Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them The most obvious example is the monthly Board meetings -- there's one next week -- in which folks come downtown, sign up for their time, and most of the time get little more than a blank stare from the Board members and CPS administrators they're talking to. Whatever debate or decision the Board is going to make comes hours later, oftentimes out of public view. There's little engagement, or influence, or even plain old satisfaction from finding out the next day that what you said did or (most likely) didn't affect the outcome. It's hard not to think that's intentional.
From what I've read and heard, there also seems to have been little back-and-forth between CPS folks and community members at the hearings that have been held over the last two weeks. [Smart work of CPS to hold the meetings at the schools under threat of closure, not at the schools that are going to have to take in these kids and teachers.] We'll find out next week, but odds are that the list of 19 stays the same, except perhaps Edison (?).
Even LSC meetings can take on this formalized, "I-hear-you-but-I-won't-respond- your-two-minutes-are-up" quality, especially when it comes to decisions about keeping or not keeping a principal. All of a sudden LSC members say they can't talk about it, or can't reveal what happened. The result from all these deeply-felt feelings released into the air with no pushback is frustration and anger.
When watching these things, it's hard not to feel like the people who have come have been tricked. The first trick is that now CPS gets to say they "had a meeting." Check. The second trick is that, without any response, it's hard even for people with the strongest feelings to keep talking when they're getting the silent treatment in response. It's like trying to talk with a family member or friend who says he "wants to get your input" -- but gives you a slack-faced stare as you talk, won't respond, and never changes his mind. What's the point of talking, then?
One solution would be to request meaningful responses to what you have to say -- then and there -- and calling people when they over-use procedures and administrative rules to duck real conversation. Given 5 issues of public concern, there's no reason that the Board couldn't schedule an hour for each issue, then debate and vote on each issue immediately after public comment. Even without an immediate decision, there's no reason not to push for a response (and make Board members squirm if they decide to "take the fifth" again and again.)
Another idea would be to make sure that there are both sides of an issue represented at meetings CPS calls, not just one. Imagine, for example, if someone had gotten parents from Pritzker and other "receiving" schools to attend the Andersen hearing. Ditto for Edison. If the folks up on stage won't talk back, you can at least make sure that EVERYONE who's affected is in attendance and the full ramifications are being discussed. This holds true for discussions about new Ren10 schools, which also often involve "meetings" where nothing gets said.
The most high-stakes response would be to consider boycotting. They can't really call it a meeting if no one's there -- and there's a clear reason why. Just stand outside and tell folks not to go in, and why. The press -- currently ignoring most of these sessions -- might pay some attention to the novelty. What is there to lose, really?
But maybe you've had better experiences at meetings than most of the ones that I've seen,
or have better ideas about what to do?
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Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 7:42 PM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
The Board meetings are a joke and I think held as a formality. It always appears that everyone is in unison. There is always a unanimous vote--a rubber stamp. Why are the meetings on Wednesday mornings? That's so teachers and working parents won't come. Imagine if the meetings were held on Saturdays--they would have to expand the public participation time. Also, why are some allowed to "cede" their times while others are shut down.
Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 9:56 PM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
The public portion of the
board meetings are a perfunctory
function of the State law that
mandates the following section:
105ILCS 5/34-19.1
Comment at Meetings
Sec. 34-19.1 Comment at meetings. At each regular and
special meeting which is open to the public, members of the
public and employees of the district shall be afforded time,
subject to reasonable constraints,
to comment to or ask questions of the Board.
Source Public Act ( P.A. 84-1308 )
The solution to have meetings in the evening
( that used to take place under a different board)
would be put in process in place that would require
the Board to understand they have to comply with the
law also, not just find ways not to do it because
the public is blissfully unaware of how to
hold them accountable as public figures to
the terms of how public comment is
to be addressed.
How could it be reasonable to always
hold the meetings at a time that makes
the employees of the District and or
the working day public have
to take a day off to attend the meetings
because
they are never held in the evening?
Just food for thought and to support resolving
the situation if that is what you want to do
take action to make it happen, otherwise
the Board members have mastered
letting comments such as the one about
the meeting being a formality just slide
off their back like water off of a duck.
Now if you want to make a change and really be
heard you have a viable way to do so.
Because in the end one must learn to fight
smart and not hard because everyone get
24 hours in a day and tomorrow is not
promised to any of us.
board meetings are a perfunctory
function of the State law that
mandates the following section:
105ILCS 5/34-19.1
Comment at Meetings
Sec. 34-19.1 Comment at meetings. At each regular and
special meeting which is open to the public, members of the
public and employees of the district shall be afforded time,
subject to reasonable constraints,
to comment to or ask questions of the Board.
Source Public Act ( P.A. 84-1308 )
The solution to have meetings in the evening
( that used to take place under a different board)
would be put in process in place that would require
the Board to understand they have to comply with the
law also, not just find ways not to do it because
the public is blissfully unaware of how to
hold them accountable as public figures to
the terms of how public comment is
to be addressed.
How could it be reasonable to always
hold the meetings at a time that makes
the employees of the District and or
the working day public have
to take a day off to attend the meetings
because
they are never held in the evening?
Just food for thought and to support resolving
the situation if that is what you want to do
take action to make it happen, otherwise
the Board members have mastered
letting comments such as the one about
the meeting being a formality just slide
off their back like water off of a duck.
Now if you want to make a change and really be
heard you have a viable way to do so.
Because in the end one must learn to fight
smart and not hard because everyone get
24 hours in a day and tomorrow is not
promised to any of us.
Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 4:52 AM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
The Board meetings used to be held alternately at CPS headquarters and in schools. When the Board meetings were held in the schools, hundreds of people would attend because they didn't have to pay a day's wage for parking in the Loop and take off work.
That ended when Arne Duncan and Michael Scott began closing schools as the foreplay to "Renaissance 2010" in 2002.
The last Board meeting held in a school was held at Herzl Elementary School in Douglas Park in April 2002.
That was the meeting when Michael Scott and Arne Duncan began doing the mayor's bidding by attacking and closing schools (Dodge, Terrell, and Williams elementary schools) as a prelude to "Renaissance 2010."
More than 1,000 people showed up (most organized by the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73) at that meeting to oppose the closings. The opponents of the closings were better informed and better organized than any members of the Board. Loud but polite. By the time the meeting was ended, Scott (who had bragged at the beginning of the meeting that he was a Herzl graduate) made sure he never had to face his "community" again. He served his master well and is now a real estate developer, as fans have noted.
Arne Duncan (the "CEO" who never spent a day teaching in a public school classroom and who attended elite private schools and universities his entire life) has stayed around to do the bidding of his masters. Here is how it's worked since 2002 when he began his career as the public school executive who's attacked more public schools than any person in public school history.
The last truly public meeting of the Chicago Board of Education was April 2002, less than a year after Arne became "CEO" of CPS, nearly six years ago. At that meeting, the handful of paid or sub-contracted hacks and flacks who were there to support Michael and Arne generally retreated. One of the few who still called her lines to Arne's tune was Coretta McFerren. R. Eden Martin, the millionaire Aon Insurance director who wrote "Renaissance 2010" for Mayor Daley, hid behind five Board security aides that afternoon and never appeared in public again.
By the time that meeting was over, Daley ordered the Board to retreat inside the fortress at 125 S. Clark St. and to double guard the Board chambers. Within a few meetings, they had inaugurated the practice of "reserving" a third of the seats in the fifth floor Board Chambers for their paid staff, so that what showed on the TV cameras would only be people cheering the Board and Arne. (Yes, it's rehearsed and staged. The TV camera usually focuses on the person at the speaker's podium. Board security "reserve" the seats behind the podium for mid-level -- i.e., paid between $90,000 and $140,000 per year bureaucrats, all well dressed and warned not to snarl or pick their noses -- so that most parents, teachers, and community leaders are forced to go up to what is called the "holding room" on the 19th floor. The elevators are also carefully secured so that you can't get down from the 19th floor to the 5th floor without security monitoring you.
The Board used to meet in schools, with enough space for the public and at times when most of the public could attend.
Now the Board meets during what used to be called "bankers hours." And it makes sense. Two of the Board members are bankers (Carrero; Bobins) and the rest think and act like bankers. I would bet, too, that most of the Board members get a lot of their annual income from dividends and capital gains (now taxed thanks to George W. Bush at 15 percent instead of the 30 percent or more most of us pay in taxes when we work for wages).
That's how Chicago works today.
And the Chicago Board of Education has been working that way for years. Oh, and if you didn't know it, all seven members of the Board are appointed by Mayor Daley.
Regular people can attend meetings of the Chicago Board of Education. All you have to do is take a day off from work, pay $25 or $30 to park in one of the parking lots Daley privatized a few years ago (or CTA fares that are the highest of any public transportation system in the country), and be forced to attend a "public" meeting that you get to see on closed circuit TV because the meeting room is (a) too small and (b) filled with people being paid to sit there dressed to the nines and smiling and cheering for Mayor Daley's policies. Your tax dollars at work.
Next question.
That ended when Arne Duncan and Michael Scott began closing schools as the foreplay to "Renaissance 2010" in 2002.
The last Board meeting held in a school was held at Herzl Elementary School in Douglas Park in April 2002.
That was the meeting when Michael Scott and Arne Duncan began doing the mayor's bidding by attacking and closing schools (Dodge, Terrell, and Williams elementary schools) as a prelude to "Renaissance 2010."
More than 1,000 people showed up (most organized by the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73) at that meeting to oppose the closings. The opponents of the closings were better informed and better organized than any members of the Board. Loud but polite. By the time the meeting was ended, Scott (who had bragged at the beginning of the meeting that he was a Herzl graduate) made sure he never had to face his "community" again. He served his master well and is now a real estate developer, as fans have noted.
Arne Duncan (the "CEO" who never spent a day teaching in a public school classroom and who attended elite private schools and universities his entire life) has stayed around to do the bidding of his masters. Here is how it's worked since 2002 when he began his career as the public school executive who's attacked more public schools than any person in public school history.
The last truly public meeting of the Chicago Board of Education was April 2002, less than a year after Arne became "CEO" of CPS, nearly six years ago. At that meeting, the handful of paid or sub-contracted hacks and flacks who were there to support Michael and Arne generally retreated. One of the few who still called her lines to Arne's tune was Coretta McFerren. R. Eden Martin, the millionaire Aon Insurance director who wrote "Renaissance 2010" for Mayor Daley, hid behind five Board security aides that afternoon and never appeared in public again.
By the time that meeting was over, Daley ordered the Board to retreat inside the fortress at 125 S. Clark St. and to double guard the Board chambers. Within a few meetings, they had inaugurated the practice of "reserving" a third of the seats in the fifth floor Board Chambers for their paid staff, so that what showed on the TV cameras would only be people cheering the Board and Arne. (Yes, it's rehearsed and staged. The TV camera usually focuses on the person at the speaker's podium. Board security "reserve" the seats behind the podium for mid-level -- i.e., paid between $90,000 and $140,000 per year bureaucrats, all well dressed and warned not to snarl or pick their noses -- so that most parents, teachers, and community leaders are forced to go up to what is called the "holding room" on the 19th floor. The elevators are also carefully secured so that you can't get down from the 19th floor to the 5th floor without security monitoring you.
