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For the first time in Chicago history, voters chose 10 people on Tuesday to be on the partially elected 21-member city school board.

Now there’s a new question: Who will Mayor Brandon Johnson pick as the remaining 11 council members?

Chicagoans may not know the answer for another month, as state law gives Johnson until Dec. 16 to make his appointments.

But the results of early elections, of the mayor recent school board reviewand the mayor’s alliances offer some clues about who Johnson might choose. City Hall did not immediately respond to interview requests for this story.

Preliminary election results show four winners backed by the teachers union — the mayor’s close ally — in Districts 1, 2, 5 and 7. Three more people, backed by pro-school choice groups, won in Districts 3, 4 and 8. And the remaining winners, in Districts 6, 9 and 10, received no money or voluntary support from pro-charter or pro-school unions.

With 11 appointments and four ideologically aligned elected members, Johnson will still have significant control over the school system as it transitions from 30 years of direct mayoral control.

The former seven-person council that resigned en masse — six that Johnson appointed — acted on several of the mayor’s priorities, including removing police from school campusesimplementing a the new school funding formulaand adopting a strategic plan that focuses on neighborhood schools.

The mayor’s new majority could again be essential for him to advance his preferred agenda, including removal of CPS CEO Pedro Martinez or contracting a short-term loan to pay pensions and union obligations. It also could prevent the board from approving school closings, as a state law preventing such closings in Chicago is set to expire on Jan. 15, 2025, the same day the new board is sworn in.

However, there are certain restrictions that Johnson can name now.

Under state law, each school board district is divided into two sub-districts for the purposes of the 2026 election and beyond. Tuesday’s winners become incumbents in the subdistrict where they live. The law states that between now and Dec. 16, Johnson must appoint school board members who live in the subdistrict opposite the winning candidate.

In an interview with Chalkbeat last month on the day the entire previous school board resignedVice Mayor Jen Johnson said City Hall “thought about and monitored the machinations” in the election. Asked if the mayor was playing out different scenarios or taking into account the people who live on both sides of each district, Deputy Mayor Johnson, who is currently on leave, declined to elaborate.

“I won’t go into details, but I took everything into account,” she said.

Will the mayor elect the losing school board candidates?

The mayor could appoint people who ran for school board and were endorsed by his ally, the teachers union, but did not win a seat.

There are three people who match: Karen Zaccor, Anusha Thotakura and Felix Ponce.

Zaccor, a longtime community organizer and retired teacher, lost his bid to represent District 4 to Ellen Rosenfeld. Rosenfeld lives in 4B, but Zaccor lives in 4A. In an interview with Chalkbeat on Wednesday, Zaccor said the mayor’s office has not yet approached her about being appointed. If Johnson does, she would accept.

“I’m in no way shape or form going to be a puppet for anyone, but yes, I think I can contribute things that other people can’t rely on just coming out of the classroom and also from a long history of being part of the fight for equity,” said Zaccor.

In District 6, union-backed candidate Anusha Thotakura lives in 6A, opposite winner Jessica Biggs, who lives in 6B. Thotakura said Wednesday that he had not heard from the mayor’s office, but that “it will be a real honor to be considered by the mayor to be named as an independent thinker who has received a lot of community support.”

“I think we share a lot of values ​​and a vision for high-quality public schools in our city, so to that extent it would really be an honor to be considered,” she told Chalkbeat.

In District 8, Felix Ponce is the union-endorsed candidate who lives in 8B over winner Angel Gutierrez, who lives in 8A. Ponce did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Could the newly appointed board members stay?

Johnson has already been named a new set of people to the school board last month after the previous board resigned en masse. One member – the chairman of the board – has already resigned amid a whirlwind of controversy related to past anti-Semitic, misogynistic and conspiratorial online comments.

Although the mayor has said the new appointments are part of a transition plan, he will now have to reevaluate his appointments in light of who won Tuesday’s school board races.

Chalkbeat reviewed public records, including property records, filings with Cook County and the Illinois Board of Elections, to determine where the current new school board members live. That does not rule out the possibility that they may have moved recently.

Michillia Blaise, a current school board member who ran in District 5 on the West Side but later dropped out, could remain on a date with Johnson because her last known address is in 5B, across from Jitu Brown, who won tuesday evening Brown was the only candidate on the ballot in District 5 and lives in 5A. Blaise used to live in a house she owns in Albany Park, but is now separated from her husband and lives with her two children in a property her mother owns in East Garfield Park in the 5th District, she said her for Chalkbeat over the summer.

Another new school board appointee, Mary Gardner, should probably resign because her last known address is in the same part of District 5 as Brown’s home. The mayor could choose either Gardner or Brown as board president, because the person in that role can live anywhere in Chicago. The board will begin transitioning to a fully elected board in 2026, so voters will also elect the board president at that time.

Board members Debby Pope and Olga Bautista could also stay because their last known addresses, according to public records, are on opposite sides of the 2nd and 10th District winners, respectively.

Ebony Deberry, a union-backed candidate, won District 2 and lives in 2A, while Pope listed an address in 2B on paperwork he filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections when considering a run for the school board.

Che ‘Rhymefest’ Smith, an independent candidate, appears to have won District 10 and lives on the 10A side. Bautista, a longtime environmental activist who ran for alderman in Ward 10, in the far southeast portion of the Indiana border in 2015, owns a home in 10Bb, according to Cook County property records.

Board member Frank Niles Thomas appears to own a home in Subdistrict 9A, according to Cook County property records. That would allow Thomas to stay because his home is across the street from presumptive District 9 winner Therese Boyle, who lives in 9B, according to Chicago Board of Elections records.

How will the mayor determine who to appoint?

City Hall did not respond to Chalkbeat’s requests to interview the mayor about how he thinks about school board appointments. But at a last month’s press conferencetalked about the process.

“There are a lot of people who want to be on the school board.” Johnson said. “We have no problem with that.”

He also reiterated several times that he still holds the sole power to appoint people. There is no formal or public expression of interest process.

“I have the authority to vet as many people as I want,” Johnson said.

In Tuesday’s election, the candidates in Wards 1 and 3 both lived in the same sub-district. There are no losing candidates or current school board members who live in the opposing subdistrict.

In District 7, Yesenia Lopez lives in Subdistrict 7A, according to Chicago Board of Elections records from this election cycle. Both of her opponents live in the opposite subdistrict, 7B, but neither is ideologically aligned with Johnson. Current board member Rafael Yanez appears to own a home in District 7, based on Cook County property records and city building permits, but that home is in the same subdistrict as Lopez.

Samantha Smylie and Becky Vevea contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at [email protected].