Education
Board of Education Set to Vote on Naming Macquline King as Full-Time CPS CEO
Macquline King, who has served as Chicago Public Schools’ interim CEO since last summer, is set to take on that role permanently.
Chicago’s Board of Education is set to vote on her appointment as full-time CEO during a special board meeting Monday morning. If approved, King’s $380,000-per-year contract would take effect July 1 and run through June 2029, according to the meeting agenda.
King was offered the job and accepted after the board conducted a nationwide search for a new district leader, the agenda states.
“Naming a permanent leader for Chicago Public Schools is essential to delivering on the District’s mission,” the board said in a statement Thursday, “to provide a high-quality public education for every child, in every neighborhood, that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life.”
A former CPS principal who also served as Mayor Brandon Johnson’s senior director of education policy, King received strong support from some board members and education leaders who wanted to see her take over as CEO on a permanent basis. Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning.
A search for a new district leader has been underway since a previous iteration of the board voted to terminate then-CEO Pedro Martinez, who left at the close of the 2024-25 academic year.
The board was fully appointed by the mayor until January 2025, when it grew to a 21-member hybrid board. Beginning next year, it will be a fully elected body.
The search for a new CPS leader has dragged on for nearly a year after other candidates reportedly dropped out, the board terminated its contract with a hired search firm and some members accused Johnson of sabotaging the selection process.
Just two weeks ago, the board announced it had trimmed its candidate list down to three names: King, former New York City Public Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter and Sito Narcisse, who previously led the East Baton Rouge Parish school district in Louisiana.
Porter removed herself from consideration days later, Chalkbeat Chicago reported, marking the second time during this process a finalist opted to drop out.
The board said those candidates would interview with Johnson and participate in a community engagement session, though no such meeting took place before King was offered the job.
The Sun-Times/WBEZ and Chalkbeat Chicago previously reported on a leaked list of finalists late last year, at which point the board began a new round of interviews after Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero backed out.
In February, the board ended its contract with Alma Advisory Group, the firm hired to lead the search, and a handful of elected board members published an open letter accusing Johnson and his appointed board members of sabotage.
In their letter, the elected board members said the selection process had been “working well” until November, when they claim “Johnson and his allies” began “running political interference.”
King spent 12 years teaching in CPS classrooms before serving as principal at Dumas Elementary School and Courtenay Language Arts Center. King then took over her policy director role in 2022, in which she advised the mayor on “education initiatives, aligning resources and policies across CPS, City Colleges, and early childhood programs,” according to the city.
“At the end of the day,” King told the board after her interim appointment last June, “every decision we make must center our young people — from early literacy to post-secondary success, from safe school environments to culturally responsive teaching — we must keep students at the heart of all that we do and every decision that we make.”
King entered the CEO role last summer with the district facing a $734 million budget gap. While Johnson repeatedly pushed for CPS to take on additional borrowing to plug that shortfall, King instead presented a budget that relied on non-classroom cuts, extra TIF funding and pushing a $175 million pension payment onto to the city.
The board approved King’s budget on a split 12-7 vote in August.
