Home 
Past Issues October 2005 BoardWatch May-June 2005
| BoardWatch May-June 2005 |
|
|
|
|
By Lotty Blumenthal [Editor’s Note: This is an abbreviated report on the public participation portions of the monthly meetings of the Chicago Board of Education in May and June 2005. In November, Substance will have reorganized “Boardwatch” and bring our readers up-to-date. We are also planning to offer a more comprehensive report on the major expenses approved each month by the Chicago Board of Education, a topic that is never reported in the news]. May 25: The Public Participation started at 11:15 a.m. with 27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett wasting the first two minutes thanking the board members for donating their time. Then he spoke for four more minutes asking for a change in policy for the Skinner and Payton Magnets in his ward. Burnett noted that not enough students from his ward were being allowed to attend these prestigious schools. Since they were built with TIF tax money from his ward alone, he asked that a percentage of enrollment be reserved for qualified students from his ward. May Toy spoke on the same subject of the Skinner, and Arne Duncan replied to them that he would look into the policy of Skinner. Reverend Gregory Livingston of the West Side Ministers Coalition asked to be part of the Austin TAC process and proposed that there be an alternative school — a Freshman Academy — in the Austin neighborhood for those being excluded from Austin. The problem began in September 2004, when the Board eliminated 9th grade at Austin, supposedly to allow the school to reorganize during the year. The potential 9th graders were dispersed as far east as Wells High School, where they caused considerable disruption, and to several other schools east of Austin. This idea would stop the sending of groups of 50 to100 Austin students to schools far away, often where rival gangs matriculate. It would decrease the violence in those schools (possibly saving taxpayers the increased police and ambulance services) and enable the community which is familiar with its problems to attempt to help the students solve those problems before moving onto the 10th through 12th grades. This proposal would help mitigate problems citywide. Rebecca Sanderson spoke about Austin’s after-school program. Pamela Galloway and Shermaine Brown of Robeson High School spoke of the need for the hole in a wall to be fixed, the roof fixed to reclaim classrooms and other problems with the building. They also asked the board to add security, a counselor, social worker, psychologist, text books, computers, and lockers since their enrollment will increase to 1700 during the 2005-2006 school year because they are getting the 9th graders from Englewood High School. Adding to the tension, the speakers stated, now there are only 600 lockers at Robeson — with two or three students sharing each of them. One has to wonder, why would you transfer a great number of freshmen in need of much help to a building that is already crowded (1400-1700 is not a small school), has a damaged physical plant, and does not have enough lockers or other resources? Kathy Smith-Dale returned to the Board to complain about the Principal of King “College Prep High School.” She said the principal was suspending and trying to expel her son so she could replace the mother on the LSC. She said that after she hired a lawyer, Counsel Rocks, with interest shown by Scott, cancelled the suspension after the young man suffered the loss of the ten days. Scott did not say whether the young man’s record was expunged or that he received an apology. Some observers noted off-the-record that the situation has been more complex than is being reported at the Board of Education. Next Enid Becker and Angie Wells spoke of the confusion for those students in the special education programs at LeMoyne. The LeMoyne story was reported extensively in the June Substance (now available on the Substance website at www.substancenews.com). Gregg Harris, dressed in his professional clown costume, and Okema Lewis spoke about papers for Title 1 financing that were delivered to the Board Offices and had disappeared. They asked that the papers be found or replaced, and then they both asked for restoration of chapter 1 funds for parent training for charter school parents. Lewis likened her request at the Board meeting to be like their going to Springfield, requesting that the funds not “Be categorically denied because of the messenger.” Heather Smith Douglas spoke on behalf of a large crowd from Irving Park School about what she termed “is a city wide problem” — the highly publicized termination of teachers by principals at the end of the school year. She spoke about the new policy that principals can fire teachers without tenure, even those with four or more years honorable service, without cause and reason. According to reports, 1,100 teachers were fired in April. At Irving Park, the principal who is leaving, fired three third year teachers who the parents, faculty, and