Therese Boyle has Chicago Public Schools in her blood. Literally.
She worked more than three decades for CPS, retiring in 2019 as a psychologist in schools throughout the South Side. Two daughters work for CPS. A brother is a CPS teacher; so is a niece.
Boyle, 67, is the elected school board member for a Southwest Side district including all or parts of Mount Greenwood, Beverly, Morgan Park, West Pullman and Roseland.
Boyle was an necessary irritant for the current leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union even before joining the board. She helped lead opposition slates to the current bloc that runs the union, currently led by CTU President Stacy Davis Gates. So it’s no surprise CTU has endorsed a challenger — Katherine Dunneback, 45, a speech language pathologist at Saint Xavier University.
More Top Picks Reading Rulers And Overlays How To Use Them In Class
Dunneback tells us she supports a graduated income tax, which would require an amendment to Illinois’ Constitution, opposes any school consolidation and supports CTU’s push for more so-called “sustainable community schools,” an approach to under-enrolled schools that provides extra funding for services to the broader community in addition to instructing students. Sustainable community schools would be a nice luxury for a school system that isn’t the single largest issuer of junk-rated municipal debt in the nation. But the track record to date in Chicago shows they haven’t done any better than neighborhood schools in terms of student performance in the classroom.
While Boyle has told us she hasn’t liked CTU’s leftward lurch, she identifies herself as a union person. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) backs her. She is an invaluable board member who brings with her a wealth of direct experience in CPS along with a highly pragmatic and results-oriented point of view on getting Chicago’s public schools moving in the right direction.
We endorse Therese Boyle.
Read all of the Tribune Editorial Board’s endorsements for the 2026 Illinois general election here.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].