>> Chicago residents are getting their first crack at picking members to serve on the city's board of education for decades.

The seven-member board has been appointed by the mayor, but now voters in next month's election will pick members in 10 districts.

And the mayor will select 11 more as the board triples in size to a total of 21 members.

Joining us now with more on what you should know about that election is Wbtw news reporter Matt Masterson.

Welcome back, Matt.

So, you know, first, let's back up a little bit and tell us how we got to this point.

How did the elected school board come to be on the ballot?

So Chicago has had in May early appointed board since 1995.

Is that it's been decades in the push to give control back to voters has been going on nearly as long.

It's been a very long process.

>> Until finally in 2021, Governor JB Pritzker signed legislation that would do just that convert this board into one that is an elected body chosen by the public.

Now that isn't happening all at after this election cycle.

The board will jump from 7 members to 21 and those will be split in half between those who are voted by the public in those appointed this time by Mayor Johnson.

But because of the way that's broken up, the board will actually remain under majority mayoral control through this cycle of elections until 2026 during the following round of elections when it will be fully elected for the first time.

Okay.

So what will folks actually be voting for this time?

Yeah.

So the city has been broken up into 10 different districts from school Chicagoans will elect one board member from each of those 10 districts.

Mayor Johnson will then appoint a second member from each of those districts.

But Johnson, the reason he'll have majority control as he also gets to pick an at-large president.

He will serve from anywhere in the doesn't have to pick any particular district.

But that will mean he has control over appointing 11 of the 21 members.

Once that board is all settled, those members will serve 2 years.

I have some unpaid term until 2026 when they're bored will then again be fully elected.

All 21 members will be chosen by the public, which means it sounds like the folks who get elected this time if they wanted to could run again in 2026.

So one of the board members there's a lot of them.

They approve the annual operating budget which is now closing in on 10 billion dollars.

They're tasked with hiring and potentially firing the CPS CEO, which is something that obviously been point of contention recently between with ongoing tensions between Mayor Randy Johnson and CPS CEO Pedro Martinez.

The the mayor cannot fire the CPS CEO the county board, which, of course, the current board, 7 members of a just resigned.

So its new appointees who could choose to do that going forward.

But they also really help set of district policy at large.

They approved the annual school calendar.

They pick student code of conduct to guidelines for each school and more broadly they take on larger issues like eliminating police officers from schools, which the previous board, the outgoing board just did earlier this year became enmeshed in explaining the future Chicago elected school board for us.

Thank you so much.

Thanks, friends.

And find out who is running in your district.

Be sure to check out our W T Tw News Voter Guide.

>> It's a one-stop shop for everything you need to know before voting.

You'll find candidate profiles and questionnaires as well as key