• Michael McDevitt
    OCT 28, 2024
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    UNLOCKED

    Band teacher, nonprofit consultant compete to represent South and Southwest Side school board district

    article-image
    Felix Ponce and Angel Gutierrez are pictured. [Ponce campaign social media/provided by Gutierrez campaign]

    Angel Gutierrez and Felix Ponce are competing for a two-year term on the 8th District seat on the partially elected Chicago Board of Education next year. The district includes Clearing and West Lawn, parts of the South Loop, McKinley Park, Gage Park and Bridgeport, and it includes much of Back of the Yards, Chicago Lawn, Garfield Ridge, Ashburn.

    Contribution limits were lifted in the eighth district race earlier this month after the state elections board determined more than $100,000 had been spent independently by charter school and school choice advocacy groups to support Gutierrez. In all but two of the school board races, contribution limits have been lifted as a result of the amount of money being spent. 

    The Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS) Independent Action PAC has spent over $125,530 on digital media buys and campaign mailers to support Gutierrez. Additionally, the pro-school choice Urban Center’s political action committee has independently spent $57,335 to support Gutierrez through text messaging, printed materials and digital media buys. 

    Ponce, a former music teacher at Back of the Yards High School who currently works as a band teacher at Harold Richards High in Oak Lawn, is endorsed and financially backed by the powerful Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), which has made endorsements in all 10 races. Ponce is a former CTU member, according to the union. 

    As of Oct. 25, Ponce’s committee has reported receiving $295,418 in direct and in-kind contributions and transfers. 

    The CTU’s political committees are responsible for transferring $151,350 into Ponce’s committee — making up all of the committee’s reported transfers in. 

    CTU also makes up a significant chunk of Ponce’s $137,368 in reported in-kind contributions. CTU’s political committees have given Ponce $92,249 worth of in-kind donations for field and digital staff, fundraising and data consulting, graphic design work, field services and paid canvassing, advertising and polling costs.

    Ponce’s other in-kind contributions have come from United Working Families, which has contributed over $8,000 in the form of phone and text campaign services, and Our Schools Chicago’s political committees, which have given a total of $37,085 in the form of field services, software, direct mail and printing costs. 

    Ponce’s committee has reported at least $6,700 in individual contributions. Some of the notable donors include Theresa Preston-Werner, a California-based philanthropist who has donated to multiple CTU-backed candidates and founded the progressive, climate-focused 128 Foundation, who has given at least $2,000; the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council, which has given at least $2,000; and John R. Daley of the government relations firm Daley Strategy, who has given at least $1,000.

    Gutierrez works as a consultant for nonprofit organizations on their operations, governance, fundraising and long-term planning. His committee has reported $86,654 in direct and in-kind contributions, transfers and loans as of Oct. 25. 

    Gutierrez reported $12,500 in loans from himself to his campaign committee and a single $12,304 in-kind contribution from 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn’s campaign committee for direct campaign mail. 

    Gutierrez reported $10,500 in transfers into his committee as of Oct. 25, including $5,000 from INCS Action PAC, $2,500 from the LiUNA Chicago Laborers’ District Council PAC, $1,000 from Better Education Illinois, former 20th Senate District Democratic primary candidate Dr. Dave Nayak’s political action committee, and $500 from the Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance PAC. 

    Other transfers into Gutierrez’s committee include $1,000 transferred from Ald. Silvana Tabares’s (23) committee and $500 from 31st Ward Ald. Felix Cardona’s committee.

    Gutierrez’s committee has also reported at least $51,350 in individual contributions as of Oct. 25, including $6,900 each from Chicago-area philanthropic couple Michael Sacks and Cari Sacks, who are major Democratic donors. INCS Board of Directors Chair David Weinberg has given at least $5,000 and INCS board member Jim Frank has given at least $6,900, and Jim’s wife Karen Frank has given at least $2,000.  

    Citadel Chief Operating Officer Gerald Beeson has given Gutierrez’s committee at least $5,000, and Gery Chico, the former Chicago school board president and former chief of staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley, has given at least $1,000. The committee has also reported receiving at least $1,000 from Perspectives Charter Schools CEO Deborah Stevens.

    The candidates are competing for a two-year term on the board, which is phasing in an all-elected board member model. In January 2025, 10 elected board members and 10 mayor-appointed board members will take office, and the mayor will appoint a board president. Early voting is ongoing in the school board race. 

    Following the 2026 elections, all 20 board members and the board president will be elected by voters and seated in January 2027.

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