Marshall High and other turnaround high schools, in Chicago and nationally, face a thorny dilemma. Higher-performing students are being siphoned off through competition, driving down enrollment and raising tough policy questions about the future of these schools.
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By: Alexander Russo / August 10, 2009
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Feel free to send a link or bring something up in the comments if I miss anything good. Thanks!
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-brooks-principalaug23,0,391...
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While a ghigh school student in chicago, D. Rose took the ACT 3 times and failed it. Somehow, he passed the SAT once he got to detroit. His test score and the champinships from Memphis are now taken away--but heck, he's made the big time and is in the money-so why should he care that he cheated and hurt his former schools? He's just keepin' it real.
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Not one inch! That's what the CTU should give. They already gave back a week's pay. How much money and interest does that give CPS. We've given so much back, there is no room for opening the contract, because they have to open the whole thing up.
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All colleges would have to do is as for the ACT and EPAS cores from 8th grade and up. Then, Colleges/Unis can see a pattern of scores and if there is a big jump in an SAT from ALL the other scores, well, someone else has taken that test!
If the guardian/parent/custodian of the student/applicant refuses to share these scores, well, move on young man.
This is so simple to do. No problem with the punishment that will now be dolled out now. Shame on CPS allowing HSs to do this.
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"She should give a liitle in good faith since everyone else around her is."
They're giving under the threat of lost jobs in the form of layoffs. Daley has already shed how many union teachers in privitization.
And Daley wanted long term labor peace to ensure the olympic bid had a chance. He got it. He could have signed a shorter contract. He didn't.
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"How many no work, no pay days will the Chicago Teachers Union accept?" They better accept none. The CPS entered into the contractual obligation for labor peace up front. Don't try to renegotiate on the back end.
This attutude is killing the CTU and teachers. She should give a liitle in good faith since everyone else around her is. Yo must be very young.
George, arne worked for Paul long before he became CEO and was in 'charge' of the magnent program. Good for you and your relationship with pure, but pure is not so pure.
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I thought the Tribune's article on Harper was interesting for the admission that kids were forced out for behavior issues. They would behave in an unfamiliar environment is the logic. How many of us have had those kids show up in our classrooms and cause disruptions. It would be interesting to follow the kids forced out for behavior problems and see how they are doing at their new schools.
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"How many no work, no pay days will the Chicago Teachers Union accept?" They better accept none. The CPS entered into the contractual obligation for labor peace up front. Don't try to renegotiate on the back end.
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On August 11, 2009, Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Ron Huberman said, "The fact is that the projected level of state funding for FY2010, coupled with our fixed costs, most notably PENSION OBLIGATIONS and increasing CONTRACTUALLY-REQUIRED SALARIES (4% teachers raise), are combining to force a new round of difficult decisions. We must determine a way for CPS to weather these difficult economic times. We will CONTINUUE to work with Springfield to restore the cuts that CPS saw this year and to REFORM STATE PENSION and education funding to bring long-term solvency to our financial outlook. But the recent financial situation that we are faced with leaves us with limited options." Sixty-nine percent of the preliminary $5.38 billion operating budget pays for salary and benefits, and about 90 percent of that spending is governed by the District's various labor contracts, Ron Huberman pointed out. Earlier this year, CPS requested from the State an additional $200 million in new revenue plus for its plan to fully meets its PENSION OBILIGATIONS by 2045. The new state budget contained neither. Revenue shortfalls, along with a number of other inflationary-driven fixed costs, are driving the District's budget crisis this year, officials said. Among those. the PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS ($130 million), CONTRACTUAL PAY INCREASES (teachers 4% raise, $125 million), rising healthcare costs ($30 million) and miscellaneous expenses such as utilities, transportation and fuel ($35 million). Under current circumstances, those costs will continue to ratchet up in coming years, Ron Huberman cautioned, leaving the District's future financial picture even more precarious. Ron Huberman said cost containment on the PENSION and WAGE FRONT (teachers 4% raise) is critical to any go-forward strategy. Without that, he added, "We cannot continue to protect school budgets in FY2010. The CLASSROOM WILL BE AFFECTED." The Chicago Teachers Pension Fund and the teachers 4% raise are under attack by CPS! How many no work, no pay days will the Chicago Teachers Union accept? WWMD, What Will Marilyn Do?