The Board used to meet in schools, with enough space for the public and at times when most of the public could attend.
Now the Board meets during what used to be called "bankers hours." And it makes sense. Two of the Board members are bankers (Carrero; Bobins) and the rest think and act like bankers. I would bet, too, that most of the Board members get a lot of their annual income from dividends and capital gains (now taxed thanks to George W. Bush at 15 percent instead of the 30 percent or more most of us pay in taxes when we work for wages).
That's how Chicago works today.
And the Chicago Board of Education has been working that way for years. Oh, and if you didn't know it, all seven members of the Board are appointed by Mayor Daley.
Regular people can attend meetings of the Chicago Board of Education. All you have to do is take a day off from work, pay $25 or $30 to park in one of the parking lots Daley privatized a few years ago (or CTA fares that are the highest of any public transportation system in the country), and be forced to attend a "public" meeting that you get to see on closed circuit TV because the meeting room is (a) too small and (b) filled with people being paid to sit there dressed to the nines and smiling and cheering for Mayor Daley's policies. Your tax dollars at work.
Next question.
Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 10:24 AM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
Talk about meaningless meetings, the office of new schools has made this their objective and developed a whole new a art form around non-decision-making. This department has become a whole bureacracy unto itself and doesn't help those of us who run charter schools. Then again, if it wearn't for meaningless meetings, what else would all these people at CPS or the Office of new schools do with their time. I guess, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 11:09 AM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
I'm pretty sure that if the Board meetings were on Saturdays teachers wouldn't come unless they got paid their hourly rate.
Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 11:46 AM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
Dear Amused,
I disagree with your assumption. I know many teachers who would attend after school hour Board meetings; I know I would. But, we'll probably never know because the Bd. is too gutless to take that chance.
(Also –in the current, yet to be distributed, contract Stewart & company negotiated a lower pay rate for overtime; a unique move by a Union)
I disagree with your assumption. I know many teachers who would attend after school hour Board meetings; I know I would. But, we'll probably never know because the Bd. is too gutless to take that chance.
(Also –in the current, yet to be distributed, contract Stewart & company negotiated a lower pay rate for overtime; a unique move by a Union)
Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
Even better yet in regards to the contract appendix H is missing online.
This is the part for job protection when displaced.
It is where the sixty day rule is or should be.
The problem stems from:
1. Marilyn not having a CTU stenographer in the room during negotiations so the contract is basically what the BoE says the agreement is.
2. Marilyn on a few occasions sending everyone out of the bargaining room to "DEAL" with the BoE.
Current Agreement
Where is Appx H
mot
This is the part for job protection when displaced.
It is where the sixty day rule is or should be.
The problem stems from:
1. Marilyn not having a CTU stenographer in the room during negotiations so the contract is basically what the BoE says the agreement is.
2. Marilyn on a few occasions sending everyone out of the bargaining room to "DEAL" with the BoE.
Current Agreement
Where is Appx H
mot
Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 1:16 PM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
>>I'm pretty sure that if the Board meetings were on Saturdays teachers wouldn't come unless they got paid their hourly rate.
And I'm pretty sure this statement is not very accurate. Implying that CPS teachers can only be motivated by money is laughable.
And I'm pretty sure this statement is not very accurate. Implying that CPS teachers can only be motivated by money is laughable.
Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 3:31 PM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
I watch the meetings on Saturdays occasionally - not usually the whole duration in one setting- (since it replays 3 - 4 times). I like to be informed before I speak on issues. Plus I like to know what is going on in other CPS schools etc. I wouldn't expect to be paid for my presence - but it would be nice to know I COULD go without taking a PB day or calling in sick- or can I swipe in there and count it as a day of work?
Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 3:33 PM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
Re: The contract
Looks like the ER expense only got raised on the HMO's until 2011 if the online link is correct.
Also it says something about these new "wellness benefits" but how do we find out more information about that? Calling HR is like calling out to the man in the moon and I am not sure this is through the Insurance company (since everyone gets these same wellness benefits). I want to join a gym maybe and was looking into it.
Looks like the ER expense only got raised on the HMO's until 2011 if the online link is correct.
Also it says something about these new "wellness benefits" but how do we find out more information about that? Calling HR is like calling out to the man in the moon and I am not sure this is through the Insurance company (since everyone gets these same wellness benefits). I want to join a gym maybe and was looking into it.
Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 7:02 PM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
thank you for calling it what it is. how the education reporters in this town can play along is beyond disappointing. we should all start covering these meetings ourselves with photos, video & audio recording, and taking quotes of their no-answers to real questions. if a CPS rep evades a question, document it and spread the news. follow up on the promises or statements they do make: did they abide by their word (likely not). CPS is violating the open meetings law in spirit & in letter. shame.
Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 12:24 AM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
"I'm pretty sure that if the Board meetings were on Saturdays teachers wouldn't come unless they got paid their hourly rate..."
How would you know that, "Pretty Sure." The last times the Chicago Board of Education held its meetings in the schools, and during real people hours (as opposed to bankers' hours) there were usually hundreds of people at those meetings, and (as I noted above) at the first school closing meeting about a thousand people. (I counted, but you can figure out how many by going to Herzl and counting the seats in the auditorium; every one was filled, and dozens of people were standing along the walls, as in "standing room only").
