CPS Board President-elect Jessica Biggs speaks to supporters at a watch party in River North on Nov. 3, 2026. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Chicago Board of Education Member Jessica Biggs made history Tuesday night, becoming the first elected president of the school board.

Biggs, the director of the community collaborative Healthy Southwest, a former Chicago Public Schools (CPS) principal and former special education teacher, defeated two other contenders, including the Chicago Teachers Union’s (CTU) handpicked candidate, Hilario Dominguez.

According to unofficial results, Biggs earned 48.9 percent of the vote. Dominguez earned almost 30.7 percent. Victor Henderson, a criminal defense and commercial litigation attorney, earned 17.7 percent and former CPS Board Vice President Sendhil Revuluri, who dropped out of the race but remained on the ballot, earned just under 2.7 percent.

“For too long, decisions about our schools have been made in the back rooms of City Hall, and families have been left to live with the consequences. But tonight that changes,” Biggs said to supporters at an election night watch party in River North.

The president-elect has represented District 6B on the school board for the past two years. The district covers an area that stretches from the southwest corner of River North down through parts of the Loop and Douglas and much of Bronzeville. It includes Washington Park, parts of Woodlawn, Hyde Park, Greater Grand Crossing and Englewood as well.

“This is a victory for everyone who wants a great public school in every community,” Biggs said. “And it was built by a broad coalition of parents and educators, working families and faith leaders and neighbors from every part of Chicago. Over these past several months, I have been to every corner of our city, and everywhere I went, I heard some version of the same thing. Families are tired of chaos and uncertainty. They want stability, and they want this board to turn its focus back to our students.”

Dominguez, the CTU’s political director and a former CPS special education teacher, ran with the teachers union endorsement and was supported by Mayor Brandon Johnson. 

Speaking at CTU headquarters Tuesday night, Dominguez said “this election was never the finish line.” 

He criticized billionaire donor Michael Sacks, who he said put about $1 million into the race nearly every week for the last two months.

“The people of Chicago are not for sale,” Dominguez said. “You did not win ownership of Chicago Public Schools. Those schools belong to the children who walk in their doors.”

Dominguez, who’s from Pilsen, attended Whitney Young High School and helped lead walkouts to protest resource cutbacks and closures.

He came under scrutiny during the campaign for alleged misconduct during his time as an organizer at the nonprofit Resurrection Project, where he was accused of inappropriate behavior toward one of the students participating in a summer program. Specifically, a Chalkbeat Chicago and Block Club Chicago story reported he allegedly inquired about the then-17-year-old female student’s dating life, physically picked her up and inappropriately hugged her.

Dominguez has denied the allegations, which also surfaced during his run for alderman in the 2019 cycle. The Office of the Inspector General for Chicago Public Schools reopened the nearly decade-old investigation into the matter this fall but closed it last month without finding any actionable misconduct.

Biggs faced questions during the campaign as well over the reasons she was fired from her role as principal of Edmund Burke Elementary in 2018, a firing she said was retaliatory and lacked merit, according to Chalkbeat.

Henderson also serves on the Urban Prep Academies charter school network board. He came under fire during the campaign over allegations of physical abuse of his two children that surfaced in his 2008 divorce case. He has denied the allegations.

Twenty other district-level positions on the school board were also up for election, and by the end of the night Tuesday, it appeared that at least nine CTU-endorsed candidates were set to win their races, setting Biggs up to preside over a potentially divided government when the new term begins next year.

The Daily Line’s Leslie Lee contributed reporting.