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The Trib. feature on Harper's turnaround captures a real sense of the flaws in school turnaround--especially from the students' view. The way the writers compare test score gains from turnaround elementary schools with very comparable test score gains from similar neighborhood elementary bldgs that weren't victims of a turnaround shows how flimsy the whole "turnaround" pursuit truly is. One sense that I do leave the article with is a profound feeling of fatalism for the students that attend even the new "turned around" Harper. The kids seem to recognize the "systemic disingenuousness" from all sides--their former school's misadventures, and their new, "turned around school's" bad faith. The students are more savvy and alert about what's really going on than most believe.
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I'm glad that Julie got here to refute the lies someone is using Alexander (and Catalyst) to help spread here against Julie, Wanda, and PURE. As they can tell anyone who cares, we've been supporting PURE for a long time (it's more than 20 years now), and we've also had our differences. But that's always come down face-to-face, not through anonymous slanders spread at blogs (or, before blogs, across the "Did you hear..." village gossip stuff).
I was poised yesterday to note here that Anders (Julie's son) was at Whitney Young back when Paul Vallas was CEO of CPS. Just as one of my sons (Dan) attended Whitney Young (and graduated, Class of 2007) when Arne Duncan was CEO. He also played baseball, something that Rick Munoz's son did. Baseball parents are a tough lot, with a sense of humor to boot. I've already noted that as far as I'm concerned this whole "scandal" about selective enrollment (and admissions "standards") is just another silly example of Tribune agenda setting and distraction. When Tribune takes on the "legacy" admissions of all the corporate rich people get to colleges and universities, I'll believe we can discuss something here. When they're prattling on about anything based on so-called "standardized" test scores they're simply out to reinforce the nonsense they've been at for more than 20 years in bashing public schools (now, the colleges and universities; not just the CPS selective schools) and pushing their own bankrupt "school reform" agenda.
This is also about how we monitor and edit at blogs. Blogs are new and completely voluntary. Blogs came into existence behind a screen of anonymity, and the tradition is too old to break now. So, for the most part, anonymous cowards who want to snipe can do so at blogs and never be accountable for anything in the real world. So be it. But let's clarify...
At SubstanceNews, I take the time twice a day (once during the wee hours, now) to patrol the "Comments." Although we are a news site, we allow our comments to follow the bizarre conventions of the blogosphere. Hence, many people will make comments anonymously.
However, we let people know that we will simply delete comments that are way out of bounds, especially if they come in anonymously. Anyone who wants to make a critique of someone at CPS can do so within limits, but rarely a day goes by when I'm no knocking off what can best be described as "anonymous nonsense". This ranges from fantasy libels and other defamations to outright fabrications. They just get DELETE. Ditto all that spam (usually salacious, but sometimes product hypes and once from a boiler room for worthless "stock").
We're learning how to do this as we go. Cyberspace is too new for it to be otherwise. But without the fact checking conventions that (sometimes) applied in reporting, things degenerate into lies pretty quickly.
My preference when someone deliberately lies anonymously will be to out that person (remember, those of us who manage these sites always know who is coming in, at least by e-mail address). So far out at substancenews.net I'm at the "one warning" rule. Perhaps the same could work here. I'd love to know the complete identity of many of those who spam around with slanders here; elsewhere, I do know.
We've got a busy week ahead of us. See you all at the budget hearings, beginning at 7:00 tonight at Amundsen.
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gates $ and that wanda lady with the dead baby baby and blood at a Board mmeitng--really made pure look very silly and twisted too..
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Re: Julie
The lady doth protest too much.....
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[comment removed - boring.]
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[ comment removed ]
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While I'm at it, let me add that PURE has been consistent in our position on the clout story. We don't criticize parents for doing anything they can to help their children. In fact, we offer workshops for parents on how to apply for magnet schools, and we tell the parents everything we know.
