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Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing

Did principal steal $35K? Chicago Sun-Times
Her attorney, Steven Hunter, said Diaz has paid back $23,000 and plans to pay back the rest. "We expect that when the trial is concluded, and both sides have been heard, that she'll be exonerated,'' he said. "There were extenuating circumstances.''

Chicago Public Schools principal accused of stealing $35000 Tribune
Sullivan's office launched a sixth-month investigation into Diaz Ortiz after an anonymous tipster alleged to school officials that there had been financial improprieties at the school.


Comments
Wed Apr 9, 2008 at 8:54 AMBy: Tom Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing Some wrote the other day on the blog that corruption was all over the city and that gangs in Chicago thrived because a culture of corruption. Boy was that on the money, when a principal making 137,000 a year has to steal to make end meet that sends a message to our youth.
Wed Apr 9, 2008 at 9:07 AMBy: Marilyn are you listening ....................................................................................... Great story and reporting.

Thanks to that one tipster who had the guts to come forward!

Does that mean Diaz is bad?

No. Just that there needs to be a change at that school because there became a culture of ownership and no oversight. This lead the principal to believe she was above the law or was the law.

All powerful.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Wed Apr 9, 2008 at 3:58 PMBy: Former (and much happier) teacher Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing Downfall thy name is Hubris- she ran the school like it was her personal fiefdom. 2 years??? Her financial misdeeds go back much deeper. If you wanted Xerox copies, she took your Union teacher supply money. If you dared turn in your own receipts you weren't allowed to use "her" machine. She charged $25 dollars a year for parking spots, she employed 1 sister in law as a clerk, another as a teacher's aide, 1 brother in law was coach of track and volleyball and her 2 brothers as a security guard and substitute gym teacher, members of her salsa band were employed as T-1 Line installer contractors, teacher asisstants, band and choir teachers. Even her daughters did their student teaching at Nobel. Every time she was grieved, nothing was done.

Shame on you Olga and Trujillo for letting it get this far...
Wed Apr 9, 2008 at 6:41 PMBy: Who's a Superstar? Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing I thought that the former principal (ousted by the Curie LSC) J. Jones was the superstar principal, according to the media and Daley.

Well I guess this principal is a superstar. Doubling the test scores, now that is a superstar principal.

Why? Because the former Curie principal school was on Corrective Action. BINGO.
Wed Apr 9, 2008 at 7:24 PMBy: Corruption breeds more corruption Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing Everyone wants their piece of the pie, no matter what law they break. I am sorry, as a retired principal, to read this, but if true, I am disheartended that Domingo Truillo allowed this to continue. He may have been following orders or protecting a friend or... either way, he shold have stopped this. Other principals have suffered removal for MUCH less and he aloowed this. Who can we believe in?
Wed Apr 9, 2008 at 8:29 PMBy: Memories... Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing Shame on Domingo for many things...the situation at DeDiego is an example of how he used his power (and now Flavia's ) to destroy the innocent and protect the guilty. The beat goes on...
Wed Apr 9, 2008 at 9:56 PMBy: evemerlot923 Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing CPS Principals are held to such intense scrutiny with layers upon layers of line supervisors micro-managing our schools. Where were this dishonest principal's supervisors? They are as guilty as she. Her insane, irresponsible behavior casts the shadow of doubt, deception, and distrust on the rest of us, who are hard-working, dedicated, and may not wear the superstar medal, but we're putting in long hours and giving up weekends without the drama, ego, or bravado. Does she really deserve her pension with a laudry list of 42 criminal offenses? Life isn't fair, but let's hope it is just!
Wed Apr 9, 2008 at 11:20 PMBy: Music Critic Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing No offense, but Trujillo retired over two years ago...
Myself, I think she should do time for insisting on being the star of all her school musicals....
Wed Apr 9, 2008 at 11:58 PMBy: I Love History! ..................................................................................................... whose next MS?


I'm not a Crook!
Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 12:21 AMBy: George N. Schmidt Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing Ever since the Chicago Board of Education voted (August 2000, unanimously) to fire me from my teaching job for "copyright infringement" based on our publication in Substance of the odious CASE tests (subsequently ended by Arne Duncan after the Curie teachers threatened a boycott), I've taken an even greater interest in "corruption" at the highest levels of CPS. During the years before the Daley dictatorship, I exposed a large number of corruptions, ranging from the highest ranking sex criminal ever to operate in a public school (James Moffat) to numerous minor league potentates across CPS. We also took on the Marva Collins hoax long long ago.

The imposition of the Daley dictatorship beginning in 1995 created an entire new dimension of corruption here in Chicago, however, one that continues at the highest levels of government, education, journalism, and philanthropy to this day. Now that it's begun to unravel, the troubling thing is that it will take at least a decade to straighten out some of the mess that's been left, and much of it will never be repaired. The damage has just been too great.

