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The union representing Chicago school support staff is splitting with the teachers union in its support of candidates in several key races, including school board president.
SEIU Illinois State Council announced Thursday morning its endorsing Jessica Biggs in the race to lead the first fully elected 21-member school board. The union already donated $10,000 to Biggs’ campaign last December. SEIU announced last week it would endorse more than a dozen candidates running as school board district representatives.
The SEIU’s endorsements diverge from the Chicago Teachers Union, which is backing their own political director Hilario Dominguez for school board president. That means two unions are backing opposing candidates in 10 school board races and are aligned on five.
The split between SEIU and CTU is significant: Both unions give money to their endorsed candidates and provide boots-on-the-ground to canvas, phone bank, and get out the vote. These endorsements also carry weight with union members when they vote. SEIU represents more than 16,000 CPS staff and more than 100,000 workers statewide. CTU represents 30,000 educators.
“Sometimes our interests align. Sometimes they don’t,” said Trumaine Reeves, executive vice president of SEIU Local 73, the chapter representing CPS support staff, including janitors, crossing guards, bus aides, and special education classroom assistants.
Reeves noted the alignment with CTU on candidates Ed Bannon, Ebony DeBerry, Norma Rio Sierra, Claudia Peralta, and Anusha Thotakura. He said choosing Biggs for the president role came down to her experience.
“She knows firsthand the impacts of the budget, how fully funding or underfunding at a school-based level impacts the school community. She lived it firsthand,” Reeves said. “We felt like out of the five candidates running, she’s the most qualified.”
Biggs is a current school board member representing parts of downtown and the south lakefront. She’s also an organizer with Southwest Organizing Project and has been since she was let go by CPS in 2018 from her job as principal of Burke Elementary. WBEZ reported her termination came after the Inspector General said she altered attendance data and allowed staff to transport students without proper paperwork.
Biggs, who has successfully appealed being placed on the CPS do-not-hire list, says she was targeted because she was a critic of the district’s move to privatize janitorial operations. SEIU represents school janitors and pushed CPS to end their agreement with Aramark in 2024, a decade after the initial privatization.
Tensions rose between SEIU and CTU in 2024 when the teachers union put a proposal on the table in bargaining that could’ve taken work away from SEIU members. It would’ve given CPS administrators the ability to use teacher assistants represented by the CTU and special education classroom assistants, or SECAs, represented by SEIU almost interchangeably.
Mayor Brandon Johnson won his seat in 2023 with the help of SEIU. But in 2025, that union’s support appeared to be waning. Johnson faces reelection in 2027.
On Wednesday, the CTU posted on social media to label Biggs as a candidate backed by billionaires and people who closed 50 schools in 2013. The union highlighted $17,300 in donations Biggs received last year from Michael Sacks, a donor to former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, as well as a $1,000 donation from David Vitale, who served as school board president in 2013, and $2,900 in donations from former CPS CEO Janice Jackson. Jackson was a high school principal in 2013.
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to note SEIU Local 73 represents school bus aides, not bus drivers.
Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.