What we do oppose is a political power system that treats powerful and advantaged people better than less-advantaged, "regular" folks. In Chicago, that system has been in place for decades and people don't know or think that they can fight it.
Our "leaders" can get their children and the children of friends and relations into the best schools. This makes it easy to starve the school down the street of resources. It's like the kings living in high-walled palaces while the people starve.
PURE works every day to tear down those walls and build up good schools for every child. Some people don't like us for doing that, but it's not going to stop us.
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Unfortunately, although in other cases Alexander will police this site, in my case he has refused to address the continued attempt by "Dear Chicago Way" to promulgate a serious lie about me and about my children's academic qualifications. He claims that I'm a public person so it's OK for anonymous people to lie about my children over and over again.
So, apparently, I have to keep setting the record straight. "Dear Chicago Way' is lying. My children enrolled at Whitney Young according to the normal process of meeting qualifications, testing and acceptance based on merit.
Proof that "Dear Chicago Way" is lying is that both of my children enrolled at WY before Arne Duncan was even hired at CPS. Of course, I appreciate suggestion that I am that young. The idea that Arne Duncan would have or has ever done me a favor just adds one more touch of absurdity to this person's vendetta.
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The hearings on the CPS budget are being held on August 17, 18, and 19 at 7:00 p.m. each night. The hearings include a Power Point presentation from CPS officials (probably led by Christine Herzog from the budget office) then "public participation."
Although the hearings (like all the other "hearings" CPS holds that we've come to know and love) are supposed to provide input for the vote of the seven members of the Chicago Board of Education on August 26, not one Board member will be at the hearings and none of them will have read what happens at the hearings before they vote to rubber stamp the budget submitted by Ron Huberman on August 26. It's one of their many unusual habits.
Huberman won't be at the hearings either.
The hearings are at...
Amundsen High School, 5110 N. Damen, August 17
Marshall High School, 3250 W. Adams, August 18
Black Magnet School, 9101 S. Euclid, August 19
SubstanceNews will be reporting on each of the hearings by the following day, and providing a complete transcript as soon as CPS provides us with it. We are asking people who prepare public participation materials to provide them to us via e-mail so we can report as accurately as possible on their presentations.
The Huberman administration has taken the unprecedented step of sabotaging the hearings in advance by refusing to distribute copies of the proposed budget to the city's public libraries, schools, and aldermanic offices in advance of the hearings.
This is unprecedented. For more than 100 years, these materials have been provided to the public at the schools, libraries, and political offices across Chicago. This year, Huberman has tried to claim that providing a PDF copy on line at the Board's Web Site is the equivalent to providing people with the printed copies that have been distributed every year for more than a century. At most libraries, printing costs 15 cents per page, so that it would cost a citizen $51 to print out the PDFs of the first part of the budget, and an additional amount of money to print out the material included in a CD in the back pocket with each of the printed books.
On Thursday, August 13, CPS officials told one teacher who requested a copy of the printed proposed budget that printing all those budgets was a waste of paper and that this was an example of how CPS was "going green."
On Friday, August 14, I was finally able to get printed copies of the budget at CPS headquarters, 125 S. Clark St. (Paying for downtown parking was an interesting experience, sort of like another "Daley Tax" like the other privatized thingies we suffer in this town).
People who checked with libraries and other places across the city on August 13 and August 14 reported that the printed editions of the proposed budgets were still not distributed across Chicago.
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Alexander, your recent post is a perfect example of why all the test based "accountability" stuff is nonsense, right up to "Race to the Top." Re-read what you just wrote. It's Social Darwinian babble, and you appear to be taking it seriously. "This is a killer and unfair -- no wonder why charters do not want sped students..." is just the beginning of this kind of silly triage. What about students who have missed forty days of school? Of those going through divorce?
Once you accept the fundamental insanity that is underlying all of this nonsense -- the use of so-called "standardized" tests as a legitimate "bottom line" for measuring anything real about the education of human children -- you wind up spouting Social Darwinian nonsense such as you wrote above, without even thinking.
