Barbara Eason-Watkins, chief education officer for CPS, announced Tuesday at an unrelated news conference at Dunbar High School on the South Side, that she will leave the nation’s third largest school district at the end of the school year to overse
After 35 years as a career educator the Chicago Public Schools’ chief education officer is leaving to become superintendent at a small Indiana school district.
Barbara Eason-Watkins, chief education officer for CPS, announced Tuesday at an unrelated news conference at Dunbar High School on the South Side, that she will leave the nation’s third largest school district at the end of the school year to oversee the 7,000 students in the Michigan City Area Schools.
“It has been an honor to serve Chicago Public Schools the past 35 years. I have had a wonderful time here working with Ron Huberman and everyone at CPS,” Watkins told the Defender. “But now it is time for me to move on to a new challenge and that challenge is in Michigan City.” In 2009 Watkins was among the finalists considered for chief executive officer for CPS but Mayor Richard M. Daley chose Huberman instead.
However, Watkins insists that played no part in her decision to leave even though she said in a March interview with the Defender that she had no plans on leaving the Chicago school district anytime soon.
“My decision to leave has absolutely nothing to do with what happened last year. I have a good working relationship with Ron and his staff,” Watkins said. “I made the decision to leave a few days ago so this was not something I planned all along.”
However, not everyone is convinced her being passed over for the top job did not factor into her decision to leave.
“Her skills were underutilized. She was qualified to be CEO but once again the mayor chose a non-educator for the top job,” said Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder and executive director of Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. “The children are the losers with her leaving. She is a winner and will be missed.”
Watkins is set to begin her new job July 1 and said she will play a role in selecting her successor. “I want the best, qualified person chosen to replace me,” she said. She added that her husband plans to maintain his dental practice in the Hyde Park community on the South Side.
Huberman, chief executive officer for CPS, said there’s no timeframe on picking a replacement and did not rule out that her replacement could come from the school district. “We hope to have someone in place by the time she leaves but it’s too early tell at this point,” he told the Defender. In a written statement, Eason-Watkins’ former boss, Arne Duncan, who left the helm of the city’s public school system to become U.S. Secretary of Education, said: “Dr. Eason-Watkins deserves a lot of the credit for Chicago’s progress over the past decade. She is a world-class educator.”
Copyright 2010 Chicago Defender.
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