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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is appointing Connie Anderson to the school board, giving her an incumbent advantage ahead of November’s election when all 21 seats are up for grabs.
Anderson filed candidacy paperwork in May to run to represent District 10b on the city’s Far South Side. Now, she’ll fill the vacancy left by Olga Bautista, who stepped down in March. Anderson is one of five candidates still facing a challenge to her petition signatures.
The appointment is likely Johnson’s last one as 30 years of mayoral control comes to an end in Chicago. Currently, the city’s school board is made up of 11 mayoral appointees and 10 people elected in 2024.
It is not clear if Anderson will be sworn in at Thursday’s school board meeting when the board is poised to take a critical budget vote. The board office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the Chicago Tribune reported that a spokesperson said Anderson would be sworn in at a later date.
However, Johnson appointed Ángel Vélez on the eve of last year’s budget vote and board records show he voted on the budget the next day. Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Anderson is the parent of CPS graduates, according to a news release from the mayor’s office. She spent 12 years involved with Friends of Ogden, the parent fundraising arm of a public school in the city’s Gold Coast.
The mayor’s office said she was involved at the school during a controversial 2018 merger between the relatively high-income, racially diverse school and Jenner Academy of the Arts, a majority Black, low-income school that long served families in public housing.
Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.
