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Much attention has been paid to former West Side Alderman Michael Scott Jr. since he resigned from his city council position on June 3, 2022. At the time, he claimed the reason for his resignation was wanting to spend more time with family as the cause of his resignation. However, last week Mayor Lori Lightfoot appointed Scott Jr. to the Chicago Board of Education.
Scott Jr. is one out of three new additions to the board. Paige Ponder and Sulema Medrano Novak, who sit on the Illinois Community College Board and Chicago’s Human Resources Board, respectively, were added to the Chicago Board of Education by Mayor Lightfoot. Novak will leave the Human Resources Board.
Two of the three appointments were regular replacements, while one move was a surprise. Dwayne Truss, appointed to the education board in 2019, was asked in May to continue another two-year term after finishing his first term in June. However, in July, Lightfoot’s office told Truss they were “going in a different direction,” His replacement was made official a week later.
Truss believes he fell out of favor with the mayor’s administration after vocally opposing building a new $120 million high school in the South Loop. When Truss first saw the proposal for the school, he had questions about the project. He told The Chicago Tribune he was met with pushback by Chicago Public Schools leadership.
The prospective school is promoted as a solution to the “High School Desert” that exists on the Near South Side of the city. As the populations of neighborhoods west of Bronzeville have grown, students from those areas, notably the Chinatown and Bridgeport communities, have had to travel outside their neighborhoods for high school as there are none in either location.
Citing long commutes for local students, city officials have made multiple attempts to build an open enrollment high school to serve the Near South Side for years. However, with funds approved and set aside for the prospective school, the biggest obstacle to building a new one has been a lack of commercial real estate available to convert into an educational facility.
Critics of the proposal claim that the community has not been involved enough in the decision-making process. Furthermore, they feel that the path to building a school will end up rushed and lack transparency, much like the recent Casino proposal passed by the city council. People also feel that the $120 million could be better spent improving nearby under-utilized high schools like Phillips and Dunbar, which primarily serve low-income students and face many issues.
Before being brought up for a vote by the city council in June, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez postponed the vote for the school as it looked like it would not turn out favorably. The site chosen to build the school in this particular proposal is one previously set aside to build affordable housing.
Scott Jr., a long-time Mayor Lightfoot ally, has not made his opinion on the proposed new high school public. However, he is expected to be in favor of building the school. It now looks like the transformation of the Chicago Board of Education was a deliberate move made by Mayor Lightfoot to create a more favorable outcome when the time comes to vote on building the new school.
His father, Michael Scott Sr., served as the 24th Alderman before he passed away in 2009 and was beloved by his constituents and colleagues in government. Scott Sr. also served on the Chicago Board of Education.
Promptly after his resignation, the replacement for Scott Jr.’s Alderman seat was chosen by Lightfoot. Out of over 10 candidates, Lightfoot selected Scott Jr.’s sister, Monique, to finish the remainder of his term in 2023. With the appointment of Monique, Lightfoot gained two allies, one in the city council and the other on the Chicago Board of Education.
Critics call the shuffling of positions nepotism, while others say the selection process was complicated. Regardless, the city will likely table the affordable housing project to accommodate the new high school serving the predominantly white and Asian communities on the Near South Side, west of the Dan Ryan expressway. In contrast, the predominantly Black open enrollment high schools in Bronzeville continue to suffer.
Written by Justin Connor
Edited by Sheena Robertson
Sources:
Chicago Tribune: Lightfoot appoints ex-Ald. Michael Scott to Chicago Board of Education weeks after he resigned from City Council; by Tracy Swartz
Block Club Chicago: Proposed High School Would Address ‘High School Desert’ On Near South Side Alderperson Says; by Jamie Nesbitt Golden
Top and Featured Image Courtesy of Eric Allix Rogers’ Flickr Page-Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of The News School Staff
