Chicago Teachers' Union. It's not like he doesn't have a vested interest...ooohh.
Johnson is deeply involved in contract negotiations that could personally benefit him.
— Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) December 24, 2024
And it doesn’t just extend to his employment.
Johnson is in line for a $3.8M teacher pension despite working as a teacher for just four years, as @illinoispolicy research shows. https://t.co/bTDRZkA3cI
Merry Christmas, Chicago style.
I hope Martinez has bodyguards and a food taster.
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