The Chicago Board of Education announced Thursday evening that it had selected three finalists for the position of permanent CEO of Chicago Public Schools, a search process that has been underway since last summer and that has involved, by the Board’s own accounting, a national recruitment firm, more than 200 community engagement sessions, and a timeline that has been revised at least twice. The finalists are: Dr. Macquline King, who has been serving as interim CEO since June; Meisha Porter, the former chancellor of New York City public schools; and Sito Narcisse, the former superintendent of East Baton Rouge Parish schools in Louisiana. The announcement was made at a press conference at CPS headquarters that lasted 22 minutes and included the phrase “rigorous and transparent process” four times.

The selection of Dr. King as a finalist is notable primarily because of what preceded it, which is that she was told, earlier in the search process, that she was not being considered for the permanent role. This is a fact that the Board did not address directly at Thursday’s press conference but that has been reported extensively and that Dr. King herself has acknowledged in previous interviews with what multiple reporters have described as “extraordinary composure.” She has been running the third-largest school district in the country for nine months. She began her CPS career as a teacher in 1994. She was a principal at two schools, most recently at Courtenay Language Arts Center in Uptown. She was, by all available evidence, doing the job. She was also, for a period of several months, officially not a candidate for the job she was doing. The Board has not explained the reversal in detail, saying only that the process “evolved.”

Porter, the second finalist, was the first Black woman to lead New York City’s school system, a distinction that carries significant weight and that she held for approximately one year before the incoming Adams administration replaced her. Her tenure was marked by a focus on community schools and pandemic recovery, and she is regarded nationally as a strong communicator with deep ties to community-based education models. Narcisse, the third finalist, is a son of Haitian immigrants who led East Baton Rouge Parish schools from 2021 to 2024 and who is known for his work on student mental health and family engagement. Both are, on paper, serious candidates. Both are also from out of town, which in Chicago is a category that carries its own weight, particularly when the person currently doing the job is from Chicago and has been doing it, by most accounts, competently.

The next step, according to the Board, is a week of finalist engagement that will include meetings with Mayor Brandon Johnson, interviews with a 15-member panel composed of students, parents, teachers, and community members, and what the Board’s press release described as “public-facing forums.” The 15-member panel was selected through what the Board called “a community-driven nomination process,” though when asked how the nominations were solicited, a spokesperson said the details were “available on the CPS website” and directed reporters to a page that, as of Thursday evening, had not been updated to reflect the finalist announcement.

The Chicago Teachers Union, which has been closely tracking the search and which has publicly supported Dr. King’s candidacy, issued a statement within 40 minutes of the announcement calling the inclusion of King “a recognition of what CPS families and educators have known for months.” The statement did not address the other two finalists by name. A spokesperson for the union, asked whether the CTU had a position on Porter or Narcisse, said “our statement speaks for itself.” A separate statement from a coalition of parent organizations said the group was “encouraged by the diversity of the finalist pool” and “looked forward to the public engagement process,” a formulation that managed to express support for the process without endorsing any individual candidate, which is a particular skill of coalition statements.

The timeline for a final selection has not been publicly confirmed, though Board members have indicated they hope to name a permanent CEO before the end of the school year. This would mark the conclusion of a search that has outlasted two Board compositions — the original appointed Board that began the process and the current elected Board that inherited it — and that has, at various points, been described by stakeholders as “thorough,” “frustrating,” “opaque,” and, by one alderman who asked not to be named, “the longest job interview in the history of municipal government.”

Dr. King, reached briefly after the press conference, said she was “honored to be among the finalists” and that she was “focused on the work,” a phrase she has used consistently since assuming the interim role and which, nine months in, has taken on the quality of a mantra. She was asked whether the experience of being told she was not a candidate, and then being told she was, had been difficult. She said, “I’ve been an educator in this city for thirty years. I’ve seen a lot of processes.” She did not elaborate, but the sentence contained, in its restraint, what felt like a complete answer.