Chicago Teachers Union endorses candidates for first Chicago school board election

Less than a week after the filing period ended for Chicago’s first school board electionthe Chicago Teachers Union announced its endorsement of a citywide slate of candidates in an email Friday.

The CTU endorsed 11 candidates for 10 seats – a mix of educators, parents, community organizers and a pastor.

Forty-seven people are running for 10 seats on the new 21-member board. Earlier this year, state legislators settled on the formal transition from the current seven-member board appointed by the mayor to the new, hybrid elected model comprised of 10 elected seats and 11 appointed seats including the board president.

Chicago residents, divided into 10 districts, will vote in the Nov. 5 general election for board members to take office next year. After the election, Mayor Brandon Johnson will appoint a board president and 10 additional board members from smaller subdistricts. In 2026, the entire 21-member board will be elected.

In District 6, the CTU endorsed two candidates: Anusha Thotakura, deputy director at Citizen Action/Illinois, and Brenda Delgado, vice president of the board of the parent advocacy group Raise Your Hand. In the rest of the districts, they endorsed one candidate each.

District 1: Jennifer Custer

District 2: Ebony DeBerry

District 3: Jason Dones

District 4: Karen Zaccor

District 5: Aaron “Jitu” Brown

District 6: Anusha Thotakura and Brenda Delgado

District 7: Yesenia Lopez

District 8: Felix Ponce

District 9: Lanetta Thomas

District 10: Robert Jones

In an email, the CTU said the slate of candidates “represents a transformative group of Chicago residents that the union’s members believe usher in an era for the district that will ensure that every student has access to safe and thriving high-quality neighborhood public schools.”

In a statement, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said the union is excited about the future of working with a school board that is democratically elected.

“For decades, educators watched as Chicago’s schools suffered when the Board of Education put the voices of billionaires and bankers over the voices of students, parents and educators. In November, that changes,” Davis Gates said. “Working collectively with community members, parents and students, we worked to change that. And now the city of Chicago will finally have a chance to democratically elect fellow residents to oversee our public schools.”

At last check, none of the endorsed candidates had reported contributions from CTU to the Illinois State Board of Elections.

Candidates have until July 15 to disclose their campaign contributions, which, among other factors, could indicate the race’s competitiveness along with the number of candidates on each district’s ballot.

Challenges to petitions must be filed by July 1. Election day is November 5, with voters casting ballots in their designated districts.

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