Brizard Out As CPS CEO

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 12, 2012 1:45PM

Former CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard at an August 2011 town hall meeting to discuss the city budget. (Photo credit: Chicagoist/Chuck Sudo)

When Rahm Emanuel named Jean-Claude Brizard as his choice to run Chicago Public Schools we predicted he’d last 24-30 months before resigning. That timetable was shot to Hell Thursday night. WBEZ reported Brizard is out as CPS CEO after only 17 months. Steering Chicago’s school system into the first teachers strike in a quarter century will do that.

There had been speculation on Brizard’s job security, if not his whereabouts, for weeks, and as recently as Wednesday a CPS spokeswoman said he was actively involved in the day-to-day operations of the school system. Brizard told the Tribune he reached out to Emanuel first about his future.

“I’m the one who started the conversation," Brizard said. "I think perhaps there were issues. I call it a marriage that was perhaps imperfect. My style and personality is maybe not what the mayor wants.

"I have felt he is not comfortable with me,’’ Brizard said. “And he deserves that right.’’

Mayoral spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said the Brizard’s resignation was a mutual agreement. That isn’t an imperfect marriage. That a D-I-V-O-R-C-E.

Emanuel told the Sun-Times the agreement on Brizard’s resignation came to a head after “two to three separate conversations” earlier this week.

“The questions about J.C. became a distraction from what we had to do. We had a mutual agreement [that the distraction was] not helpful. …I didn’t have to come to that conclusion myself. We both agreed together. It kept on becoming about the static and noise about J.C. He said, ‘Look, getting the schools right is more important than me.’ ”

Brizard came to Chicago after a tenure as head of the Rochester, NY school district where he embraced charter schools, closing under-performing schools and merit-based pay for teachers; clashed with teachers unions; and left Rochester with some school board members saying they hadn’t heard from him for a week leading up to Emanuel’s announcement and “good riddance” after he was named CPS CEO. (We sense a pattern.)

Taking over for Brizard is Barbara Byrd-Bennett, a former teacher, principal and CEO of Cleveland’s public school system from 1998-2006 and “chief academic and accountability auditor” for Detroit’s public school system from 2009 through last year.