CPS Board of Education president candidates question Jessica Biggs' do-not-hire appeal

CHICAGO (WLS) -- As the race for Chicago Board of Education president intensifies, a supporter of one candidate is calling for an investigation into the reversal of a do-not-hire designation involving Jessica Biggs.

It was a decision made during the tenure of Chicago Public Schools CEO and Superintendent Macquline King.

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Years before her election to the Chicago Board of Education, Biggs served as interim principal at Burke Elementary School on the South Side. Biggs was fired for what she describes as minor bureaucratic violations.

"We were marking students tardy in cases when they may have arrived to school so late that they were absent for a half a day," Biggs said.

According to findings by the CPS Office of Inspector General, Biggs also violated district policy by failing to maintain driver's license and insurance records for staff members who provided rides to students.

"When a parent made a request and wanted help with a ride to school, there were cases where a staff member would go and pick students up," Biggs said.

Biggs said she was fired in 2018 and, under CPS policy at the time, was automatically placed on the district's do-not-hire list. She contends she was targeted because she was an outspoken principal on other issues.

Biggs appealed the designation in 2023 and was denied. She said a second appeal was also denied a year later. After being elected to the school board, she appealed again and was successful under King's leadership.

Andre Smith, a former school board candidate who lost to Biggs and now supports her opponent, Victor Henderson, has questioned the circumstances surrounding the successful appeal.

"The question is was it done with integrity or was it a back room deal? I'm calling for an investigation," Smith said.

Smith alleges Biggs' appeal was granted after she led the search process that selected King as CPS CEO and superintendent, despite not initially supporting her candidacy.

Biggs rejected the accusation.

"This is a false political attack. My appeal was sent to be reviewed by an outside counsel to avoid even an appearance of a conflict of interest. No one within the CEO's office was able to even touch that appeal," she said.

Other candidates in the race for school board president have also raised questions about the appeal process but said they are more concerned about the circumstances that led to Biggs' firing.

"This is not a matter of a paperwork dispute or a bureaucratic, you know, error. It was a coordinated campaign, as an investigator found, where she very explicitly instructed her staff to falsify attendance in order to improve her school's ratings," school board president candidate Sendhil Revuluri said.

In a written statement, Chicago Teachers Union-endorsed candidate Hilario Dominguez said, "The revelations are damning. It's hard to imagine someone who got fired for how she ran her school being put in charge of running the whole district. It makes you ask why Ms. Biggs couldn't follow the rules herself. And then worse, she may have used her power on the board for her personal benefit when she had the chance."

While Smith has called for an investigation, Biggs has received endorsements from several current school board members who are not aligned with the Chicago Teachers Union, as well as from Service Employees International Union.