Independent school board candidates notched one victory and are expected to win another two of the ten races in which voters cast ballots to elect Chicago Board of Education members for the first time Tuesday.
Chicago Teachers Union-endorsed candidates saw limited success and big spending by school choice proponents had mixed results, while a trio of candidates untethered to either group, won the centrally-located District 6, and led in South Side Districts 9 and 10, where votes were still being tallied Wednesday.
District 6 independent candidate Jessica Biggs, said she’s proud of the campaign she ran and the broad support she garnered over the last few months. Free from ties to the union or school choice advocates, the former teacher and principal said her decisive victory, despite being outspent in the race, speaks to how much Chicagoans care about CPS’ more than 600 schools and 325,000 students.
Noting the “massive” volunteer base she developed, Biggs said, “I feel really proud of the support that I went into this race having, both from a community of peers, friends and colleagues who stepped up to support (and) from elected leaders who have known me and my leadership for the last 10 years.”
Biggs beat CTU-endorsed candidate Anusha Thotakura 45% to 32% on a comparatively shoestring budget. Anti-violence activist Andre Smith, endorsed by school choice interests, received the remaining 23% of District 6 votes.
Of the results, she added, “It’s evident that people have a financial interest in the district, but it’s also really evident that Chicagoans have an interest in making sure that our students have strong outcomes.”
Her perspective mirrors a Public Agenda poll of more than 2,000 Chicagoans released early this year, in which a majority of voters in every district said they were more interested in the quality of CPS students’ education than “petty political battles” among politicians and educational leaders.
According to state records, Smith raised around $56,000, but was buoyed by the nearly $300K two pro-school choice groups, the Illinois Network of Charter Schools Action PAC and the Urban Center, spent in support of his campaign. Biggs had just over $52,000 in contributions, according to campaign finance reports. Neither she nor the two other independent candidates on track to win received super PAC support or the teachers union endorsement.
‘The community knew better’
District 10 candidate Che “Rhymefest” Smith said he’s cautiously optimistic that his 3-point lead in the close contest for a board seat on the South Side will hold – for the same reasons that the Grammy Award-winning recording artist and community organizer said he felt discounted during the race.
Despite having name recognition in some circles as a musician and South Side native, Smith said that as a non-traditional educator, he was overlooked by special interests that can make or break campaigns. But being an outsider was of value to the community, he added.
“It seems as though there was an attempt to tuck me under the couch as everybody argued about the CTU and the charters. What they didn’t see is that the community was paying attention to who they knew,” Smith said of support he received across the district encompassing lakefront neighborhoods on the South Side, including Oakland, Kenwood, Jackson Park and South Shore as well as a portion of Hyde Park.
With 98% of precincts reporting Wednesday, Smith led Karin Norington-Reaves, a CPS parent, attorney and former executive director of Teach for America 32% to 29%, with a margin of around 2000 votes. CTU-endorsed candidate Robert Jones received 23% of the vote. The remaining 16% of ballots were cast for former principal Adam Parrott-Sheffer.
“This is a new era in education,” Smith said. He thinks voters responded to the mission that compelled him to enter the race:Creative solutions are needed to both solve the district’s funding woes, and engage students and families who’ve been alienated from CPS.
“We’ve got to inspire kids back to learning… but nobody wants to elect the artist,” Smith said of outsized special interests support received by his opponents. “The community knew better.”
Smith and his wife provided more than half of the nearly $129,000 in campaign contributions he had netted as of Monday, according to state records. He said he’s proud to count sources as varied as the plumber’s union and a local comic book store among the remainder.
Jones, the Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church pastor backed by the CTU received more than twice that amount in direct donations, while school choice proponents spent another approximately $325,000 in support of Norington-Reaves.
‘A perfect storm’
District 9 candidate Therese Boyle partly chalked up her 8-point lead to “a perfect storm” of voters’ disapproval of the public turmoil at CPS, as well as the mayor’s proposed property tax hike and cozy relationship with the teachers union.
“All of that brought the idea of a school board to the forefront for the general voters,” said Boyle, a retired school psychologist who estimates she’s worked in around 40 schools in the district.
With 98% of precincts reporting as of Wednesday, Boyle led CTU-backed Lanetta Thomas, 37% to 29%. The remaining votes in the Far South and Southwest Side 9th district were split among Cook County attorney La’mont Williams and Miquel Lewis, a former head of a charter school network whose campaign received around $380,000 in super PAC support.
Boyle is a CTU member but did not seek the union’s endorsement. “I come from a union family…but I don’t like their particular direction,” she said of the CTU.
Despite upsets, a union-friendly majority is expected
Boyle said she expects policies favorable to the CTU will come to pass despite the string of upsets among its slate of candidates. “But it says something,” she said of the outcome of her race. “I think people are upset.”
Including one uncontested race, CTU-endorsed candidates won three of the school board contests and led a fourth in the Northwest Side District 1 that hadn’t been called as of Wednesday. At the same time, two pro-school choice candidates nailed down two board seats, in District 3 on the Northwest Side and District 8 which encompasses parts of the Near South and Near Southwest Sides and Downtown.
When the new Board is seated in January, the majority of its 21 members are expected to be allied with the union, given that 11 mayoral appointees will join the 10 representatives elected Tuesday.
“I had no concept that it would be this political,” Boyle said. As a longtime district resident, she said her campaign chugged along on the strength of her personal network and opportunities both big and small that they produced, such as landing her campaign on a free billboard for three weeks.
Biggs said she’s excited to prioritize schools in her district and develop an understanding of where schools’ strengths are and where they require extra support.
