A law firm hired by the Chicago Board of Education has come up empty in its effort to identify the sources of two separate media leaks, one of which revealed the names of finalists in the school district’s CEO search last fall.
The board’s law firm, Salvatore Prescott Porter & Porter, interviewed most of the 21 board members and reviewed their emails, but found “insufficient evidence to reach a conclusion,” according to a report released by the board office late Thursday.
The probe stirred controversy among some board members and other observers, who questioned whether it was an efficient use of taxpayer dollars.
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A board office spokesperson did not respond to questions on the investigation’s cost, but several board members told the Tribune it totaled roughly $28,000.
Board President Sean Harden stood by the investigation Friday, arguing that the leaks created a rift between members and were “acts of bad actors.” He said the majority of the board, which is partly elected, partly appointed, was in favor of conducting an investigation.
“In most cases, when this was done, it was not done to support the district in any positive way,” Harden said of the leaks. “It did not result in anything favorable happening. In almost every case, it supported the division, and it helped erode trust in the community.”
The first leak came in November, when WBEZ reporter Sarah Karp published the names of the two finalists for Chicago Public Schools CEO. After the names became public, one candidate dropped out, and the national search then stalled for months. Then-interim CEO Macquline King was named to the position permanently in March.
Board members had signed nondisclosure agreements barring them from discussing information related to the search, partly to protect candidates’ current employment.
In January, the investigation was expanded to probe who sent screenshots of an internal email to reporter Paris Schutz, then with Fox 32 Chicago, according to the report. The email, addressed to the entire board, announced a December special meeting to vote on a tax increase. Schutz posted the screenshots on social media.
Elected board members Che “Rhymefest” Smith and Ellen Rosenfeld refused to cooperate with the investigation, according to the report. Rosenfeld, who represents District 4B, called the process a “circus.”
“What does this have to do with students, student experience, student outcomes, student joy? Nothing,” Rosenfeld told the Tribune. “I ran on transparency and accountability, and not participating in this witch hunt went right along with the values I promised.”
In a text message to the Tribune, Smith, who represents District 10A on the South Side, called the investigation a “fruitless retribution campaign.”
Others were more sympathetic to the investigation. Board member Debby Pope said she hopes the report discourages her colleagues from sharing confidential information. Pope, like Harden, was appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson.
“It’s not that I like spending money on these things. But if we can’t have confidential discussions in closed session, it really undermines the board,” said Pope, who represents District 2B on the North Side.
The firm also interviewed CEO King, a board staffer and a representative from executive search firm Alma Advisory. Investigators requested to interview Schulz and Karp, but both declined. The investigation was voluntary, so the firm did not have subpoena power, according to the report.
In all, investigators reviewed more than 9,000 documents, according to the board report. The firm considered searching members’ personal cellphones, but most did not give their consent. Four elected board members — Jessica Biggs, Therese Boyle, Jennifer Custer and Carlos Rivas — brought attorneys with them to their interviews.
The firm conceded in its report that the information may have instead come from a source outside of the board.
“We knew this was going to be the outcome from the get-go. How could the investigators actually get to an answer?” said Rivas, who represents District 3B on the Northwest Side. “There’s so much more we could have done with that money.”
Harden pushed back against the notion that the leaks were made in the public interest, referring to both instances as “pre-decisional information being shared out of context.”
“Whatever argument can be made about the journalist’s role, the journalist should not be disruptive in a way that hurts,” he said. “So if that’s your goal and intention, I’m gonna push back on that, because we don’t have time for those games. Our students don’t deserve that.”
But Ben Holden, a media lawyer and a professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, said that asking a reporter to comply with a leak investigation is “bad policy and bad optics.” He stressed that the First Amendment protects journalists from reporting on confidential or classified information.
“As long as there have been governments and journalists, there have been leaks,” Holden said. “Leaks and confidential sources are the bread and butter of first-rate American journalism, and they always have been.”
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