The legal professional for Chicago Public Schools chief Pedro Martinez despatched a letter to the incumbent faculty board Friday in search of clarification on whether or not to fireplace the chief govt by 2 p.m. and threatening authorized motion to stop it from doing so.
Any motion in opposition to Martinez taken Friday would represent a breach of their fiduciary responsibility, wrote Maritnez’s legal professional William J. Quinlan of the regulation agency Quinlan LLC, and raised a lot of different issues, together with whether or not the brand new board members had the authority to fireplace him or not. appoint a co-CEO to work alongside him.
The letter specifies that “Mr. Martinez acted in a fashion constant together with his contract and the fiduciary duties he holds each to the Board and to the kids and households served by CPS.”
It goes on to state that any motion to fireplace the CEO “would topic the Board and its members individually to legal responsibility as such improper actions are past the scope of the Board’s duties,” since some board members don’t “consider the ‘ similar {qualifications} as their predecessors” and haven’t accomplished the obligatory coaching required earlier than they will take part in council actions.
Even a workaround to firing, comparable to limiting Martinez’s work or splitting tasks with a co-CEO, would represent a violation of his contract, Quinlan’s letter states. The board is alleged to be contemplating firing Martinez with out trigger, giving him 180 days to serve out his time period and in addition naming a co-CEO who will work alongside him. Not solely does Martinez’s contract stipulate that he can’t be reassigned with out his written consent, however decreasing his tasks can be tantamount to an unfair termination, Quinlan wrote.
The letter was shared with each Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and state Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders.
The resolution will not be anticipated to return late on a Friday earlier than the vacations, Quinlan added, since “any authorized points that emerge from the assembly can be hampered and delayed by each the weekend, the upcoming holidays, and the restricted availability of court docket employees within the subsequent few days.” weeks as a consequence of this vacation. It would additionally starve newly elected council members who’re scheduled to be sworn in subsequent month following a choice handed to them by voters, he wrote.
The agenda for Friday’s particular assembly was modified to incorporate two doable choices for ousting the college chief: a settlement or firing. But Martinez reportedly would not need to settle for a buyout, an possibility that was initially floated to him by the college board’s legal professional in early December.
The CPS CEO first got here below fireplace in September after he rejected Mayor Brandon Johnson’s request to take out a $300 million high-interest mortgage to cowl a proposed new instructor contract and a beforehand coated pension fee from town. The faculty board resigned in early October amid strain to fireplace Martinez, and a brand new seven-member board appointed by the mayor may very well be tasked with that process Friday.
The faculty board is the general public physique charged with hiring and firing the top of CPS, however it took months to get to Friday.
Martinez, in accordance with his contract, might be fired in two methods: with or with out simply trigger.
If fired for trigger, the CEO would depart instantly. If with out trigger, he can serve for 180 days and obtain 20 weeks of his $340,000 base wage.
In firing Martinez “for trigger,” in accordance with the contract, the board must cite misconduct or legal exercise, incompetence in performing job duties, fraud or different wrongdoing. Quinlan writes within the letter that present board members have been waging for weeks “a transparent marketing campaign to create a pretextual ‘trigger’ to function the idea for Mr. Martinez’s dismissal.”
“Chicago Public Schools, as a district of immense dimension and complexity, requires the soundness and readability that solely unified and centered management can present, particularly throughout occasions of transition. Our college students, households and employees deserve the peace of mind of constant route and belief within the management shaping the way forward for our faculties,” Quinlan mentioned in a press release to the Tribune.
Originally revealed:
