Thursday Morning News
1 killed, 1 wounded in separate shootings Chicago Tribune
The vehicle struck a mobile unit, which houses three or four classrooms outside the school to alleviate crowding, said Chicago Public Schools spokesman ...
Management change at N. Side charter school angers parents Chi-Town Daily News
Asian Human Services will continue to hold the charter and operate the school administratively, but American Quality Schools will operate the educational side. American Quality Schools already runs six schools in Chicago, including five Chicago International Charter Schools.
No property tax increase for CPS ABC7Chicago.com
You cannot do that year after year and maintain our great credit rating with the rating agency," said Arne Duncan, Chicago Public Schools CEO. ...
Schools budget balanced without higher taxes Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Public Schools will also put off until next summer its annual bond issue for capital programs. That will save $35 million in borrowing costs. ...
South Holland Resident Uses Martial Arts To Promote Success The Shopper Online
Jordan and his organization, AMASA founded in 2003, have partnered with the Chicago Public Schools to empower Chicago youth. ...
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Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 12:11 PM
Thursday Morning News
The mayor was asked what finally convinced him that taxpayers were at the breaking point?
“When I saw layoffs at Tribune. When you start seeing layoffs in the newspaper industry, that’s a big sign....That says a lot....
That's just priceless. The layoffs at the Trib were caused by a leveraged buyout that added lots of debt to its billionaire owner. It has absolutely nothing to do with John and Jane Taxpayer trying to get by in the increasingly expensive city of Chicago.
“When I saw layoffs at Tribune. When you start seeing layoffs in the newspaper industry, that’s a big sign....That says a lot....
That's just priceless. The layoffs at the Trib were caused by a leveraged buyout that added lots of debt to its billionaire owner. It has absolutely nothing to do with John and Jane Taxpayer trying to get by in the increasingly expensive city of Chicago.
Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 2:11 PM
Thursday Morning News
The Mayor's comment is hilarious! Where has he been? He just now notices the Trib has been laying off because they're laying off reporters? The Trib has been laying off for several years already, the little guys who aren't reporters....... And as far as not raising property taxes again, what -- will we be hit with a double whammy in the near future? Because that's how it usually works. Sounds like "vote for me" in other words. At the rate it's going, there won't be any big newspapers left to print those big headlines and stories about the Olympics.
Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 3:07 PM
Thursday Morning News
Mayor Daley actually did a great job at the PR conference, he got out the CPS story CPS and he wanted. The offical line was no property tax increase because people in Chicago are hurting, CPS is using it reserves and is not cuting anything from local schools.
Well guess what boys and girls some of us over here on Clark Street have just seen this budget. On page 74 we learn CPS has eliminated 330 union teaching positions in schools and 390 unionized aides in schools. The budget does not consider these to be cuts, rather they are reductions based on enrollment declines. The teachers cut from schools will based on our contract be sent to city-wide positions for one year.
So you all out there are making fun of Daley, who are the real fools here? By the way in the Fall of 2006 CPS had only a total of 413,694 students in the Fall of 2007 we were down to 408,601 (page 102 of budget). This number includes students in charters and contract schools I understand. This loss of 5,093 students represents a one year loss of 1% of the system's kids. Since September of 2002 we have lost 29,922 students or 7% of our enrollment, including students in charters. This is no joking matter for all of us.
More over despite CPS's endless campaigns to get kids to come to school, guess what they are not going. The attendance rate has fallen to a 12 year low of 91.2%, with high schools at 84.2% (page 103 of budget). So Daley was amazing, the media completely missed the larger story, this was what he and Duncan wanted.
Well guess what boys and girls some of us over here on Clark Street have just seen this budget. On page 74 we learn CPS has eliminated 330 union teaching positions in schools and 390 unionized aides in schools. The budget does not consider these to be cuts, rather they are reductions based on enrollment declines. The teachers cut from schools will based on our contract be sent to city-wide positions for one year.
So you all out there are making fun of Daley, who are the real fools here? By the way in the Fall of 2006 CPS had only a total of 413,694 students in the Fall of 2007 we were down to 408,601 (page 102 of budget). This number includes students in charters and contract schools I understand. This loss of 5,093 students represents a one year loss of 1% of the system's kids. Since September of 2002 we have lost 29,922 students or 7% of our enrollment, including students in charters. This is no joking matter for all of us.
More over despite CPS's endless campaigns to get kids to come to school, guess what they are not going. The attendance rate has fallen to a 12 year low of 91.2%, with high schools at 84.2% (page 103 of budget). So Daley was amazing, the media completely missed the larger story, this was what he and Duncan wanted.
Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 3:46 PM
Thursday Morning News
How many teachers are retiring this year?
How many teachers are assigned to regional offices?
How many science positions were cut?
I can not understand a reduction in aides. Special education aides are usually funded by special education funds.
How many teachers are assigned to regional offices?
How many science positions were cut?
I can not understand a reduction in aides. Special education aides are usually funded by special education funds.
Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 4:17 PM
Thursday Morning News
You need to get a copy of the budget. There is no break down of the school based position reductions. I assume CPS will put the budget on line at some point. The paper copy of the budget is 359 pages long. What the budget has is a table on page 74. On that table titled "CPS All Positions by Location" there are administrative positions covering central office, area office personnel, and capital funded positions. All the capital funded positions which are related to IMPACT were moved to the central office budget. So according this table only 2 central office FTE's were cut.
Then you have school based positions including teachers, APs, Principals, school based support personnel. These totaled 37,966 and that was 702 positions cut from FY08. According to the text teaching positions cut in schools were moved to citywide. This city wide sector grew by 305 positions.
