Chicago Board of Education President Miguel del Valle said Wednesday he’s leaving the post this week.
Tapped as president by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot in 2019, del Valle announced at Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting that it will be his last. His seat on the board expires Friday.
His departure comes at a time of transition for Chicago Public Schools, not only because a new mayor, Brandon Johnson, took office six weeks ago, but because its Board of Education will be shifting from an appointed to an elected body starting next year.
Johnson has been expected to make his own appointments to serve during the transition period.
Del Valle served during a tumultuous time for the district, whose teachers and other staff members went on strike in October 2019 months into his term. The COVID-19 pandemic arrived a few months after that, abruptly shifting the district to remote learning and leading to further strife with the Chicago Teachers Union over pandemic protections.
In his announcement Wednesday, del Valle thanked Lightfoot and other board members with whom he’s served and noted the job has been “quite a challenge, but I feel I’ve been up to the challenge.”
“Today I can honestly say that CPS with its partners — CTU and the principals association and its external partners, community based organizations and the other sectors — are coming together to ensure that we become stronger, and by that I mean that we better serve our students and their families and our students leave CPS ready for their future,” del Valle said.
He also praised Johnson, a former CTU organizer, saying that in recent conversations “I‘ve found him to be very collaborative and responsive, and I don’t think anyone can question his commitment and his dedication to the Chicago Public schools for obvious reasons.”
By the time he was appointed board president, del Valle already had a long background in city and state politics, with much of his focus in the education arena. He was the first Latino in the state Senate, where he headed the Education Committee, and also served on the Illinois Student Assistance Commission and chaired the Illinois P-20 Council, a state education reform group created in 2009. He’s also a CPS alumni, former CPS CPS parent and former board member of the education advocacy group Advance Illinois and the Illinois Federation for Community Schools.
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