José M. Torres (March 29, 1960 – May 2, 2025) was an American educator who served as the interim

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Chicago Public Schools Chicago Public Schools (CPS), officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons, in Chicago, Illinois, is the List of the largest school districts in the United States by enrollment, fourth-large ...

(its superintendent position), superintendent of the Elgin Area School District U46, and superintendent of the San Ysidro Elementary School District. He also served as president of the

Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, or IMSA, is a three-year residential public secondary education institution in Aurora, Illinois, United States, with an enrollment of approximately 650 students. Enrollment is generally offered to in ...

Early life and education

Torres was born on March 29, 1960 in La Playita, Santurce,

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. Torres earned a master's degree in education as well as a doctorate in education policy, planning and administration from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Career

Torres was a fellow at the

Harvard Graduate School of Education The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is the education school of Harvard University, a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1920, it was the first school to grant the EdD degree and the first ...

Early career

Torres started his career by working as a

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teacher and a human relations specialist for

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's Montgomery County Public Schools. He spent only a year in this position, teaching language classes, before moving into administrative roles. He held top administrative roles in Baltimore City Public Schools and the National Association of State Boards of Education. Torres was an associated superintendent of the San Jose Unified School District in 2000 and 2001. He served as superintendent of the San Ysidro Elementary School District in 2001 and 2002. The school board fired him after only six months, citing his "problematic" leadership style as their reason. Torres worked as assistant superintendent for student services in Maryland's

Anne Arundel County Public Schools Anne Arundel County Public Schools is the public school district serving all of Anne Arundel County, Maryland. With over 85,000 students and 126 schools, the AACPS school system is the 4th largest in Maryland and the List of the largest schoo ...

from 2003 through 2006. Torres would be made a regional superintendent for Chicago Public Schools, putting him in charge of 25 schools on the city's South Side. He held this role from 2006 through 2008. In 2005, Torres was a fellow with the Eli Broad Urban Superintendents Academy.

Superintendent of Elgin Area School District U46

Torres spent six years as the superintendent of Elgin Area School District U46 in

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, Illinois, the state's second-largest school district. He served in this position from 2008 through 2014. He was credited with implementing a dual language in the school district, in which roughly one-third of students were English language learners (unable to effectively be taught in English, or communicate fluently in English). During his tenure, Torres was also credited with roughly quadrupling the number of people of color holding appointed principal positions. Many of those he appointed were

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

. Torres received mixed reception from the community for his decision to implement a grading system that made it so that students could not receive zero-percent grades for work.

President of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Torres spent more than six years as president of the

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, retiring at the end of the 2021 school year. He held this role from 2014 through April 2021. During his tenure, the school had to endure losing access to a large portion of its funding during Illinois Budget Impasse, while the school was in the process of expanding.

Interim CEO of Chicago Public Schools

Two days after retiring, Torres was offered an opportunity to serve as the interim CEO of Chicago Public Schools. He accepted, and it was announced July 12, 2021 that

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Lori Lightfoot Lori Elaine Lightfoot (born August 4, 1962) is an American politician and attorney who was the mayor of Chicago#List of mayors, 56th mayor of Chicago from 2019 until 2023. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, she ...

had (in consultation with

Miguel del Valle Miguel del Valle (born July 24, 1951) is an Americans, American politician who has served in various roles in municipal and state government in Chicago. He was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1987, becoming the first Hispanic member of the body, ...

, the

president of the Chicago Board of Education The Chicago Board of Education is led by a president. Since the 1995 Chicago School Reform Amendatory Act went into effect, the president has been directly appointed by the mayor of Chicago, rather than being elected among the members of the bo ...

) chosen him to, pending the approval of the

Chicago Board of Education The Chicago Board of Education serves as the board of education (school board) for the Chicago Public Schools. The board traces its origins to the Board of School Inspectors, created in 1837. The board is currently made up of 11 members appoin ...

, be the school district's interim CEO once Janice K. Jackson retired from the position. It was stated that he was not a contender to fill the role permanently. Torres assumed office on July 1, 2021. Torres had made it clear upon his appointment that reopening the schools for in-person instruction was a top priority of his. Some parents and educators expressed concern with how close to the planned reopening of schools he waited before unveiling Chicago Public Schools' planned

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

safety protocols, however, Torres stated that they had held off on releasing their plans so as to not move "too far ahead" of their negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union regarding safety precautions. In late August, Torres expressed his belief that Chicago Public Schools was "very close" to having an agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union on this matter. Torres expressed that he was dedicated to improving what he regarded to be a "broken" relationship between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union. On September 15, 2021, Mayor Lightfoot announced that Pedro Martinez would be succeeding Torres, being appointed the permanent CEO. Martinez took office September 29, ending Torres's tenure as acting superintendent.

Personal life and death

Torres' wife, Isabel Torres, is a teacher and instructional coach. Torres died on May 2, 2025 at the age of 65. He was survived by his wife and three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Torres, Jose 1960 births 2025 deaths CEOs of Chicago Public Schools Puerto Rican educators Educators from California Educators from Illinois University of Maryland, College Park alumni Elgin Area School District U46