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They Were Warned - A Year Ago Kudos and thanks to blog reader Gale who took the time to dig up Board warning resolutions from a year ago that were adopted both principals who were just removed. Here is the full list of April 08 warning resolutions:
| 08-0423-EX12 | Gloria Cortes, Principal, Agustin Lara Academy | *Adopted |
| 08-0423-EX13 | Deborah Edwards-Clay, Principal, Brian Piccolo Elementary School | *Adopted |
| 08-0423-EX14 | Clifton Hunt, Principal, Richard J. Oglesby Elementary School | *Adopted |
| 08-0423-EX15 | Patricia Markstone, Tenured Teacher, Gresham Elementary School | *Adopted |
| 08-0423-EX16 | Marie Miles, Principal, Chicago Vocational Career Academy | *Adopted |
| 08-0423-EX17 | Susan Weston, Tenured Teacher, Coles Model for Excellence School | *Adopted |
| 08-0423-EX18 | Darreyl Young-Gibson, Principal, Percy Julian High School |
Thanks, Gale! Here's the link to the Board report. Unfortunately, the principal at her school is not on the list. However, I do wonder what's happened to the rest (and to the other warnings that are adopted each month).
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Tue Apr 7, 2009 at 12:04 PM
The incompetent principals of Little Village/Lawndale
Right from the start, the "small schools" of Little Village/Lawndale were doomed to fail:
1. World Language: they had an incompetent principal that was bullied by the other 3 and they put her to be a coach in another area; they hired an old foggy named Alice Phillips and she almost had an heart attack last year; I heard she is leaving the school this year.
2. Infinity: the mecca of the 4, still worthless; the principal Irizarry is known for being a dictator and everybody hates her; however, she is staying this year because the Infinity's scores were higher than the other three.
3. MAS: Jose Rico, [text removed -- unsupported accusation of criminal activity] today I heard that he got some position with Duncan in DC... The matter of fact is that he's leaving but nobody really knows exactly why, right?
4. SJ: The fatso Rito Martinez got caught in a lie but also he was caught doing nothing other than "mentor" kids buying them pizza whenever they did something wrong. I heard he got the principal job at one of the Morton Schools in Cicero.
1. World Language: they had an incompetent principal that was bullied by the other 3 and they put her to be a coach in another area; they hired an old foggy named Alice Phillips and she almost had an heart attack last year; I heard she is leaving the school this year.
2. Infinity: the mecca of the 4, still worthless; the principal Irizarry is known for being a dictator and everybody hates her; however, she is staying this year because the Infinity's scores were higher than the other three.
3. MAS: Jose Rico, [text removed -- unsupported accusation of criminal activity] today I heard that he got some position with Duncan in DC... The matter of fact is that he's leaving but nobody really knows exactly why, right?
4. SJ: The fatso Rito Martinez got caught in a lie but also he was caught doing nothing other than "mentor" kids buying them pizza whenever they did something wrong. I heard he got the principal job at one of the Morton Schools in Cicero.
Tue Apr 7, 2009 at 12:47 PM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
Hopefully, Huberman keeps this up!
Next, he can move on to the bad teachers that are only in their positions thanks to the Union!
Within a year, maybe we'll get rid of all the bad prinicipals and baad teachers!
Next, he can move on to the bad teachers that are only in their positions thanks to the Union!
Within a year, maybe we'll get rid of all the bad prinicipals and baad teachers!
Tue Apr 7, 2009 at 12:58 PM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
Z,
Is that true about Martinez? If so, I hope it was Morton West as that's the high school for my neighborhood. I think he's not a bad principal. He also was a teacher at Morton East for a long time so he knows a thing or two about educating in a working class suburb.
Is that true about Martinez? If so, I hope it was Morton West as that's the high school for my neighborhood. I think he's not a bad principal. He also was a teacher at Morton East for a long time so he knows a thing or two about educating in a working class suburb.
Tue Apr 7, 2009 at 1:13 PM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
OK, I'm an idiot, I meant Morton East (that's my local high school), not Morton West (though it could possibly use him more).
Tue Apr 7, 2009 at 2:13 PM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
Alexander, each month warning resolutions are issued to administrators and teachers. If CPS feels that any administrator or teacher has violated their warning resolution, they will be terminated immediatly!
Tue Apr 7, 2009 at 4:18 PM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
When I was a part of the Corey H monitoring team we had many problems with principals and how funds under the supervision of the Court were actually used by schools. In most of these cases there was some flexability in the understanding of school based plans by the local school principal and even when those of us monitoring these expenditures were upset with how these funds were used the issue did not rise to the disciplinary level.
But on at least one occassion it did. There was a completely unacceptable expenditure made, teachers were paid for extended day work that was never done, and trips were paid for that were not approved by the court monitor. Here is what happened. The staff in question and the principal of the school were required to pay back funds to CPS, and all of the staff involved were given warning resolutions.
