CPS board president seeking to change new rule to install mayor's chief of staff as interim CEO
Less than two months after the Chicago Board of Education unanimously approved a rule requiring the next CEO of the Chicago Public Schools to hold a superintendent's license, the board's president reportedly is trying to undo that requirement to allow the mayor's chief of staff to serve as the district's interim leader.
Mayor Brandon Johnson is searching for a short-term replacement for outgoing CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who was fired by the school board in December, but will stay on the job until mid-June.
The Chicago Tribune reports the mayor wants to install his chief of staff, Cristina Pacione-Zayas, as interim CEO while he searches for Martinez's permanent replacement. While she has a background in education, and previously worked for CPS, she doesn't hold a superintendent's license.
Board members told the Tribune that Johnson's hand-picked school board president, Sean Harden, is trying to convince a majority of the board to overturn a resolution approved in March requiring any future permanent or interim CEO to have a superintendent's license.
Board member Che "Rhymefest" Smith said, "There's almost no difference and no daylight between at — this point — Elon Musk as the CEO, Trump as the CEO and Mayor Johnson saying that we don't need criteria and qualifications.
"I feel like it's an attack on the school board being an independent body," Smith added.
The school board has an agenda review committee meeting scheduled for May 14 and a regular board meeting set for May 29, but agendas for those meetings have not yet been posted.
