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Fifty-one people are running for a seat on Chicago’s Board of Education this fall — the first time city voters will elect all 21 members.
Candidates had to file petitions with signatures from voters in their district by Tuesday night to appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.
This November’s election will complete Chicago’s transition to an elected school board, ending 30 years of mayoral control in the nation’s fourth-largest school district.
All 10 of the people elected in 2024 are running for re-election and two face no challengers. Ellen Rosenfeld and Angel Gutierrez are the only candidates in 4b on the North Side and 8a on the Southwest Side, respectively. All current mayoral appointees besides Board President Sean Harden are running to keep their seats. Several ran unsuccessfully in 2024.
Harden, who was appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson in 2024, has long said he wouldn’t run in this year’s election.
Five people are running for the citywide position of school board president: elected board members Jessica Biggs and Jennifer Custer, Chicago Teachers Union political director Hilario Dominguez, former appointed board member Sendhil Revuluri, and attorney Victor Henderson.
But there’s no guarantee that all 51 current candidates will make it onto the ballot. That’s because of petition challenges, which allow registered voters in a candidate’s district to challenge the validity of signatures on their petitions. If the Board of Elections invalidates enough signatures, it can remove a candidate from the list. Candidates for board president must collect 2,500 signatures of registered voters in Chicago; all other candidates must collect 500 to 1,500 signatures of voters in their districts.
The challenge process, which typically runs about six weeks, can also be time consuming and involves hiring costly attorneys, which can push newer or less resourced candidates out.
In 2024, more than 45 candidates initially filed to run for school board. By the fall, 31 candidates remained due to petition challenges or people withdrawing on their own.
The deadline to object to a candidate’s petitions is June 2. The Board of Elections will finalize the ballot in late August.
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
