By Lotty Blumenthal

Board vice president Clare Muñana called the meeting to order in the absence President Michael Scott. She awarded a Certificate of Recognition to the Gilda’s Club “Cancer in the Classroom” project run by Gilda’s Club, Chicago. The program provides cancer support for students and will provide counselors in classes or schools. The Club is located at 537 N. Wells and the phone number is 312 454 9900. Hours are Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday, 9 to 3.

Public Participation began at 10:45 a.m. with Muñana reading the rules.

Chicago Teachers Union President Marilyn Stewart told the October 26 Chicago Board of Education meeting that the union was opposed to the forthcoming “giveaway” of the Bunche Elementary School (above) at 6550 S. Ashland. Numerous speakers appear at the monthly meetings of the board complaining about terrible conditions in the schools, yet the board closed Bunche in June 2005 after what was called a “Kangaroo Court” hearing. Bunche had received more than $4 million in rehabilitation during the previous two years. Stewart stated that the rumor was the Bunche had been closed so that the board could give it away to a charter school with clout. At the November 16 Chicago Board of Education meeting, the Bunche building was turned over to a Catholic School, Providence St. Mel’s, as a charter school. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

The first speaker Thomas Ramos, Jr. LSC member of Columbia Explorer and Chair of Curie NCLB committee. He said that Columbia Explorers is overcrowded and has lost computer, art and other classes because of the need for classroom space. Ramos also serves on the Curie High School “No Child Left Behind” committee. He said that the Curie principal has refused to release funds for computer classes sanctioned according to all NCLB rules. Muñana asked James Deanes to have meetings with Ramos and the principals involved.

Dwayne Truss of Austin High School asked about promised physical plant work for the high school and discussed the needs of Rockne Stadium. Operations Chief Sean Murphy gave a status report of both and said he would be at the school to set new priorities.

Rev. Lewis Flowers of the Westside Ministers spoke beyond his time about the need for funds for a pilot program designed by Reverend Gregory Livingston, which Flowers said is to keep Austin area youth off the streets and improve their classroom decorum. He also spoke about physical plant needs. Muñana asked of the status of the pilot program. Flowers said that the Board expected too much of the community without additional funds.

Following Flowers, Marilyn Stewart, President of CTU, spoke saying that the night before she had attended a summit with Arne Duncan. She said that she agreed when, the night before, Duncan had said we need 100 percent certified teachers in all CPS classrooms and more National Board Certified teachers to mentor others in our schools. CPS should be a model for urban public education in the nation, Duncan has been saying. But, Stewart said, the Board’s “actions here are contradictory to the remarks the preceding night.

“You and the Board are accepting new proposals and opening more charter schools, which are only required to have 50 percent certified teachers,” she said. “Why would we use public tax dollars to support schools that do not have certified teachers?” She mentioned that $4.2 million was used to rehab Bunche Elementary School before it was closed despite protests last June. She said that the Board now intended to hand Bunche over to an independent Catholic school while parents begged for repairs to help the school and while the Austin community just spoke about the broken promised repairs for about the same amount.

“How can we propose new schools when we haven’t fixed the existing ones?” she asked.

One observer noted, if they do not fund functioning computer labs, art labs, and other resources for children and teachers at existing schools, then are they deliberately causing low performance at existing schools in order to give them over to favored private sector people through charter schools and other plans? Is the preference like the “Hired truck” preferences in some way? And is the magic lottery that chooses students for the school somehow not choosing their fair share of BD and other special education students — like even public magnet schools must — causing a greater number of special education students in non charter schools? Do charter schools have over 20 percent special education students (like Senn) or 40 percent (like Austin)?

Stewart closed by asking for more CTU partnership schools.

Jitu Brown of Chicago’s Kenwood Oakland Community Organization protested against the closing of the Bunche Elementary School with bunch pupils (above) in February 2005 and was back at the Board in October to remind the board that it still had not developed an adequate policy on school closings. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

Serea Williams of Southside United LSC Federation (#4) and Kassandra Jones, a parent from Julian High school, talked about emergency procedures not followed by CPS administrators in the matter of her daughter being out of school three weeks because of bullying by another student and no one notifying the parent for three weeks. The parent said she had made calls and written letters to which there were no response from school or area officials. They were sent to talk to Donald Pittman, head of high schools.

