{"id":363320,"date":"2025-11-08T00:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T00:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/363320\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T00:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T00:13:10","slug":"media-report-says-denver-superintendent-alex-marrero-a-finalist-for-chicago-schools-top-job-chalkbeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/363320\/","title":{"rendered":"Media report says Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero a finalist for Chicago schools top job \u2013 Chalkbeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

The Chicago Sun-Times reported<\/a> Friday that Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero is one of two finalists for the job of Chicago Public Schools\u2019 next CEO. <\/p>\n

The other finalist is Meisha Ross Porter<\/a>, who led New York City Public Schools in 2021<\/a>, three sources with direct knowledge of the situation told Chalkbeat.<\/p>\n

The finalists are set to interview with Chicago Board of Education members, a community panel, and the mayor next week. Chicago\u2019s selection will mark the first time its new 21-member school board chooses a new leader for the nation\u2019s fourth largest school district.<\/p>\n

Denver Public Schools did not confirm Friday that Marrero is a finalist for the Chicago job.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Marrero has no plans to leave the district,\u201d a statement from the district said. \u201cCurrently he is attending the Global Cities Symposium representing DPS, in Asia and will be extending his trip for a brief, but well deserved vacation prior to returning to Denver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marrero is excited to work with the newly elected Denver school board members, the statement said. Three candidates backed by the teachers union were elected Tuesday<\/a> to the seven-member board.<\/p>\n

We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n

Every weekday morning, Chalkbeat Colorado is bringing thousands of subscribers the news on public schools and education policy that they need to start their day. Sign up for our free newsletter to join them.<\/p>\n

Marrero has been superintendent of the 89,000-student Denver Public Schools since 2021<\/a>. Graduation rates have risen in his four-year tenure, and the district\u2019s state rating jumped this year to \u201cgreen,\u201d<\/a> the second highest, for the first time since 2019, before the pandemic.<\/p>\n

But concerns about school safety and a string of shootings<\/a> in and around Denver\u2019s largest high school have sown discontent among some parents. Unpopular school closures<\/a> and cuts to the central office have hurt morale among district employees, according to Marrero\u2019s latest performance evaluation.<\/p>\n

Before coming to Denver, Marrero was the interim superintendent of a much smaller district in New Rochelle, New York. He was previously the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in New Rochelle and an assistant superintendent in East Ramapo, New York.<\/p>\n

Marrero began his career in the country\u2019s biggest school district, New York City, where he served as a guidance counselor, assistant principal, and principal. It\u2019s also where he attended school as a child growing up in the Bronx.<\/p>\n

Marrero identifies as Afro Latino and is bilingual. More than half of the students in Denver are Latino and about a third are learning English as a second language. Marrero often wears a pin on his suit lapel that says \u201csoy biling\u00fce\u201d \u2014 \u201cI am bilingual\u201d \u2014 and speaks in Spanish to students when he visits schools.<\/p>\n

Declining enrollment<\/a> and school closures are among the issues Marrero has dealt with in Denver. He has repeatedly recommended that the school board close schools due to low enrollment. The board rejected some of his earliest attempts, but eventually agreed to close 10 small district-run schools and partially close three others.<\/p>\n

Marrero has also recommended closing charter schools. And he set the stage for more school closures with a new policy that calls for closing schools<\/a> with persistently low test scores.<\/p>\n

Marrero\u2019s contract with Denver Public Schools runs through 2028. The board has extended it twice, most recently in May<\/a>, which was five months before his latest performance evaluation in October<\/a>. The board also voted in 2023 to give Marrero a raise<\/a>. His salary this year is $346,529.<\/p>\n

Some community members objected to Marrero being hired<\/a> as Denver superintendent in 2021 because they said he did not have enough experience as a superintendent and didn\u2019t understand the Chicano culture of the southwest.<\/p>\n

Marrero is the president of the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents and serves on the executive committee of the Council of Great City Schools.<\/p>\n

Melanie Asmar<\/a> is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado\u2019s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":363321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[176107,960,10911,3070,93966,176109,4439,176106,5386,1818,157115,6831,6214,22598,176108],"class_list":{"0":"post-363320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-alex-marrero","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-class","11":"tag-classroom","12":"tag-co","13":"tag-colo","14":"tag-colorado","15":"tag-denver-superintendent","16":"tag-il","17":"tag-illinois","18":"tag-school-building","19":"tag-staff","20":"tag-students","21":"tag-teachers","22":"tag-tours-garden-place-academy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115511191362518199","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}