Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman to step down - Huberman to leave in middle of school year

Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman to step down - Huberman to leave in middle of school year
BY FRAN SPIELMAN AND ROSALIND ROSSI
Copyright by The Chicago Sun Times
October 6, 2010
http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/2776436,CST-NWS-huberman06.article


Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman has told Mayor Daley he has no intention of serving another mayor and intends to leave his $230,000-a-year job long before the mayor leaves office in mid-May.

Huberman's departure could mean Daley would have to turn over the nation's third-largest school system in the middle of the school year to a caretaker schools chief who would be replaced by yet another schools chief after a new mayor is seated.

All this threatens to occur over a critical set of months when CPS traditionally devises its budget, prepares for state tests and decides which schools to close. It must tackle these tasks with an administrative staff decimated by budget cuts, teachers left disgruntled by cost-saving layoffs, and the specter of even worse budget woes next school year.

In addition, news of Huberman's planned departure comes after CPS has languished for months without a chief education officer. The No. 2 job has been vacant since June 30, when Barbara Eason-Watkins left to run the 7,000-student district in Michigan City, Ind., where she owns a second home.

CPS spokeswoman Monique Bond refused to comment Tuesday when asked what Huberman told Daley during a private meeting the two men held after the mayor announced his decision to retire from politics.

"I can't confirm or deny a private conversation that he has had. However, I know he remains committed to the job of running the Chicago Public Schools," Bond said.

When asked how long Huberman would remain on the job, Bond said, "I don't have a date."

Sources said Huberman -- who generated national headlines with an innovative two-year, $40 million anti-violence effort -- has several major initiatives he wants to complete before pulling the plug.

But he's also considering several private-sector offers, and he has said he intends to accept one of them, probably early next year, sources said.

A tireless mayoral trouble-shooter with no formal background in education, Huberman was appointed in January 2009 to replace Arne Duncan after President Obama tapped Duncan as U.S. Education secretary.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported this summer that Daley was pushing Mary Ellen Caron, founder and former principal of his daughter's Catholic elementary school, for chief education officer, but Huberman resisted, saying the job needed to go to a minority. The post was never filled. Caron remains the $147,060-a-year commissioner of the city's new mega-Department of Family and Support Services.

Huberman has been under fire from newly elected Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis for making cost-cutting decisions that impact the classroom from a business perspective, without any input from educators.

Some say his departure at such a critical juncture would inject massive instability into Daley's signature issue: education.

"Unless Superman is showing up, this is going to cause a really complicated situation for the system and the people in it,'' said Barbara Radner, director of DePaul University's Center for Urban Education. ". . . It's going to exacerbate the problems. What he needs to do is stay the course until the next mayor comes in.''