Count Five: The Choices for Chicago School Board Prez

The 5-way race for school board president is heating up. In mid-July, candidate Victor Henderson’s disclosure that he was loaning his campaign $500,000 lifted donation limits for all candidates in the race. Already, $1.2 million has been donated to the candidates for board president. 

Last week, candidates offered strong opinions about the current board’s vote to approve a budget that pressures the state to contribute $150 million beyond what it has already committed for FY 2027.  Four candidates opposed the decision. But Hilario Dominguez, former political director for the Chicago Teachers Union, now their endorsed candidate to lead the board, supported it.

This divide on the budget vote reflects the key split in the race: the CTU’s pick versus four lesser-known candidates, including two sitting board members. Barring some consolidation among his opponents, “Hilario [Dominguez] would win by default,” predicted Chicago political consultant Frank Calabrese. “It’s literally the teachers’ union versus four people who are not the teachers’ union.”

The board president's power to set meeting agendas determines what issues are publicly discussed and voted on. It’s also the only board role all Chicago voters can weigh in on. Starting January 15, 2027, the school board president will have the same vote as all other members. Currently, the board president can only vote to break ties. [Note: this post has been updated to clarify the board president's powers and voting ability.]

Dominguez, Biggs Go Head-to-Head

Though there’s plenty of time for surprises, the key contenders so far appear to be CTU’s Dominguez and Board Member Jessica Biggs (6a). Biggs has the backing of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Illinois State Council. SEIU Local 73 organizes 16,500 nonteaching school district staff, including bus aides, custodians, and special education classroom assistants, or SECAs. Their Chicago Public Schools-affiliated membership is roughly half the size of CTU, but SEIU also organizes workers in other school districts, social service agencies, and hospitals. SEIU Local 1, which organizes workers in CPS and in other organizations, has more than 37,000 members.

Once close political allies, SEIU and CTU had a falling out during CTU’s last contract negotiations with the school district. CTU pushed for teacher assistants it organizes to take over duties that had been handled by SECAs. Top SEIU officials threatened to sue the school district over the contract proposal and charged CTU with trying to raid their membership, accusing the teachers union of  “bullying and dishonesty.”

The unions have endorsed four of the same candidates for board seats, but remain divided on strategy. “The SEIU-CTU divide is very significant,” said Calabrese. “It’s a big break in how city politics has worked.” SEIU’s greater independence could even result in the union joining with business interests to support more pragmatic candidates in Chicago elections, including the school board races, he suggested.

In late July, CTU attacked Biggs for taking contributions from billionaire Democrat Michael Sacks, former school board president David Vitale, and private equity executive Paul Finnegan, calling them “the architects of the destruction of Chicago’s public schools.” Biggs was one of seven school board members who received contributions from Sacks in September 2025, before anyone had declared they would run for school board president.

[Note: this paragraph has been updated to clarify the timing of the donation from Sacks. Campaign finance records show he has not donated to any of the candidates for school board president.]

Biggs responded on social media, pointing out her track record of outspoken opposition to privatizing custodial services and school district efforts to limit special education services. Those illegal limits led to state intervention in 2018. 

Conventional political signals, like big-name endorsements and donors, may shape how many Chicagoans vote in the race for school board president. But parents and community folks with direct ties to schools may also be watching for the candidates' positions on issues from preK to safety to school lunch.

Where They Stand

The candidates are just starting to stake out these kinds of issues and positions. So far, there's no clear list of issues on which all of them have taken a stand, except for their positions on the recent CPS budget. You can keep an eye on their priorities at their campaign websites. Each is linked to the candidate's name.

Hilario Dominguez

Policy priorities. To date, Dominguez offers two policy planks in his platform: universal PreK for 3-year-olds and better school food. For PreK3, he proposes creating neighborhood partnerships like the Altgeld-Riverdale Early Learning Initiative, which brought together local service providers to support families of young children from birth through the early elementary years. To improve food quality, he proposes working with local farmers and building out a network of regional kitchens to reduce school cafeterias' reliance on heat-and-serve meals. In June, he also told WGN's Tahman Bradley that he opposes school closures.

Budget take. Dominguez is the only candidate for school board president who supports the current board's decision to assume another $150 million of state revenue will arrive in time to avoid layoffs. "For the first time in my lifetime, the Board of Education voted to hold Springfield accountable instead of punishing students," Dominguez said in a statement released after last week's budget vote. "The passage of the revised budget is a giant step toward a future of fully funding schools in every neighborhood."

Jessica Biggs

Policy Priorities. Last night, Team Biggs updated the campaign's website with an expansive set of priorities, starting with expanding access to early care and learning from birth to age five, coupled with greater attention to and clear goals for learning in the earliest grades. Biggs promised to "evaluate enrollment processes" for kindergarten and high school to ensure that systems are fair and equitable. She also pledged to expand and measure the success of programs that help older students prepare for college, the trades, or other postsecondary pathways.

