Bogdana Chkoumbova, the chief education officer at Chicago Public Schools, is stepping down after 24 years, almost five months after the firing of outgoing district chief Pedro Martinez.
As second-in-command and a key member of the leadership team responsible for balancing CPS finances, her departure, announced Thursday, leaves City Hall and the school board with the task of remaking the nation’s fourth-largest school system in the red.
Both Chkoumbova and Martinez are leaving behind a new 21-member school board, which is showing signs of fissures. Chkoumbova referenced that ongoing tension, saying she “(welcomes) accountability and clarity” that “moves away from personal agendas, politically influenced.”
“I think this (conflict) will settle over time, and things will move in the right direction, but I think that what’s going to be super critical for the progress of the district is that there is a unified, well-aligned vision,” she said.
Martinez was fired without cause by a mayoral-appointed board in December after refusing to take out a $300 million loan to cover the new teachers contract and a pension payment to the city. His time with the district ends in June, and a community-based selection process is in place to appoint a permanent leader to replace him this fall. In the meantime, the board will vote for an interim CPS chief executive officer to fill his shoes.
That vote is complicated by division lines on a 21-member partially elected and partially appointed hybrid board. After years of mayoral appointments to the school board, state legislation paved the way for all members to be elected in 2027.
In the meantime, the board has both mayoral appointees and victors of last November’s school board election, meaning it is split between members aligned with the agenda of the Chicago Teachers Union, which endorsed Mayor Johnson, and those independent of the powerful teachers union.
The divided nature of the board could prove challenging for a district under significant financial stress in the coming years.
Chkoumbova played a large role in heated contract negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union, whose four-year deal was approved by the school board last week, with a price tag of $1.5 billion. CPS officials have stated that there is sufficient funding to cover the first year of the contract, but have not provided details for the remaining three.
Complicating the contract asks is a budget season with a deficit of over $500 million and looming threats of federal cuts for school districts with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The budget should be balanced through a combination of outside dollars from the city, state and federal levels, and an assessment of how resources are diffused to sources like old and decrepit school buildings, Chkoumbova said.
“There should be a strategy for helping the district to reduce some of the ineffective investments that continue to be in our system,” she added.
School-level budgets for the following year are usually released by CPS in the spring, and Chkoumbova expressed concern that those estimates haven’t been put out yet. She emphasized that it takes a long time for a body like the newly seated school board to understand the nuances of a large school district.
“(The board) needs to trust the experts and the people who are going to be responsible (for implementing), which is this management team here,” she said.
An immigrant from Bulgaria, the outgoing chief education officer started with CPS in 2001, according to an email she sent to civic leaders Thursday afternoon with her resignation announcement. She worked her way up from Frederic Chopin Elementary School in Ukrainian Village to Disney II Magnet School in Irving Park, eventually securing administrative roles.
In Friday’s interview, she thanked the hundreds of educators, leaders and partners she worked with at CPS for their help in moving forward what she described as “groundbreaking initiatives.”
Chkoumbova described Martinez as “courageous.”
“He led with a lot of moral clarity, and we have seen it on the inside. He respects people. He treats everyone really well,” she said.
Instead of focusing on CPS’ tough financial straights ahead, she celebrated the district’s improved graduation and literacy rates, achieved in the wake of the pandemic.
Federal COVID-19 funding relief buoyed many of those gains, but those funds expire in 2026.
Chkoumbova hopes to remain in the education space after taking some time off. Leadership turnover has been a fixture of CPS during her tenure with the district, she said.
“I’ve been under four mayors and I don’t know how many CEOs. Honestly, I lost count,” she said. “But I always tell people there’s one constant … CPS is a resilient system.”
