Declarations of Independence?

On Monday, Mayor Brandon Johnson's to-do list contained two big-ticket items: convince the Chicago City Council to pass his fourth version of a 2025 budget and announce his full slate of 11 appointees to the 21-member school board that will be seated in January. The budget passed, but by a shockingly narrow margin: 27-23. Budget negotiations also stretched over two months, landing far closer to the final Dec. 31 deadline than the city has seen in many years. As for the board appointees, he went 10 for 11. We'll come back to that.

Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune's Jake Sheridan observed that the extended budget wrangling, full of mayoral missteps, has emboldened "the most empowered and independent City Council that Chicago has seen in decades."

This isn't the "Council Wars" of the 1980s, when the city's first Black mayor, a political progressive, faced off against a majority bloc of white machine pols determined to stand in his way on every possible issue. In that era, Mayor Harold Washington used his executive powers to circumvent the council as much as possible while improving services, reducing payroll and boosting Chicago's bond rating.

This time around, a Black, progressive mayor is facing tough feedback from both friends and foes for mishandling the city's budget process and choosing to cobble together short-term fixes at the expense of deeper structural solutions, possibly exposing the city to a credit downgrade. Today's much more diverse City Council unanimously voted down the $300 million property tax increase Johnson initially proposed.

In the final budget vote, Ald. Andre Vasquez (40), co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, joined many of his more centrist colleagues and voted no. Over the last two months, relationships among the mayor and city council members proved themselves much more fluid and nuanced than the usual labels—progressive vs. centrist or mayoral ally vs. opponent—explain. Perhaps this is what democracy looks like, and we just aren't used to it.

Will the new Board of Ed assert itself, too?

Some signs already point in that direction. In an early show of independence, this week many school board members-elect are attending training quickly organized by the Academy for Local Leadership after the Chicago Public Schools' board office canceled its planned training days this week. The official board training, which has been shortened, will happen in January.

While much of the campaign coverage (including my own reporting) focused on candidates' ties to moneyed political actors like the Chicago Teachers Union and the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, many of the candidates themselves spent a lot of time talking about their desire to break out of partisan boxes and find common ground with fellow board members to focus on problem-solving. Now that the election is over, many have started walking their talk. Four of the winning candidates, plus a losing candidate who was recently appointed to the incoming board, attended a post-election celebration sponsored by the parent advocacy group Raise Your Hand: Jessica Biggs, Ebony DeBerry, Carlos Rivas, Che "Rhymefest" Smith, and Karen Zaccor. It was an opportunity to build relationships while speaking frankly about areas of disagreement.

The hybrid board, which will take office on January 15 and serve for two years, has a majority of appointed members. In theory, those appointed members will follow the mayor's orders. But there's cause to believe reality will be more complicated. Johnson's first appointed board resigned en masse in October rather than follow his wishes on two issues: taking out a $300 million short-term loan and firing CPS Chief Executive Officer Pedro Martinez. Like City Council, and like progressives in general, there's no real guarantee that a group of Chicago school board members will simply fall into line at mayoral command just because they have track records of progressive politics and support for the Chicago Teachers Union.

Here's my New Year's prediction: we're about to get a taste of what an "empowered and independent" Chicago school board looks like, two years earlier than expected.

Who's In? Who's Out?

In January I hope to be bringing you all a spiffy set of virtual cards (think baseball cards or Pokemon) to keep track of all the board members. But for now, a quick list will have to do:

President: Sean Harden, whose LinkedIn indicates his experience runs deeper in housing, workforce, and community development than in education. He served as community affairs deputy to short-lived CEO Ron Huberman.

New Appointees to Join in January:

• Ed Bannon, former journalist, community organizer, and longtime Dever Local School Council member. In the linked article Bannon says Johnson did not ask him about "specific votes he could be casting" as a board member. Lost a 2023 bid to unseat Ald. Nick Sposato (38).
• Emma Lozano, fought school overcrowding in the 1980s before becoming a nationally-known immigrant rights leader; aunt of Rudy Lozano, Jr., who resigned from the board in October. The linked video shows her work on immigrant rights in Pilsen with her late husband, Rev. Walter "Slim" Coleman.
• Norma Rios-Sierra, an artist who grew up in Logan Square. She is also the cultural events manager for Palenque LSNA, a community organization with deep ties to local schools. The linked video shows her in conversation with other Latine leaders discussing their hopes for the Johnson administration.
• Anusha Thotakura, lost her bid for an elected seat in the 6th District but was appointed to represent subdistrict 6a. Winner Jessica Biggs represents subdistrict 6b.
• Karen Zaccor, lost her bid for an elected seat in the 4th District but was appointed to represent subdistrict 4b. Winner Ellen Rosenfeld represents subdistrict 4a.

"Dis-appointees," or interim board members leaving in January: Vice President Mary Russell Gardner, Rafael Yañez. Continuing members are: Olga Bautista, Michilla Blaise, Debby Pope, and Frank Niles Thomas.

The mystery: there's one more appointee yet to be named. Back in October, Politico reported that Mayor Johnson had planned to appoint Margarita Ramirez, mother of mayoral ally Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35), but she would have had to resign her Local School Council seat before joining the school board. Could she be ready now?

Play the Game: Six Degrees of Helen Shiller

One way to appreciate the drastic shift in Chicago politics in recent years is to consider how many of the incoming school board members have connections to someone who was long-viewed as a political outsider: Uptown's Helen Shiller, who served six terms as 46th Ward alderwoman, from 1987-2011. Shiller's tenure is remembered for her staunch support for affordable housing in the ward and her relentless watchdogging of city finances. For three years in the 1990s, she was the lone vote against Mayor Daley's budgets.

Here are some examples of close relationships with Shiller for starters:

Karen Zaccor: lived with Helen Shiller in a leftist co-op in the 1970s. [She mentioned this while we were chatting at the Raise Your Hand event.]

Michilla Blaise: served as an aide to Shiller during her last term in office, 2007-2011.

Emma Lozano: her late husband, Slim Coleman, spent decades organizing poor white folks in Uptown alongside Shiller. I found this gem of a Reader piece describing Shiller's inauguration ceremony, which gives a nod to Coleman.

And here's a toughie:

Frank Niles Thomas. I'm sure there's some way to connect from him having been the 21st Ward Streets & San superintendent to Helen Shiller's days as alderwoman in the 46th Ward, but I haven't worked it out yet.

If you can work out more Six Degrees of Helen Shiller relationships connecting her with Board of Ed members, let us know.

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