Chicago School Board District 8 results
The District 8 school board race on Chicago's South and Southwest sides features candidates backed by two staunchly opposed groups — and a steady stream of money from those groups.
Angel Gutierrez , a nonprofit consultant, faces Felix Ponce , a former band director at Back of the Yards College Prep, a Chicago public school. The largely Hispanic district includes West Lawn and Clearing, parts of McKinley Park, Bridgeport and Gage Park, plus most of Back of the Yards, Chicago Lawn, Ashburn and Garfield Ridge and half of the South Loop.
The largely Hispanic district includes West Lawn and Clearing, parts of McKinley Park, Bridgeport and Gage Park, plus most of Back of the Yards, Chicago Lawn, Ashburn and Garfield Ridge and half of the South Loop.
The two men are backed by ideologically opposed groups. The Chicago Teachers Union, which prioritizes neighborhood schools and a shift away from school choice, has endorsed and is financially supporting Ponce. Gutierrez is backed financially by the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, which strongly supports school choice.
Ponce stresses prioritizing bolstering neighborhood schools, but supports existing charter schools. Gutierrez is a proponent of school choice, arguing that families need options.
Ponce and Gutierrez differ on several other issues, including police in schools (Gutierrez says yes to police if individual schools want it, Ponce says no). And Gutierrez supports keeping CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, while Ponce wants him to go. Martinez says the mayor asked him to resign , but he refused. The school board has the final say.
But they agree on saying no to a proposal the mayor floated this summer of taking out a high-interest loan to fill this year's budget shortfall. They're also both opposed to raising the property tax levy to the maximum for CPS each year.
This sprawling, largely South and Southwest Side district includes West Lawn and Clearing, parts of McKinley Park, Bridgeport and Gage Park, plus most of Back of the Yards, Chicago Lawn, Ashburn and Garfield Ridge and half of the South Loop. It's home to 65 schools — three "exemplary" by the state and three as needing "intensive support" — and 275,000 residents. District 8's population is 15% Black, 18% white, 61% Hispanic and 5% Asian. The students attending the schools are 18% Black, 6% white, 73% Hispanic, 2% Asian and 1% multiracial — and 75% come from low-income backgrounds.
