“The return-to-school celebration is, I think, supposed to be about the kids and about meeting the teachers, not about promoting a particular political agenda.” Adam Johnson, a father of a child at Peirce Elementary in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood, told the school board that earlier this month. WBEZ reported on September 23, 2026 that he and other parents want Chicago Public Schools to build a stronger firewall against electioneering on school grounds.
Their complaint centers on the school’s back-to-school fair on August 20. Parents and Local School Council members say the Common Ground Collective, an anti-Chicago Teachers Union group heavily funded by billionaire Michael Sacks, ran an arts and crafts table there. Johnson said parents who walked up might have taken it for a “kind of generic liberal, if not hippie-ish organization.” But a flier on the table carried a QR code, and scanning it led to the group’s website, where school board endorsements were eventually listed.
Two accounts of the same table
A spokeswoman for the group told WBEZ that it staffed the table and paid for the DJ through its nonprofit, which is separate from its two political arms. She also said the endorsements did not go up until after the event, pointing to social media posts timestamped August 24. CPS strictly prohibits political campaigning on school grounds, and its ethics office is investigating what happened. The district says it received a complaint only from Peirce’s council, though the group says it backed several back-to-school events.
Lizzie Turner, who chairs the Peirce council, said the group approached the principal, Luis Avila, by stressing a social welfare mission. Avila is new to the school. “He just incorrectly assumed that they were innocent,” Turner said. She added that CPS officials have already given the council and principal a stern talking-to. In a letter to the district, council members asked CPS to make sure political advocacy organizations cannot get in front of families with candidate messages by way of sponsorships, partnerships or donations.
The group’s emails also named Che “Rhymefest” Smith, a South Side board member, as the person who recommended the DJ. Smith says he never did and is unhappy his name was used.
Money, and a board member’s husband
The fight comes before the November 3 election, when voters will choose all 21 school board members for the first time. As of Tuesday, $3.3 million had gone to candidates, and political groups are also paying for digital ads, which makes it hard for principals and parents to tell who is behind a message. The Common Ground Collective’s political committees have given about $31,000 directly to candidates and spent another $944,000 on digital ads. On the North Side, it endorsed Kyna Lenhof against board member Debby Pope, a retired CPS teacher, giving Lenhof’s campaign about $4,000 and spending $37,500 on ads for her or against Pope.
The group’s social welfare nonprofit reported $2.1 million on its 2025 tax filing, which does not name donors. Aaron McKean, senior legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, said some groups use such nonprofits to hide who pays for political spending. “It’s just evading disclosure,” he said.
Board member Ellen Rosenfeld has also drawn criticism, because tax filings list her husband as a board member of the nonprofit. Peirce council members say she should have stepped in. Rosenfeld says the filing is wrong and her husband has never served on that board. As long as the endorsements were not on the website during the fair, she sees nothing improper, noting that the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU are also working to get their names out.
A second complaint concerns Michilla Blaise, who is running to keep her West Side seat. Austin Berg of the Illinois Policy Institute told the district’s ethics advisor that a social media video she posted broke the rule against board members doing political activity during official work. Blaise says the video showed students dancing and welcoming her to a school, that she posted it because it was “so cute,” and that she took it down quickly to protect student privacy. CPS said it “recently issued guidance” to principals and councils on the rules.
