Juan Ignacio “Nacho” Gonzalez is a man who believes in service and personal calling. The 27-year Chicago Police Department detective and Marine Corps veteran’s first calling was to own and run a cafe to open up a space for neighbors to relax, unwind and invest in their own personal growth and self-awareness.
The eldest son of immigrant parents who learned English quickly to understand “the nuances so my parents could understand as well,” added a second career by opening Dreamcatcher Cafe in June 2025, that serves as a meeting and learning space in his neighborhood.
The 40-year Back-of-the-Yards resident soon found his next calling when, as a newer father, Gonzalez began to listen during meetings held by Chicago Public School teachers in the cafe’s event space. Curiosity driving him, he began speaking with them, including his sister, a CPS teacher, about the state of Chicago’s school system.
What he heard moved him to run for the Chicago Board of Education’s Dist. 8b board seat.
Ignacio-Gonzalez holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Illinois Chicago.
He is endorsed by The Urban Center, the Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS), the Latino Leadership Council, the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), Local 150.
Ignacio-Gonzalez sat down with the SouthWest News-Herald to talk about his campaign priorities and what he’d do if he wins the 8b board seat.
Academic quality, what’s lacking
“I think from a South Side perspective, we’re tired of low expectations and low standards and we’re having that across the board,” he said.
Ignacio-Gonzalez said Chicago Public Schools face problems common to districts across the country.
He said the district he hopes to represent is home to a large immigrant population that has dealt with many issues and stressors, including ICE arrests and deportations.
“For a lot of people in the City of Chicago, it’s the first time they’ve ever had an education in the states,” he said. “The initial standard that you deal with is very important.”
Ignacio-Gonzalez said CPS has lowered its standards so far that anyone can pass. Students can miss more than 10 days of school with no consequences, he said and every student starts with a 50% chance of passing even without turning in homework or tests.
“I’ve listened to parents, a lot of them new to this country, where they’ve gone into a lot of the schools and asked why the standards are so low,” Gonzalez said.
He described a father from Ecuador who left his country, language and culture behind. The father found that his child had fallen in with the wrong people at school and was missing class, Gonzalez said, and the family got no support from CPS.
According to CPS’ Comprehensive Policy on Attendance, when a student accrues five and 10 unexcused absences a warning letter is sent; accumulating certain percentages labels a student as chronically truant leading to district support and interventions. Excused absences are holidays; illness or religious holidays require “valid communication or documentation.”
Political agendas and board decision making
“Everybody wants control, right?, Ignacio-Gonzalez said. “The reality is nobody talks about funding. Everybody talks about the kids and the agendas being the most important thing. But when it comes to fiscal responsibility, where is the money being spent?”
The board is constantly asking people to raise more taxes, pay more into the system without having any accountability, he said, including test scores not up to par where they need to be and we want to know where the money is going.
“We can’t ask a system for more money without being accountable to our taxpayers around seeing where the money is making a difference,” Ignacio-Gonzalez said.
According to a May 2026 Crain’s Chicago Business article, also published by author Richard Day on Substack, National Assessment of Educational Progress scores have fallen faster in Chicago between 2017 and 2024 than its peer cities in the United States. Since 2017 4th grade reading and math scores have fallen 4%. “In math, we are now second to last overall,” Day wrote.
Chicago’s per pupil spending increased 27% despite 4th and 8th grade student outcomes lagging, Day said.
“Some parents, unfortunately, at least in the South Side, no longer want to send their kids to public schools and choose to pay for private education, increasing the cost for the average family because you want to provide the best education possible,” Ignacio-Gonzalez said.
So, we really want to know where the money’s going, he restated. Why are you asking for more money without giving back accountability as to where it’s being spent?
Ignacio-Gonzalez believes if great service is lacking, there should be repercussions for not providing it, he said.
As a world class city with incredible schools and teachers, a world-class education should be provided, he said. “And the fact that we’re not doing that says a lot.”
Lessons from the Marine Corps
Ignacio-Gonzalez said he did not take school seriously until he was older.
“I didn’t focus on academics till later in life,” he said. “I needed to go to the Marine Corps. I needed to get involved. I needed physical activity. And I think that’s why it’s important to increase athletics and the trades into our school system. There’s a need for quality individuals and there’s a need for housing.”
He knows the trades firsthand. Ignacio-Gonzalez said he bought several abandoned buildings in Back of the Yards, gutted them and rebuilt them.
“I love the trades. It’s almost an artistic creation,” he said. “And some people don’t see that.”
He said students lose focus and drift away from learning when trade programs are less available to them. Working with your hands, he said, brings focus that many young people seek.
He pointed to Eric Solorio Academy High School as an example of what a community can build together.
“I’ve worked in the past at Eric Solorio Academy High School, here in the South Side which is in my district,” Ignacio-Gonzalez said. “It was named after a police officer killed in the line of duty. I remember the pride that people had when the electricians and bricklayers were involved. From a community perspective we had a say-so in honoring Eric, who was a Back-of-the-Yards kid who lived not far from my coffee shop. It meant so much to all of us as a whole.”
He said education needs the combination of union labor, teachers and neighbors working together to be successful.