As the foremost whistle blower inside CPS during those years (forget the official narrative and think about the facts, for a minute), I've taken this kind of story seriously.

We've published on several iterations of these kinds of straightforward "corruption" stories across the years, but the bigger picture belies most people's imagination. And, of course, many many decent people are simply in denial.

Who, for example, is ready to listen carefully to the in-depth story of all the corruptions (money; sex; criminal) that reside within the Aspira charter school mess, to take one example that's still ongoing? The same Sun-Times that punched up the headline on Nobel's Diaz helped Aspira cover up some of its corruptions at Aspira Haugan two years ago (next month) and continues to facilitate similar ones across the city.

How many people are willing to listen to a narrative that outlines the destruction of Gladstone Elementary School and its building's conversion to quasi-private use (UIC/Noble Street) through overtly racist tactics against the black children and families (and staff) currently at Gladstone?

The question about Nobel is not why it's going on but what took it so long to become "news."

Teachers from Nobel have tried (amid fear) to blow the whistle for almost a decade, and the embezzlement was just the tip of an iceberg that included nepotism (noted above) and other kinds of serious corruption, way beyond what's noted here and going back through all of the years of Arne Duncan and into the years of Paul Vallas.

At bottom in all this is that insane "bottom line" that is so goofily highlighted in both the Tribune and Sun-Times narratives about the latest Nobel nonsense: as long as Diaz raised test scores, she was immune (a la Enron, until things completely unravelled) from serious audits (especially of her test scores games) because she was producing according to the only metric that matters (present tense, not past) to the top dogs around Arne Duncan and to each of the seven members of the Chicago Board of Education.

That's the real corruption, and it's embedded into the very fabric of CPS now that we're completing the 13th year of corporate "school reform" under Richard M. Daley and his appointees (CEOs, Board, elsewhere across CPS). As long as Chicago defines "superstar" as "high test scores" and then grants immunity from scrutiny to anyone who achieves those objectives, the people who rise to the top will be the most corrupt in the system, and the corruption below them will be covered up until it blows up in someone's face.
Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 12:30 AMBy: George N. Schmidt Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing Ever since the Chicago Board of Education voted (August 2000, unanimously) to fire me from my teaching job for "copyright infringement" based on our publication in Substance of the CASE tests (subsequently ended by Arne Duncan after the Curie teachers threatened a boycott), I've taken an even greater interest in "corruption" at the highest levels of CPS.

During the years before the Daley dictatorship, I exposed a large number of corruptions, ranging from the highest ranking predatory criminal ever to operate in a public school (James Moffat) to numerous minor league potentates across CPS. We also took on the Marva Collins hoax long long ago.

The imposition of the Daley dictatorship beginning in 1995 created an entire new dimension of corruption here in Chicago. That level of corruption is one that continues at the highest levels of government, education, journalism, and philanthropy to this day. Now that it's begun to unravel, the troubling thing is that it will take at least a decade to straighten out some of the mess that's been left. Much of the mess will never be repaired. The damage has just been too great, and the lives of thousands of children -- almost always the "least of our brethren" -- have been destroyed.

As the foremost whistle blower inside CPS during these years (forget the official narrative and think about the facts, for a minute), I've taken this kind of story seriously. (I also continued to ask to have my status changed to whistle blower from copyright infringer, but that won't happen until a regime dedicated to justice returns to Chicago).

Back to Nobel. We've published several iterations of these kinds of straightforward "corruption" stories across the years. The bigger picture belies most people's imagination. And, of course, many many decent people are simply in denial.

Who, for example, is ready to listen carefully to the in-depth story of all the corruptions (money; interpersonal; criminal) that reside within the Aspira charter school mess, to take one example that's still ongoing? The same Sun-Times that punched up the headline on Nobel's Diaz helped Aspira cover up some of its corruptions at Aspira Haugan two years ago (next month) by joining Channel 44 and the leaders of Aspira in slandering a teacher who tried to blow the whistle. So that corruption continues to facilitate similar ones across the city.

Looming behind all this is that Chicago is America's most intensely and nastily segregated city. The pretense for the Olympic rivals that of China, with its human rights violations. How many other major American cities can brag that they contain more than 300 segregated all-minority (i.e., 100 percent minority children) public schools, and that the city is creating more of them each year, only now through privatization ? (Most of the charters created in the past five years are all-black or all-Latino, so Chicago has been adding a new dimension to segregation).

How many people are willing to listen to a narrative that outlines the destruction of Gladstone Elementary School? In February 2008, CPS votes to close Gladstone for "underutilization". Then in March 2008, CPS votes its building's conversion to quasi-private use (UIC/Noble Street) through overtly racist tactics against the black children and families (and staff) currently at Gladstone?

