As the search for a new executive director for Chicago Public Schools progresses, two names have emerged

The search for the next leader for Chicago Public Schools focuses on four finalists out of 25 applicants, and the mayor is reviewing her options, according to city officials.

Behind the scenes, one candidate appears to be emerging from that group, while interim CEO José Torres also continues to compete for the permanent gala, three sources familiar with the process told the Chicago Sun-Times on condition of anonymity. To share sensitive details.

The latest public update on the hiring process, which came from CPS in a report released Friday night, comes three weeks after officials initially planned to name a successor to former school principal Janice Jackson, without explanation. for the delay.

“We are making this decision carefully, and at this time the search for a new executive director for CPS is still ongoing,” Mayor spokesman César Rodríguez wrote in an emailed statement. He said the city did not have an updated timeline for announcing a new CEO.

From City Hall to CPS, some experts believe Torres might be the best fit for a full-time job, if he can be persuaded to stay. Torres, the former superintendent of Elgin Schools, had just retired as president of the Illinois Academy of Mathematics and Sciences in Aurora and was about to move out of state when he was asked to fill the temporary position. He got a 12% raise over former CEO Jackson to fill the position.

Three sources said that if Torres is made an offer and rejected, it appears that the San Antonio school principal, Pedro Martinez, has parted ways with the pool of applicants as one of the top candidates to become the new CEO. . Only of the four finalists identified through the vetting process is Martinez, the sources said, and the only one interviewed by the Board of Education so far. Martinez could not be reached for comment Sunday.

While Torres and Martínez appear to be among the pioneers at this time, sources said Mayor Lori Lightfoot has not made a decision and could take a different path. The names of the other three finalists could not be determined.

The new supervisor will take over at a critical time for the district as it seeks to manage a devastating pandemic that has affected the education and mental health of thousands of students, teachers and staff, some of whom have died or lost family members. . Not to mention the reconnection with families who lost contact with the region during the last year and a half, or the delta variant that spread the virus again. The CPS Executive Director will also oversee ongoing negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union on health and safety issues.

With the first day of school approaching a week later, it’s unclear whether officials would prefer to wait to announce a CEO. If the process had gone according to plan, this consideration would not be necessary.

At a press conference in May announcing Jackson’s resignation, Lightfoot told reporters he had no doubt the city would find a first-class replacement by the end of July, despite acknowledging the “strict schedule.”

“In our research at the national level, we will draw on a wealth of talented and proven leaders,” said the mayor. “And I’m sure we will find the next great CPS leader.”

As the investigation progressed, three sources said, officials have struggled to attract qualified teachers.

Many of the same reasons that turned the CEO office of Jackson’s dream job into one he ultimately ran for: recent toxic negotiations, an ongoing hostile relationship with the teachers union, a charismatic mayor, the pandemic, and the politics that surrounds the transition to a school board – made it difficult to convince. Overseas VIPs are moving forward, the sources said.

CPS spokeswoman Emily Bolton said it was “not accurate” that the region was struggling to attract the best candidates.

Perfil de Anthony Vazquez / Sun Times

While Lightfoot promised great transparency to the search from start to finish, details released Friday marked the first update in nearly two months, and they don’t seem to paint the whole picture. The mayor promised to publish bimonthly reports on the progress of the investigation. The latest was posted online on June 23.

The report, written by research firm BWP & Associates and released on Friday, showed that six directors applied for the position along with four deputy supervisors, four mid-level managers, six directors, three consultants and two other directors. Those candidates included eight current CPS employees.

Nine applicants were from Illinois, three from Virginia, two from California, and two from New York. Others were from Texas, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Canada, and Morocco.

Fourteen candidates speak only English, while three are fluent in Spanish and four speak Spanish.

Torres or Martínez, both old teachers with history at CPS, would meet the demands of the Latino congregation at the city hall, which signed a letter in June urging Lightfoot to hire a Latino for the position.

The proportion of Hispanic students in the Cincinnati Public Schools has grown from just over a third in 2000 to nearly half the area today, making up the largest demographic in the school system. But during those two decades, there have only been two Latino CPS CEOs: Torres and Jesse Ruiz, currently the lieutenant governor of education. Both served temporarily.

Martinez, a graduate of the University of Illinois with an MBA from DePaul, worked at CPS from 2003 to 2009, including in a CFO position under former CEO Arne Duncan, who became the United States Secretary of Education. Martinez then spent time as deputy superintendent of the Washoe County School District in Nevada, of 64,000 students, before assuming the same position in the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, home to 320,000 students. He returned to Washoe County in 2012 to take a supervisory position and stayed for two and a half years.

For the past six years, he has served as superintendent of the San Antonio Independent School District, which enrolls 47,000 students in more than 90 schools. CPS, the third largest school system in the country, is seven times the size of the San Antonio area.

Martinez was recently in the news as the target of a lawsuit by the Texas attorney general over San Antonio County’s vaccine mandate for employees and mask requirements.

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