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Outgoing Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez filed defamation claims against the Chicago Teachers Union, its president, Stacy Davis Gates, and board President Sean Harden, according to court records posted Wednesday evening.
The claims were added as an amendment to his ongoing lawsuit against some current and former Chicago school board members. The amendment represents the latest escalation of tensions in Martinez’s ongoing legal battle since his firing in December.
Steve Mandell, CTU’s lawyer in the case, said the complaint “is an attempt to silence the sort of political speech that takes place in every labor negotiation.”
“If these sorts of statements were actionable, the courts would be flooded with never-ending defamation claims surrounding every negotiation,” Mandell said in a statement.
In a brief interview, Harden also denied making any defamatory comments.
The board’s law firm, Cozen O’Connor, did not respond to a request for comment. The board voted 12-7 Wednesday to increase its maximum allowed payments to Cozen O’Connor from $75,000 to $135,000.
The new defamation claims come a week before Martinez’s last day on June 18 and as he prepares to start a new job as Massachusetts’ state education commissioner on July 1.
Cook County Judge Joel Chupack will consider whether to allow the complaint to be amended next week, according to a court order issued Thursday. Bill Quinlan, Martinez’s lawyer, said he expects the judge to approve the change.
Asked why Martinez was adding defamation claims, Quinlan said Martinez “isn’t going to put up with bullies” or comply with ”the request to get him to agree to a contract that he didn’t think was fair.”
Martinez previously sued a school board in Nevada after being fired. He received a $500,000 settlement from the Washoe County School District, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal.
The defamation claims in the latest lawsuit address several social media posts and statements from both Davis Gates and the union, including comments about Martinez’s past work as the district’s chief financial officer, his current competency as CEO, his understanding of contract negotiations, and whether he was pushing to close up to 100 schools. Separately, the suit claims Harden made false statements about Martinez during an event last month with the city’s principals union.
Martinez originally filed the lawsuit in December to attempt to stop the board from interfering in contract negotiations with the CTU. He won a temporary restraining order against board members to bar them from involvement in negotiations or directing his team.
The complaint refutes statements from Davis Gates and the union that claimed Martinez is “incompetent and unqualified.” The lawsuit said Martinez “has and had every ‘qualification’ to perform every aspect of his job as CEO.”
The lawsuit also highlights social media posts last September from both Davis Gates and the union that claimed Martinez was seeking to close 100 schools. At the time, Martinez and the Board of Education denied that it planned to close schools. State law prohibited school closures in Chicago up until mid-January. Amid the controversy, Martinez proposed and the board passed a resolution to say it wouldn’t seek closures until January 2027.
Martinez claims in his lawsuit that those posts were knowingly false.
“Davis Gates and the CTU knew the schools study had been performed at the directive of the Former Board, that the ensuing list was the result of the Former Board’s own initiative, and that [Martinez] had no plan to undertake school closures on that or any other basis,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also notes a May 14 Facebook post from CTU’s page that says Martinez could have “recovered millions in charter loan debt” and “billed Medicaid” to avoid budget challenges. Martinez’s complaint argues both claims are false.
On Medicaid, Martinez’s lawsuit argues that “the highest recoupment of Medicaid” for CPS happened under Martinez. On charters, the complaint says the district can only function based on the contracts it sets with charter school operators.
The defamation allegations also cite a post Davis Gates made on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, arguing the district’s current financial difficulties “can be traced back to Martinez’s time as the district’s chief financial officer between 2003 and 2009,” citing risky loans he “blessed and structured.” Martinez’s lawyers say those allegations are all false and none of his actions as CFO more than a decade ago caused today’s financial challenges.
Separately, the lawsuit claims that board President Harden made false statements last month about Martinez’s work, including that he has been more focused on “his professional future and not on the long-term stability and success of our school district” and that his actions “have undermined our board’s ability to make the best decisions on behalf of CPS students.”
Martinez’s team claims Harden’s comments are false and are an attempt to establish legal “cause” for letting Martinez go sooner than his planned departure. Martinez was fired without cause in December and, per his contract, was allowed to stay in his role through June 19.
In a brief interview Thursday, Harden said he wasn’t aware of the defamation claims and did not say anything defamatory. He said his statements on the budget cited in the lawsuit were “100% factual.” CPS has floated a possible budget plan that assumes it will receive an additional $300 million from either the city or state, which has not yet materialized.
The budget is “incomplete and unsatisfactory, so I stand by those comments,” Harden said. “We were and we still are looking at what was put out — a $229 million budget scenario with suggestions of $300 million coming from unsubstantiated sources, so the board is not in a position to make sound decisions … That is still the case today.”
Last week, the union threatened to sue the district over a potential proposal to delay some of the union’s contract agreements next year. (The district told WBEZ that it “may need to review all additional expenditures under various labor agreements and vendor contracts to ensure long-term sustainability” and would work with unions as necessary.)
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