That's why the guy who wrote "Renaissance 2010" was afraid to speak (and assigned his own squad of CPS security guys, including Andres Durbak) and why Arne Duncan and Michael Scott (i.e., Daley's boys) never never again allowed a Board meeting in a school.
So your teacher bashing opinions are BS. But you probably already knew that. If the Board of Education began holding its monthly meetings again so that the public could get to them, watch what would happen. They're in the Clark St. bunker for a reason, and they aren't coming out until there's so big an outcry they don't have any choice.
This is one of the reasons why I laugh out loud every time Arne Duncan delivers one of those sermonettes about "choice." In this town, the people can't even "choose" to attend the meetings of their Board of Education without taking a day off from work and spending a fortune to park or get there -- only to be penned up in the "holding room" while the seats in the public meeting room are being held by patronage workers whose jobs depend on the blessings of the mayor and his minions.
Meanwhile, even with all the cynical obstacles to democratic participation in Chicago Board of Education meetings, watch what happens this Wednesday. There will be hundreds of parents, teachers, students, and others trying to get into the Board's chambers to watch the bankers' rubber stamp the mayor's latest wish list.
Why don't you stop by and introduce yourself? Or is "anonymous" how you spent your honeymoon, too, hero, with a paper bag over your head?
How would you know that, "Pretty Sure." The last times the Chicago Board of Education held its meetings in the schools, and during real people hours (as opposed to bankers' hours) there were usually hundreds of people at those meetings, and (as I noted above) at the first school closing meeting about a thousand people. (I counted, but you can figure out how many by going to Herzl and counting the seats in the auditorium; every one was filled, and dozens of people were standing along the walls, as in "standing room only").
That's why the guy who wrote "Renaissance 2010" was afraid to speak (and assigned his own squad of CPS security guys, including Andres Durbak) and why Arne Duncan and Michael Scott (i.e., Daley's boys) never never again allowed a Board meeting in a school.
So your teacher bashing opinions are BS. But you probably already knew that. If the Board of Education began holding its monthly meetings again so that the public could get to them, watch what would happen. They're in the Clark St. bunker for a reason, and they aren't coming out until there's so big an outcry they don't have any choice.
This is one of the reasons why I laugh out loud every time Arne Duncan delivers one of those sermonettes about "choice." In this town, the people can't even "choose" to attend the meetings of their Board of Education without taking a day off from work and spending a fortune to park or get there -- only to be penned up in the "holding room" while the seats in the public meeting room are being held by patronage workers whose jobs depend on the blessings of the mayor and his minions.
Meanwhile, even with all the cynical obstacles to democratic participation in Chicago Board of Education meetings, watch what happens this Wednesday. There will be hundreds of parents, teachers, students, and others trying to get into the Board's chambers to watch the bankers' rubber stamp the mayor's latest wish list.
Why don't you stop by and introduce yourself? Or is "anonymous" how you spent your honeymoon, too, hero, with a paper bag over your head?
Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 6:24 AM
The Movie
Here are links to the Renaissance 2010: From the Front Lines movie by Jackson Potter and Albert Ramirez, two Chicago Public School teachers, who explore in their independently produced documentary on Chicago’s flagship school policy known as Renaissance 2010.
Wed February 27, 2008 Board of Education Meeting on the future of CPS schools and our children.
Renaissance 2010: From the Front Lines
Wed February 27, 2008 Board of Education Meeting on the future of CPS schools and our children.
Renaissance 2010: From the Front Lines
Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 6:53 AM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
Mr Russo,
It seems like story about the office of new schools is worth a closer look, or at least an effort to service questions about the office.
The meaninglessness of the meetings is one thing (and I have yet to hear a positive view of their activities), the general debate over the value of new schools another. But there are other trends which are worth questioning. There is an astronomical growth of staff in the office. Mahaley built a big office, and her successor is making her efforts look modest.
There is a clear sense the office is becoming the district, creating intermediary functions the schools are required to use, building massive compliance apparatus, creating accountability processes and so called supports at a level Chicago hasn't seen. The purpose was not to create a new district, under a pseudo superintendent. The purpose was to buffer new schools from the mediocrity, so they could actually attempt to serve kids and families, share what they were learning - not with bureaucrats, but with eachother. The opposite is in full swing. Which raises questions about the viability of the work. If the district is going to undermine its own operating ideas, why go there at all?
It seems like story about the office of new schools is worth a closer look, or at least an effort to service questions about the office.
The meaninglessness of the meetings is one thing (and I have yet to hear a positive view of their activities), the general debate over the value of new schools another. But there are other trends which are worth questioning. There is an astronomical growth of staff in the office. Mahaley built a big office, and her successor is making her efforts look modest.
There is a clear sense the office is becoming the district, creating intermediary functions the schools are required to use, building massive compliance apparatus, creating accountability processes and so called supports at a level Chicago hasn't seen. The purpose was not to create a new district, under a pseudo superintendent. The purpose was to buffer new schools from the mediocrity, so they could actually attempt to serve kids and families, share what they were learning - not with bureaucrats, but with eachother. The opposite is in full swing. Which raises questions about the viability of the work. If the district is going to undermine its own operating ideas, why go there at all?
Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 8:14 AM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
Starting in 2002 with the Dodge and William's closings, how many schools have closed under Ren10? Include the 50 they plan on closing this summer.
Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 12:05 PM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
I think 8:14 AM is confused CPS does not publicly state they plan on closing 50 schools this summer. I believe the 50 schools is the projected number of so called under utilized schools that could be closed over several years.
