Ron Huberman is leaving his job as chief executive officer of Chicago’s public schools after less than two years on the job.
Huberman’s departure, which has been widely anticipated for nearly a month, was confirmed in a statement released by the school district late last night.
“I will always be grateful for the opportunity to have served this city and Mayor Daley as its leader. I have been privileged to work with so many talented people who have tirelessly made this city a better place to work and call home,” Huberman said in the statement.
His last day on the job is Nov. 29.
The 409,000-student school district is in the midst of a moment of great transition. Huberman’s boss, Mayor Richard M. Daley, is not running for re-election after 21 years in the top city job and will leave office in May. Huberman was just the third executive (Paul Vallas and Arne Duncan were his predecessors) to lead Chicago schools since Daley received authority to pick the schools leader in 1995.
Daley has had control in some form over the Chicago schools since 1989 and the stability in leadership has been a key to getting many of the city’s wealthiest citizens involved in education.
The city will select its new mayor Feb. 22, unless a runoff forces another vote in early April. The new mayor will take office May 16, and Chicagoans can expect the installation of a new schools chief (and school board!) sometime not long after that.
Community groups are already demanding a national search for Huberman’s replacement, and the district’s leadership at the top is also complicated by the fact it has had no No. 2 leader since Barbara Eason-Watkins, a three-decade veteran of the system, left her post last summer as chief education officer to take the superintendency of an Indiana school district.