Who is José Torres, the new interim CEO of Chicago Public Schools?

Sarah Freishtat, Chicago Tribune
·2 min read
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The running joke of Monday’s news conference announcing José Torres as the new CEO of Chicago Public Schools was that he was two days into retirement when he got the call. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she even got the go-ahead from Torres’ wife before he agreed to fill in during the transition to departing CEO Janice Jackson’s permanent successor.

Here’s a look at the longtime school administrator who is due to formally take the reins from Jackson at the end of June, pending Board of Education approval:

  • Torres has had a long career in education spanning from Maryland to California, including his previous work in CPS as a regional superintendent.

  • Torres spent more than six years as president of the Illinois Math and Science Academy, a selective residential high school in Aurora, until he retired at the end of this school year. He led the school as it weathered a state budget impasse in 2016 that left it without a large portion of its funding, and as the school expanded to allow younger students.

  • He was previously superintendent of Elgin School District U-46, the state’s second-largest school district after CPS.

  • During his previous time in CPS, he oversaw a network of about two dozen schools in the Englewood, West Englewood, Chatham, Grand Crossing and Auburn Gresham neighborhoods. He has also served on the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity and Excellence Commission, according to an online biography.

  • Before coming to the Chicago area, Torres was assistant superintendent for student services in Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland. He led the San Ysidro School District in southern California, and was an associate superintendent in San Jose, California.

  • Torres has a master’s degree in education and doctorate in education policy, planning and administration from the University of Maryland at College Park. According to the Tribune archives, Torres is a native of Puerto Rico who taught English as a second language classes for a year at a Maryland middle school but has since been in administrator.

  • Having already been lured out of retirement, Torres is not a candidate for the permanent CPS CEO job, the mayor confirmed, and a nationwide search continues.