Neal Resnikoff of the Save Senn Coalition delivered that group’s monthly report on the destruction of Senn by the Board following the opening of the “Rickover Naval Academy” at Senn in September. Resnikoff mentioned the problems caused by overcrowding Senn by CPS by putting in the naval academy which should have its own building instead of disenfranchise the students at Senn. Mr. Resnikoff objected to training students for ill-conceived wars in Iraq and other places with a school that uses corporal punishment and violent language. In addition, he objected to 67 overcrowded classes at Senn High School and noted that all computer labs had been taken away and there will be no gym soon for Senn’s 1,500 students since the one rehabbed gym is only allowed to be used by the naval academy. The “Rickover” gym was repaired by the Board over the summer — while the other gym is not useable and is scheduled to be repaired during the current school year! Other rooms and spaces in the school are also in need of repair, he said. He asked the Board’s intent since it is not treating the students in the two separate schools equally.

Neal Resnikoff (above, wearing cap, at the November 11 Veterans Day anti-war rally at Senn High School) continued the tradition of the Save Senn Coalition at the October 26 Chicago Board of Education meeting. Resnikoff reminded the Board of how much has been stripped away from Senn’s 1,500 students for the benefit of the 100 students in the “Rickover Naval Academy.” Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

Observers noted that once again the Board’s Demographics claims were made to justify a policy that Arne Duncan wanted to put into place, and not to really reflect what was going on in the facility. This problem has been noted here for two years. One previous instance of questionable “Demographics” studies (Donoghue Elementary School) has now been turned into a charter school run by the University of Chicago. In November 2004, the Board’s Demographics department presented claims that Senn has a large amount of available space despite the fact that at the time Senn was one of the 50 largest public schools in Chicago. Who will be next?

Following Senn’s Resnikoff, Michelle McFarland-McDaniels, a parent, asked of the status of an investigation pursuit to a lawsuit over some action. She outlined all the legal procedures followed by her and her lawyer, getting no response for a month. Counsel Rocks gave a lengthy apology and said a response would come to her lawyer by Friday on the next week. These types of questions are raised at school board meetings from time to time and are reported here despite the vague terms in which they are sometimes discussed.

William Dock Walls of CFABC (“Community for a Better Chicago”) cited the fact that the contracts for women and minorities have decreased by more than one half for the last three years, as measured by both the goals and actual payments. Lavern Hall, new to CPS in that area, was called on to meet with Walls and his group. Walls welcomed her to CPS saying it’s like being “Alice in Wonderland” with differences in aims and realities.

Then Frank Corona, also of Community for a Better Chicago, brought up a no-bid contract signed by Duncan (05-1026-Pr 2) for $500,000. According to Corona, the contract was given to some non-minority company, which will use 25 students in what Corona called “slave labor.” Duncan did not seem to know what he had proposed in the Board Report. Muñana asked for a copy of the information. Corona told her it was part of the Board Report for that day (so Board members are not aware of it content before going to closed session). Corona said he advocates “an elected Board instead of this Kangaroo Court.” Muñana thanked him for coming twice — once in English and then in Spanish.

Geroy Carroll and Darryl Handley, students of ACT Charter School, who are president of the Illinois Association of Student Councils and president of the Chicago Region of that organization, then spoke. They told of the advantages of being part of this organization and asked the Board to promote CPS schools to join since of the “88 [high] schools, only ten” are members of the organization. Muñana agreed that they were right and called on High Schools Chief Officer Don Pittman. Pittman stated that many schools did have councils, but did not belong to the state organizations.

Next Salitra Smith of Marquette School cited Illinois law about the powers of the LSC. She said the state did not say the Area Instructional Officer (AIO) has any right to veto any budget actions of the LSC. She said that they are more experienced now and “outside” group will be allowed into the school. She says they know what’s best for their children. “By Hell or High Water” the school will succeed with the programs they choose, she said. She said all groups in the school — LSC, PPLC, and others — are united.

