Angel Gutierrez ran unopposed for the District 8a seat on the Chicago Board of Education and won reelection on Nov. 3, 2026. Seated for a four-year term, he won with 5,533 votes, according to the Chicago Board of Elections.
Gutierrez, who considers himself a moderate, said the board’s new makeup left him “a little disappointed,” with two seats left undecided as of Nov. 7, according to Ballotpedia.
He said his priorities for a second term are fixing the district’s finances, rethinking teaching and learning, decreasing chronic absenteeism and pressing state and federal lawmakers for more special education money.
“I’m really excited to serve four more years for this district,” Gutierrez said after the election.
Gutierrez was first elected to the board in 2024, when the seat was District 8 and later split into 8a and 8b. He defeated Felix Ponce, a candidate endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, and took office Jan. 17, 2025.
A new board takes shape
Gutierrez called this election a milestone for a board that entirely chosen by voters, he said.
“This is a historic moment. First time ever that all 20 members plus one were elected by the people of Chicago,” he said.
Gutierrez called every winner to congratulate them because of two important local changes he saw as notable; women winning board seats and progressive Latino candidates winning four seats, with one race still undecided.
“First, women won in our historic election and at least for right now, progressive Latinos won,” Gutierrez said.
He did not count himself in that group. “I consider myself much more moderate,” he said, though he described some progressive leanings on social services, citing his career in the social sector.
He said he expects the board to run more smoothly.
“I think what you will see now, hopefully, is a better balanced agenda and an opportunity for members to bring things to board meetings that will run much more effectively and efficiently,” Gutierrez said.
He expects lots of work, with a lot of pre-work being done behind the scenes “ … so that we’re not a spectacle on the floor,” he added.
School closures and the mayor
Asked about Mayor Brandon Johnson’s history of opposition to school closures that includes a past hunger strike and arrest, reported by the Chicago Tribune, Gutierrez said no closure decisions are coming soon.
“There’s a long legacy of people standing up against corporate control over our schools, so I fully anticipate that voices will continue to rise up,” Mayor Johnson told the Tribune.
Gutierrez said there will be no decisions taken on school closures in the near term.
“Any and all decisions we would make as a board are going to include community input,,” he said
Money, buildings and absenteeism
“We need to get our fiscal house in order,” Gutierrez said.
He said the district also has to prepare today’s kindergarteners for the skills they will need by high school graduation including addressing chronic absenteeism among both teachers and students.
“I think we have to tackle chronic absenteeism because the absenteeism number is the same for teachers not going to school as students’, who then emulate what they see,” Gutierrez said.
He described the district’s buildings as a costly, complicated problem. The district is not building new schools, he said and capital money is, at this point, keeping aging buildings and boilers running.
“We have buildings that are 86 years old,” Gutierrez said. “The money we invest from our capital portfolio is only putting Band-Aids on the problem.”
Special education is a growing share of the budget, he said and the district needs help from both Congress and Springfield to pay for it.
“We also need to have that same conversation with Springfield around special ed, because that is an area of the budget that continues to grow,” Gutierrez said. “It’s mandated by law that we do it; it’s a big number. I think we spent maybe $1.4 billion on special education, and that serves about 83,000-84,000 students.”
Transportation is a particular challenge in District 8a, he said.
“We don’t have as much access to transportation services in 8a, so trying to figure out how to serve students is difficult; those things require additional dollars including trying to figure out what percentage of students require transportation and how we can be much more efficient with that service,” he said.
He said complaints about busing came in at the start of the school year and have since eased, a sign that new approaches the district is trying are working.
School nutrition
Gutierrez said CPS menus should include culturally appropriate food, that meals must follow federal nutrition guidelines and that local providers could serve students more efficiently than the large companies used by the district..
He said the district’s food contract is up for bids and noted federal guidelines around food service contracts in schools, disputing one candidate’s’ “numbers.”
“That’s not the way the federal program works,” he said. “We have categorical mandates and most of our students qualify already for free and reduced lunches, so the dollars don’t really shift. It’s finite dollars per meal. It’s not a program that will generate bottom line revenue for you.”
Gutierrez said he ran food and nutrition programs at Catholic Charities for more than 20 years, including WIC centers, summer lunch, child and adult care food programs including senior meals, stressing regulations make contract negotiations “easier said than done.”
Looking to Washington
Asked whether new members of Illinois’ congressional delegation could bring more federal money, Gutierrez said, “It might.”
“We need to have concerted conversations with the U.S. and state congressional delegations, including Democrats and Republicans and both newly elected senior and junior senators,” Gutierrez said.
He said federal dollars could help Chicago with aging buildings, technology and instruction.
“I think lots of schools are struggling with old buildings, keeping up with technology and issues around teaching and learning,” Gutierrez said, stressing
“I think lots of schools are struggling with old buildings, keeping up with technology and issues around teaching and learning,” Gutierrez said, stressing, “the real challenge is how to prepare students for today and what’s to come in the future.”