The question about Nobel is not why it's going on but what took it so long to become "news." It's also an epistemological question: just what do we mean by "corruption" in a city where you can drive for 20 miles and pass nothing but public schools which are 100 percent black? Fifty years of Daleys have created that, but the complicity of most of the people at the top levels of power has been necessary.

This is not to say that the microcosm isn't relevant.

Teachers from Nobel have tried (amid fear) to blow the whistle for almost a decade, and the embezzlement was just the tip of an iceberg that included nepotism (noted above) and other kinds of serious corruption, way beyond what's noted here and going back through all of the years of Arne Duncan and into the years of Paul Vallas.

At bottom in all this is that insane "bottom line" that is so goofily highlighted in both the Tribune and Sun-Times narratives about the latest Nobel nonsense: as long as Diaz raised test scores, she was immune (a la Enron, until things completely unravelled) from serious audits (especially of her test scores games) because she was producing according to the only metric that matters (present tense, not past) to the top dogs around Arne Duncan and to each of the seven members of the Chicago Board of Education.

That's the real corruption, and it's embedded into the very fabric of CPS now that we're completing the 13th year of corporate "school reform" under Richard M. Daley and his appointees (CEOs, Board, elsewhere across CPS). As long as Chicago defines "superstar" as "high test scores" and then grants immunity from scrutiny to anyone who achieves those objectives, the people who rise to the top will be the most corrupt in the system, and the corruption below them will be covered up until it blows up in someone's face.
Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 9:54 AMBy: not surprised Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing She was the one caught. Good job! There are so many more. Teachers feel powerless in reporting criminal activities in their schools. I can' t say nothing is done because yes once reported, the board sends the usual investigators. They sit around, become friendly with the accused, get a job or two for their ralatives and the case is found"unfounded". You want to investigate? find Dr. Dushaun Brown! who statrted her stealing at the Curtis School then Gary Elementary School, then back to Curtis full fledge and now managed to get into a High School where she terrorises and steals.
This woman's brain only works in deception. She sleeps with whom she needs to sleep with, pays who she needs to pay, and fires who she needs out of the way to help herself wirh the children's money. Go find her! She's not very smart but she will outsmart you in deception. She believes in her shredder!
Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 1:51 PMBy: 1.04 Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing Help me here.



Let’s try to get a figure for what the average High School student spends
Inside the school every year. Remember to include lunch. vending machine
Game tickets and dances. This will very by year of course, but let’s try
Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 2:51 PMBy: to 1.04 Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing are you counting school fees, too? you might want to see this article to get a feel for the range (the story is from 2005, so the range is probably higher now):

http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/news/index.php?item=1778&cat=30
Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 4:42 PMBy: 1.04 Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing Yes let's include everything.Thanks for the article
Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 7:09 AMBy: Ripped off by Union Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing Why didn't the Union do anything about this principal? She was putting 40 students in classrooms, withholding supply money, verbally abusing teachers. Where was our Union????
Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 4:55 PMBy: how sad Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing I personally knew the princpal for many years & she was a giving, loving, wonderful person overall, but unfortnately-people change!!! She allowed her personal life to control her professional life. She trusted the wrong people, mistreated many & in the end expected...a change of heart! Where was her heart? mind? soul? I do think everyone should pay the piper, but I dont agree with displaying her business on the front page of a newspaper. I dont think she's a bad person- just think she made too many bad decisions. I don't understand how someone could be so educated & yet so stupid!!! I wish her the best, because she's human & we make mistakes, unfortantely-her mistakes will determine her life yet to come!
Sat Apr 12, 2008 at 12:00 AMBy: Harder they fall Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing How sad- very poignant and well said. I too have known her for many years and watched her unchecked, downward spiral to where she cowers today. However maybe the spectre of front page exposure might act as a deterrent to those currently engaged or considering financial misconduct and abuse of power. One of the reasons she got away with her misdeeds for so long is that her grievances, however justified were magically swept under the rug EVERY time and embolded her to step further and further across the line. The AIO and above knew for a long time the things she was doing and are as much to blame for creating this situation. This rests solely on Trujillo he acted more as her friend and protector rather than acting as her superior and looking out for the interests of students and teachers. They were informed of the over crowding, the shady financial misconducts, her vindictive and abusive unprofessionalism and should share in her shame. Ahhh Chicago politics.
Sat Apr 12, 2008 at 9:20 AMBy: spellcheck Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing emboldened
Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 6:24 AMBy: George N. Schmidt Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing Financial misconduct at the local school level is one of the smallest financial problems facing CPS today. The unchecked waste at Clark St. and its outposts is the greater. Every year, CPS makes budget claims (the annual "deficit" Chicken Little stuff), then give Arne a blank check to hire anyone with corporate clout for all of those nasty outposts of corporate "school reform." It's gotten so there isn't even discussion before they spring up like dandelions in May.

