InFocus: Anusha Thotakura on Shaking Up Board Business

When it comes to shaking up a school board, Anusha Thotakura got started in high school. In 2015, she and some of her peers spoke at a District 211 school board meeting in support of a young transgender woman who sought equal access to the girls' locker room. In response to the vitriolic comments she heard from other speakers that night and the school board's refusal to support the student, she helped behind the scenes to run progressive school board members' campaigns, and ultimately won seats. The case drew national attention and was ultimately resolved when the school board passed a policy allowing trans students unrestricted locker room access.

"This is a young person just trying to get through the day," said Thotakura. "Being very, very explicit to get commitments from candidates on trans student rights and Black student rights, and advocacy and racial justice, that was part of the process."

Now, as a sitting member of the Chicago Board of Education, she sees the need for another kind of change: changing the culture of the Chicago Public Schools to be more transparent, responsive, and nimble in responding to the public, including school board members. "There's a lot of internal barriers for us to be able to get things done, like people not being willing to share information, not getting timely responses,' she said. "All of that is a culture of CPS that now needs to switch as we have more accountability with an elected school board."

Board Rule talked with Thotakura about her experience of fighting the uphill battle needed to make this change. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. What have been the biggest challenges you're encountering as a board member so far?

A.  Honestly, there’s a huge learning curve. Coming into a $10 billion bureaucracy like CPS, there’s a lot of momentum on things just moving forward, and people kind of viewing the board as rubber stamps, or an agenda that’s kind of predetermined and already moving. For us to have the technical knowledge and capacity to know what kind of questions to ask and what levers we can pull,  it takes a lot of time to learn that. I’m still learning.

There’s certain systemic factors that affect our ability to make stuff happen. Even the Open Meetings Act. I’ve found that one of the most prohibitive aspects of the job. We can’t openly coordinate and collaborate on initiatives with more than four other people at a time. When you look at the board, a lot of people are like, “Wow, you guys are really divided. Why doesn’t it seem like folks are on the same page?” Because we can’t actually get on the same page on things in an easy, coordinated way. It’s really difficult to break down silos because we have very, very few opportunities to all connect and to get the same point across to 21 people. I have to have four or five different meetings. As you know, it’s a volunteer position. I don’t have unlimited time to do that.

Q. So it’s not uncommon that the way school districts relate to their boards is, OK, the board approves all the policies, but really, we work through the superintendent. The board is a rubber stamp. We want to manage the information we give to the board. They have their area, but really, we get the business done. Is this applicable to CPS? If you think that’s too strong, tell me.

A. The whole point of us having board staff is that they represent us in our interest in the day-to-day work, given that [being a board member] is not a full-time job, right? But instead of that, I’m being told, “Oh, they can’t get this to you because blah, blah, blah.” It’s not really an ask, I’m requesting it because I need it. 

I said, “Oh, a constituent reached out to me about this. Could you see who’s a point person on this, and we can set up a meeting?” And I got told, “Well, how about you take the meeting and you take notes, and we’ll follow up because we don’t want to waste their time.” But you’re going to waste my time!

Q. Are there things you would like to do to modernize processes at the board?

A. Well, there’s just so much room for improvement, I’m not sure where to start. It’s not the fault of the board office–21 people is very nuts. There’s no perfect system. With a 21-person board, we don’t each have our own staff member that we can delegate to.  We just make a request, and if it gets done, great. If it doesn’t, we really have no systems for accountability. Things like meeting requests fall through the cracks in ways that are really not appropriate for a public office holder. I think the board office, they feel a defensive obligation that they need to be doing everything, but they also don’t have the staff to handle that, so there’s gaps in what gets done.

Q. How do you think this will change when the board is fully elected?

A. I am worried that it’s only going to be more chaotic. I believe right now our staff takes direction mostly from Sean [Harden], the board president, and most of us are fine with that. But post-election, the board president could be anybody who doesn’t have a relationship with any other board members. In that case, who really does make the decisions about what the chief of staff and staff in general are doing?

Q. So do you see ways to improve customer service, for lack of a better word?

A. We need better policies around board member authority. In this transition period, we’ve been very sympathetic to the needs of our district, but staff see themselves as being more conduits to the district, and not as representing board members in how they interface with the district.

Candidate Updates

Last week, Board Rule took an early look at the field of candidates for Chicago's first fully elected school board. We will continue to track who's running and which incumbents are deciding not to run. Please reach out with updates and candidate launch announcements!

Board President: Yesterday, Jennifer Custer announced her candidacy for president of the Chicago Board of Education. She is currently the elected board member for District 1B. She has been endorsed by the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, Plumbers Local 130, and eight City Council members: Gilbert Villegas (36), Samantha Nugent (39), Felix Cardona (31), Derrick Curtis (18), Jim Gardiner (45), Nicholas Sposato (38), Raymond Lopez (15), and Matt O'Shea (19).

District 1A: Incumbent appointed board member Ed Bannon has confirmed to Board Rule that he is running to keep his seat.

District 9A: Incumbent appointed board member Ángel Vélez has confirmed to Board Rule that he will not run in the November election.