Super Search in Shambles

This week was supposed to bring Chicago’s search for a new school district leader much closer to the finish line. A months-long process involving substantial community engagement was about to enter the crucial final stages. Special board meetings were scheduled this week for interviews with finalists, including a confidential interview with selected community members.

But all that changed on Friday, when anonymous sources — possibly school board members — leaked the finalists’ names to the media. On Friday, WBEZ reported the finalists' names: Alex Marrero, currently Denver's superintendent, and Meisha Ross Porter, former chancellor of New York City's public schools. Within hours of his name being revealed, Marrero said he would be staying in Denver.

“The advice superintendents give each other is to walk away if the board leaks names to the media at any point in the process,” noted Adam Parrott-Sheffer, a former CPS principal and former school board candidate who coaches principals and district leaders. “It is considered some of the best information you have that the job will be impossible and that board members will work against you.” [Disclosure: Board Rule publishes Parrott-Sheffer's quarterly report card analyzing the school board's public conversation and decisions.]

On Thursday–the day before the finalists’ names were leaked–Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates sent a letter to school board President Sean Harden calling it “outrageous” that the public was being denied the chance to see the finalists’ names before concluding the search. She also questioned the board’s authority to appoint the next Superintendent/CEO, citing a section of the 1995 law that strengthened mayoral control over the school district.

As Chalkbeat Chicago reported in August, whether the hybrid board or the mayor has legal authority to appoint the school district's leader is disputed. Robert Martwick, the Illinois state senator who spearheaded the law creating an elected school board in Chicago, said the lawmakers' intent was for the mayor to appoint the majority of the board and the CEO during the two-year transition to a fully elected board. But Jessica Biggs, who chairs the board's search team, said she was told "the authority rests with the board."

At press time, Ross Porter was still the sole finalist from the search. But she is also among the candidates New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is considering to serve as chancellor of his city’s public schools. An unnamed source told the New York Post that Ross Porter may be using her Chicago candidacy as leverage in the New York City search. “She’s not a fan of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson,” the source said.

During a press conference Monday morning, Johnson indicated he sees the search as far from over. "I understand people can still apply if they want. I'm not aware of a process that has come to a conclusion," he said, noting that "one individual that was deemed as a finalist is no longer in the running." The Chicago Tribune described the mayor's stance on the search as "noncommittal."

At Monday’s special board meeting, former board member Dwayne Truss lambasted the board for excluding Interim CEO/Superintendent Macquline King, who had applied for the permanent job, from the finalist pool. “The board’s recent action of excluding Dr. King as a finalist reflects a troubling return to the old Chicago way where deals are made behind closed doors without genuine community engagement,” he charged. “There needs to be further investigation into how a person who was unanimously selected as the interim CEO/Superintendent, born and raised in Chicago, worked for CPS, got a fiscally responsible budget passed, organized protections against ICE for undocumented families, and stood up for Black students and families against the federal administration effort to financially punish CPS because of the Illinois-mandated Black Student Achievement Plan, [could] not be endorsed as a finalist versus two persons from out of state who both don’t know anything about Chicago.”

On Tuesday evening, the parent-led advocacy group Kids First Chicago released this statement on the search:

Parents believe that the leader of a $10 billion public school system must have clear, demonstrated expertise. In March, the Chicago Board of Education unanimously decided that an Illinois superintendent’s license was essential for the next CPS CEO—a requirement meant to ensure the district is led by someone with the qualifications our students deserve.

In April, a national search was launched, and many families, educators, and community members—including Kids First Chicago parents—had the opportunity to meet with Board members, participate in focus groups, and complete surveys to share their insights about the type of expertise Chicagoans want in the next CPS CEO/Superintendent.

Now, the media is quoting the Mayor as saying that the entire search process may need to restart or be extended. Worse, there are growing rumors that pressure is mounting on Board members to reverse their unanimous resolution requiring the next CEO/Superintendent to hold an Illinois superintendent’s license.

Parents are united in this: we deserve transparency. A major governance decision like this should not be reversed quietly or without clear public rationale. Trust and accountability demand more.

New Chicago Mom: Lost in the GoCPS Maze

In September, Christina Guillen, mother of two elementary school students, moved from Atlanta to Chicago's Little Italy neighborhood on the near west side. She chose the area because it was near two excellent schools, STEM Magnet and Galileo. She didn't realize that for her children to have a chance to attend either of those schools, she would have had to apply nearly a year ago through GoCPS. Instead, her children were placed on waitlists at both schools, and she was told her children could enroll immediately at Smyth Elementary, the neighborhood school. Smyth's school report card rating is "comprehensive," meaning the school is among the lowest-performing schools in the state. Its neighborhood zone includes the Brooks Homes, the last remaining public housing development of the ABLA Homes, most of which have been demolished.

In Atlanta, Guillen knew how the system operated. She was able to ensure both her children, whom she describes as "twice exceptional," meaning they are both gifted and qualify for special education services, attended high-performing schools where they were challenged and supported. But because she arrived in Chicago too late to apply through GoCPS for the current school year, she has not been able to access similar environments for them. According to Guillen, her eighth grader has been unable to take algebra at school because Smyth does not have a math teacher qualified to teach it.

Guillen spoke at the September board meeting, expressing her concern that her eighth grader was at risk of falling behind and not being accepted to a high school that could support her. She says no one from CPS followed up after she spoke. "That was very disappointing," she said. "I did reach out to them." She said at the meeting, she spoke with a board member who didn't represent her area but offered to forward her message on. "I've never heard back from any of them."

Guillen is now working through homeschool curricula with her children in the evenings, hoping to keep them on track. She has also joined Smyth's Parent Advisory Council and plans to run for a seat on its Local School Council next year. "I feel all the students at Smyth deserve a high-quality education," she said.

Over the past two months, while researching how to use GoCPS to apply to high school, she discovered another irony of her effort to find a good neighborhood with good schools for her children: her choice to rent in Little Italy put her in a Tier 4 census tract, the most advantaged and competitive socio-economic tier for high school admissions, meaning her daughter needs higher high school admissions test scores at the same time she's attending a school that lacks qualified teachers and rigorous courses. Had Guillen moved closer to Smyth, she would likely reside in a less-advantaged tier, and her daughter's cut score for admission to a selective enrollment high school would be lower.

Guillen has been shocked by the cavalier attitude she has encountered about her situation. "It definitely is crazy to me that the response I received was, 'Oh well, you can try for next year,' as if her eighth-grade year is disposable, right? ... If you want to bring workforce and talent to the city, they need to know their children can have educational options that will meet their needs. And that no matter what point in the year people arrive, they can find a school that works for them."

GoCPS applications for the 2026-27 school year are due Friday at 5 p.m.