Dump the tests and fix the schools. Now.
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Happy vacation--I had a thought--CPS is making new schools, closing good schools, closing bad schools and opening schools with in schools because so many schools now are NOT making AYP.
Now the problem with this is that ISBE uses the special ed student scores as part of AYP. This is a killer and unfair--no wonder why charters do not want sped students. And schools have to test students on their grade leverl, so you have sped students who are in 7th grade due to their age, even have been retained once, but can only read at a 4th grade level. School must give them the 7th grade test. So yes, we want all students to improve, but this is a killer now to the neighborhood schools. I am surprised that the ACLU and /or MALDEF do not take this up. Oh we are in trouble now. Can anyone get the number of schools that did not make AYP this year? And ISBE score requirements are now only going up up up. And more schools will close close close.
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Danny, your cynicism and conspiracy theories know no bounds!
Ok...just kidding. You're totally spot on. It is especially important this year for the Board to avoid public scrutiny of their proposed budget because that budget represents a major effort to deceive teachers, pensioners, taxpayers, and families.
It's even more important this year than in years past given the Board's wildly exaggerated "budget crunch" that could be resolved by CPS and local government officials without breaking a sweat and without enraging the public. (See Rod Estvan's post above.) And there are plenty of other reasonable and none too complicated solutions beyond what Mr. Estvan proposes. Shining a light on those other solutions is exactly what the Board is trying to avoid with this budget strategy and with their attacks on teacher pay and pensions.
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I guess the apple don't fall too from the tree!!! Huberman is going to sprint to get the budget overview over with. Huberman obey's his master down to his techniques to evade public scrutiny!
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Re: retiredtoo (Too what? Lazy to type a space between words?)
Thank you for your contribution to the discussion on things relative to District 299 here.
This category does seem to be a catch-all (you know, "updates") for items as they come up.
As Mr. Schmidt notes, the Board has failed to disseminate copies of the proposed budget to outlets where people might ordinarily be able to peruse them.
The fact that there are budget hearings this week (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings) for public input just one week before the Board of Education deliberates and votes on it makes this topic one of immediate and pressing concern.
Why, it's almost as if the Bureaucrats want to hurry and push this thing through without the public knowing much about it.
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Alexander, Do not let Schimdt take control of this blog. He notes that there is not budget thread so he is beginning one.
If you let him he will take this over it will become a tool for his propaganda.
But, I digress......
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Isn't Alexander posting tweets because he's on vacation and can't post to his blog in the typical fashion?
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Since there is no thread yet for budget questions, I'll try and begin here. Before this series of questions begins, let's just remember that my colleagues on the other side of the media have basically reported the "news" of the deficit by repeating the talking points handed them by Mayor Daley and Ron Huberman. Since this is their usual posture, there are no surprises. However, in the current context their slavish adherence to the scripts provided becomes even more troublesome than usual.
And that slavishness means that the main story — the BIG STORY — about the CPS budget is how CPS will be broke in a year or two if CPS continues to pay its contractual obligation to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund (CTPF). The headlines, more or less, are all the same: TEACHER PENSION COSTS TO BANKRUPT CPS SCHOOLS. Blah. Bladdity. Blather.
Notice that the history of that pension obligation (long term going back more than 100 years; short term going back six or eight years) is ignored (again, both by my colleagues and in the talking points from those in power). Alas, also, there is a flummoxing of the notion of "fully funded" when it comes to forecasting pension obligations and a deliberate attempt to confuse readers between Chicago's fund (the CTPF) and the State of Illinois Fund (the TRS). Welcome to "1984" and Chicago's Memory Hole.
But I digress.
Below are the first of a series of questions based both on the history of the budget and the present presentation (which CPS for the first time in history is refusing to distribute across Chicago at the required places: libraries, aldermanic offices, schools).
What are they hiding?
