CPS Board of Education President Miguel del Valle is stepping down ahead of transition to elected school board

Chicago Board of Education President Miguel del Valle said Wednesday he’s leaving the post this week.

Tapped as president by then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot in 2019, del Valle announced at Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting that it will be his last. His seat on the board expires Friday.

His departure comes at a time of transition for Chicago Public Schools, not only because a new mayor, Brandon Johnson, took office six weeks ago, but because its Board of Education will be shifting from an appointed to an elected body starting next year.

Johnson has been expected to make his own appointments to serve during the transition period.

In an open letter to the mayor this month, parent organizations and other advocacy groups urged Johnson to be more transparent about his board member appointments than administrations past, including “open solicitation of candidates, transparency around the criteria and qualifications by which candidates are to be selected,” and to describe his vision for the board’s membership.

Johnson released a statement later Wednesday thanking del Valle but giving no indication of who might replace him or when that decision will be made.

Calling del Valle “an unwavering advocate for community schools,” Johnson noted that being Board of Education president “is a taxing positions that is challenging even in the best of times.” But he said del Valle “has navigated numerous challenges with patience and understanding of the passion around public education in our city.”

With CPS facing a $628 million budget shortfall in the 2025-26 school year, the parent and community groups beseeched Johnson to prioritize candidates with policy expertise on the ongoing challenges the district faces, who also have direct experience with CPS as parents or alumni.

Del Valle served during a tumultuous time for the district, whose teachers and other staff members went on strike in October 2019, months into his term. The COVID-19 pandemic arrived a few months after that, abruptly shifting the district to remote learning and leading to further strife with the Chicago Teachers Union over pandemic protections.

In his announcement Wednesday, del Valle thanked Lightfoot and other board members with whom he’s served and noted the volunteer role has been “quite a challenge, but I feel I’ve been up to the challenge.”

“Today I can honestly say that CPS with its partners — CTU and the principals association and its external partners, community-based organizations and the other sectors — are coming together to ensure that we become stronger, and by that I mean that we better serve our students and their families and our students leave CPS ready for their future,” del Valle said.

He also praised Johnson, a former CTU organizer, saying that in recent conversations, “I‘ve found him to be very collaborative and responsive, and I don’t think anyone can question his commitment and his dedication to the Chicago Public Schools for obvious reasons.”

By the time he was appointed board president, del Valle already had a long background in city and state politics, with much of his focus in the education arena. He was the first Latino in the state Senate, where he headed the Education Committee, and also served on the Illinois Student Assistance Commission and chaired the Illinois P-20 Council, a state education reform group created in 2009. He’s also a CPS alumni, former CPS parent and former board member of the education advocacy group Advance Illinois and the Illinois Federation for Community Schools.