Angry flashes at April 25 Chicago Board of Education meeting... 

    By George N. Schmidt
    As several people predicted, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, through his appointed schools chiefs Arne Duncan and Rufus Williams, has been attempting to remove the powers of Chicago’s Local School Councils (LSC) by changing state law in Springfield during the current legislative session.

    Yet despite attempts by both Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan and Board of Education President Rufus Williams to find legislators willing to sponsor the legislation or to tack and amendment on to an existing bill to do the job, as April ended several prominent legislators had refused to do so, and other influential people had spoken out against the attempt.

April 25, 2007. Valencia Rias of Designs for Change and the South Side LSC Federation talks to reporters, including the Tribune’s Tracey Dell’Angela (second from right) outside the April 25 Board of Education meeting. Earlier, Rias had denounced Arne Duncan and Rufus Williams for “shopping” in Springfield on April 20 to find a legislator who would sponsor legislation that would remove power from Chicago’s local school councils. The move to change the law was predicted two months ago when the Chicago Sun-Times joined Mayor Richard M. Daley in using a disagreement over principal selection at Curie High School to try and bring all 575 schools with LSCs under the control of the mayor or his appointees. As of Substance press time May 1, no legislator had agreed to sponsor the changes, and several prominent political leaders had opposed any changes in the current situation. Substance photo.

    “You have betrayed our trust,” an angry Valencia Rias told the Chicago Board of Education’s April 25 meeting. Rias said that she and others had been working with CPS officials to try and fashion a compromise to a school overcrowding bill presently before the Illinois General Assembly. At the same time, in what she characterized as a double cross, she said that Arne Duncan and Rufus Williams had been talking to legislators about curtailing the powers of local school councils.

    After walking out of the Board meeting, Rias spoke to the press, which covered the story in detail. On Monday, April 30, activists met at the offices of PURE to continue monitoring the situation in Springfield. According to Julie Woestehoff of PURE, as of May 1 there had still been no language introduced in the Illinois General Assembly to change the current law. If the law is not changed this session, LSC elections will be hald next April under the current terms of LSC power.

April 25, 2007. After telling the Board that his patience had been exhausted, Rev. Lewis Flowers of the West Side Ministers Coalition angrily denounced CEO Arne Duncan and Board President Rufus Williams for betraying the Austin community by developing plons for Austin High School that excluded community leaders. Substance photo.

    On of the main things that activists have been warning against is an attempt by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley to gain more control over potential patronage through the appointment of principals. At the present time, 575 Chicago public school principals are selected by local school councils. An elementary local school council in Chicago consistes of ten members plus the school principal. Six are parents; two are community residents; and two are teachers. In the high schools, a student is also an LSC member, but the student can’t vote on the principal’s contract. LSCs were begun in 1989 under the first school reform law.