School safety, up close
Safety is an important priority based on his police work experience and his family.
“I’ve seen violence within our schools,” Ignacio-Gonzalez said. “One of my sisters, who works for CPS, one of her students died in her arms.”
He said the city does not provide enough help for people coping with school violence after it happens.
“I understand the emotional component that happens well after the incident; most people don’t understand that,” Ignacio-Gonzalez said. “As a detective, I’ve investigated violence within our schools from people attempting suicide to shootings and long-term aftercare is not being addressed.”
He said the board’s response to school violence has fallen short. He wants more law enforcement involvement, “at least in the form of safety resource officers (SROs).”
“They took all the police officers out of the school system,” Ignacio-Gonzalez said.
SROs are sworn law enforcement officers assigned to work in collaboration with school communities to maintain security, mentor students, and provide safety education.
The Chicago Board of Education voted unanimously, on Feb. 22, 2024, to remove all school resource officers from Chicago Public Schools; the new policy, part of the “Whole School Safety Policy” focused on holistic approaches, restorative justice, and investments in social-emotional learning, mental health support, and unarmed security staff.
“That might be good in some schools, but in other schools, I think we should have more individuals that are talking to kids and having them more involved as a resource in case something happens,” he said.
Where the money goes
Ignacio-Gonzalez said board members who control a $10 billion budget hold people’s jobs and livelihoods in their hands and decide what gets fixed and what does not. He said residents keep getting asked for more tax money while test scores stay low.
“We can’t ask a system for more money without being accountable to our taxpayers seeing where the money’s going,” he said.
He criticized the board’s proposed budget, which counts on $150 million from Springfield that has not been approved.
“This should’ve been done years ago,” he said. “If I’m trying to open up a business or trying to get funding and the funding is not there, well, listen, guys, why not? Why did we propose a budget? Where is this money?”
Even in law enforcement, you have to use the resources that you currently have, he said. Despite budget cuts we still have a job to do; we still have to provide safety.
“And sometimes, we have to sit back and work with what we have,” Ignacio-Gonzalez said. “We can’t stress everybody else without being accountable to ourselves.”
He said he is willing to wait and see what happens with the $150 million but called for long-range planning.
“We have to come together and think long-term; not just react to the expenditures without having long-term planning,” he said.
Closings and neighborhood schools
With the moratorium on CPS school closings set to expire after the 2026-27 school year, Ignacio-Gonzalez said the question needs a close look.
He said many South Side neighborhoods have lost population, leaving blocks without homes but still holding a school building. Some schools that once had fierce football teams cannot field a debate team now, he said, calling that “heart-wrenching.”
“Can we combine some of these schools and put them together like we did in Little Village in the past or like Englewood STEM?” he said.
He also wants children to have strong schools close to home.
“I got involved in this because I believe I can help kids in underserved communities get into good schools,” Ignacio-Gonzalezsaid. “I’m tired of having kids in my community have to travel long distances just to go to school.”
He said the district already has models. “We have some really good schools; Back-of-the-Yards is an incredible high school. And I think we need more of that. We can do more.”
On the tension between the board and City Hall, Ignacio-Gonzalez said students should be the board’s “north star.”
“I say we have to focus on the education of the kids,” he said. “What we do now is going to have long-term ramifications years down the line.”
What adult board members can learn from kids
Ignacio-Gonzalez said young people are curious about their emotions because they are feeling many of them for the first time and spend more time in school environments where curiosity and non-judgmental thinking are encouraged.
Adults, he said, have trained themselves to react, especially in heated fights involving kids.
“We should want to see that curiosity instead of the reaction,” he said. “We have to see these reactions, understand them and become curious while trying to see the complexities,” Gonzalez said. “I think if we look at it from a curiosity perspective and sit back and think, ‘You know what? She, he or they could be feeling fear.’ Or stress. And maybe that’s not serving us anymore as adults.”
Ignacio-Gonzalez said fear often follows curiosity and compares his experiences as a new CPD officer, thinking about and then owning a cafe’ and now, running for Board of Education seat in Dist. 8b as his own way of continuing to evolve as a human being.
“Fear of unknowns is part of the process and adults should embrace students’ ability to be curious and even fearful as a way to regroup and work easier with each other, Gonzalez said.
In closing …
Overall, Ignacio-Gonzalez said he is proud of his neighbors.
“I’m proud of the hard work I see in every day of my community, of the South Side, of coming together,” he said. “We’re a resilient community. We’re Chicago. We’re strong. We can create things given the opportunity.”
“I think for me, I’ve been a resource here in my coffee shop in my community to residents when issues occur,” the 8b candidate said. “I have always been in life and I’m going to continue to do that on the school board.”
He is running against Alexander Angeles, an 18-year-old lifelong Chicagoan, recent CPS graduate, and former Local School Council Student Representative, who has filed as a write-in candidate.
Raised in West Lawn, Angeles attended Eberhart Elementary School and John Hancock College Preparatory High School and now attends the University of Illinois Chicago. His campaign focuses on bringing a recent student perspective to the School Board and challenging a system that too often asks students and educators to do more with less.