School board president Miguel del Valle to step down this week

Chicago Board of Education President Miguel del Valle is stepping down this week, leaving a key vacancy for Mayor Brandon Johnson to fill early in his term.

Appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, del Valle’s four-year term expires Friday. He thanked her for the chance to oversee Chicago Public Schools, one of the nation’s largest school systems.

“It’s been quite a challenge, but I feel like I’ve been up to the challenge,” del Valle said at his last school board meeting Wednesday after he announced his departure.

“It’s really been an honor, having served in the General Assembly, and having chaired the Senate education committee, and having been involved with education issues,” he said. “Prior to becoming a legislator, I was an advocate, I was a community organizer.”

Del Valle, 71, said he’s seen plenty of challenges for CPS over his years in education work and he’s often “wondered whether we were headed in the right direction.” But today he sees the district partnering with the Chicago Teachers Union and community organizations to better help students. Del Valle said his short time working with Johnson the past few weeks have shown a bright future.

“I have 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,” del Valle said.

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez praised del Valle for his work, noting that, “Our board members are volunteers, and you do this work because you not only serve as leaders, but you’re also selfless, always trying to look out for our city and our district.”

“It is priceless, the service you provide to our district and our community,” Martinez said.

Johnson is now tasked with picking a new school board president — and may take the opportunity to make a broader imprint on the school district, especially given his background in education as a teacher and former CTU official. No other board resignations have been announced. But in 2019, the entire board resigned and Lightfoot appointed a new one a month into her term.

Johnson thanked del Valle in a statement Wednesday, calling him an “unwavering advocate for community schools.”

“Board of Education president is a taxing position that is challenging even in the best of times, but President del Valle has navigated numerous challenges with patience and understanding of the passion around public education in our city,” the mayor said. “I wish him the very best in his retirement.”

City Hall didn’t immediately comment on the search for a new board president.

Del Valle, who has three grandchildren who attend CPS, is a former mayoral challenger, former City Clerk and the first Hispanic person ever elected to the state Senate. He served as chairman of the Senate’s Education Committee and as co-chair of the Senate Select Committee on Education Funding Reform.

He led the school board through multiple crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, gun violence that affected Chicago children and heavy protests against the district’s renewal of its contract with the Chicago Police Department for armed officers in dozens of high schools.

At the height of those protests in the summer of 2020, students demonstrated outside del Valle’s house while he led a school board meeting from within during the virtual times of the pandemic. He voted to renew the police contract.

More recently, del Valle has warned of fiscal challenges quickly approaching the school system that is out of its darkest days of financial trouble but could yet return.

In March, he previewed his departure by saying, “I’m not gonna be here much longer, But we are going to make sure that whoever is the mayor of the city of Chicago … is fully briefed” on an impending $628 million deficit in 2026. He worried this board would set up the city’s new elected board for failure. A partially elected 21-member board will be seated in 2025 followed by a fully elected board in 2027.

“We hope that the next mayor will call [Springfield leaders] and say, ‘Guys, it’s time for us to get real on this. You’ve stalled long enough,’” del Valle said then. “The work to get there has to begin now. Now. Now is the time.”