Chicago’s First Fully Elected School Board: A Guide to the 2A, 2B and 4A Races

This fall, Chicago voters will for the first time elect every seat on the city’s Board of Education. There are 21 board seats up for grabs and a pick for president. 

Chicago held its first school board elections in 2024, but this will be the first time all positions have been elected by voters, The Phoenix reported.

Voters will be able to select two different candidates — one in their school district and another based on the vote for school board president.

District 2A

The District 2A race features incumbent Ebony DeBerry and attorney Hector Morales.

DeBerry and Morales are competing to represent the Far North Side lakefront, including Rogers Park, West Ridge and North Park.  

Ebony DeBerry 

The first Black woman elected to the Chicago Board of Education, DeBerry is a lifelong Rogers Park resident who taught in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and worked in youth programming and community organizing. 

DeBerry currently serves as the manager of educational initiatives at ONE Northside, where she oversees the Parent Mentor program and Women of Color Table. She also serves on the board of Grow Your Own Teachers, a scholarship organization supporting racial diversity within the teaching profession. 

DeBerry has been involved in several community campaigns, including efforts to preserve a local school bus stop and keep Gale Elementary open during a round of school closures. 

DeBerry earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Central State University and a master’s degree in communication from Northwestern University. 

DeBerry’s endorsements include State Senator Mike Simmons, ONE People’s Campaign, Chicago Teachers Union, Asian American Midwest Progressives, Chicago Federation of Labor, SEIU Illinois State Council, 50th Ward United Working Families, 39th Ward Neighbors United and Our Schools Chicago.

DeBerry didn’t respond to requests for an interview.

Bruce Leon 

Former CPS school board candidate and longtime Chicago business owner Leon founded Tandem HR in 1998 with three employees, growing the company to more than 200 before selling it in 2024. 

Leon previously ran for the District 2 school board seat in 2024, receiving 20% of the vote, and launched a campaign for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District in 2025 before withdrawing from the race. 

At the time of publication, Leon has received no endorsements. 

Leon didn’t respond to requests for an interview.

Leon has since withdrawn from the District 2A school board race.

Hector Morales 

Rogers Park resident and attorney Morales has practiced law for more than 20 years as a solo practitioner representing small businesses. He said his experience working independently taught him how to manage limited resources and prioritize efficiency. 

Morales’ platform focuses on budget transparency, needs-based funding and using existing CPS resources more efficiently. He said he supports greater community input during the budgeting process and that cost-cutting should focus on duplicative services and central-office positions while protecting resources for underserved students.

Morales said he also opposes automatically closing under-enrolled schools, instead proposing they become community hubs with additional academic and arts programs. Arts education is a central part of his platform, including incorporating electronic music into the CPS curriculum.

Morales’ endorsements include the Chicago Tribune, Common Ground Collective and the Urban Center. 

District 2B

The District 2B race features incumbent Debby Pope, former CPS special education teacher Kyna Lenhof and education policy researcher Daniel Basco. The three candidates have emphasized different approaches to improving CPS, from equitable funding and environmental sustainability to disability services, school climate, data-driven decision-making and expanded support for English learners.

The district includes portions of the North Side, including Lincoln Square, Edgewater, Albany Park, Uptown and North Park.

Debby Pope 

Retired CPS bilingual teacher, parent, grandparent and longtime public education activist Pope currently serves on the Chicago Board of Education. She taught history and English as a second language at several CPS schools and later worked with the Chicago Teachers Union.

Pope said the contrast between the education her daughters received at CPS magnet schools and the resources available to students at under-resourced schools where she taught motivated her to pursue educational equity.

As a board member, Pope said she’s supported efforts to preserve schools and increase community input in decisions about school closures. She said schools should be recognized for their broader role within surrounding communities.

If reelected, Pope said she would push for more equitable school funding, increased state funding and greater contributions from wealthy residents. 

She also said she supports stable funding for arts education and longer-term sustainability efforts, including solar power, electric buses, school gardens and environmental education.

Pope’s endorsements include the Chicago Teachers Union, 48th Ward Democrats, ONE People’s Campaign and Our Schools Chicago.

Kyna Lenhof 

A former CPS special education teacher and longtime Chicago community leader, Lenhof is running with an emphasis on school climate, disability services, budget oversight and community input.

Lenhof emphasized an aspect of education she said often gets overlooked — whether students actually enjoy being at school. 

“There’s a lot that we need to work on so that students can have a rigorous education,” Lenhof said. “But I don’t think we talk enough about joy.”

Lenhof said schools should be both safe and enjoyable for students, and emphasized strong relationships among students, educators, families and their communities.

Lenhof said special education is an important aspect of her platform. She said CPS should provide more funding for special education, make sure educators follow Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and give special education teachers adequate support.

