Superintendent Alex Marrero mentioned Friday that his “dedication stays firmly with Denver Public Colleges,” however neither Marrero nor the district explicitly denied media studies that he’s a finalist to develop into Chicago Public Colleges’ subsequent CEO.
The Chicago college district has not publicly recognized its two finalists, however WBEZ Chicago and the Chicago Sun-Times reported Friday that Marrero and Meisha Ross Porter, who led New York Metropolis’s public colleges in 2021, will interview for the CEO place with the college board subsequent week, citing two sources with data of the search course of.
The DPS Board of Training members whom JS may attain on Friday night expressed shock on the report. The Put up requested a DPS consultant repeatedly whether or not Marrero was a finalist for the Chicago job, however didn’t obtain a direct reply.
“Whereas I’ve nice respect for Chicago Public Colleges and respect the skilled recognition implied by current hypothesis about my potential candidacy for superintendent, I need to be clear that my dedication stays firmly with Denver Public Colleges, the place I’m proud to proceed serving as superintendent,” Marrero mentioned in a press release launched by DPS.
Invoice Good, a spokesman for the district, mentioned the superintendent “has no plans to depart the district. At present, he’s attending the World Cities Symposium representing DPS, in Asia, and will probably be extending his journey for a quick, however well-deserved, trip previous to returning to Denver.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, the college board and members of a group panel are interviewing the 2 finalists on Monday, the Chicago information organizations reported. The Chicago Board of Training may even maintain a particular session Thursday to resolve who they need to rent earlier than voting on a contract in December, they reported.
Chicago Public Colleges representatives couldn’t be reached by The Put up for remark Friday.
The Chicago college board fired the district’s former CEO Pedro Martinez with out trigger in December 2024 and Martinez left the district earlier this 12 months, Chalkbeat Chicago reported. Chicago Public Colleges, the fourth-largest college district within the nation, has 316,224 college students and runs 630 colleges.
The DPS Board of Training employed Marrero in 2021 to exchange Susana Córdova because the chief of Colorado’s largest Ok-12 district. Córdova, now the state’s schooling commissioner, resigned from DPS after two contentious years on the helm.
Marrero’s contract with DPS runs by way of 2028. The college board prolonged the contract earlier this 12 months and made it more durable to fireplace the superintendent by requiring a supermajority — no less than 5 votes — to fireplace Marrero with out trigger. He earns $346,529 a 12 months.
The transfer, board members mentioned on the time, was an effort to keep up constant management for DPS at a time when Ok-12 schooling is dealing with funding threats from the Trump administration.
However now, DPS may very well be dealing with a change in management at each the superintendent stage and with new college board members who had been voted in Tuesday.
“I used to be all the time involved about new college board members coming in at a second once we are beneath assault by the Trump administration,” mentioned board member Scott Esserman, who this week misplaced his bid to change seats on the board. “…There are going to be some issues with the brand new board attempting to rent any person new and who they’ll entice and who’s .”
As superintendent, Marrero has taken on the Trump administration by suing to stop federal immigration raids in colleges and has defied the U.S. Training Division’s order to transform gender-neutral bogs into restrooms for women.
DPS board members have supported Marrero’s actions in opposition to the Trump administration. However the superintendent has additionally sometimes discovered himself at odds with administrators in addition to city officials throughout his tenure in Denver over college closures and armed police in colleges.
Marrero is Afro-Latino and bilingual, which DPS college board members have touted as a optimistic for the district, the place greater than half of the 90,450 college students are Latino.
However a bunch of Latino leaders expressed concern when Marrero was employed, together with whether or not he understood western Chicano tradition — and, ever since, some group members have by no means accepted the superintendent, Esserman mentioned.
“I don’t blame him,” he mentioned. “The truth that he has completed excellent nationally reorganized work in Denver and but has acquired nothing however critique and assault.”
Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter.
