× Expand Dylan Brogan Cheatham, who will leave in August to join the Harvard faculty, says “the school district is in very good hands.” In March, Jennifer Cheatham confessed that it had been a “trying” school year for her as the Madison school district’s superintendent. There had been several high-profile incidents involving student safety and teacher resignations as well as growing racial tension. For two years, school board meetings have been dominated by a push from Freedom Inc. to remove Madison police officers from four of the district’s high schools. On May 8, Cheatham reiterated that there “have certainly been some challenges this year. There are in every school year.” Nevertheless, she insisted at a news conference where she formally announced her resignation that the challenges are “absolutely not the reason why I am leaving.” Instead, Cheatham says she’s leaving because it’s a “natural point of transition.” In the fall, she’ll join the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Education “to help prepare the next generation of equity leaders.” “I’m ready to make a larger impact on the education field,” said Cheatham, who joined the district in 2013. “Quite honestly, I’m thinking a little bit more about the support I want to provide my own family and my child…. I’d like to be a little bit more of a mom, too.” Cheatham said the Strategic Framework, which guides district policy and was updated in 2018, has laid a strong foundation for the district and she’s confident “the school district is in very good hands.” The Madison school board is expected to appoint an interim superintendent by the end of May. Board President Mary Burke, who spoke at the news conference, said the board hasn’t made a decision yet but it is leaning toward an internal candidate for the temporary post. “We don’t want to miss a step here. We have important work to do,” she said. “We need to keep the momentum going. Having someone who is already familiar with that work, knows the staff, has those connections — is probably the best person to serve in that interim role.” The search for a permanent replacement for Cheatham hasn’t been discussed by the board yet, Burke added. “The board will undertake a thorough process. There is no more important duty that the board of education has than choosing its leader.” Recently elected school board member Ali Muldrow says she’s focused on finding a superintendent that “has an incredible drive, a sense of equity and is immensely talented.” “I think the real story isn’t that Jen Cheatham is resigning, it’s that Jen Cheatham has accepted a position as part of the faculty at Harvard,” says Muldrow in an interview. “It’s a profound opportunity and it shows the caliber of the talent we attracted.” Former school board member TJ Mertz, who lost his seat in April, says he believes the next superintendent’s biggest challenge will be establishing trust. “Trust between the community and the district. Trust between the district [administrators] and staff. Trust among staff. Trust between parents and schools,” says Mertz. “Without trust, things don’t work.” Mertz thinks the school board should hire an interim superintendent who is a caretaker — someone who will stay on only until a permanent replacement is hired. “Interims have a habit of becoming the next superintendent if they are applying to fill the position permanently. The last two interims in the Milwaukee school district become superintendents,” says Mertz. “It creates a real awkwardness around a search. It’s awkward to be simultaneously vetting and working with someone.” M Adams, co-executive director of Freedom Inc., hopes the search process will be inclusive. “We want community members — not just the standard people who typically hire superintendents — to have a real influence over the process,” says Adams. “Madison really struggles with the issue of intention versus impact…. Unless we do something radically different, it doesn’t matter what any superintendent does or doesn’t say, nothing will change.” David Blaska, who lost to Muldrow in one of the races for school board this spring, criticizes Cheatham for caring too much about “identity politics.” “I am surprised [by Cheatham’s resignation] because she is so in sync with the new school board members — who are three radical leftists,” says Blaska, who adds he doesn’t anticipate much changing with a new superintendent. “The school board wants more of the same so that’s what I imagine they’ll go and get.” Blaska says if it were up to him, he’d hire Kaleem Caire, founder and CEO of One City Schools. Caire, who also ran for school board this year and lost to Cris Carusi, didn’t always agree with Cheatham. But he says she did a great job. “She had to get everybody on the same page about how they were going to address the achievements of our students,” he says. “I think she did a good job of bringing everybody together around a single mission. She stayed six years, that’s longer than most superintendents.” Caire also praises Cheatham for making black excellence a priority. “Given the long history of underachievement among that population, for her to make that a focus of the Strategic Framework was huge,” he says. He also has high expectations for her replacement. “I hope that we have a person of color, finally, leading the district,” he says. “It’s not about identity politics; it’s about really being able to connect the dots.” Cheatham grew up in the Chicago suburbs, but hoped to one day teach in the inner city, according to an October 2013 Isthmus profile. After graduating from the University of Michigan, she instead went to California, which was experiencing a teacher shortage at the time. She taught eighth grade language arts at a district south of San Francisco from 1997 to 2003. After several other stops, she was back in Chicago in 2009 and working for the public schools as the chief area officer or “mini-superintendent,” overseeing 25 schools. In 2011 she became chief of instruction. When Cheatham first got to Madison she visited every school in the city in an effort to see the district firsthand.<doc-sep>After six years leading the Madison Metropolitan School District, NBC15 has learned Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham is leaving. NBC15 has heard from several sources with connections to the district. An official announcement is expected Thursday morning. Cheatham met with school principals on Tuesday, and the matter was discussed Monday night at a closed school board meeting. NBC15 has confirmed the closed session last night through the calendar on the MMSD website. NBC15 is working to confirm the information that Cheatham has another opportunity and what that new opportunity is. Cheatham took over as superintendent of Madison Metropolitan School District in April 2013. Before that, Cheatham was the chief of instruction for Chicago Public Schools and Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction for San Diego City Schools. Cheatham followed Dan Nerad, who served as superintendent for four years. Cheatham’s entrance to the position was met with optimism, with plans to close the achievement gap in students and prioritize quality instructors. She told NBC15 News on her first day at the job, “It’s going to take focused work, determination, tenacity to do what we know works well and do it for a sustained period of time.” Recently, controversy at Whitehouse Middle School has brought Cheatham back into the spotlight. When NBC15 News last spoke with her, she called the incident “unacceptable,” saying in a statement, “We are continuing that commitment to our anti-racist work and will take issues head on.”