The Chicago Board of Education has narrowed its choice for the next leader down to two candidates and current interim CEO/Supt. Macquline King did not make the cut, according to multiple sources close to the search.
The board chose the finalists in a closed session on Thursday. Those candidates will be put through a series of interviews on Monday with a community panel and Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Jessica Biggs — the school board member leading the search process — said the school board will hold a special session next Thursday to hopefully decide who they want to hire. The board is planning to vote on the contract at its December board meeting.
The West Side chapter of the NAACP blasted the decision not to move King forward.
“We’re just very extremely disappointed, upset and angry for her not to make the final cut,” said Dwayne Truss, a former school board member who is active with the West Side NAACP. Truss said the organization was told about the decision by its own source. “It is totally disrespectful and we hope there’s no politics.”
King, a former principal, was working in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office when she became interim leader in June. She was coming into a difficult situation. CEO Pedro Martinez had been fired in a controversial and dramatic way and she immediately had to figure out how to close a $734 million budget deficit.
King came in with the support of mayoral appointees and allies, but they were taken aback when she presented a budget that did not include some of the elements the mayor wanted. That included the possibility that the district would take a loan to help the city cover a controversial pension payment.
But Truss and the NAACP were impressed with her for what they saw as the right stance on the budget. Truss said she also is “standing strong” with the Black Student Success Plan, despite the Trump administration pulling funding over it.
Truss said the organization plans to reach out to board members and others to try to get King reconsidered.
The names of the finalists are not public, unlike some superintendent searches in other districts where the finalists are introduced to the larger community. The school board is keeping the process private in order to prevent the candidates’ current employers from getting wind that they are in the running for a new gig. Members signed a non-disclosure agreement.
The only detail Biggs revealed is that all finalists have big city experience.
To allow for community involvement, the school board has chosen a panel to do an interview and offer input. The panel is composed of students, parents and teachers, as well as a central office administrator and an elementary school and high school principal. They also will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
“I am feeling really good about our finalists,” Biggs said. Ninety-three people applied for the job.
There have been some questions about the mayor’s involvement in the process. In the past, the mayor appointed the CEO, along with the appointed board members. That started to change under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who allowed the board to do the CEO search and respected their choice of Pedro Martinez.
With the board now on the way to being fully elected, it has taken over the process. But Johnson will interview the finalists and provide input, said Board President Sean Harden.
“We have solicited input from all stakeholders and his input matters,” Harden said. “I think the board would rightfully have great pause in engaging a CEO that the mayor is not supportive of.”
Harden added that the mayor has “saved” CPS twice by recommending record amounts of money be pulled out of special taxing districts called TIFs. Without that money, CPS would have to cut hundreds of millions from its budget.