I was actually sitting at the table with CPS legal when these deals were cut. I was extremely upset and wanted the inspector general brought into the situation and CPS legal resisted. I lost that fight completely with the lead special master in Corey H accepting what was basically a plea agreement.
I am not willing to discuss the school or the principal involved. But I will say that it was a higher performing school. I would argue that if CPS was in a similar situation with a weaker performing school it would have likely taken far more serious action including brining in the IG.
So when I see warning resolutions I always wonder what really happened and what was the informal plea agreement made.
Rod Estvan
But on at least one occassion it did. There was a completely unacceptable expenditure made, teachers were paid for extended day work that was never done, and trips were paid for that were not approved by the court monitor. Here is what happened. The staff in question and the principal of the school were required to pay back funds to CPS, and all of the staff involved were given warning resolutions.
I was actually sitting at the table with CPS legal when these deals were cut. I was extremely upset and wanted the inspector general brought into the situation and CPS legal resisted. I lost that fight completely with the lead special master in Corey H accepting what was basically a plea agreement.
I am not willing to discuss the school or the principal involved. But I will say that it was a higher performing school. I would argue that if CPS was in a similar situation with a weaker performing school it would have likely taken far more serious action including brining in the IG.
So when I see warning resolutions I always wonder what really happened and what was the informal plea agreement made.
Rod Estvan
Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 10:08 PM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
"So when I see warning resolutions I always wonder what really happened and what was the informal plea agreement made. " Rod Estvan
Rod--you are absolutely corredct here. CPS picks and chooses who goes to IG and want punishments if anmy, are given. If the person is politically connected nothing happens, but if it is exactly the same offence and the accused has no 'friend," they get punished.
Rod--you are absolutely corredct here. CPS picks and chooses who goes to IG and want punishments if anmy, are given. If the person is politically connected nothing happens, but if it is exactly the same offence and the accused has no 'friend," they get punished.
Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 11:18 PM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
If that is the case, then the system is broke!
Fri Apr 10, 2009 at 11:56 PM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
it has been this way for a long time.
And my apologies for the number of typing errors in my last comment.
And my apologies for the number of typing errors in my last comment.
Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 12:58 AM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
the Olympic Committee could see the pictures of the street gand that 'rules' Julian HS that are shown on the Substance www. WOW. The Olympic Com. should see what our students and our citizens have to live with!
Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 9:00 AM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
Don't forget the administrative cost of the LVLHS schools. 4 principals and 4 assistants. How many counselors do these schools get also? Extraordinarily high for 1400 students.
Sojo and Martinez: Sure, Martinez stayed for the kids . . . that's why he is just collecting a pay check without working. As of now, he is doing nothing on the campus other than taking up space. He is not making any decisions and the campus is crippled because it really has only 2 active principals.
Irrizary may be out. There will be a teacher mutiny. She doesn't have a contract, and they are going to get the LCS not to give her one. As for their scores . . . check out the English and Reading. Very weak, as they've had new English teachers every year, with no continuity in curriculum.
Who knows if Phillips will be back? The politics of the community are going to make principal selection an adventure.
Sojo and Martinez: Sure, Martinez stayed for the kids . . . that's why he is just collecting a pay check without working. As of now, he is doing nothing on the campus other than taking up space. He is not making any decisions and the campus is crippled because it really has only 2 active principals.
Irrizary may be out. There will be a teacher mutiny. She doesn't have a contract, and they are going to get the LCS not to give her one. As for their scores . . . check out the English and Reading. Very weak, as they've had new English teachers every year, with no continuity in curriculum.
Who knows if Phillips will be back? The politics of the community are going to make principal selection an adventure.
Sat Apr 11, 2009 at 9:52 AM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
The paradoxes of Chicago's "small schools" are many.
One: The administrative overhead costs. At any "campus" where there be more than one "school" (Bowen; South Shore; Little Village), CPS has multiple principals and also (usually) a campus manager (to keep the principals from turf wars, Michael Scott has basically said). A large school like Lane Tech, Curie, Whitney Young, or even Northside or Payton (which CPS screwed up on by building for a capacity of 1,000 based on "small schools" fantasy) can spend $250,000 on its principaling and be doing quite well. In fact, the principal costs for most of the city's best high schools (the magnets; a few others) is less than a quarter of the costs for the "small schools" fantasy islands.
Two: At no point has CPS subjected its crazy "small schools" philosophy to public scrutiny, so there has been no public debate over why "small schools" are good for Chicago's inner city black and Latino kids, but "success" is greater at larger schools (the ones named above).
Three: "Small Schools" Chicago-style is basically Jim Crow. The argument is that African American (and poor Latino) kids need "personal press" (or one of those other nasty neologisms out of my alma mater, the University of Chicago) as if they are a separate species. But the same kids (working class African Americans and Latinos) do not need "personal press" if they are at Whitney Young or Lane or Curie. Go figure.
