Ted Kimbrough

Early life and education

Kimbrough was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in nearby Evanston, Illinois. He took office the following month. Some educators praised progress made under Kimbrough's superintendency. During their nationwide search for a new superintendent, school officials had expressed interest in choosing a Black superintendent, since over sixty percent of enrolled students were Black at the time. Kimbrough was given a $175,000 salary for his four-year contract, which was $75,000 more than the previous permanent superintendent, Manford Byrd Jr., and made Kimbrough one of the highest-paid school superintendents in the United States. The New York Times also described the reformed role of superintendent under this plan as, "likely to be far different from any other in the country", as the central Chicago Board of Education relinquished most of its central budgetary and hiring authority, and was instead tasked with focusing on setting policy, and arranging centralized efforts (such as busing, testing, and providing oversight to the work of the Local School Councils). The overall role of the superintendent under this new scheme was not entirely defined at the time Kimbrough was appointed, but was overall tasked with putting in place policies for the central Chicago Board of Education. The Chicago Sun-Times would later describe his tenure as "tumultuous". In 1993, Kimbrough was abruptly fired on January 27, 1993, by a vote of the Chicago Board of Education to discontinue his contract. The board stated their reason for this was that he had failed to adhere to their directives. Kimbrough was bought out of his contract for $286,500 in February 1997. His tenure ended on February 20, 1997. Kimbrough retired as an educator thereafter, ending his 40-year career in education.

Personal life and death

Kimbrough was married, and had nine children. Kimbrough died of complications from Alzheimer's disease at the age of 83 on April 16, 2018, in Los Angeles.