Mayor Rahm Emanuel has swapped one of his most recent appointments to the Chicago Board of Education with a former top aide who has helped negotiate contracts with the Chicago Teachers Union.
Arnaldo Rivera will take over Dominique Jordan Turner’s spot at the school board, pending what’s expected to be a routine City Council approval of his appointment.
Jordan Turner and schools officials have declined to comment about her status with the board in recent weeks. On Thursday, Emanuel’s office announced Jordan Turner had “recently stepped down” to serve on the Chicago Public Library’s board of directors.
“There is no doubt that Arnie’s experience addressing our schools’ most urgent needs makes him uniquely qualified to build on the work that our schools across the city are doing to improve our children’s futures,” Emanuel said in a statement Thursday.
Jordan Turner, president and CEO of the Chicago Scholars Foundation, was formally selected for the school board in June 2015 as part of a broad mayoral makeover of its ranks. Turner has also served as a director of the Posse Foundation and the KIPP Foundation charter school organization.
Emanuel’s office announced Jordan Turner would leave CPS for the library board in mid-December, saying the move would be effective in January. Jordan Turner, reached Thursday, declined to comment.
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The mayor’s move to bring Rivera, a longtime schools operative, to the CPS board comes as the district stares down decisions on its turbulent finances and moves forward with plans for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of construction projects.
By the time the board meets in January, board President Frank Clark announced early this month, it would be ready to deal with what could be this fiscal year’s third amended budget to account for the loss of $215 million in state help the district has banked on.
Rivera recently left a senior position at the school system to serve as an adviser to After School Matters, one of the city’s most prominent education-related nonprofit organizations. Rivera has also served as an officer with the politically-connected Chicago Public Education Fund.
But Rivera’s roles at the mayor’s office and CPS have often put him at the center of the district’s work. Emanuel’s office on Thursday said Rivera had served as the “lead architect” of the city’s education policy agenda, and noted Rivera’s role in high-stakes CTU contract talks in 2012 and this year.
“My focus has always been, and will continue to be, on improving educational opportunities in schools today so that the district’s rapid academic success can continue into the future,” Rivera said in a statement distributed by Emanuel’s office on Thursday.
@PerezJr