Mildred Brackett of Douglas Academy — representing parents, students and staff — asked that junior high with 9th, 10th, and 11th graders be given high school status. It currently does not have accreditation nor are its extra-curricular programs sanctioned. She said that there was a meeting with High School Chief (Don) Pittman, Duncan’s assistant (David) Pickens, and demographer Jim Dispensa but all community and school people were not allowed in. Pittman talked about sports and said that “David” needed to be there. Muñana asked that the group, which included a few busloads of students with petitions, meet to solve the “complex” problem with Pittman and Pickens.

Howard White of Las Casas High School (serving special education students) said he wanted in writing the same promise that was made in a meeting about the new building for the school to be available by Christmas. Sean Murphy gave a different time line, with moving into the new building at summer of 2006. White then called him a liar twice, saying that was not what was promised. Muñana said that the problem couldn’t be settled here and asked for another meeting. White said he wanted a response in writing since oral statements seem to change.

Next John Michael Johnson and Lawrence Rodgers of Simeon Vocational High School spoke about the problem of the cut in ETC (Education to Careers) classes. Although brought up by Simeon, this problem is actually a problem city wide among all career and tech programs. The Duncan administration downtown, knowing and caring nothing about Illinois regulations or the CTU contract, has decided to trim the budget by cutting 15 X (triple period) vocational classes to 10X (double period), so that students instead of 5X, 10X, 15X classes for a three-year sequence (does anyone downtown know about sequences and accreditation? ) would have 5X, 10X, 10X — eliminating five hours of student instruction. Apparently, the Duncan administration is doing this in order to end teacher overtime pay. A letter from students read by Lawrence Rodgers also mentioned that many time a required number of hours are needed to obtain a job after high school and that the “period” replacing their third class period had no curriculum and no certified teacher to teach them.

Another letter — written by staff, LSC, the business partnerships and alumni — was read stating the many reasons for the unwise situation. Pittman tried to explain the situation, blaming it all on the principal. Muñana had the alums and Pittman meet with Jill Wine-Banks, head of ETC programs, outside.

Pauline Lipman of Teachers for Social Justice spoke about school reform. She mentioned other groups last spring had asked for a school closing policy. CPS has not responded yet. She proposed the same five-point plan, including a year’s notice. She said schools should be transformed instead and questioned the Board’s motives in giving the schools to the private sector without all certified teachers, community input, and benefits given to the private sector.

Jitu Brown of KOCO (Kenwood Oakland Community Organization), with a group from Dyett Middle School, and Amisha Patel of SEIU local 73 both spoke of the hardships created by school closings, especially those which are done at the last minute. They spoke of the spring proposals and the lack of response by the board and administration. At this time, there is no real school closing policy, they said. Patel said she did not know why it is taking the Board so long. Muñana asked attorney Lisa Scruggs, who is working on Renaissance 2010 activities, to meet with all of the people outside.

Judy Dever, a retired teacher and former CTU delegate, spoke about when the board would make a realistic attempt to air-condition existing schools. She cited the fact that every principal, AIO, administrator and Board member had an air-conditioned work cite. However, none of the lunchrooms or classrooms did. She mentioned that she’d never heard of a 25-year, or ten- year, or five-year plan for air conditioning, even though more and more classes were being held during the hottest weather. She asked Muñana if she knew of any plan. Muñana kept asking her to talk to Murphy outside. She never answered Dever’s question.

Next Robert Johnson said that Douglas should have been made a high school 25 years ago. Then he railed at the inadequacy of the special services department to have enough staff to process autistic students and service them properly.

Marlauus Carter of V.O.T.E. talked of the “Decriminalization Forum” that was held, dealing with ex-offenders. He also criticized comments made by security head Andres Durbak and asked that all 1,700 security positions be eliminated. New Board member Roxanne Ward spoke and said that the forum was a good first step toward addressing this problem.

Ann Davis Hill, a grandparent guardian, and La Tanya Norwood, a parent of another student, both complained about what they said was the lack of special education services at Shoesmith Elementary. Hill said that low-income parents like her generated about $95,000 in extra funds, but no services have been given her grandchild. Norwood talked of having no IEP from 2000 until late 2004. Even after the IEP, there were services which are mandated by State and Federal Law, which she called “criminal.” Muñana had them meet outside with Renee Grant-Mitchell, who heads special education.

