Thousands of Chicagoans braved wind and rain on Election Day, casting their votes not only for the 2024 Presidential Election and various state and county offices but also, for the first time, to elect candidates to the Chicago Board of Education—a milestone achieved after more than a decade of organizing.
“I grew up in Chicago, and I attended CPS public schools. In my lifetime, I’ve never been able to vote for a school board candidate in Chicago. I’m glad that we finally turned the page on that,” Mawuli Agbefe, a West Englewood resident, told The TRiiBE on election night.
Agbefe voted for Lanetta Thomas, one of four school board district 9 race candidates. Thomas is an organizer and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) parent and is one of ten candidates endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) in the school board election.
According to the most recent data from the Chicago Board of Elections, Therese Boyle, a retired Chicago Public Schools (CPS) teacher and psychologist, is leading in the district 9 race, with 37 percent (29,220 votes).
In comparison, Thomas has 28 percent (22,386 votes), with La’Mont Raymond Williams and Miquel Lewis coming in third and fourth place, respectively, with 17 percent (14,000 votes) and 16 percent (13,343 votes). District 9 includes the neighborhoods of Mt. Greenwood, Beverly, New City and Canaryville.
Chicago’s school board has been under mayoral control for nearly 30 years, a structure established by the 1995 Chicago School Reform Amendatory Act. Passed by a Republican-led legislature, this state law gave then-Mayor Richard M. Daley and the mayors that followed complete control over CPS.
“You all created an expansion of democracy in an entire society that is toying with the idea of fascism,” Stacy Davis Gates, CTU president, said on Nov. 5 during CTU’s Election night watch party.
In 2021, Gov. JB Pritzker signed HB 2908 into law, which shifted the Chicago Board of Education from its seven-member board to a 21-member board. Eleven of the seats will be appointed by the mayor, and 10 will be elected.
In October, the current board appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson resigned. Johnson appointed seven new members in early October. However, the new board appointee, Rev. Mitchell Johnson, was asked by Johnson to resign on Oct. 31 over social media posts that were perceived as anti-Semitic and misogynistic.
“For the first time, we have the opportunity to have people to represent us, and if we don’t like them, guess what we can do? We can vote them out. That’s real power,” Roderick Wilson, the Lugenia Burns Center executive director, said. “So now we can change the direction of our schools, we can make sure our neighborhood schools get the resources they need, so our babies get the futures they deserve. We made history today.”
In 2026, an election will be held for the 11 seats appointed by the mayor, making the board fully elected by 2027.
The polls closed at 7:00 p.m. on Nov. 5, revealing that Vice President Kamala Harris had won Illinois and received more than 53 percent (2,824,201 votes). In comparison, former President Donald Trump received 45 percent (2,391,321 votes), and Robert Kennedy received 76,036 votes. Chicago voters overwhelmingly favored Harris, who received 76 percent (652,919 votes), while Trump received 22 percent (187,137 votes).
Voter turnout in Chicago was the highest among women, with women casting 526,232 ballots and men casting 419,623, according to Nov. 5 unofficial voter turnout counts from the Chicago Board of Elections. Gen Z and Millennial voters aged 25-34 cast the most ballots with 206,704.
As votes were tallied, supporters and city residents gathered at CTU’s West Side headquarters for an Election Day party celebrating the ten CTU-endorsed candidates. Eight of the ten candidates were present for the party. The room was bustling with excitement as attendees awaited speeches from the candidates while DJ Ca$h Era played a lively mix of songs featuring Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Sabrina Carpenter, and more. Televisions displayed updates from the presidential race, adding to the atmosphere.
“Today is a voting rights victory for our city. Y’all hear that,” Hilario Dominguez, CTU political coordinator, declared during the party.
“A broad coalition of community organizations around the city of Chicago that includes labor, community organizations and independent political organizations, a true coalition that came together to fight to put representatives on the school board that are going to lift the voices of Black and brown students of working-class families, who have often been voiceless in our public schools. We’re electing champions who are going to keep the public in public schools,” he continued.
As of 1:00 p.m., on Nov. 6, four of CTU’s 10 endorsed candidates have won their school board elections, including Jennifer Custer, a former assistant principal and union leader in District 1; Ebony DeBerry, a longtime educator and activist and CPS parent in District 2; Yesenia Lopez, an organizer, educator and CPS graduate in District 7; and Jitu Brown, a lifelong organizer for education justice in District 5. Brown ran uncontested in his race after Michillia Blaise stepped down from the race in September.
During his remarks, Brown and other CTU candidates highlighted CPS’s challenges since the late ’90s and mid-2000s, particularly with school closures, the expansion of charter schools, and the organizing efforts to prevent them.
“When they attacked the Bronzeville area and tried to close 20 out of the 22 schools in our neighborhood, we did the best we could as the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization to build a coalition to fight back. And we did,” Brown said. “We defeated the Mid-South plan. Then came what we knew as Renaissance 2010, and we heard about school closings in places like Senn High School and Englewood High School.”
Under the Renaissance 2010 plan, the district closed public neighborhood schools in majority-Black and brown neighborhoods and expanded private charter and contract schools. Between 2001 and 2009, CPS closed 73 schools and opened 82 new ones, 62 of which were charters.
Brown also spoke fondly about his relationships with Gates and other union leaders, including Jesse Sharkey, Jackson Potter, and the late, beloved Karen Lewis, recounting how they joined forces to push back against Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration on issues like school closures, privatization, and lack of resources for Black and brown students.
Last May marked the tenth anniversary of the Board of Education’s 2013 vote approving the closure of 50 CPS schools—the most of any school district in history.
During their speeches, CTU candidates expressed gratitude to their families and supporters. They also discussed the challenges faced in races against opponents endorsed by pro-school choice political action committees (PACs), which increased their spending in the Chicago school board elections, according to reporting by Chalkbeat Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ.
“We saw out-of-state billionaires trying to buy our education system, who are not in Chicago,” said Lopez. “So we gotta continue the fight. So I look forward to fighting for our families, working-class families throughout the whole city, especially special education, after school, programming and dual language.”
Lopez was also endorsed by U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garica for her race. District 7 includes the neighborhoods of Pilsen, Little Village, Gage Park, Brighton Park, the Near West Side, and parts of Bridgeport, Chinatown and McKinley Park.
“We defended our turf. The Southwest Side has a hard-fought victory to celebrate. Yesenia Lopez’s resounding win for Chicago’s first elected School Board shows that our community will not bow to billionaire-backed candidates and outside influence. We stood up to the old foes and their agenda, making it clear once again that their politics are not welcome here,” said Garcia in a written statement.
For Rev. Robert Jones, a pastor and local school council member who lost his race in District 10, the push for transformation in CPS isn’t over.
“We’ll continue to stand 10 toes down, outspent, but not outworked, against out-of-state billionaires because we remain rooted in the belief that our children are not for sale,” said Jones. “Our schools are not for sale, and our city is not for sale. I am convinced that when we fight, we win.”
Both Jones and Brown were part of the Dyett High School hunger strike. In 2015, community members and parents held a 34-day hunger strike demanding the city reopen Washington Park’s Walter H. Dyett High School. The hunger strikers saved the school. Revived as Dyett High School for the Arts, its first class graduated in 2020.
“You put every student in this city, everyone who attends the Chicago Public Schools and everyone who works in the Chicago Public Schools, you put all of them, all of their hopes, all of their aspirations, all of their dreams, on your backs,” Gates said.
“You said that we can in a city that has for so long from Willis wagons to school closings, told us. We cannot. You said that we can, and I love you for it,” she continued. “It is a new day in Chicago. A Chicago with a democratically elected school board.”
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