She said she also wants CPS to reduce its reliance on high-interest loans and prioritize spending which supports classrooms. She said any available funding should be distributed equitably across the district.

Lenhof’s endorsements include the Chicago Tribune, the Urban Center, Common Ground Collective, INCS Action PAC and the 40th Ward Democrats.

Daniel Basco

Data scientist, education policy researcher and Northwestern University graduate Basco has worked across federal, state and local governments, including advising the U.S. Department of Education under former President Barack Obama’s administration. 

Budget transparency and funding are also central to Basco’s platform. He supports seeking additional state funding and progressive revenue sources, including a proposed millionaires’ tax, while using data to evaluate which programs are producing results and how limited resources affect students.

Basco also supports expanding mental health services, including counselors, social workers and nurses, as well as measuring student well-being through surveys and feedback from student representatives and local school councils.

On artificial intelligence, Basco said CPS should use the technology only when research demonstrates a clear benefit to students. He said AI shouldn’t replace classroom instruction and argued elementary students currently have little evidence-based reason to use it. He supports stronger safeguards around student data and technology vendors while remaining open to AI’s potential as a supplemental learning tool.

At the time of publication, Basco has received no endorsements. 

Basco has since withdrawn from the District 2B school board race, but will remain on the ballot.

District 4A

Increasing student literacy, rethinking school contracts and reforming CPS’ budget are all goals of Ellen Sherratt, Karen Zaccor and Angel Alvarez who are candidates running to fill the District 4A seat on the CPS school board on Nov. 3. 

District 4A represents Lakeview, Uptown, North Center and Edgewater neighborhoods, with a cut off right before Berger Park.  

Karen Zaccor

A retired CPS teacher, parent, activist and current board member representing District 4A, Zaccor served as a member of Northside Action for Justice — an initiative through the Chicago Teachers Union — fighting the privatization of public schools and advocating for sustainable community schools. 

Zaccor’s platform focuses on prioritizing marginalized students, preventing school closures and fully funding schools, particularly to support English learners, students with IEPs and students facing mental health challenges. She also criticized the disproportionate impact of school closures on Black communities. 

Zaccor has called for Springfield to provide CPS with the roughly $2 billion she says the state owes the district, arguing that Illinois provides a smaller share of education funding than the national average.

Zaccor’s endorsements include several Chicago alderpeople, 48th Ward Democrats, Northside Action for Justice, ONE People’s Campaign, Chicago Teachers Union, Democratic Socialists of America and others. 

Ellen Sherratt 

With a background as a Chicago parent and education policy expert, Sherratt said she started off her career wanting to promote performance-based compensation for teachers, but throughout her research realized that wasn’t the right way to go.

If elected, Sherratt said she would prioritize transparency, efficient use of CPS funds and protecting student-facing services. Her top priorities include ensuring students have access to excellent teachers, spending tax dollars efficiently and increasing funding for CPS.

To deliver for students and staff, Sherratt said in her first year, she’d make sure CPS prioritizes human beings and transparency for families. 

Sherratt’s endorsements include several Chicago alderpeople, the Chicago Tribune, Illinois Representative Margaret Croke, Chicago Federation of Labor, International Union of Operating Engineers, SEIU Illinois State Council, INCS Action PAC, Common Ground Collective, The Urban Center and others.

Angel Alvarez 

A CPS parent, former CPS student and current president of the Office for Students with Disabilities Family Advisory Board, Alvarez said his experiences with the district have shaped his focus on literacy, special education, budget transparency and community control.

Alvarez said CPS needs to focus on whether its policies produce measurable results for students rather than simply being well-intentioned. 

His platform emphasizes early literacy, including identifying schools where students are making significant gains and expanding the curricula and interventions contributing to those outcomes. 

Special education is another central part of Alvarez’s campaign, informed by his experience advocating for his visually impaired daughter. He supports earlier identification and greater transparency around special education programs’ effectiveness. 

On revenue, Alvarez has criticized CPS’ reliance on property taxes while supporting additional funding through measures like closing tax loopholes for wealthy taxpayers, reforming vendor contracts and exploring new revenue sources. He said any savings from consolidating under-enrolled schools should be reinvested into affected communities.

At the time of publication, Alvarez has received no endorsements. 

How to Vote

Early voting begins Oct. 1 at the Downtown Voting SuperSite at 137 S. State St. or the Chicago Board of Elections Offices at 69 W. Washington St. on the sixth floor. Additional early voting sites open in all 50 wards Oct. 19.

Polls will be open Nov. 3 from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. at assigned polling places. 

Alaina Harris contributed reporting to this article.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated Oct. 2 to clarify that Bruce Leon is no longer in the District 2A school board race.

A previous version of this article didn’t include updated information about the race. This article was updated Oct. 12, 2026, to acknowledge that Basco dropped out of the race but will remain on the ballot.