all consider superior teachers. Parents standing for the Board meeting agreed. There was no budget problem since five or six teachers are retiring. The principal fired them apparently out of spite for losing her job. Douglas said this left the LSC and the school with the challenge of replacing the principal, the retirees, and three superior teachers as well. She asked the Board for an investigation and the reversal of the firings. She said the firings were “Unwarranted, unwanted, and unjustified.” She asked for a committee to be created to monitor principals and the abuse of power. She said “we need a system that makes principals accountable for the decisions that they make.” According to Smith-Douglas, the teacher evaluations for one was Superior for three years. The Board was asked why the evaluations meant nothing. When questioning the system, Board member Norman Bobbins spoke — and spoke as if he weren’t listening. He said that LSCs were responsible for principal selection and principals needed to chose a team they could work with. He stated that the Board could not fire principals unless they were caught in malfeasance, apparently ignoring the fact that the principal in question had been replaced by the LSC, and that a Board policy now allowed the principal to retaliate against everyone at the end of the school year. Observers noted that Bobbins’ statement is untrue since principals can be fired for any of the same reasons for which teachers are fired under the Board’s employee discipline code. These reasons range from being consistently late or leaving early to criminal activities. Then Michael Scott, defending the “system,” said that one should not throw out the baby with the dishwater. A chorus of voices corrected him. Neal Resnikoff of the Save Senn coalition spoke of the great amount of dislike in the community for adding another military program in their progressive community when many groups in the community do not want it. He blamed the increase in militarism on the fact that the military is having trouble with their recruiting quotas and the wisdom of separate and unequal treatment of students in the same building. One group of students will have the physical plant renovated, will have new books, computers, and their own librarian, while one librarian was “fired” to make way for one for the naval academy’s few hundred enrollees. The chaqnges will leave the remaining librarian to service the 1700 other students. He noted that what remains of Senn — other group of students — will be housed in a building of peeling paint, the only photo copy machine not working, caved in floors, either old or no computers, outdated, ragged books, and overcrowded classes. Eben Credit who identified himself from the NAACP, repeated his request asking the Board to meet with school leaders and the problems Julian High School was having with CPS administrators. Daryl Wolford also spoke lauding the former principal of Julian High School. Howard White spoke about Las Casas High School parents not wanting their school to share another facility with another high school. Ruth Lopez spoke about the fact that the 350 students in an Early Childhood Center on the Northwest Side be kept open even though their building which is rented is going to be sold by the landlord. During the summer, the State of Illinois sent $11 million dollars to Chicago for early childhood. While closing some public school early childhood sites and taking away 1.2 million in staff from the rest of CPS early childhood places, who or whatever makes such decisions is planning to give the entire 11 million from the State to private early childhood centers with no oversight of the spending. If any of these private locations are religion dominated, that would be an illegal use of public tax dollars. June 22 Board Meeting. The Public Participation started with a group of speakers from Velma Thomas pre-school, which is completely being closed because it is full day pre-k (no one knows why it is not just being switched to half day). Michael Stewart presented petitions against closing the pre-school. Priscilla Dixon and Gerry Sullivan spoke about the successes of the program and the small amount needed to keep it open. The State of Illinois has given Chicago $11 million dollars for pre-schools. None of it going to Velma Thomas nor any other Pre-school in danger of being closed. In fact, $1.2 million in services are being cut from “our” pre-schools in addition to the closings, so funds are not being directed from the closed schools to help the remaining programs. All of it is apparently going to “private” schools with no oversight. Some from Velma Thomas may think this is an agenda. Diondai Brown of the Austin Alumni cited the school’s 115th Anniversary and thanked the Board for eye glasses for students. Dwayne Truss of Westinghouse talked about the need for ETC (education to careers) programs in the new Westinghouse curriculum development and the importance of deterring unemployment. He said such programs were a necessity on the