Now having said this, I am not arguing with the comments about the Office of New Schools (ONS). I have to say I was simply shocked to discover from a posting several weeks ago on this blog that Jeanne Nowaczewski's late husband was a founder of Perspectives Charter School. For those that do not know, Jeanne is the real power in ONS. Mr. Edelman who is now formally running ONS, really went from being a well meaing social studies teacher to being a principal of a Washington DC charter school in just a few years. ONS represents an ideology of market competition, but very few of its leaders have successfully competed in the private sector, including Jeanne.
Fundamentally they are classic school district bureaucrats and they are not entrepreneurs. If they were incrediably successful entrepreneurs they would not be working for a fixed salary at CPS, but rather living off of profits made from their investments. The ONS staff are ideologues of the market, but afraid to be real entrepreneurs putting their own capital on the line.
It is also very disturbing that up to now CPS has not publicly discussed the costs for closing and opening new schools. These market ideologues provide the public with no overall accounting of their expenditures for new school start ups and no analysis of whether or not these expenditures are worth making in terms of outcomes. The ONS bureaucrats were once the proponents of small schools, now apparently that concept has gone stale.
ONS will move from one trendy school concept to the next and they will justify opening a small or large school, a for profit EMO operator, a not for profit EMO, or any other type of school as long as they reach the great goal of the Mayor, open 100 new schools by 2010.
Now having said this, I am not arguing with the comments about the Office of New Schools (ONS). I have to say I was simply shocked to discover from a posting several weeks ago on this blog that Jeanne Nowaczewski's late husband was a founder of Perspectives Charter School. For those that do not know, Jeanne is the real power in ONS. Mr. Edelman who is now formally running ONS, really went from being a well meaing social studies teacher to being a principal of a Washington DC charter school in just a few years. ONS represents an ideology of market competition, but very few of its leaders have successfully competed in the private sector, including Jeanne.
Fundamentally they are classic school district bureaucrats and they are not entrepreneurs. If they were incrediably successful entrepreneurs they would not be working for a fixed salary at CPS, but rather living off of profits made from their investments. The ONS staff are ideologues of the market, but afraid to be real entrepreneurs putting their own capital on the line.
It is also very disturbing that up to now CPS has not publicly discussed the costs for closing and opening new schools. These market ideologues provide the public with no overall accounting of their expenditures for new school start ups and no analysis of whether or not these expenditures are worth making in terms of outcomes. The ONS bureaucrats were once the proponents of small schools, now apparently that concept has gone stale.
ONS will move from one trendy school concept to the next and they will justify opening a small or large school, a for profit EMO operator, a not for profit EMO, or any other type of school as long as they reach the great goal of the Mayor, open 100 new schools by 2010.
Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 12:10 PM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
Hey George,
Just for the record it's $2 to ride the bus or train in NYC as well, making it $.25 more expensive than if you have a Chicago Card, and they charge $5 for their express buses. Same in Boston, where it is also $2 cash to ride the train, and up to $5 to ride an express bus, although with CharlieCard in Boston it is 5 cents cheaper than with your Chicago card here. So actually we don't have the most expensive public transportation in the country.
Secondly, how does changing the location of the board meeting change the fact that a parent would have to take the day (or at least a half day) off to attend? I agree it would be nice to hold the meetings in a more public space that could house more people, I just don't buy your argument for it here.
I do love the consistency of your "teacher bashing" argument, though. It's oddly reminiscent of how the Republicans call anyone who doesn't agree with them anti-American or unpatriotic. Your chronic need to call others name once again undermines your entire argument, not to mention your impressive knowledge of the last 20-30 years of education in this city.
For what its worth, I think after hours board meetings (6pm - 8pm) would do better than weekend board meetings. Then again a democratically elected school board (like just about any other city I've ever lived in) would go a lot further.
Just for the record it's $2 to ride the bus or train in NYC as well, making it $.25 more expensive than if you have a Chicago Card, and they charge $5 for their express buses. Same in Boston, where it is also $2 cash to ride the train, and up to $5 to ride an express bus, although with CharlieCard in Boston it is 5 cents cheaper than with your Chicago card here. So actually we don't have the most expensive public transportation in the country.
Secondly, how does changing the location of the board meeting change the fact that a parent would have to take the day (or at least a half day) off to attend? I agree it would be nice to hold the meetings in a more public space that could house more people, I just don't buy your argument for it here.
I do love the consistency of your "teacher bashing" argument, though. It's oddly reminiscent of how the Republicans call anyone who doesn't agree with them anti-American or unpatriotic. Your chronic need to call others name once again undermines your entire argument, not to mention your impressive knowledge of the last 20-30 years of education in this city.
For what its worth, I think after hours board meetings (6pm - 8pm) would do better than weekend board meetings. Then again a democratically elected school board (like just about any other city I've ever lived in) would go a lot further.
Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 2:18 PM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
Charlie, you sound like a reasonable person,
what do you want to do to change the time
and place of the Board meetings, because short
of what would be nice comments, it is not going
to happen unless someone deals with the rules
for the Board meetings being changed by taking
it to Mayor Daley who you know appoints the
Board Members and or going to court to let a
judge tell them the that having the meetings
at the same time and the same place is
not reasonable.
what do you want to do to change the time
and place of the Board meetings, because short
of what would be nice comments, it is not going
to happen unless someone deals with the rules
for the Board meetings being changed by taking
it to Mayor Daley who you know appoints the
Board Members and or going to court to let a
judge tell them the that having the meetings
at the same time and the same place is
not reasonable.
Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 3:49 PM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
I'm probably not all that reasonable. If it was up to me I'd disband the current board and hold elections and have one board member from each area or some other geographical distinction. If that wouldn't work, I'd do something like Boston does and have a citizen panel that recommends board members to the mayor. In Boston, the mayor can only pick from the citizen panel's list of recommendation and I believe the panel is made up of teachers, students, parents and community members. These "citizens" would be somehow chosen by the people or nominated by alderman, or something along those lines, that would at least make the process a representative democracy.