Consider the following two questions:
On Page 84 of the "Proposed Budget 2009 - 2010" we learn that the "Debt Service will increase from $288.1 million (FY 2009, which ended June 30, 2009) to $417.7 million (FY 2010, which ends June 30, 2010). Additionally, at the July 22, 2009 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, the Board voted, unanimously, without discussion or debate, to approve bonding in the amount of $2.3 billion for "capital projects" (for which CPS currently has no capital development plan).
So, two things before the question: One, the CPS debt bomb is going off. Two, CPS has just voted to add enormously to that debt.
Why is this debt bomb exploding in the year when all payments to the School Finance Authority for the last time a debt bomb exploded during a recession (1979)? Has Run Huberman planned to get the CPS back into a "bankruptcy" like 1979 and then promote another solution like the huge borrowing and SFA that resulted from that squeeze?
I assume that everyone knows that the 2010 debt bomb is going off primarily because of the way CPS orchestrated the payments on all that money CPS borrowed to bribe everyone with capital projects (and waste hundreds of millions of dollars) during the Vallas years. As one Vallas lieutenant put it to me recently: "We kicked the can down the road." That can is now tied to our tail.
Second, an easier question. Why does CPS, alone among literate and numerate entities, continue to think that "alphabetical order" means by FIRST NAME, THEN MIDDLE INITIAL, THEN LAST NAME?
In the proposed budget, behind the tab "School [sic] at a glance" Mr. Huberman tells us the supposed budgets for selected schools (charters are not listed, again). These schools begin with "Abraham Lincoln Elementary" and Abram N. Pritzker Elementary" and terminate at "Wolfgang A. Mozart Elementary".
Who knew?
Chicago has 22 regular public schools named "William" from "William A. Hinton" to "William W. Carter" (like I said, alphabetized by FIRST NAME, THEN MIDDLE INITIAL, THEN LAST NAME, with MIDDLE INITIAL prevailing). You will not find Bogan High School under the "Bs" nor Taft High School under the "Ts" since our Miracle Management Team has decided that both are named "William" here in Chicago's fantasy world.
Maybe someone should warn the Olympic people what is going to happen when Chicago decides to sort things in planning and distribution according to these algorithms.
So, students, teachers, and others...
Your answers to these two questions. Briefly, since the debt bomb set by Paul Vallas is now going off, why are "we" going to borrow another two billion dollars and change this fiscal year?
and...
Why all the Williamses (etc) under Chicago's unique manner of creating alphabetical order.
No answers that refer to our mayor's version of English syntax or the state of his synapses, please.
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some of this twitter stuff is waisting time here. allit is is someone's comment or twwet with no substance. Then, you lookit up-click on it-and you get all their personal and other's commentds to that person. This is kind of lazy--if it references catalyst, or wttw or the suntimes. etc, that's cool, but these other tweets are truning me off.
Sorry and thanks if you can keep just someones tweet opinion on the main page.
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I didn't believe it because the teacher was new to the school and I looked at the work displayed on the board in march when I recieved the acceptance letter and he could already do the work. His preschool gave more stringent work then they were giving in at his preschool. I wasn't willing to take the chance and have him become bored and a behavior problem from being bored at the school. By the way his older brother attended the school and I wad pleased with the school for kids on grade level. It did provide rigor. There were a few students at the school who would have tested well on the SE exam but their parents always complained that the school wasn't challenging. It is an AMPS high performing school with only one of every grade. I made the right choice.
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especially teachers
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My mom who is 86 gets it. She says Huberman is a cute boy but seems like he his heart is not in it!
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"I took a spot at a classical school for my child who was entering K instead of at my neighborhood school because the principal would not let him go to first grade for language arts and math."
What are you talking about? The principal will say anything to get you to the school. They will put the child in first or not?
They have to go in K if they are 5 years old by 9/1. Any good teacher at your neighborhood school will assure that your gifted 5 year old gets higher level work.