West side. Terrance Stroud talked of the CPS owing him money from a paid internship served at King College Prep. Queen Tiye Searles spoke about the violation of her due process rights when CPS administration used some wrongful procedures when a principal at a high school wrongfully dismissed her from her job. Legal Counsel Rocks felt her statements were erroneous but said he hadn’t studied the case. Searles talked of a computer site called justiceforteachers.com. [A letter regarding the issue was published in the September Substance.] Karlene Mostek of the Save Senn Coalition spoke about the facts that have impacted all of Senn because of the invasion of the Naval Academy on the Senn homeland. Mostek said that 18 teaching positions have been lost from the regular staff. Facilities such as a computer lab have been lost to the naval academy, and no new lab has been built for the 1700 regular students, depriving them of their previous educational opportunities. A “campus manager” has been “appointed” so that the naval academy will not be under the school administration. At a meeting at Loyola, which probably has some CPS money paid for the meetings held there, two teachers were threatened with arrest for publicizing Senn college prep programs, while parents were given a talk about how the naval academy was a “college prep” options. Parents voices were not heard, special education class sizes were not counted in the determination of school enrollment statistics. The administration was polite to her, but unswerving in their intention in destroying Senn. Derrick Harris talked of the difficulty of getting freedom of information requests from the Board. The list of names of consultants for next year’s budget has still not been published. FOI requests are being unanswered. PURE has a similar problem with CPS. Paul McKinley talked about the rules at Mason Elementary resulting in overzealous people sending students to police stations. He told Duncan “You are the problem.” Fred Hampton Jr. made a tirade against Duncan that was an attempt to lure him into a conflict about Mason sending disruptive, disorderly students to jail. Scott made some of the answers and then saw to it that no one like security entered the confrontational demeanor of Hampton. Then Donna K. Lewis spoke as chairperson of the Mason LSC with the LSC and others from the school backing her. She stated that in various melees the previous speakers gave wrong numbers. No “250 students” were ever arrested or sent to jail at Mason. During various violent actions during the entire year, 14 students were arrested, but not by the school. And she reminded the Board that when there is criminal activity, there are victims as well as those being arrested. She said that parents of attacked students pressed the charges. She said, “The LSC and the school deserve a public apology” from those who made the false allegations. She said “The LSC stands behind this demand 100 percent.” Alfred Rogers spoke about working together at Southwest side schools like Gage Park High School and Morrill. Consuelo Paredes of Duprey talked of mix ups in the transportation and transfer of students from Duprey and Nixon and back again. Hoi Huynh, who said she became a fired teacher based on unproven allegations, spoke about the importance of serving society by helping the young. Lisa Smith and Star Smith spoke of the importance of keeping pre-k programs at Depriest at full day. Remember, CPS is cutting public pre-schools while giving $11 million earmarked for pre-k programs from the State of Illinois to only private schools. This reporter spoke as a taxpayer not wanting any more tax payer money to be spent on “studies” which could have been done in-house. I especially asked that no more funds be given to Melissa Roderick who produced a study under the aegis of a private university that told us what we’ve known for 20 or more years: Latino students go to college less than other groups. A public university — the University of Illinois at Chicago — has had a department, LARES, dealing with this problem for over 20 years because it knew of the problem. Critics charged that the numbers in the Roderick study were in error. According to news reports, Duncan told the Chicago City Council Education Committee he wanted to use the study “As a bench mark.” I suggested he find out that statistics that vary can’t be a benchmark and that if taxpayers gave Roderick and her group another $159,000, she might find “round things are wheels.” She also criticized students who went to school and took 5-7 years to get a degree — showing she does not understand working one’s way through college because you can’t get a college loan to supplement Pell Grants because your parents are unemployed. The $159,000 could have bought 3 bilingual counselors to solve the already known problem or a new CEO for CPS. Scott he’d be more likely to listen more if I were less sarcastic. Does that mean that he does listen to those who are not sarcastic? |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|