Schools chief Pedro Martinez recommended a cook at Marquette be terminated after a dismissal hearing on Jan. 17, according to documents received through a Freedom of Information Act request. The board voted against firing her at the Feb. 27 board meeting and she was reinstated on March 19.
The Tribune has withheld her name because she has not been charged with a crime and is employed by CPS.
After the vote, CPS attorney Ruchi Verma sent an email warning the board of the potential legal repercussions of going against the district’s recommendation.
“If (the cook) engages in similar conduct in the future (even if the misconduct is outside (her) scope of employment), the Board could be held liable for failing to take the appropriate action to prevent the misconduct from reoccurring,” Verma wrote in the email obtained by the Tribune through a source close to the board.
“Additionally, if another employee is later terminated for misconduct similar to (the cook), that employee could bring a claim arguing they were treated differently for a variety of reasons, such as their membership in a protected class.”
According to district officials, CPS has recommended termination for approximately 40-50 employees per year — less than 1% of all district employees — to the school board.
There is a long firing process for employees who are recommended to be terminated. The school board’s Law Department will draft charges and the employee will have a dismissal hearing. Then the district’s chief executive officer gives the final stamp of approval before the decision is passed to the board.
In closed session a month before a personnel vote, board members go over personnel issues with CPS’ legal staff — what has been recommended and how the employee got to this point in the termination process.
Several board members who attended the closed session confirmed to the Tribune that no questions were raised about the cook when her case came up. CPS did not comment further about the reinstatement vote.
Complaints and caustic kitchen culture
The cook’s lunchroom colleagues had been complaining about her alleged temper and verbally abusive outbursts for years, according to investigative reports obtained by the Tribune through a Freedom of Information Act.
She received a written reprimand on Feb. 2, 2022, for allegedly waving a knife in an employee’s face because that woman “messed up” the rice, according to employees’ testimony. On April 14, 2023, she received a three-day suspension for her alleged continued confrontational demeanor in the kitchen area, quickly “losing her rationale” and “yelling” at others.
In mid-October 2023, one employee, whose name was redacted from the report, alleged that the cook told her to “lay down and die” after she questioned the preparation sausages to the lunchroom manager.
“I’m literally afraid every time I step foot in the kitchen,” the employee said in the report. “I don’t want her to lose her job. I’m just afraid of her now.”
A week later, district records state that the cook allegedly called a different employee a “fat pig” and said she was tired of looking at “the crack of (his) … a – –.” She allegedly said to another employee that she “must be on (her) period.” Several lunchroom employees have left Marquette due to the cook’s behavior, according to the reports.
However, the reports show that other Marquette staff members defended the cook, saying “everyone has their flare-ups” and that she “does not curse more than any of the other kitchen employees.”
According to employment testimony from the cook’s dismissal hearing, she “denied the allegations against her,” and said she had endured bullying from others in the kitchen.
“This is part of kitchen culture and will be heard/found throughout the CPS kitchens,” said Unite Here Local 1, the union that represents cafeteria workers in a statement attached to the dismissal hearing report. “The union is open to alternate methods of addressing the issues raised against (the cook), such as the exploration of a different school assignment/location.”
Unite Here Local 1 did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the reinstatement.
Jennifer Reger, the district’s executive director of the Office of Administrative Hearings, wrote in the dismissal hearing report that “after (the cook) was specifically warned and disciplined for similar misconduct, she continued to violate board policies.”
“CPS cannot function properly with the disarray and chaos that occurs when staff members threaten other staff members, loudly use profanity during the school days and hurl insults at their co-workers,” Reger wrote, and recommended the cook’s termination.
Asked for comment Monday, neither the lunchroom manager nor the cook responded.
‘We want to change things’
Of 19 board members voting at the Feb. 27 meeting, 10 opted to reinstate the cook, with one abstention.
Asked why board members voted to reinstate the cook at Marquette, Ebony DeBerry of District 2A on the Northeast Side, said the school board is looking at hiring and firing decisions with more scrutiny and engaging in “thoughtful” conversations before voting.
The 10 board members who voted against firing the cook were appointed by the mayor or backed by CTU.
“We have board members now who have lived experience with work, hardship, leadership and relationships that we’ve never had before,” she said. “We’ve watched previous boards just rubber stamp, but we want to change things.”
But Matt Lyons, CPS’ chief talent officer from 2015 to 2021, who oversaw similar discipline conversations with previous boards, said the decision to reinstate the cook seemed unusual. In his time with the district, he saw several disagreements between board members and CPS about employee firing decisions, but the decision to terminate the cook was cut and dry, he said.
“Serving Chicago Public School students and families is a privilege. And anyone who’s not acting in accordance with that really should not be there,” he said.
There have been conversations between board members about “the demographics of people that we see being reprimanded or fired” at CPS, said Che “Rhymefest” Smith, an independent elected member from the South Side’s District 10.
“When we look at principals who are reprimanded or investigated by the (Office of Inspector General), we see that they are overwhelmingly principals of color,” he said.