Elias Guerrero of Locke Elementary School on the northwest side told the board that the school’s so overcrowded that even if they hired more teachers, there’d be no place to put them. Further, developers were building condos and townhouses numbering about 200 that will increase school size more. Muñana asked him to meet with Trujillo and Murphy.

Derrick Harris of the North Lawndale Federation told of his request by Freedom of Information for the number of arrests made in the schools the previous June. He has been denied this information for no good reason since the law does not state it can’t give it to him. He asked Mayor Daley for a meeting with David Vitale, who it was claimed was actually running eight CPS departments administratively. Harris claimed that African-American youth are arrested more than White or Latino students. He did not state whether CPS has more Afro-Americans in school. Muñana promised him a meeting and sent him to talk to others about it. The Board’s attorney, Patrick Rocks, said on July 14th, Harris did receive some data.

Derrick Harris (above, at the September 2004 Chicago Board of Education meeting) told the board on October 26, 2005 that he has been trying for more than five months to get accurate information about the suspensions and arrests of African American students in Chicago’s public schools. Harris charged that arrests are made for routine discipline problems in some schools. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

Tawana Love and Gabrielle Rhymes of DuSable High School spoke of the Leadership Academy Charter School (housed at DuSable) where everyone knows each “other and gets along.” Rhymes demonstrated the “unity circle” used each morning and chanted in Swahili.

Ed Ware, Principal of Langston Hughes Elementary School, talked of the deplorable dilapidation of the school with falling plaster, broken radiators and no heat in two buildings. Sean Murphy blamed the lack of funds on the State of Illinois. Muñana asked about the current problems noting that the new building had not been built although land for it has been bought. Observers noted the millions spent on Bunche ($4 million) and the new Haugan (more than $20 million) before they were turned over to charter schools — while regular CPS students endure these slum-like conditions in schools like Langston Hughes and Locke.

Hardly was Hughes off the agenda than Zoe Mikva — of Canter Middle School in Hyde Park — complained about the delay in construction at her school. Murphy said there was trouble with the general contractor and a subcontractor was fired. Murphy promised some of the construction to be done by November.

Lyn Ma’Ayteh — a parent of Evergreen Academy — brought a petition and contradicted facts given previously by Murphy. Murphy said he investigated and the longest distance was 1.2 miles, too short for bus service. There are eight crossing guards now in place.

Diondall Brown, an Austin Alumna, told of her pro bono service is helping Austin. Some of the students need computer help and college guidance. She is working in the counseling office.

Wanda Taylor a Price Elementary Parent, wanted a resolution to the problem of school starting time. Rachel Resnik took her outside to help resolve the problem. She gave the board a fact sheet.

Finally, Arabella Lopez, of the Salazar bilingual center, spoke to remind the Board of Michael Scott’s promise to find a new school for them. She said that someone from Salazar would return every month to ask of progress so children would have a smooth transition.

After Official Board meeting started, Barbara Eason Watson explained changes in testing, amendments were made to Renaissance 2010 policies and to the law policy before the closed meeting started.

Answer to Letter to the Editor.

Last month in a letter to the editor, Norine Gutekanst, a teacher from InterAmerican Magnet School, took issue with my account of the Retiree luncheon and the fact that I stated Mary Sharon Reilly was an independent candidate for pension trustee with past experience as a Pension Board President and that Pat Knazze was the current President. When I went to press, Reilly had not yet been endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union. In addition, my criterion was to mention only those with experience as a pension board president. If my criteria had been to mention those with the most experience as administrators, I would’ve mentioned the three men endorsed by the Retired Teachers Association of Chicago (RTAC). If my criterion was best math background, I would’ve mentioned the other woman who was an independent. If the criterion were the most classroom experience I would’ve mentioned all the women except one. I hope the writer is happy that the three men endorsed by RTAC won over the candidates endorse by the CTU — which included women. A majority of retirees are women.