Super Search: Local Talent

"We don't want nobody nobody sent." So a young Abner Mikva was told when he strolled into his neighborhood ward office looking to volunteer for Adlai Stevenson's presidential campaign back in 1948. Now, almost 80 years later, Chicago has opened up a bit to outsiders in politics.

But when insiders with prior experience in Chicago have taken the top leadership role in the school district, they've tended to stick around longer than outsiders, at least for the last 30 years. And they've been arguably more successful, or at least less spectacular failures.

At the same time, controversy is brewing over whether the Board of Education will vote to rescind all or part of its recent resolution to require a superintendent's license for both the next interim leader and the permanent hire. The Chicago Tribune's Nell Salzman has been following the dustup closely.

There's nothing on the docket of today's agenda review committee to suggest this will come up at the May board meeting, but over the last few months we've seen a pattern: controversial matters aren't placed on the agenda until the last possible minute.

Rumors have been floating for months that Pacione-Zayas, a former state senator who now serves as Mayor Brandon Johnson's chief of staff, is Johnson's preferred pick to lead the school district. Pacione-Zayas flatly denied this when I asked her about it in October. Tribune reporters Alice Yin and Jake Sheridan wisely didn't bother asking Johnson if Pacione-Zayas was his pick; they just assumed it in an interview question about whether her people management skills were up to the task of leading the school district. The full interview is here, but it's paywalled. Here's the key question, as seen on X:

Note Johnson's wording: "I have not made a decision on who will lead the school district." Technically, it's the school board's decision, but as the mayor reminded everyone in his response, he's still in charge for now, through his appointees.

Meanwhile, board member Che "Rhymefest" Smith has spearheaded the charge to ensure the district moves away from the CEO model of leadership imposed in 1995 when then-mayor Richard M. Daley strengthened his hold over the schools in a deal with the state legislature. Smith's push to revert to a superintendent with a formal credential is one way of asserting independence from a mayoral favorite taking the spot.

Mayoral ally Stacey Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, clapped back at Smith in a post on X accusing him of being a front for "the monied opposition."

So far it seems likely Board President Sean Harden will be able to amend the resolution, given 13 members are appointed or have demostrated closeness with CTU since their election. Only two of the seven independent, elected board members were supported by CTU in their races.

Experience, Meet Job Description

Politics notwithstanding, how does Pacione-Zayas' experience line up with the job description? What about Harden, who, Crain's reported, was briefly considered to serve as "co-CEO" before current CEO Pedro Martinez sued the board for interfering in his duties? And what about other local talent?

I am once again indebted to Adam Parrott-Sheffer, this time for his analysis of some local names who could be in the mix to serve as interim (or perhaps even permanent) leader of CPS, and how their experience matches the background being sought. For more information, you can click on each person's name to go straight to their LinkedIn bio.

Potential Internal Candidates' Experience Compared with Job Description

Parrott-Sheffer pulled key elements of the job description's section on Background and Experiences for comparison. Here's the whole list.

• Significant experience working in the field of public education, with experience in a direct student-facing role strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated track record of improving student outcomes, ideally in an urban public school district setting.
• Experience addressing equity across a system of schools, with measurable and concrete improvements.
• Proven experiences building meaningful partnerships with community leaders and organizations. Experience in community, parent, and/or youth organizing is a plus.
• Administrative experience leading an organization matching the scale and complexity of an urban school system; including managing a budget and leadership team supporting multiple units or organizations.
• Successful experience working in diverse economic, multicultural, and multilingual communities and environments. Proven cultural-competence skills with a history of inclusive and relevant equity practices.
• Community school experience preferred.
• Deep understanding of the complexity of education systems and evidence of leading large scale change in urban public school contexts.
• Experience and successful track record of collaboration with labor unions and collective bargaining units.
• Experience working in conjunction with a board to identify priorities, establish goals, monitor progress, and produce outcomes in service to stakeholders.
• Must hold a valid Illinois Professional Educator License, with a Superintendent endorsement as issued by the Illinois State Board of Education, or an equivalent credential from another state.

Agenda Review Committee Preview

Here are a few notes on today's agenda review committee meeting. The first noteworthy observation: we still don't have a Black Student Achievement Committee. We have a chair in Jitu Brown, board member for district 5a, and we have his promise that a committee will be formed quickly.

Finance items: the board plans to issue $650 million in new bonds for capital improvements, and to refund $1.8 billion in existing bonds, which means replacing the existing bonds with new bonds. This is often done to take advantage of lower interest rates or modify the debt service schedule.

Policy for public comment: The board plans to open public comment starting May 30 for its revised accelerated placement policy. The policy guides early entrance to kindergarten and first grade, acceleration in math and/or reading for students in grades four through six, skipping a grade in those years, and automatic placement in rigorous high school courses based on high performance in the subject area the previous year.

Next year's calendar: Proposed changes include moving a professional development day from March 16 to March 17, so students won't be in school buildings during the primary election. High school and elementary school report card pickups would then both be held on the following day, March 18. The final proposed change would move the April teacher professional development day earlier in the month, to Good Friday. Last year the school district rescinded a policy that docked teachers' pay when taking a religious holiday that fell on a work day.