If I was limited just to changing the time and the place of the board meetings I would start a letter writing campaign to alderman and every major and community paper in the city. I would get LSCs to write petitions signed by parents and teachers. I would get the union to start to demand it for its members and for the parents who already feel disenfranchised enough in their children's education. And I would picket every board meeting from now until it happened. Maybe I would hold education rallies at schools across the city at the same exact time that the board met every month and send formal invitations to hold their meetings as a part of these rallies and make it so much of a spectacle that the media would have no choice but to cover it. That's the kind of stuff I would do if I was someone who was very frustrated by the situation.
Parents, more than anyone, need to get organized in this city. If you believe that you don't have the power to change anything, then I guess you're right, nothing will ever happen. But if you get organized and work together to demand what is best for your kids and you do it peacefully, but loudly, eventually someone will start to listen. The only way you will get what you want is to demand it and to demand it with a unified voice. This needs to happen more often than just when a group of innocent kids get shot or when Arne threatens to close a bunch of schools. It needs to be happening all the time. I think people underestimate the power of an organized group of ordinary citizens. And if everyone here is to cynical to think there is hope, then we've already lost every thing there is to lose anyhow.
If I was limited just to changing the time and the place of the board meetings I would start a letter writing campaign to alderman and every major and community paper in the city. I would get LSCs to write petitions signed by parents and teachers. I would get the union to start to demand it for its members and for the parents who already feel disenfranchised enough in their children's education. And I would picket every board meeting from now until it happened. Maybe I would hold education rallies at schools across the city at the same exact time that the board met every month and send formal invitations to hold their meetings as a part of these rallies and make it so much of a spectacle that the media would have no choice but to cover it. That's the kind of stuff I would do if I was someone who was very frustrated by the situation.
Parents, more than anyone, need to get organized in this city. If you believe that you don't have the power to change anything, then I guess you're right, nothing will ever happen. But if you get organized and work together to demand what is best for your kids and you do it peacefully, but loudly, eventually someone will start to listen. The only way you will get what you want is to demand it and to demand it with a unified voice. This needs to happen more often than just when a group of innocent kids get shot or when Arne threatens to close a bunch of schools. It needs to be happening all the time. I think people underestimate the power of an organized group of ordinary citizens. And if everyone here is to cynical to think there is hope, then we've already lost every thing there is to lose anyhow.
Tue Feb 26, 2008 at 2:07 AM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
"...For what its worth, I think after hours board meetings (6pm - 8pm) would do better than weekend board meetings. Then again a democratically elected school board (like just about any other city I've ever lived in) would go a lot further..." (Charlie, yesterday).
I knew we'd agree at some point Charlie. After all, if you're for "choice" -- as you always say you are, charter schooling and all that -- the most important choice to democratize this city would be for all of us to be able to choose who is on the Board of Education. Right now, every person in Chicago is denied that "choice", then funneled like lab rats into other "choices." Furthermore, there has not been one public discussion of serious policy issues at any Board meeting in more than ten years. All the discussions are done behind closed doors ("Executive Session"). Then the Board votes to seal the record of those meetings (which have now been sealed for 13 years!).
But things have gotten worse under Arne Duncan (and both Michael Scott and Rufus Williams). Democracy prior to 2001 at least had the chance of getting to a meeting of the "Chicago Board of Education." Since Arne cowed behind the security centurions at Clark St. (or in carefully choreographed media events) six years ago, it's been almost impossible for most people in Chicago to get to the meetings. They take place during bankers' hours (convenient for the bankers on the Board) and at a place it costs a large amount to get to and remain at. (I'm not even going to argue with that trivialization of the cost of getting to the Board you threw in to an otherwise sober posting here; you must have had a bad day in your classroom, kid).
When the Board met at schools, the meetings usually began in mid or late afternoon. Lots of people came. Hundreds. Sometimes as many as a thousand. Even though the Board was appointed and in Daley's back pocket, citizens could be there and speak out without wasting a day's work (and pay) and spending a fortune on transportation and/or parking.
Some of the more wonderful of those meetings are still classics. The one at Brentano in February 1999, when Paul Vallas allowed a crack addled "mother" to go off against me for ten minutes, is still one of my favorites. Also are several of the meetings where the Whitney Young students against testing took on Paul Vallas and Gery Chico. The Curie meeting where kids protested and were surrounded by cops and beaten had some interesting moments. That wonderful terminal meeting at Herzl when Arne became a hero and ended -- FOREVER AND FOREVER -- Board meetings where and when people could get to them is another. I haven't reviewed all of them, but those are still classics of the genre. They can be viewed by anyone who can get copies of the (admittedly censored) Cable TV videos of them. There were usually dozens and often hundreds of people there.
In order to inaugurate his era of "choice", our version of John Galt -- Arne Duncan -- heroically retreated into his bunker and then censored everything he could. If that's heroism (and Arne's the one who's always talking about having to make the "tough choices" while he's simply following orders from the corporate class and Mayor Daley), then beating off is true love.
You're right and wrong about the CTA costs -- but what's the darned point? Anyone taking kids to a Chicago Board of Education meeting is going to be hamstrung by the costs. If we park up here and then take the "L" downtown, we're paying four or five fares. If we pool or get on a yellow school bus, we're stuck with when the bus leaves (so Arne will just stall the meeting).
