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Meisha Ross Porter, the former New York City schools chancellor, has dropped out of the running to become Chicago Public Schools’ next CEO, according to two school board members.
That leaves two finalists: interim CEO Macquline King and Sito Narcisse, former superintendent of East Baton Rouge Parish schools. The Chicago Tribune first reported that Porter had withdrawn.
Porter had not yet met with Mayor Brandon Johnson or a community panel, meetings expected to happen this week with all the finalists.
During the board’s closed session after its meeting Thursday, one school board member said Board President Sean Harden told fellow board members that Porter “wanted to be able to hit the ground running in Chicago, and she didn’t feel as if having a virtual interview and not meeting stakeholders would allow her to be able to be fully prepared” to take over CPS.
Porter said in an email Friday that it was “humbling and meaningful” to be a finalist but that she decided to withdraw “after careful consideration.” She did not cite reasons.
The school board is expected to hold a special meeting March 30 to discuss finalists and could choose a CEO that day, one school board member said.
The board’s CEO search, which began about a year ago, has been full of twists and turns. Porter was a finalist in the fall, but the search process took a pivot after Porter and another finalist’s names were leaked. The other finalist, Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero, dropped out, leaving only Porter. That prompted the board to do another round of interviews to find more candidates, board members said.
Since then, the board’s search firm, Alma Advisory Group, has parted ways with the board. A faction of elected board members have called for a pause in the search and claimed the mayor has meddled in the search, which the mayor has denied. These board members, who had previously voted not to hire King as interim, now want King to stay on as interim until a fully elected board is seated in January 2027.
The board announced the names of all three finalists last Friday. King, who was previously taken out of consideration for the permanent job, was a surprise addition. She was added in response to demands from the community, a school board member told Chalkbeat last week.
Two other school board members said they received a call from Harden last week, the day before finalist names were announced publicly, saying that King would be added to the list, and that he had garnered a majority of support from board members to add her.
Harden did not return a call for comment.
Earlier this week, the West Side branch of the NAACP issued a public letter calling for the board to pause the search and name King as CEO through the 2026-27 school year. They lauded King for several accomplishments, including seeing the district through a difficult budget process last summer. Remel Terry, the group’s president, sent that letter to Harden, elected board member Jitu Brown, and appointed member Michilia Blaise, who represent Chicago’s West Side.
“This is not a casual disagreement over preference or personality,” Terry wrote. “This is a serious concern about governance, legitimacy, and the public’s ability to trust the people charged with leading one of the most important public institutions in our city.”
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