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Look, it is simple. Daley hires folks who really know nothing about running a school district. It totally defies logic. A fifth grader would scratch his or her head. Really! Think about it. Mayor Daley hires another CEO without knowledge on how to run a school district, much less the third largest district in the USA! Chicago, your mayor hires people without experience and thus have no passion or vision to take Chicago Public schools where it should be. Now Huberman brings in other folks who have no experience in managing a school district! Brilliant! Look there are very qualified people who should be in Huberman's seat. No hate. Really. It is obvious that he and his MBA team are way over their head! They are not the solution. What is left is a slash and burn policy to cut the budget at all cost. That was the Daley plan all along. Daley is a selfish man, a small man. If he had heart, he would have made public education a true priority in the first place. I wonder what Dale will say when he meets his maker when God questions him about how he treated the least of his city. What will Daley's response be? The 2016 Olympics?
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Only if you allow a child to attend the grade level that the child is actually at instead of what his age says. I took a spot at a classical school for my child who was entering K instead of at my neighborhood school because the principal would not let him go to first grade for language arts and math.
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I say get rid of SE schools completely. Are we saying neighborhood schools are not for any kid with brains? What a sad message. They should all be good schools.
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you see why this is all so bad--ag school example,pure exampkle WYHS example--this is really deep folks, The clout and corruption MUST stop. and so far, they have oly scratched the surface.
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You missed the point on julie of pure. She used her clout, her pressure as the leader of pure to get Arne to get her kid into Young HS. When her kid did not make it on his own, she went to the source, the top, the head and got him, made him do the dirty work behind the scenes to get him in.
pure is not so pure
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The press may also know about Munoz getting his nephew into the ag school a few years ago. Interesting story. The kid did not last but did take up a spot.
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John Kass in the Tribune today has one of his more humorous columns relating to the pervasive corruption of Chicago under Mayor Daley. Yes, the CPS is included in the corruption with both Alderman Munoz and CPS Board President Scott playing staring roles in Kass’ sarcastic discussion of ‘the Chicago way.†Fran Spielman today freed from the evil clutches of Rossi wrote a great report today of a press conference where the Mayor vigorously defended Alderman Munoz or any other of Chicago’s elected democrats right to lobby any CPS school for admission of any child.
John Kass points out that Daley waged a similar defense of CPS Board President’s Scott’s investments around a 2016 site saying he had done nothing wrong until he discovered the same day that his own hand picked 2016 committee had a dreaded “ethics officer,†who did not agree with the Mayor and who found Scott should have publicly disclosed his and the West Side Ministers astute empty lot investments.
I seem to recall a few days ago, minions of the CPS bureaucracy on this blog trashing Julie from PURE for pointing out that politicians and other important people have for years been clouting in kids at various better CPS schools. Munoz admits now that he has done this before and not just for his own daughter. From the Mayor’s comments he also appears to acknowledge that the practice is pervasive, hence his defense of this practice indicating it was basically ok for elected officials to lobby schools for admissions. It would seem that Julie has been fundamentally proven correct.
What we have in CPS is the cancer of the Mayor’s systemic corruption based on what Kass depicts as the “Chicago way.†We have a bureaucracy filled with lackeys, white, black, and hispanic who serve at the pleasure of the Mayor, led by the leading lackey Huberman. Unfortunately for Chicago, President Obama has rewarded former Daley lackey Duncan and hence kissing up to his honor the Mayor is now seen as a national pathway to career success.
Hopefully the US District Attorney can take down a few of the educational crooks running CPS; at least this may give the future lackeys pause before they continue with the Chicago way.
