Even as CPS opens more new schools, children with special needs have a tougher time finding options. Placements in private therapeutic schools are scarce, and some charters are reluctant to enroll them.
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Councils file lawsuit to stop school closings, turnarounds
By: Lindsay Abbassian / February 09, 2012
A coalition of local school council members filed a lawsuit Thursday to stop CPS from moving forward with its proposed school closings, phase-outs and turnarounds.
The LSC members claim that CPS violated state law when it put their schools on probation and then failed to provide them “specific steps” in order to “correct identified deficiencies.”
The coalition wants a Cook County Circuit Court judge to hold an emergency hearing and put an injunction in place before Feb. 22, the day the Board of Education is scheduled to vote on the proposals. If an injunction is not put in place before the vote, the plaintiffs hope a judge will stop the actions from being implemented.
CPS leaders have proposed closing six schools, including Crane and Dyett high schools, and turning around 10 others.
While the plaintiffs are LSC members, the Chicago Teachers Union is paying the legal expenses and supporting the lawsuit. The CTU has consistently fought against school actions, saying they displace teachers and there is not enough evidence that they work to improve student achievement.
Pat Bell, a grandmother on the local school council of Herzl Elementary on the West Side, said her school has been on probation and in physical disrepair for years. She noted that Herzl never turns off the boiler, even in summer, because the school staff are afraid it will break down and not turn back on. But now that the turnaround is announced, she said, CPS facilities staff have been there looking at the condition of the building.
“We cried out for help,” Bell said. “We asked for someone to tell us what to do.”
CEO Jean Claude responded to the lawsuit by saying it would be an injustice not to take some action to improve the schools.
“The fact is that most adults in our system have allowed the status quo to continue year after year, failing our children,” Brizard said in a press release. “Our students cannot afford to wait another day.”
But Jitu Brown, a Dyett LSC member and a community organizer for KOCO, said the school actions being pushed by CPS are a continuation of what has been happening for years. He called CPS policies “punitive.”
“CPS is locking out LSCs,” Brown said. “We don’t pay taxes to be disenfranchised.”
Besides the primary charges, the lawsuit asserts that:
· The board did not involve LSCs in the probation process.
· The board has no “specific objective criteria” to determine which schools on probation are selected for closure, phase-out or turnarounds.
· The board never provided the plaintiffs with a budget that included “specific expenditures directly calculated to correct educational and operational deficiencies identified by the [Board’s] probation team.”
In addition, the lawsuit suggests that the board’s actions disproportionately affect LSCs at black schools.
LSCs
True, we don't pay taxes to be "disenfranchised" yet it seems we pay taxes for the continuation of underperforming schools, for cesspools of violence in buildings where our children should be safe, for incompetent administrators or some teachers who simply draw a check and feel they are safe because they are in a union. It appears we pay taxes for a lot of things we shouldn't. And yes, LSCs should be rethought, when they came up with that brilliant idea in 1988 or 1989, what were they thinking? The community should have input, but not hiring and firing power of a school's top administrator. Some LSCs are quite good, others not so much. Every neighborhood doesn't have lawyers and business people who can sit on a LSCs, so then, what do the rest of the other children have? Someone who didn't complete grammar school and has the authority to hire and fire the principal of a school? Or someone who can shout the loudest to try and bully eductors who have the interest of the children? And don't tell me about training of LSC members, some can't read.
Local School Councils
LSCs are the only independent stakeholder in CPS. They have done a lot of good. They are a check and a balance on the concentration of power.
Turnaround study shows only small gains
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 08, 2012 7:03 PM
By: Sarah Karp
UPDATED: A long-awaited study that CPS touted as proof of the success of turnarounds was released Wednesday--and instead showed only a small amount of progress and added fuel to calls for the district to back off
LSC?
Who are you to judge that only dr and lawyers can hire and fire principals. some fomer principals acted lower than the lowest adult in my school. you take a very undemoratic position. i think it the lawyers that have gottern our schools in the mess they are in now. and thse children who are over 14e ot innocent victims ....sometimes you will have to face it...they ARE the problem, as well as the teachers too! however, schools are public instutions that belong to the people...if there is an abuse of power i agreee lsc can be a nightmare...but more and more the new generaratin of principals and area offices need a check to theiroften undeserved egos! many never have seen a cps school until they started getting 139k plus to work for cps...they are beholdend to polticians and vendors more than studentes....be careful when you wish the lawyers have all the power one day...i think we call that fascism!! then you will be very unhappy! cps is taking an ugly despotic turn!! we ned a check of their power...and who better than the parents and tax payers!!!
LSCs
See what I mean about some LSCs and literacy? Taxpayers usually don't have a problem with checks and balances which are laudable goals, to be sure. Some of us just have a problem with illiterate people having the power to hire and fire the top educational leader of a school building. Now, this is not an attack on persons with varying educational attainment levels, this is merely an...inquiry, shall we say, regarding the processes and procedures concerning the authority of the LSCs and their...qualifications, to perform certain functions.
lawsuit filed to stop cps turnaround
I attended this press conference unless you were there I really don't think you can speak on this one. Furthermore to speak ill of anyone is the same as pointing fingers three of them aim back at you. The most important of the four is the thumb it happens to point upward towards the heavens unless it crooked like some of the people that are taking funding that should be going into the schools to Educate children. What were looking for are solutions, to a problem that has been going on for years this didn't just start the problems at Herzl have been there with a building that's falling down ceiling falling in, bathrooms that don't work, heating problems, no books, no lockers children having to walk around with there book bags and coats all day from class room to class room. The Superintendent said it would be an injustice not to take action, it has been an injustice for years but now that they want to turn the school around it's and injustice in there eyes none of them have come to this school, that does include the Superintendent who cries injustice to the press. He is part of the injustice that is accruing should they turn the school around and hand it over to there friends that they have given 1.5 mil of our tax dollars they won't have to deal with any of this nor will they have to deal with our children's education they have sold out and rented our children's educations out they are already absentee landlords in there buildings, let me take it further there slum lords the conditions at this school says so.
