So I set out to learn more… not sensational headlines, not the politics, but the person because school leaders don’t have time for fluff. Principals and assistant principals want honesty, clarity, and a plan. Someone who won’t disappear when the pressure hits. Someone who can help make sense of what lies ahead. What I found in Harden wasn’t a showman, but a strategist. Someone unimpressed by titles but respectful of roles. Someone who knows this city well enough to navigate its complexity but isn’t beholden to the ways and relationships of the past. Beneath the measured exterior, he has the temperament and heart to actually do what he says he wants to do and what CPS parents have said they want him to do. He seems to know exactly where we are and how we got here, but also where he’s standing, and more importantly, where he’s trying to go. In a city that can feel like a maze with no exits, Sean Harden doesn’t pretend to have all the answers. But he moves like someone holding a map—not just for himself, but for the rest of us trying to find the way forward.
CPAA IS VOICE AND POWER REALIZED • 33
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