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The stewart administration has brought the CTU to the verge of bankruptcy,putting us under the shame of financial oversight by the american Federation of Teachers. Why would you trust this leadership with your pension. I voted with UPC. the time has come to leave
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The Chicago Public Schools (Board of Education) have been introducing bills every year to relieve themselves of their pension fund obligations to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund under 17-129 of the Pension Code. CPS filed a suit claiming our pension funding law is UNCONSTITUTIONAL, the wording of which makes clear that CPS don't think pension costs are a part of teacher compensation. Illinois House Representative Barbara Flynn Currie introduced a "shell bill" SB1858 at the eleventh hour on May 28, 2009 at the request of CPS. Here are parts of the bill that was defeated in the Personnel and Pensions Committee, thanks to the republicans on this committee on May 28, 2009! AMENDMENT TO SENATE BILL 1858: "Section 5. The Illinois Pension Code is amended by changing Section 17-129 as follows: (b) (i) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Section, the Board of Education's total required contribution to the Fund for fiscal year 2010 under this Section is $208,000,000 (projected pension payment to the CTPF for 2010 is $307,500,000 ). (ii) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Section, the Board of Education's total required contribution to the Fund for fiscal year 2011 under this Section is $227,000,000 (projected pension payment to the CTPF for 2011 is $536,000,000). (iii) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Section, the Board of Education's total required contribution to the Fund for fiscal year 2012 under this Section is $247,000,000 (projected pension payment to CTPF for 2012 is $864,500,000). (iv) For fiscal years 2013 through 2045, the minimum contribution to the Fund to be made by the Board of Education in each fiscal year shall be an amount determined by the Fund to be sufficient to bring the total assets of the Fund up to 90% of the total actuarial liabilities of the Fund by the end of fiscal year 2045. In making these determinations, the required Board of Education contribution shall be calculated each year as a level percentage of the applicable employee payrolls over the years remaining to and including fiscal year 2045 and shall be determined under the projected unit credit actuarial cost method. Except as provided in subsection (c) of this Section, the Board of Education's required contribution to the Fund under this Section in any fiscal year after 2012 shall not increase by more than 9% over the Board of Education's required contribution in the preceding fiscal year." This bill will come up again in the Fall session and if CPS can't get it thru then, CPS will have it introduced again in January 2010. Here is how the members of the Personnel and Pensions Committee voted on May 28, 2009: Kevin McCarthy-present, Marlow Colvin-yes, Raymond Poe-no, Linda for Edward Acevedo-yes, Dan Brady-no, Rich Brauer-no, James Brosnahan-no, Daniel Burke-no, Deborah Graham-yes and Michael McAuliffe-no. CEO Ron Huberman of CPS supported this proposal limiting the Board's payment of pension funds to 9% per year, but the proposal died in the House Personnel and Pension Committee. Ron Huberman is also not in favor of returning the pension tax levy to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund, but is in favor of the institution of a 2-tiered pension system; one for those currently in the system and one for new hires. The 2-tiered system calls for less to be contributed by the Board to CTPF and then the assets of the Fund will continually be diminished! Please contact your state senator and state representative so that this does not happen!
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Seems like many on this thread want to know, "What will Marilyn do?". Marilyn will do what ever her Chief of Staff and Attorneys tell her to do. After six years as president of the CTU, she is still unable to make decisions or lead anything.
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"Quality public education is not a priority for these politicians."
It is for the select few who work for them, donate money to them or are their own blood.
Everyone else be damned.
Munoz has learned this from other alderman--he is not the only one who put pressure on principals to take students.
NONE OF THEM SHOULD MAKE CALLS TO THE SCHOOL TO GET THEIR KID IN--THEY DO THIS AT THE LOTTERY SCHOOLS TOO.
And then they run on honesty and helping their ward-please.
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Munoz and the rest of the aldermen should be about changing the crime of Chicago having a two-tiered educational system. Then again, these aldermen are the ones who passed the privatization of the parking meter system for half of what they should have gotten. These are the same folks who will let Da Mayor place the debt of the Olympics on the public if we get it and without transparency! I get tired of the lame drama where a couple of alderman act brave until it is time to vote for what Da Mayor wants. Quality public education is not a priority for these politicians. Daley sets the tone. Daley is about having his experienced teachers leave and hiring cheap labor. You get what you pay for is the adage!
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CPS told me earlier today that copies of the proposed 2009-2010 budget are finally available for people to pick up at CPS headquarters. They stalled for nearly a week on that.
A survey of a number of libraries today showed that CPS still has not provided copies of the proposed budget to the libraries. Ditto to each public school. Ditto the aldermanic offices. Only one library said they had a copy, and I'm betting that one has a copy of last year's, not the new one.
