CHICAGO — A defiant Mayor Brandon Johnson asserted his power over Chicago’s public school system on Monday, appointing six of his allies to the Board of Education to complete what he calls a ‘transformation of CPS.’

As the battle over CPS’s future escalates, council members and activists voiced their concerns about the plan. Under the law, Johnson maintains complete control over city schools. On Monday, he seemingly wanted everyone to know it.

The power struggle comes after Johnson named six new CPS board members roughly 72 hours after the current Board resigned.

The members stepped down after they failed to act on the mayor’s demand that they fire CPS CEO Pedro Martinez and take out a high-interest loan to cover budget expenses.

“What this Board is prepared and willing to do is whatever is necessary to fix the structural damage that others created while also building a pathway forward,” Johnson said Monday.

The new Board is set to take over in the middle of Chicago Teachers Union contract negotiations and presumably carry out Johnson’s orders. A former CTU activist whose campaign was bankrolled by the union, the mayor dodged repeated questions about how the appointment of allies may appear to the public.

“I’m not the CTU. I’m the mayor of the greatest freakin’ city in the world, the city of Chicago,” Johnson said.

The shakeup comes as Chicagoans choose a partially elected School Board set to take over in January.

“Some of the same individuals who claim to support an elected representative School Board only got the gospel once I became mayor of Chicago,” Johnson said.

Mayor Johnson’s announcement was followed by a combative hour-long news conference. Reporters asked many questions, but few direct answers were given.

As he danced around questions, Johnson seemed to enjoy the sparring session.

“You know what the greatest power in the world is? It’s the power of love. The people of Chicago voted for a lover,” Johnson said.

Various city leaders are alarmed. Nearly every Chicago City Council member, including several of the mayor’s progressive allies, blasted the CPS shakeup in a letter over the weekend.

“You have a mayor who’s going to raise taxes, fees, fines and whatever else he’s going to raise in order to pay back his friends, which is the CTU,” said Ald. Anthony Beale (9th Ward). “He’s going to bankrupt this city under the auspices of, ‘I’m a Black man.'”

Elected officials are not the only people worried about Johnson’s actions. During Monday’s announcement, several protesters disrupted the mayor’s new conference several times.