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The Chicago Board of Education is getting closer to choosing finalists — again — for Chicago Public Schools’ next CEO.
Multiple board members said the next step in the search process is to identify finalists from the group of candidates they’ve been considering. Norma Rios-Sierra, an appointed board member who is on a working group for the almost yearlong CEO search, told Chalkbeat the board will have a group of finalists “very soon” and “definitely before the end of the school year.”
But even as the search continues, six of the 21 board members and groups such as the district’s principals union are escalating calls to keep interim CEO Macquline King in her role into 2027, when a fully elected school board takes over. They argue that with a tough budget season already underway and the looming campaigns for all 21 school board seats, the district needs stability instead of a push to conclude the rocky search.
Last week, that group of elected board members revealed that the board was parting ways with its search firm, Alma Advisory Group, and accused Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office and its allies of intervening in the search process.
The mayor’s office has denied those claims and said the mayor has not meddled or interviewed candidates. The mayor wants to interview finalists identified by the board, Rios-Sierra said.
Other board members say the search remains on track and denied the accusations of sabotage. They said they plan to have a CEO in place before the start of next school year. Several board members who spoke with Chalkbeat declined to share names of front-runners or the number of people they are currently considering.
Appointed board member Anusha Thotakura said the board is continuing to interview “high quality candidates,” and as of at least earlier this month, one of the candidates is someone “whose name was leaked to the press several months ago.” But she declined to specify whether that candidate was Meisha Porter, former head of New York City public schools, or current Denver superintendent Alex Marrero, whose names were revealed by the Chicago Sun-times/WBEZ and Chalkbeat in November.
A spokesperson for Denver Public Schools said Tuesday Marrero is not a candidate; Porter did not respond to a request for comment.
In November, the search appeared to be in its final stretch when the leaks seemed to derail it. Marrero said he was committed to Denver the day his name appeared in the press.
“We’re taking this process very seriously and are trying to move with a sense of urgency that this level of a decision deserves,” Thotakura said.
As planned before, finalists will still be interviewed by a panel of community members, Rios-Sierra said. The board has not said who is on the panel but it was originally envisioned to include students, teachers, and other residents.
The district has now been without a permanent leader since former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez left last June; King has been serving since and applied for the CEO job but didn’t advance to a finalist round, the Sun-Times and WBEZ reported.
In November, after news broke that the board had two finalists, the Chicago Teachers Union blasted the board for keeping their names secret. Board members, who disclosed months earlier that they would not reveal finalist names, had signed nondisclosure agreements prohibiting them from discussing aspects of the search publicly. The union declined to say whether it will again call for finalist names to be revealed.
After Chalkbeat and the Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ revealed the two finalist names, the board appeared to be left with just Porter.
Then the process appeared to come to a halt, but some board members later said they were rescheduling interviews and interviewing more applicants. Rios-Sierra said, at the time, many of her colleagues wanted to consider more than one finalist and that there were conversations about expanding the finalist pool.
Che “Rhymefest” Smith, one of the elected board members who released a statement last week decrying Alma’s departure and accusing the mayor’s office of interference, said he and other search committee members who signed it have been left in the dark about the status of the search. He said he believes a finalist or finalists have been selected and might meet with Johnson next.
The district can’t keep King “hanging on forever” and should work out an agreement for her to stay on, lest she leave for another job, Smith said.
Smith had opposed King’s appointment as interim last summer, but now says King, who came from a role in the mayor’s office, has led the district capably since. Smith and the chair of the board’s search team, elected board member Jessica Biggs, penned an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune last week that, in part, said they’re hearing calls to keep King in place until the new board is elected.
“This is the part where I have to listen to the community,” he said.
Unlike Martinez, King was not offered a contract when she was hired as interim CEO. Her offer letter — obtained by Chalkbeat through an open records request — does not indicate a specific end date for her job.
Kia Banks, the head of the Chicago Principals & Administrators Association, which represents school leaders, said her members have increasingly said they believe King should continue in her role. She said she worries that next year’s fully elected school board could second-guess or reverse any decision on a permanent top leader made this year.
Banks said King, a former district teacher and principal, has steered CPS through myriad challenges and is in the best position to craft budgets for schools and the district. The union, which reached its first preliminary contract with the district last August, is negotiating a more complete collective bargaining agreement.
“The search as it has been going on this year has become less about the needs of the students and more about which board members will prevail given their differences,” Banks said.
The West Side chapter of the NAACP has also called for keeping King in the top job until a new school board is elected and seated next January.
In a statement, Chicago Teachers Union vice president Jackson Potter said many national candidates may not be a good fit and the CEO search “requires being thoughtful and thorough to find a leader to repair, reconcile and rebuild CPS,” including with the current funding challenges facing the district. CPS is projecting a $520 million budget deficit next fiscal year.
The union did not say whether it supports keeping King in place until next year.
SEIU, which represents school support staff, did not respond to a request for comment.
Melanie Asmar contributed to this report.
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.
