NEAR WEST SIDE — After failing to agree on who to hire as their new principal, Andrew Jackson Language Academy's Local School Council will now let a CPS administrator decide who should lead the school.
The council, which previously split their votes between two candidates, voted Thursday night to kick the principal decision to CPS leaders in accordance with district rules, confirmed Angela Bryant, council chairwoman.
The group was split in its decision to award a four-year principal contract to either Ginger Hiltz or Marilou Rebolledo.
The council will now submit a list of candidates to interim CPS CEO Jesse Ruiz, who will then name a new principal, according to CPS rules. Ruiz was named to the top CPS post Friday after Barbara Byrd-Bennett, facing a federal grand jury investigation, stepped down.
At a meeting last week, the Andrew Jackson Local School Council deadlocked. Six council members voted in favor of appointing Hiltz to the post; two opposed the appointment and two abstained from voting. In a separate vote, three council members voted in favor of Rebolledo, six opposed and one abstained, according to Bryant.
The council is required to have seven votes to select a candidate.
Hiltz is a teacher who served as resident principal, a principal-in-training post, at Phillip Rogers Elementary School, this school year. She previously worked at Andrew Jackson. Hiltz was one of three finalists considered for the principal role at at Helen C. Peirce Elementary School in Andersonville, but the school's board ultimately hired another candidate.
Many parents supported Rebolledo, the interim principal at Andrew Jackson. She previously served as Jackson's resident principal, and also taught for years at the school.
More than 100 parents showed up to the special meeting Thursday night, according to Jackson parent Christine DeSanto, who said there was "huge support" for Rebolledo.
In January, CPS officials announced that Andrew Jackson Principal Mathew Ditto would be leaving the post that month for an administrative role within the district.
In November 2014, the school was at the center of a CPS controversy after racy sex ed slides were displayed at a school meeting.
Andrew Jackson, a lottery-admission school, is one of the toughest for a student to get into and has long posted some of the top test scores in the city.
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