The proposed budget hearings begin Monday night (7:00 Amundsen High School), followed by Tuesday night (Marshall) and Wednesday night (Black Magnet Elementary).
This leaves very little time for anyone with a life and work to read the thing, let alone look it over.
We've already begun reporting on how poorly drafted it is. That's not up and will be ongoing at www.substancenews.net over the next three week. Our coverage of the August 26 Board of Education meeting will be extensive.
As noted earlier, those who belabor the hope that the Sun-Times, Tribune, and Catalyst will turn into something other than CPS propagandists are engaging in fantasy. There are better ways to fulfill lurid needs. The past week's clippings simply show what everyone already knows. Corporate media repeat corporate propaganda.
This Week's Updates Are Here
No rod for ctu president!!!!
This Week's Updates Are Here
Munoz is NOT the only one to do this--I guess they figure if they come clean then they are safe. And even King Daley giving a blessing--he knows the score, heck, he KEEPS the score. -but this is all worng. and kenner may say she does not feel any pressure, well she has been around awhile and she is WELL protected just like the principal of Skinner.
However, there are MANY principals very pressured out there on this and if you do not play the game, things at your school get taken away, including you if you not play this dangerous game. Some are more equal than others.
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this is why our school turned it down! Instruction suffers RON! But how would you know. (Funny how AMPS schools or high scoring schools are not on the list or very few are.)
We felt is interferred with the instructional program. We offer breakfast in the cafeteria every morning and encourage our children to eat. We teid this a few years ago--it was a mess, it did take time from instruction, the kids who came latwe to school, still came late to school AND we got bugs and mice. Frist thing we were told is NO EATING in the classrooms! Do they ever think and then think again?
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Rod,
You Rock!
We are not city employees and we do not have the same benefits such as tuition reimbursement as city employees.
Did Ron Huberman receive any tutition reimbursement when he was on the CPD?
I paid for two graduate degrees and 4% does not even begin to cover it nor does it cover the materials including cleaning supplies I have to buy for my classroom. I doubt Ron bought his own bullets or uniform.
Does Ron realize that when a teacher retires he/she will have to pay more than $2,400 A MONTH for insurance in order to cover a family? No city employee pays this much for insurance!
Breakfast For All
Yes I've heard of Breakfast For All. the shoe's on the other foot three years after the [b]"everybody get all the food out of your classrooms!"[/b] hysteria
While I agree that a good breakfast is essential to productive learning time, I don't think Huberman et al considered what this does for upper grades departmentalized settings. When you have barely forty minutes to get 1st period to do their Sci lab, it's hard enough when navigating the pledge, announcements, attendance, etc. Now I'm serving breakfast, too? 1st period 8th grade is going to get the shaft on Sci Labs this year, there's no Gordon Ramsay running me like a goat up the mountain in my classroom. Maybe this would be better suited to classrooms that either don't departmentalize or do it less than five times a day. Does this mean The Board is cutting Chartwell's peoples hours??
This Week's Updates Are Here
In today's Sun-Times on page 8, there is an article entitled "Daley rips 'double tax' for pensions", it states, "Exacerbating the problem is a teacher contract that calls for 4 percent pay raises in each of the next two years. On Wednesday, Daley stopped short of urging teachers to forfeit those raises. He left little doubt that teachers would be asked to join the call for shared sacrifice. Alternative include layoffs, pay cuts, increases in class size or a reduction in pension contributions. "We've asked people to take 12 to 15 days off without pay because everybody has to chip in with regard to the recession. You can't allow people [to remain] outside the boat," Daley said. Pressed on whether teachers should forfeit their 4 percent pay raise, Daley said: "I don't know, ... That's up to Ron and [School Board President] Michael Scott to NEGOTIATE this, just like we worked with the trades." But he said, "Everybody else is dieting on their [spending]. We have to get the rest of the government- the county, the state, the federal government and other agencies (CPS)- to realize they have to start dieting in regards to the financial crises. It's not just for Chicago. It's all over the country." I ask the question, who really controls CPS? Daley! P.S.- W.W.M.D., What will Marilyn do?