<doc-sep>Despite in March having described this school year as “trying,” Cheatham said Wednesday that some of the high-profile controversies this year — such as multiple allegations of sexual assaults in schools and a physical altercation between a middle school staff member and student — “is absolutely not my reason for leaving.” “There have certainly been some challenges this year, there are in every school year for a school district superintendent,” she said. Cheatham listed several changes made under her leadership, including the introduction of the “community schools” model and the creation of the Personalized Pathways program for high school students, which she said has strengthened the district. She also implemented the Behavior Education Plan, a change in the disciplinary policy that moved the district from zero-tolerance and placed less of an emphasis on out-of-school suspensions and expulsions. It has been criticized by some as being too light on removing disruptive children from classrooms or correcting misbehavior. Board member Ananda Mirilli said she’s heard dissatisfaction from district staff and community members on Cheatham’s decision-making and leadership, but she said those criticisms come with the territory.<doc-sep>Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham is expected to announce Wednesday a plan to resign as head of the Madison School District after six years of leading the state's second-largest school district, according to a source with knowledge of the situation and multiple media reports. The decision comes near the end of a tumultuous year for the district over the racial climate of schools and questions about safety. In March, Cheatham admitted it has been a "trying" one. The Isthmus first reported Tuesday night, citing unnamed sources, that Cheatham plans to announce her resignation at a press conference Wednesday, though it was unknown when she plans to leave. Other local news outlets, citing unnamed sources, also reported the same information. The Wisconsin State Journal spoke with one source with knowledge of Cheatham's decision who confirmed that she plans to resign, though the source declined to be identified. The newspaper contacted several other sources with ties to the district, but none would comment on the reports. The Madison School Board met Monday in closed session to discuss "consideration of employment of a district administrator," according to a meeting agenda.<doc-sep>
× Expand Narayan Mahon Jennifer Cheatham will resign as superintendent of the Madison school district at a news conference Wednesday. Isthmus confirmed the news with three members of the Madison school board and other sources. The district administration formally announced Cheatham's resignation in a news release sent out early Wednesday, reporting that she will leave her post at the end of August to join the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Education in the fall "to help prepare the next generation of equity leaders." “I have never had a more fulfilling job than serving as the superintendent in Madison," Cheatham said in the release. "This community has surrounded me, my family, our team, our staff and our schools with tremendous support and I am filled with gratitude.” “Jen has been an incredible leader for our district,” school board President Mary Burke said in the release. "She has put us in a powerful position to continue to move forward, and we thank her for tremendous work, her dedication, and her skill as superintendent. We have a strong team, united board, and we are in an incredibly positive position to move forward in our commitments to our community.” The board is expected to appoint an interim superintendent in the "coming weeks," the release said. During an April 28 interview with Channel 3000’s On The Record, Cheatham said she was “really excited” about working with the new school board, which she described as a “new group of powerful women” who are going to help bring transformative change to the district. This school year, Cheatham implemented an updated strategic framework to guide district policy to help usher in that transformation. “We have a new set of goals. A new set of core values. And a new refreshed strategy for the future,” said Cheatham. “The framework has a new set of core values that are all about voice, racial equity and social justice. Which is powerful. And we are learning how best to make decisions with those core values in mind.” Cheatham said she planned on working with the new school board to “refresh the district’s equity tool,” which she added, “is essentially the set of questions we always want to ask ourselves when making decisions together. I think that’s powerful and has real potential for the future.” Cheatham also said during her time as superintendent she built a solid foundation for the district by strengthening core curricula and the human resource system. She also said she has brought instructional technology to every classroom. In March, the superintendent admitted it had been a “trying” school year. There have been several high-profile incidents involving student safety and teacher resignations. For two years, school board meetings have been dominated by a push from Freedom Inc. to remove Madison police officers from four of the district’s high schools. The new Madison school board will soon have to decide whether to renew its contract with the Madison Police Department, which expires at the end of this school year. Cheatham grew up in the Chicago suburbs, but hoped to one day teach in the inner city, according to an October 2013 Isthmus profile. After graduating from the University of Michigan, she instead went to California, which was experiencing a teacher shortage at the time. She taught eighth grade language arts at a district south of San Francisco from 1997 to 2003. After several other stops, she was back in Chicago in 2009 and working for the public schools as the chief area officer or “mini-superintendent,” overseeing 25 schools. In 2011 she became chief of instruction. When Cheatham first got to Madison she visited every school in the city in an effort to see the district firsthand. She also organized community listening sessions to hear from staff, students and parents. Her takeaway from those meetings was that the district had potential. “It’s not a broken school system, which is different from what I’ve experienced in places like Chicago,” she said. “We’re not a district in crisis.” She would soon roll out her first Strategic Framework to address the challenges facing the district, including its wide racial disparities around achievement. At the time, she told Isthmus that she hoped this would be her family’s last stop for a while. “I believe this deeply, as does my husband, that this is a place we can really envision putting down roots and raising our family,” she said.