To improve the board's governance, Biggs has pledged to remain independent, to lead the board in adopting "a clear governance framework" and launching committees, and to establish a public framework to evaluate Superintendent/CEO King's performance.

Budget take: In an email to supporters the day after the vote, Biggs wrote, "I'm all for pressuring Springfield for more funding for CPS. We have to do it, in fact. But we can't budget on money we haven't won yet." Among her priorities, she pledged to work in coalition with suburban and Downstate districts to fully fund schools and to advocate for the state to "meet its pension obligations."

Sendhil Revuluri

Policy Priorities. Philosophically, Revuluri rejects the idea that board members should take individual policy positions. In his (and some experts') view, board members only have power as a whole body, and that power should focus on setting clear goals for student success and holding district leadership accountable for progress toward those goals. "As a group of part-time volunteers, getting involved in how the district executes"--by taking policy positions or pushing specific programs--"is fraught with risk," he said in an email.

Nonetheless, when pressed, he offered three positions:

• Student Learning Above All • Align the board's work around clear goals for our students' success. Fight for strong instruction in every classroom. Every meeting, every policy, every vote is for one purpose: delivering real results for our children.
• Real, Two-Way Community Engagement • Ensure families in every neighborhood understand what the board is doing to build real trust, and listen to all Chicagoans, not just the insiders, so every community has a meaningful seat at the table.
• Reality-Based Budgeting • Pass realistic, sustainable budgets to fully support student learning. Forward-looking funding aligned with our priorities allows schools to plan with confidence and educators to do the work that helps all our students learn.

Budget take: In a statement released shortly after the budget vote last Thursday, Revuluri said, "We saw this deficit coming for years. For months, the board didn't ask how this budget serves students—then in the final hours, rewrote it under political pressure, to include $150 million in Springfield revenue nobody has authorized."

Jennifer Custer

Policy Priorities. Custer's website touches on four main issues: finances, school safety, curriculum and services, and recruiting and retaining excellent school personnel. She advocates for full funding of all schools in transparent budgets that protect both students and taxpayers. She wants schools to have robust curriculum and wraparound services. She also supports allowing principals and Local School Councils to lead decisions on school safety.

Budget take: In a statement posted to X after last week's budget vote, Custer said, "Those who voted for this amendment will own every cut, every downgrade and every disruption that follows."

Victor Henderson

Policy Priorities. In an interview, Henderson neatly summarized his priorities: open government, educating students, fiscal transparency. He wants CPS to prove it is fiscally responsible by making contracts more transparent and bringing in external experts to examine CPS finances. He also wants to see the school board commit to following its own bylaws.

Henderson told Board Rule he's been on a listening tour throughout Chicago and has met people "who favor school closures in part because they want students to have a full experience." He's open to community conversations about how to address enrollment and facilities issues. "First and foremost, we can’t have a repeat of 2013, when decisions were made in City Hall and foisted on the people. Each community has to participate in decisions regarding their community."

Budget: "There's supposed to be a budget committee," Henderson said in an interview on Sunday. "There isn't one. ... I'm at a complete loss as to why they're not following their own bylaws."

School board election coverage is sponsored in part by:

Learn more about Press Forward.

Events

August 6, 5:30 p.m.: Politico's Illinois Playbook Live! features host Shia Kapos in conversation with Board Member Che "Rhymefest" Smith (10a). Hideout Chicago, 1354 W. Wabansia. Tickets here.

NEW! August 6, 6-6:45 p.m.: CPS Virtual Budget Update with Superintendent/CEO Macquline King. Register here.

August 6, 7 p.m.: BUILD Coffee and Chicago Black Voter Project host a conversation with scholars David Stovall and Eve Ewing, followed by a community conversation about priorities for the elected school board. First Presbyterian Church, 6400 S. Kimbark. Register here.

August 8, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.: Bud Billiken Parade and Festival. The parade steps off at 10 a.m. from 39th Street and King Drive and travels south on King Drive to 51st Street. After the parade, the celebration continues in Washington Park, with back-to-school treats and supplies for families. Details here.

Campaign Events

Hilario Dominguez, board president's race: Whitney Young for Hilario, 2:30-4:00 p.m., Wed., August 12, Under Arts Bridge, 211 South Laflin Street. All members of the WY Dolphins community are welcome. Sign up here. 

Jesus Ayala Jr., 7a: Back-to-School Community Reception, 6–8 p.m., Thurs., August 13,  PACH 21, 2141 W. 21st Street, 2nd Floor.

Candidates: To have your events listed in a future newsletter, please email your information to norahdcruze@u.northwestern.edu.