New Proviso Township High Schools Superintendent Krish Mohip said he visited over 50 classrooms in his first week on the job, but the system’s new leader has now also received a crash course in local politics.
Mohip presided over his first District 209 Board of Education meeting Dec. 10 at Proviso Math and Science Academy after settling into the superintendent’s chair earlier this month, marking the end to more than a year of uncertainty following the resignation of embattled former Superintendent James Henderson in August of 2023.
Mohip takes over leadership of D209 with more than 20 years of experience in urban education, including in Ohio and a recent stint as a leader for the Illinois State Board of Education.
“I’m extremely excited to be here,” Mohip said. “The work that I’ve done in Chicago and in Youngstown is really centered around helping schools that were struggling, schools that were not preforming, and finding ways to bring communities together, bring schools, teachers, students and parents together to really find the recipe to success.
D209 Board president Sam Valtierrez welcomed Mohip and expressed confidence in his experience and vision for the district.
“Krish Mohip is here to do great things,” Valtierrez said. “You guys can think whatever, but when I have that assurance, and those who are spiritually led or believe in a higher being or Christ or God, you guys know what I’m saying, that discernment. Maybe, it’s just me, but Krish is here to do something great and I want my board to support that.”
The board’s search to fill the seat was contentious at times, including during the April 2024 meeting in which Mohip was announced as a finalist for the job. In the meeting, board member Arbdella Patterson suggested that the search was “unfair,” that the board had wasted $30,000 on the firm that performed the search and that the entire process should be done over.
Tensions persist
The search was paused shortly after, with board members Amanda Grant and David Ocampo both telling The Forest ParkReview that “political pressure” had made it very difficult for the board to reach a consensus on a candidate.
Mohip’s first public meeting as superintendent began tensely as well, with Proviso Township Trustee Gay Chase reading a stern address for the board, and one for Mohip, written by Maywood Mayor Nathanial Booker into the record during the public comments portion of the meeting. Booker’s address criticized the way in which the board handled the search, calling the manner in which they appointed Mohip a “great disrespect to the community.”
“Take note to the way you were pushed through as a caution, as quick as you came is as quick as you can leave,” Booker’s statement read. “Shifting the culture and providing effective and transparent leadership will make the community fall in love with you much sooner than holding meetings to sell yourself. Your selling point will be your results not your smile.”
The Forest Park Review also received a news release Monday morning, saying that Proviso Township parents had planned to walk out of the meeting in protest of Mohip’s appointment, but no such protest materialized that evening.
Mohip’s record
Mohip began his career as a Chicago Public Schools kindergarten teacher before becoming the sprawling system’s youngest principal at age 27, according to Mohip’s biography on the website for the education consulting agency he co-founded. He was promoted to be Chicago’s deputy chief of schools in 2013 then promoted again to be the city’s chief of schools a year later, according to the resume Mohip provided the school board.
In 2016, Mohip left Chicago to serve as CEO of Schools in Youngstown, OH after the Ohio Legislature passed a controversial law putting the struggling district under state control. Mohip touts a 14% increase in the systems’ high school graduation rate over his three years in the role as one of his major accomplishments in the Buckeye State, according to his resume.
Mohip returned to Illinois in 2019 to work for the Illinois State Board of Education, where he first served as one of the state’s deputy chief education officers. In January of 2023, the ISBE elevated Mohip to interim state superintendent, where he served as the highest education administrator in the state for two months before the ISBE appointed Tony Sanders. Mohip called his time as interim state superintendent “the honor of my life” on Monday.
Mohip spent his final year with the ISBE as chief education officer, according to his resume.
This year, Mohip was also a finalist to be superintendent of the East Baton Rouge Parish Schools, the second largest traditional school district in Louisiana, but withdrew his candidacy in July, according to The Advocate. In 2022, Mohip was also a finalist for the Philadelphia Schools superintendent position, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
He takes over from interim Supt. Alexander Aschoff. The board finished Monday’s meeting by gifting Aschoff a Proviso lettermen’s jacket as a token of appreciation for his leadership over the past year.
Mohip mentioned improving the experiences of English as a Second Language Students, bolstering the district’s financial transparency policies and driving improvement in Proviso Township High Schools students’ performance on standardized tests and advanced placement classes as goals for his time leading the district.
“We are going to ensure that we see growth every single year,” Mohip said. “I’m already inspired by what I’ve seen.”