Total position for CPS in FY 2008 were 43,879 in FY09 they are 43,391 a reduction of 488 positions in all.
Because of the teaching staff positions are unfilled and teachers have walked out CPS claims to save money the write: "actual teacher salaries in FY2008 are projected to be $1,943.8 million, due to teacher turnover and vacancies." They inform the reader CPS had actually budgeted $2,016.2 million for these salaries in FY 08. We should all think about that passage for sure.
Then you have school based positions including teachers, APs, Principals, school based support personnel. These totaled 37,966 and that was 702 positions cut from FY08. According to the text teaching positions cut in schools were moved to citywide. This city wide sector grew by 305 positions.
Total position for CPS in FY 2008 were 43,879 in FY09 they are 43,391 a reduction of 488 positions in all.
Because of the teaching staff positions are unfilled and teachers have walked out CPS claims to save money the write: "actual teacher salaries in FY2008 are projected to be $1,943.8 million, due to teacher turnover and vacancies." They inform the reader CPS had actually budgeted $2,016.2 million for these salaries in FY 08. We should all think about that passage for sure.
Sat Jul 26, 2008 at 4:11 AM
Thursday Morning News
The biggest lie in the press conference was the way CPS and Daley placed the spin in advance in the Tribune article on the use of the Reserve to cover the "shortfall" (that was the thing Arne called a "deficit" back in February until I asked the question about how you could have a $200 million "deficit" when you had a Reserve of more than $400 million and they had to retool the spin).
Four years ago, the Reserve was around $200 million.
This year it's $480 million.
Four years ago, Arne said the Board was required to maintain a Reserve of "five percent" (supposedly of the total budget, which then and now was around $5 to $6 billion, depending upon whether they put in the capital budget or not), which was around $250 million. But that's not what Standard and Poors, Moody's, and Fitch told me when they were asked. They said their ratings were only partly based on the Reserve, and that consistency of management and other factors were as important or more so. When Moody's raised the CPS bond rating last November, they didn't even mention the Reserve. The sellout contract that Marilyn Stewart had give Mayor Daley and CPS was the big reason why Wall Street raised the CPS bond rating. No mention of the Reserve.
By last winter (when Arne tried that last claim about a "deficit" even though there was none), the Reserve had broken $400 million and was heading to $500 million (which would have brought it to ten percent of the total operations budget), so Arne began claiming that Wall Street demanded a Reserve of "between five percent and fifteen percent" (again, not true).
Wall Street (i.e., the three ratings services) has not demanded any fixed percentage (of whatever "budget" base line CPS has -- $5 billion or $6 billion) for more than five years, if it ever did. Read their stuff, and ask them. The last thing they want to be accused of is manipulating these things to force privatization and austerity, so they talk about things like "comfortable" levels of Reserves.
The most interesting thing about the Wednesday press conference at City Hall was that every other reporter had already bought into the City Hall line that the "Reserve" was precarious and that tapping into the "Reserve" was one of those last minute OHMYGOD things that only a hero like Mayor Daley would think of doing.
Maybe thinking about numbers and percentages are too much for most of the members of the City Hall news teams at this point. So far, I haven't read one article that sources any claim about the CPS Reserve except from City Hall PR and CPS PR. The way this story was told, at least this time around, had more to do with the totalitarian silliness of the Chicago media than about the actual budget CPS will be working from in the coming fiscal year.
Basically, just about every major point that Mayor Daley and Arne Duncan made at that press conference was an outright lie or a half truth, carefully spun.
Four years ago, the Reserve was around $200 million.
This year it's $480 million.
Four years ago, Arne said the Board was required to maintain a Reserve of "five percent" (supposedly of the total budget, which then and now was around $5 to $6 billion, depending upon whether they put in the capital budget or not), which was around $250 million. But that's not what Standard and Poors, Moody's, and Fitch told me when they were asked. They said their ratings were only partly based on the Reserve, and that consistency of management and other factors were as important or more so. When Moody's raised the CPS bond rating last November, they didn't even mention the Reserve. The sellout contract that Marilyn Stewart had give Mayor Daley and CPS was the big reason why Wall Street raised the CPS bond rating. No mention of the Reserve.
By last winter (when Arne tried that last claim about a "deficit" even though there was none), the Reserve had broken $400 million and was heading to $500 million (which would have brought it to ten percent of the total operations budget), so Arne began claiming that Wall Street demanded a Reserve of "between five percent and fifteen percent" (again, not true).
Wall Street (i.e., the three ratings services) has not demanded any fixed percentage (of whatever "budget" base line CPS has -- $5 billion or $6 billion) for more than five years, if it ever did. Read their stuff, and ask them. The last thing they want to be accused of is manipulating these things to force privatization and austerity, so they talk about things like "comfortable" levels of Reserves.
The most interesting thing about the Wednesday press conference at City Hall was that every other reporter had already bought into the City Hall line that the "Reserve" was precarious and that tapping into the "Reserve" was one of those last minute OHMYGOD things that only a hero like Mayor Daley would think of doing.
Maybe thinking about numbers and percentages are too much for most of the members of the City Hall news teams at this point. So far, I haven't read one article that sources any claim about the CPS Reserve except from City Hall PR and CPS PR. The way this story was told, at least this time around, had more to do with the totalitarian silliness of the Chicago media than about the actual budget CPS will be working from in the coming fiscal year.
Basically, just about every major point that Mayor Daley and Arne Duncan made at that press conference was an outright lie or a half truth, carefully spun.
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