The way the bus contracts work, tomorrow a lot of the people who get to 125 S. Clark St. for the morning part of the meeting are going to have to leave when the buses leave before the actual vote.
Charlies: We agree on Chicago needing the choice of an elected school board.
But...
Why not suggest it as a project for your students and colleagues?
Eventually, though, such a project has to be led by people who sign their own name to their own work, not anonymous bloggers who cringe behind nicknames and pseudonyms.
Imagine where we'd be today if those guys had penned "Name Withheld by Request" to the Declaration of Independence...
I knew we'd agree at some point Charlie. After all, if you're for "choice" -- as you always say you are, charter schooling and all that -- the most important choice to democratize this city would be for all of us to be able to choose who is on the Board of Education. Right now, every person in Chicago is denied that "choice", then funneled like lab rats into other "choices." Furthermore, there has not been one public discussion of serious policy issues at any Board meeting in more than ten years. All the discussions are done behind closed doors ("Executive Session"). Then the Board votes to seal the record of those meetings (which have now been sealed for 13 years!).
But things have gotten worse under Arne Duncan (and both Michael Scott and Rufus Williams). Democracy prior to 2001 at least had the chance of getting to a meeting of the "Chicago Board of Education." Since Arne cowed behind the security centurions at Clark St. (or in carefully choreographed media events) six years ago, it's been almost impossible for most people in Chicago to get to the meetings. They take place during bankers' hours (convenient for the bankers on the Board) and at a place it costs a large amount to get to and remain at. (I'm not even going to argue with that trivialization of the cost of getting to the Board you threw in to an otherwise sober posting here; you must have had a bad day in your classroom, kid).
When the Board met at schools, the meetings usually began in mid or late afternoon. Lots of people came. Hundreds. Sometimes as many as a thousand. Even though the Board was appointed and in Daley's back pocket, citizens could be there and speak out without wasting a day's work (and pay) and spending a fortune on transportation and/or parking.
Some of the more wonderful of those meetings are still classics. The one at Brentano in February 1999, when Paul Vallas allowed a crack addled "mother" to go off against me for ten minutes, is still one of my favorites. Also are several of the meetings where the Whitney Young students against testing took on Paul Vallas and Gery Chico. The Curie meeting where kids protested and were surrounded by cops and beaten had some interesting moments. That wonderful terminal meeting at Herzl when Arne became a hero and ended -- FOREVER AND FOREVER -- Board meetings where and when people could get to them is another. I haven't reviewed all of them, but those are still classics of the genre. They can be viewed by anyone who can get copies of the (admittedly censored) Cable TV videos of them. There were usually dozens and often hundreds of people there.
In order to inaugurate his era of "choice", our version of John Galt -- Arne Duncan -- heroically retreated into his bunker and then censored everything he could. If that's heroism (and Arne's the one who's always talking about having to make the "tough choices" while he's simply following orders from the corporate class and Mayor Daley), then beating off is true love.
You're right and wrong about the CTA costs -- but what's the darned point? Anyone taking kids to a Chicago Board of Education meeting is going to be hamstrung by the costs. If we park up here and then take the "L" downtown, we're paying four or five fares. If we pool or get on a yellow school bus, we're stuck with when the bus leaves (so Arne will just stall the meeting).
The way the bus contracts work, tomorrow a lot of the people who get to 125 S. Clark St. for the morning part of the meeting are going to have to leave when the buses leave before the actual vote.
Charlies: We agree on Chicago needing the choice of an elected school board.
But...
Why not suggest it as a project for your students and colleagues?
Eventually, though, such a project has to be led by people who sign their own name to their own work, not anonymous bloggers who cringe behind nicknames and pseudonyms.
Imagine where we'd be today if those guys had penned "Name Withheld by Request" to the Declaration of Independence...
Tue Feb 26, 2008 at 2:47 AM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
"...I have to say I was simply shocked to discover from a posting several weeks ago on this blog that Jeanne Nowaczewski's late husband was a founder of Perspectives Charter School. For those that do not know, Jeanne is the real power in ONS. Mr. Edelman who is now formally running ONS, really went from being a well meaing social studies teacher to being a principal of a Washington DC charter school in just a few years. ONS represents an ideology of market competition, but very few of its leaders have successfully competed in the private sector, including Jeanne..." (Tom, yesterday).
Crony capitalism, it's called. Having been an entrepreneur for many years (Substance, Inc.) I can sort of laugh every time I read these guys and gals touting "choice" and "markets" while rigging both for themselves and their buddies (or kin). The GDs and Black P. Stones I used to deal with while helping do security at Bowen High School were closer to market capitalism than any of the charter school touts or their sponsors in New Schools or City Hall.
The most interesting question about the conflicts of interest in New Schools (and Jeannie is not the only one, just the most hypocritical and silly) is how Chicago structures its scandals.
A few weeks ago, the Sun-Times reported, with the usual breathless style of its Lois Lane, that CPS was firing a school clerk (a $30,000 per year person) because a "heroic" FNG shake and bake principal (posing in front of a semi-literate school sign) had uncovered "corruption" in the magnet schools' selection program. Flash immediately to BIG NEWS EVERYWHERE (including here). Mayor comments at five. Follow up stories and discussions for public TV and radio. "How could this be!?" hand wringning from the usual talking heads.
Of course, the story was old news, based on the Inspector General's selectivity in inspecting and genralling "corruption" inside CPS.
It's not "corruption" when a $130,000 per year New Schools zealot helps steer the privatization of a public high school (Calumet) into the hands of a corporate entity with ties to her spouse. That is NOT corruption in Chicago. Just ask Lois Lane and Superman. Just Google the last two years.
