Mayor Richard Daley has spoken to at least three candidates to run the Chicago Public Schools, but could take several more weeks to pick a successor to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, City Hall officials said Wednesday.
“We don’t expect this to be a long wait; it could be a month or so, but I don’t think so,” Daley spokeswoman Jacquelyn Heard said.
Duncan tendered his resignation Tuesday soon after the U.S. Senate voted to confirm him and others that President Barack Obama picked for his Cabinet.
The mayor has talked about the city’s top schools job with Barbara Eason-Watkins, the district’s chief education officer, Heard said. Although she would not call Eason-Watkins a front-runner for the job, Heard did say Daley usually prefers to “choose someone from within the city.”
Until a new chief is selected, Duncan’s chief of staff, Bryan Samuels, will manage the district’s day-to-day responsibilities, a district spokesman said. Samuels, who was appointed to the school district job in 2006, is the former director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