Four: The "best" public high schools in the Chicago area (with the possible exception of Lake Forest) are huge: New Trier; Stevenson; the Glenbards, Glenbrooks, and Napervilles, etc.
Chicago's crazy insistence on simply repeating every lie it's been repeating is not only hugely expensive ($1 million to principal the Bowenses as opposed to a quarter of that to principal Lane Tech), but absurdly racist.
Only in Chicago could this nonsense go unexamined (except here and by Substance) for all these years. And given Huberman's devotion to prolonging the Agony of The Miracle, don't count on any reality checks soon. If anything, he follow in Arne Duncan's crazy path and anoint another dozen SuperPrincipals (like Foley and Fraynd) to ride side saddle with "failing" principals (like Marshall and Harper)...
And you can bet he will as soon as somebody screams that the SuperPrincipals are all white.
So far...
One: The administrative overhead costs. At any "campus" where there be more than one "school" (Bowen; South Shore; Little Village), CPS has multiple principals and also (usually) a campus manager (to keep the principals from turf wars, Michael Scott has basically said). A large school like Lane Tech, Curie, Whitney Young, or even Northside or Payton (which CPS screwed up on by building for a capacity of 1,000 based on "small schools" fantasy) can spend $250,000 on its principaling and be doing quite well. In fact, the principal costs for most of the city's best high schools (the magnets; a few others) is less than a quarter of the costs for the "small schools" fantasy islands.
Two: At no point has CPS subjected its crazy "small schools" philosophy to public scrutiny, so there has been no public debate over why "small schools" are good for Chicago's inner city black and Latino kids, but "success" is greater at larger schools (the ones named above).
Three: "Small Schools" Chicago-style is basically Jim Crow. The argument is that African American (and poor Latino) kids need "personal press" (or one of those other nasty neologisms out of my alma mater, the University of Chicago) as if they are a separate species. But the same kids (working class African Americans and Latinos) do not need "personal press" if they are at Whitney Young or Lane or Curie. Go figure.
Four: The "best" public high schools in the Chicago area (with the possible exception of Lake Forest) are huge: New Trier; Stevenson; the Glenbards, Glenbrooks, and Napervilles, etc.
Chicago's crazy insistence on simply repeating every lie it's been repeating is not only hugely expensive ($1 million to principal the Bowenses as opposed to a quarter of that to principal Lane Tech), but absurdly racist.
Only in Chicago could this nonsense go unexamined (except here and by Substance) for all these years. And given Huberman's devotion to prolonging the Agony of The Miracle, don't count on any reality checks soon. If anything, he follow in Arne Duncan's crazy path and anoint another dozen SuperPrincipals (like Foley and Fraynd) to ride side saddle with "failing" principals (like Marshall and Harper)...
And you can bet he will as soon as somebody screams that the SuperPrincipals are all white.
So far...
Sun Apr 12, 2009 at 7:04 AM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
Bill Gates said, if he has learned anything about education in the last five or six years, it's that SMALL SCHOOLS DOESN'T WORK! That's why the Gates Foundation isn't giving any "new" money to small schools. The Gates Foundation is giving "new" money to turnaround schools and other new programs. Arne Duncan in his first national interview when asked, what mistakes did he make as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools or what he should have done differently said, he should have been harder on SMALL SCHOOLS! The small schools Area Office 25 is being dismantled and the small schools are being sent back to their original area offices. Small school are being closed, consolidated and turnarounded! The new high school buildings being built in CPS, are for 1200 students and ONE principal. THE SMALL SCHOOL MOVEMENT IN CHICAGO IS DEAD!
Sun Apr 12, 2009 at 9:25 AM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
Say what you will about the demerits of small Chicago public high schools, but don't start comparing the small schools at Bowen, South Shore and Little Village with large high schools like Lane, Whitney Young, Northside or Payton. Everyone should know by know that kids have to test into the latter, whereas the former are all neighborhood schools that must enroll all kids who show up.
If you're going to be fair, compare the small schools to other, nearby larger neighborhood schools.
If you're going to be fair, compare the small schools to other, nearby larger neighborhood schools.
Sun Apr 12, 2009 at 9:29 AM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
Small schools were definitely successful at Clemente until the Board began actively sabotaging the success by deciding the building was "underutilized" and piled on an Achievement Academy and students from "failed" schools.
I wonder what caused Gates and Duncan to decide they didn't work. Don't you need longitudinal data to make that kind of judgment? Small schools in Chicago weren't supported long enough to gather meaningful data.
I wonder what caused Gates and Duncan to decide they didn't work. Don't you need longitudinal data to make that kind of judgment? Small schools in Chicago weren't supported long enough to gather meaningful data.