And it is NOT corruption in Chicago when CPS allows a public school to crumble (again, Calumet) until it's been slandered and privatized. Then, when the deeds are done, CPS pours a couple of tons of concrete and lots of overtime into the building to get the whole thing ready (at a cost of more than $10 million, when you finally dig through all the sub contracts and overtimes) in time for the grand opening of the Perspectives Charter High School and its affiliated other miracle thingies.
Do you really think the Inspector General of the Chicago Public Schools is going to risk his $110,000 per year job investigating corruption (and, say, the failure of certain people to make full disclosure on their required ethics reports) among the people who are eligible for "performance bonuses" based on their "bands" when the Sun-Times and other media outlets will give him a week's headlines for crucifying some poor overworked school clerk who's trying to help a few neighbors?
Back when I was doing English teaching and gang security (it's been almost a decade now since I was, as some say, "ripped untimely" from teaching) I always had a kind of soft spot in my heart for those poor ghetto and barrio kids who were being sucked into market capitalism at its most competitive (and dangerous) at places like "South Cs" (the corner of 87th and Colfax, where they're still serving up, although I'm long gone) was that at least they had some honesty and honor about their work. Just like those kids portrayed in The Wire.
The real treasures of this era are the people manipulating all those fancy words while feathering all those corporate nests with dollars and privileges at the expense of everyone else. The Moes who used to go to Calumet haven't all been kicked out. Some are now moleing for the same Moes that have been there for generations. Within a year, they'll be out in the halls like they now are at the Chicago Academy and Mike Bakalis's "Entreprensuership" thingy (in Austin). Once you make the marks, go for it.
The day I see anyone from New Schools doing a perp walk for "corruption" I'll take a day off from here. Meanwhile, half the city -- and thousands of poor kids whose only mistake was not picking rich parents -- is facing worse problems than anything on TV, and we get a sewer full of market and choice talking points and sound bites.
Crony capitalism, it's called. Having been an entrepreneur for many years (Substance, Inc.) I can sort of laugh every time I read these guys and gals touting "choice" and "markets" while rigging both for themselves and their buddies (or kin). The GDs and Black P. Stones I used to deal with while helping do security at Bowen High School were closer to market capitalism than any of the charter school touts or their sponsors in New Schools or City Hall.
The most interesting question about the conflicts of interest in New Schools (and Jeannie is not the only one, just the most hypocritical and silly) is how Chicago structures its scandals.
A few weeks ago, the Sun-Times reported, with the usual breathless style of its Lois Lane, that CPS was firing a school clerk (a $30,000 per year person) because a "heroic" FNG shake and bake principal (posing in front of a semi-literate school sign) had uncovered "corruption" in the magnet schools' selection program. Flash immediately to BIG NEWS EVERYWHERE (including here). Mayor comments at five. Follow up stories and discussions for public TV and radio. "How could this be!?" hand wringning from the usual talking heads.
Of course, the story was old news, based on the Inspector General's selectivity in inspecting and genralling "corruption" inside CPS.
It's not "corruption" when a $130,000 per year New Schools zealot helps steer the privatization of a public high school (Calumet) into the hands of a corporate entity with ties to her spouse. That is NOT corruption in Chicago. Just ask Lois Lane and Superman. Just Google the last two years.
And it is NOT corruption in Chicago when CPS allows a public school to crumble (again, Calumet) until it's been slandered and privatized. Then, when the deeds are done, CPS pours a couple of tons of concrete and lots of overtime into the building to get the whole thing ready (at a cost of more than $10 million, when you finally dig through all the sub contracts and overtimes) in time for the grand opening of the Perspectives Charter High School and its affiliated other miracle thingies.
Do you really think the Inspector General of the Chicago Public Schools is going to risk his $110,000 per year job investigating corruption (and, say, the failure of certain people to make full disclosure on their required ethics reports) among the people who are eligible for "performance bonuses" based on their "bands" when the Sun-Times and other media outlets will give him a week's headlines for crucifying some poor overworked school clerk who's trying to help a few neighbors?
Back when I was doing English teaching and gang security (it's been almost a decade now since I was, as some say, "ripped untimely" from teaching) I always had a kind of soft spot in my heart for those poor ghetto and barrio kids who were being sucked into market capitalism at its most competitive (and dangerous) at places like "South Cs" (the corner of 87th and Colfax, where they're still serving up, although I'm long gone) was that at least they had some honesty and honor about their work. Just like those kids portrayed in The Wire.
The real treasures of this era are the people manipulating all those fancy words while feathering all those corporate nests with dollars and privileges at the expense of everyone else. The Moes who used to go to Calumet haven't all been kicked out. Some are now moleing for the same Moes that have been there for generations. Within a year, they'll be out in the halls like they now are at the Chicago Academy and Mike Bakalis's "Entreprensuership" thingy (in Austin). Once you make the marks, go for it.
The day I see anyone from New Schools doing a perp walk for "corruption" I'll take a day off from here. Meanwhile, half the city -- and thousands of poor kids whose only mistake was not picking rich parents -- is facing worse problems than anything on TV, and we get a sewer full of market and choice talking points and sound bites.
Tue Feb 26, 2008 at 6:34 AM
This Meeting Tells the Truth
Was this meeting meaningless?
This young man was telling the truth and board did not care?
Englewood Closing Hearing 2005
This young man was telling the truth and board did not care?
Englewood Closing Hearing 2005
Tue Feb 26, 2008 at 6:38 AM
Meaningless Meetings - And How To Fix Them
this is the link to podcast of hearing
Englewood Closing Hearing 2005
Englewood Closing Hearing 2005
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