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Earlier this month, after Chicago’s school board appeared to have two finalists for the next CEO of Chicago Public Schools, the board was poised to hire a new leader by the end of the year.
Now, it’s unclear which finalists remain and when the district will have a new CEO.
On Tuesday, appointed school board member Michilla Blaise said that the board is “reconsidering the process.” But elected board member Jessica Biggs, who is helping lead the board search committee, said they are rescheduling finalist interviews.
This comes a week after Mayor Brandon Johnson told reporters he was under the impression that “people can still apply if they want” to lead the nation’s fourth largest school system.
Chicago is looking to replace former CEO Pedro Martinez, who was fired without cause and left the district in June. Board members had promised a transparent search process that includes public feedback, but in recent weeks many have declined to comment on where the search stands.
Elected board member Jitu Brown, who represents the West Side, nodded in agreement with Blaise’s comment at the end of an unrelated press conference. Both said they couldn’t share more information because they signed nondisclosure agreements.
“We will have updates,” Brown told reporters.
Biggs declined to share a timeline for when rescheduled interviews could happen.
Two weeks ago, board members appeared to settle on two finalists: former New York City schools chancellor Meisha Porter and current Denver superintendent Alex Marrero, who later said in a statement that he was committed to Denver Public Schools. Sources said they would face final interviews with the mayor, the board, and a community panel during the week of Nov. 10. On Tuesday, Biggs said finalists were not interviewed at that time because of a need to reschedule; she declined to confirm who the finalists were or how many remain.
At one point, the board had scheduled three special meetings for that week. Two were canceled and one adjourned after about an hour.
Multiple board members have declined to comment on what happened or was discussed during the closed session that day, citing their NDAs.
“The board is working on recalibrating and deciding how to move forward together,” Biggs said.
Last week, the head of Alma Advisory Group, the search firm hired to help the board find a new leader, said she did not have a search status update. Alma did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The board’s search process began in the spring with community meetings and surveys collecting feedback from the public about what it wanted to see in a new schools chief. The board also passed a resolution requiring the future CEO to have a superintendent’s license.
Board members began interviewing candidates this fall and planned to have a new leader in place by the end of this year, but also said finalist names would not be made public so as not to jeopardize their current jobs.
But when the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ reported earlier this month that the board had narrowed its choices to two unnamed finalists, some local organizations pushed back. The Chicago Teachers Union, a close ally of the mayor’s, criticized the board for not naming the finalists publicly and asserted in a letter to the board president that state law still gives the mayor the power to choose the CEO, an opinion shared by one of the state senators who created the elected school board law. But legal experts told Chalkbeat the law is not written clearly.
A group of West Side organizations, including the West Side branch of the NAACP, have pushed to keep interim CPS CEO Macquline King in the role and expressed disappointment when she was not reportedly one of the finalists.
A spokesperson for the mayor said Tuesday he was planning to meet with finalists in early November, but after finalist names leaked, the process was paused.
Last Monday, the mayor said he believed there was still a lot of interest in the job.
“I know there are a number of people who would love to be able to serve this city, particularly the time in which you know, again, my budget is putting forth the largest single investment in our public schools in the history of Chicago,” Johnson said. “So there’s a reason why a lot of folks want this position, because they’re going to have a mayor who believes in public education.”
He added that the next leader of CPS will need to transition the school system into “complete autonomy” after the school board becomes fully elected in 2027 and oversee “gradual weaning off of its dependency and its reliance upon the city of Chicago.”
This story has been updated to include comment from a mayoral spokesperson.
Becky Vevea and Mila Koumpilova contributed reporting.
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
