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The Chicago Board of Education is parting ways with Alma Advisory Group, the search firm tasked with helping the school board find a new CEO, according to a statement from six of the board’s 10 elected members.
The statement, obtained by Chalkbeat, does not specify when or why Alma wrapped up its work on the search. The board members who signed it — Carlos Rivas Jr., Ellen Rosenfeld, Jessica Biggs, Angel Gutierrez, Therese Boyle, and Che “Rhymefest” Smith — say they now want interim CPS CEO Macquline King to stay in the job until a new, fully elected school board is seated next January.
The end of Alma’s contract is another twist in the CEO search process, which began last spring and appeared to be coming to a close in the late fall, only to seemingly come to a halt. Former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez left the district in late June after he was fired without cause, and the district has not had a permanent CEO since.
Search firms generally remain involved until a pick for the role is announced and in some cases might help with negotiating a contract.
The statement, which praised Alma’s work with the board, claims mayoral appointees “sabotaged” the search process and the mayor and “his allies” have “started running political interference.”
After this story published, the Chicago Board of Education office said in a statement that Alma will work with the school board for the next 30 days to “ensure a seamless transition into finalist interviews,” then remain on retainer with the district for future executive-level searches. The statement described Alma offering “extensive support,” including screening more than 100 candidates, and said the board is “deeply grateful” for its work.
The statement, which said the application window for CEO candidates closed Feb. 6, did not provide an explanation for Alma’s exit.
But another elected school board who has repeatedly voted in agreement with that group of elected members said Thursday she still feels optimistic about the search. Jenni Custer said the board is on the cusp of selecting several finalists for the CEO role, though members haven’t decided how many and whether all of them will be named publicly.
“We have a lot of great candidates left in our pool,” she said. “We need to see this through before we say the process has been unsuccessful.”
Custer said that in her understanding, the board and Alma parted ways because of a mutual sense that the search firm’s work was done at this point: “Alma has taken us as far as they can, and now the ball is in our court.”
But Smith, one of the statement’s signatories, said he witnessed mayoral appointees “sideline” Alma when it recommended “best practices” for the search. Smith declined to offer more details about what exactly prompted Alma’s exit.
“Now that Alma has left, how can you trust this process? Who’s leading it?” Smith said.
The school board is currently 11 members appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson and the 10 elected members.
Chicago Public Schools referred Chalkbeat to the Chicago Board of Education office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Board President Sean Harden and Monica Santana Rosen, the head of Alma did not respond to requests for comment.
After this story published, the mayor’s press office said in a statement that the allegation by these board members is “baseless and inaccurate.” The mayor’s office has not intervened in the CEO search or interviewed any candidates, the statement said.
The mayor’s office, in turn, accused board members of leaking names of candidates to the press — a matter that Harden hired a firm to investigate. It’s unclear where that investigation stands.
Each of the board members who signed Thursday’s statement had voted against hiring King as the interim CEO last year. And last fall, board members chose not to advance King as a finalist for the permanent CEO job before the process was halted when other finalist names were reported by Chalkbeat and the Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ.
Later in November, school board members said they were “recalibrating” the search process. It’s unclear exactly where in the search the board is at or how close it is to choosing a candidate.
But during a board meeting Tuesday, Biggs and Smith publicly praised King’s leadership.
“I just wanted to take this time to just say thank you: Thank you for balancing the budget, thank you for visiting schools, thank you for inspiring confidence in our partners and thank you for being here and being a competent leader,” Smith said.
The board members’ calls to keep King are now in line with a broader call from the West Side NAACP and a coalition of Black-led groups, which want King to stay until at least a newly elected board is seated next year.
The question of the mayor’s role in selecting the district’s next leader has hung over the search, with some board members concerned that Johnson would exert control through his appointees. Smith said the board had at one point invited the mayor’s office to share what it wanted to see in the search process, but Johnson’s team said no.
The city’s mayors have traditionally hand-picked the district’s top leader, but there was an expectation that Johnson would play a more hands-off role amid the transition to a fully elected board.
Tensions on the board rose after the names of two finalists, New York City’s former top education official Meisha Ross Porter and current Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero, were leaked to the media late last year, disrupting the search.
The Thursday statement from board members noted “names of finalists have been leaked, progress has stalled, and major decisions have been put on hold” — and it blamed interference from the mayor’s office for these disruptions.
“By making it impossible for a professional firm to see this through, Mayor Johnson and his appointed board members have shown that they are either unwilling, unable, or uninterested in finding a qualified CEO/Superintendent to lead CPS into the future,” the statement said.
Custer said she hasn’t yet seen clear evidence that Johnson’s office is meddling in the process.
This story has been updated with comment from board member Che Smith, the mayor’s office and the Chicago Board of Education office.
Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