The "Turnaround" office wasn't in the current budget when it was presented last summer, and now it's one of the biggest things facing the schools.

While it's important to root out "corruption" at the local school level (and anybody could have stopped Diaz a long time ago, so the real question is why they didn't), to turn away from what's going on in the 5th, 6th, and 7th floors at 125 S. Clark St. is the really expensive -- and really corrupt -- reality in Chicago's public education system today. The seven members of the Chicago Board of Education treat public money as if it were a private piggy bank to fund their ideological experiments (latest: "Turnaround". Previous: all the "Res" -- reconstitution, reengineering, and intervention).

Beyond the waste of hundreds of millions of dollars on these silly experiments in Chilean "free market" nonsense, there is the intellectual corruption of reducing the complexity of children (and the hundreds of thousands struggling in poverty in our world class city) to a "bottom line" as measured by multiple choice computer graded secret so-called "standardized" test scores.

Anyone who thinks the Inspector General is going to investigate even one hundreth of Arne Duncan's corruption is in fantasyland.
Sun Apr 13, 2008 at 10:12 PMBy: joey Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing The heads of the OIG (Inspector General) office came from City Hall so do you really think they are going to unearth anything against Duncan to make Daley look bad when he just transferred them from City Hall to CPS?!!!
Wed Apr 16, 2008 at 8:10 AMBy: equipped Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing People have been reporting her shenanigans for years on end. But those of us that do work for the city or the county, we know that government entities are bureaucratic red tape sink holes.

These kind of charges and such are not done over-night.

Concerned teachers, staff, parents, and those of us (me) that have loved ones employed by CPS have indeed been reporting this for a while now. But as with all things having to do with the government, things are slow motion.

No one is in a hurry to look into such things when there are layers upon layers of red tape. It's akin to a stinky onion, you peel off one layer to only get to another. Sadly, a lot of people in the positions of power in CPS that can and ought to be investigating and stopping these kinds of crimes are either protecting friends and or do not care to do the work involved.

Especially not when they know they will receive their pay every two weeks.

Many on other websites have stated that she did a lot of good to try to justify her crimes. That is tantamount to saying that Saddam was a good leader even though he tortured and murdered countless millions.

I am NOT comparing Diaz to a murderer, no. But the analogy is the same - we can't sit idle and excuse crimes because of some good that was done.

Are we to teach our kids that it is OK to have extra-marital affairs (i.e. Bill Clinton) if we are a charming speaker?

Are we to teach our kids that it is OK to steal money if we are going through a rough patch in our lives?

Those that are trying to sweep the 42 charges brought against Diaz need to think about what they're trying to have us consider and justify.

A wrong does not make a right.

She can plead "not guilty" all she wants, but these kind of charges are seldom ever brought to light unless there is a plethora of evidence as its foundation.

Maybe she will have to go through the receiving area of the Cook County Jail.. then onto Division 4.

The irony.....
Wed Apr 16, 2008 at 9:16 AMBy: Free Association Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing Wow. Who else has whiplash?
Wed Apr 16, 2008 at 2:34 PMBy: equipped Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing Free Association,

What do you mean?
Thu May 1, 2008 at 1:13 PMBy: X CPS School Clerk Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing I worked with a principal that took money, give money to teachers and never was there a receipt turned in. The employees at the school that work with the principal in internal accounts are paid off to keep quiet. Maybe, this person wasn't paid off enough to keep quiet. Employees going to school on work time. I did payroll, employees were swiping other employees in and out. The principal was getting the heads up on when the Lunchroom Inspectors were coming in, so they feed the kids PBJ sandwich for a week so they could clean up. Payroll is abused in the Chicago Public Schools and no one seems to care. Teachers and security guards fighting with each other in front of the students. Police Officers were told not to arrest or write reports because it would made the principal look bad. Employee assaulting another employee and the victim employee gets retailated against the principal for calling the police and having the other employee arrested. Violence in the schools has been going on and on. Mirna Diaz - This was a Personal Vendetta against this principal. Someone was out to get her.
Mon May 5, 2008 at 8:27 PMBy: DELGADILLO D. Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing MY NEICE WAS WORKING WITH THIS PRINCIPAL AND HAD TO LEAVE THE SCHOOL,BECAUSE SHE WAS CONTANTLY HARASSED BY THIS SO CALLED LEADERSHIP. TEN YEARS OF TEACHING WENT OUT THE WINDOW. SHE PURSUE'S A DIFFERENT PROFFESION NOW AND BELEVE
YOU ME THAT PERSON HAS DONE MORE BAD THEN GOOD.
Wed May 14, 2008 at 2:33 PMBy: Kevo Former Student Nobel Principal Mirna Diaz Accused Of Stealing I knew it!

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