Sun Apr 12, 2009 at 9:43 AM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
I agree that longitudinal studies are needed to find out whether small schools are more effective then larger schools. I personally believe that they are. In a smaller school, the principal knows all of the students and they know him/her. The principal is often able to stop problems before they happen. I've seen this with my child. In a larger school, she was suspended eight or nine times during one school year. The following year, we moved and she transferred to a smaller school where the principal knows everyone. From day one, she was on top of problems and my child has not been suspended once in the two years that she's been there. Her reading and math scores have improved and she is imvolved in many more school activities. There are still things which need improvement but overall, I think the smaller school has been very beneficial.
Even though I'm Jewish, my parents sent me to a Catholic School because the school was smaller and I was over-whelmed at the neighborhood high school. The public high school had 1,500 students in the graduating class while my high school had 50. It made all the difference because the teachers and administration was able to keep on top of things and offer incividual assistance to the students who needed it (this was pre-IDEA).
I have not seen any students which followed students from grade school through high school (or better yet, adulthood) to determine the difference between those who went to large schools compared to smaller schools. These are the only studies which I think would withstand debate.
Even though I'm Jewish, my parents sent me to a Catholic School because the school was smaller and I was over-whelmed at the neighborhood high school. The public high school had 1,500 students in the graduating class while my high school had 50. It made all the difference because the teachers and administration was able to keep on top of things and offer incividual assistance to the students who needed it (this was pre-IDEA).
I have not seen any students which followed students from grade school through high school (or better yet, adulthood) to determine the difference between those who went to large schools compared to smaller schools. These are the only studies which I think would withstand debate.
Sun Apr 12, 2009 at 10:35 AM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
George,
How can you compare Bowen, SouthShore, and Little Village to Young, Payton, Lane, Northside?
You know better. Selective enrollment vs. neighborhood? Top schools in the state vs. the bottom? Motivated students with strong parental support vs. gang infiltrated unsafe schools?
If I recall correctly, the National results of small schools did not show significant gains in student achievement, but did show an impact in the way students felt about school.
Having worked at Clemente (whose small school structure was technically small learning communities w/ one principal) I experienced the impact on knowing my students. Students developed meaningful relationships with their teachers. Core teachers were able to collaborate and talk about individual students, offering structures to address the needs of students cohorts.
What will happen to these relationships when Bowen consolidates? When South Shore is back to one HUGE school? Teachers wont even be able to find Joey's other 6 teachers, let alone be able to meet during a common planning period to discuss strategies to impact Joey's learning.
But its business as usual. Follow the money. Gates stopped funding small schools.
How can you compare Bowen, SouthShore, and Little Village to Young, Payton, Lane, Northside?
You know better. Selective enrollment vs. neighborhood? Top schools in the state vs. the bottom? Motivated students with strong parental support vs. gang infiltrated unsafe schools?
If I recall correctly, the National results of small schools did not show significant gains in student achievement, but did show an impact in the way students felt about school.
Having worked at Clemente (whose small school structure was technically small learning communities w/ one principal) I experienced the impact on knowing my students. Students developed meaningful relationships with their teachers. Core teachers were able to collaborate and talk about individual students, offering structures to address the needs of students cohorts.
What will happen to these relationships when Bowen consolidates? When South Shore is back to one HUGE school? Teachers wont even be able to find Joey's other 6 teachers, let alone be able to meet during a common planning period to discuss strategies to impact Joey's learning.
But its business as usual. Follow the money. Gates stopped funding small schools.
Mon Apr 13, 2009 at 6:43 AM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
When the "new" "new" building at Shore Shore High School is finally built (It's six months behind schedule), and the "new" building is torned down, all the present students, teachers, esp's and administrators will be put in the "old" original building at South School High School! The "powers to be" don't want anyone currently attending or working at the South Shore Campus to set foot in the "new" "new" building! Only the new incoming freshmen, new faculty and staff with the new principal will be allowed in the "new" "new" building! Then all of the four small schools will be consolidated, phased-out and then closed! The old building will then be turned into a 6th & 7th grade school.
Mon Apr 13, 2009 at 9:01 AM
They Were Warned - A Year Ago
When her students needed to learn where vegetables came from, Pat Jonikaitis turned a neglected patch of school property into a flourishing community garden.
And when weeds threatened natural vegetation in the nearby Dan Ryan Woods, the Chicago Public Schools teacher seized the moment to teach ecology and recruit a class of volunteers to uproot the invasive plants -- inspiring the community to follow suit.
full story here
http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/1523579,CST-NWS-teacher13.article
And when weeds threatened natural vegetation in the nearby Dan Ryan Woods, the Chicago Public Schools teacher seized the moment to teach ecology and recruit a class of volunteers to uproot the invasive plants -- inspiring the community to follow suit.
full story here
http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/1523579,CST-NWS-teacher13.article