LSC's Hiring & Firing Principal's (Preposterous)
I agree that LSC's should not have the power to hire or fire Principal's. This is too much control for them. I remember when I was a young computer programmer at Northern Trust in the Information Systems Department. We were assigned a manager that had no previous computer science background. The complaints from many in our department was that this lady "did not have a clue to what was really going on, so how could she effectively evaluate us." This situation was a real nuisance! Likewise, a principal should not have to deal with the same aggravation while managing the school. Surely an entity more appropriate can be found. This is just my opinion.
Control
Illinois Senate Bill 7, which was passed last May, gave the Mayor greater power and weakened the teachers union. The Mayor picks the Board of Ed members -- who are often billionaires and charter school operators. They are rarely educators.
The only check on this power is the teachers union, the LSCs, and parents who speak out.
LSCs
Hear, hear, Grandma!
LSCs
No one is being disparaged here. Some of us taxpayers are just asking if someone can't speak and spell, let alone read, how are they going to be able to choose and evaluate the educational leader of a school? Some taxpayers have been asking this question for the past two decades and we're still waiting for a clear answer. And you know what? Some of these ignorant actin' loud mouth LSC members and "community" folk, "mike checkers" and the whole sorry lot are screaming that they're tired of various CPS policies....well, what about the rest of us taxpayers who have had to pay for this circus called public education in Chicago for the past two decades? Change needs to come for our children and it needs to come now. Rethink, LSCs and the scope of their authority.
All Parents Have Rights
You make a typo or a grammatical mistake and suddenly you decide parents can't have a voice in choosing their children's principal?
Sorry. I don't see that as a good reason for abolishing LSCs.
Like the poll tax, it's neither fair or democratic.
Keeping LSCs in place is the one counterweight to the enormous powers Mayor Emanuel and his Board of Ed hold.
Quality
Some LSCs are good, some are poor. If, Chicago can not guarantee each child in CPS the same quality of LSCs across the district, then that is unequal for our children and therefore LSCs need to be rethought. Let not forget, too, that LSCs have power over a school's budget and allocation of resources in a school. This should not be. Now, before some of us all get up in arms about power, authority and unchecked egos and the rest of it - the budget should be transparent, placed online (as CPS schools are public entities) and shared with the community of the school via multiple methods of communication.
CPS can't or won't guarantee ...
that schools will have the same quality of facility, for crying out loud. CPS knows 160 schools lack libraries -- 50 of those are in high schools. They lack air conditioning and still Emanuel wants to start school in the middle of August.
LSCs have ticked of the Mayor b/c they have filed a lawsuit against the slipshod manner of implementing another top-down series of turnarounds -- even though the U. of C. Consortium Research shows that AUSL 's well-funded turnarounds produce only a small amount of progress. Parents care about that. LSCs need to remain in place. Mayors are elected, but not always re-elected.
20 years
Yes, everyone should have a voice, this is a democracy. This is not about typos and spelling. The issue, here, is about being able to read beyond the 6th grade level, which many Americans can not. That's number one. Number two is LSCs have been in place for over 20 years in Chicago, how's that working out? Some of us taxpayers have no patience for ineffective educational policies (ie. LSCs) when it comes to providing the highest quality of education for our childen. If, we as adults do what we should in terms of educational policies we just might raise the educational attainment levels of our children.
Blame game
When Emanuel came in, he decided that the incremental gains over the past 20 in the IOWAs and in the ISATs were not real.
Are the LSCs at fault?
Or did Vallas, Duncan, or Huberman have more to do with it?
Systemwide problems demand systemwide solutions, right?
Solutions
Systemwide problems require systemwide solutions and LSCs are part of the problem, and the solution requires that LSCs be addressed as part of the continuous comprehensive plan to improve public education in Chicago for our children. Just because we like processes or people, doesn't mean that they should be retained, just for the sake of retention. What concrete evidence do LSCs have to demonstrate that they have had a positive impact on children's learning outcomes for the past 20 years in Chicago? Yes, we can blame leadership, but what have the LSCs concretely done to impact students' learning over the past 20 years in Chicago? As a taxpayer I can't see any positive impact from the LSCs in improving our children's educational experience over the past 20 plus years. True, LSCs have done many civic goods, clothing drives, food drives, training for parents and these are good. But can the students read, write and do math any better as a result of LSCs?
Seen
What I have seen, as a taxpayer over the years, has been a great deal of screaming, yelling, signs, posters, and wild gesticulations at cameras and during Board meetings by many LSC and "community" members...system-wide educational achievement increases as a result of such actions, not so much.
Research Validating LSC Effectiveness
The Consortium on Chicago School Research conducted a careful study of LSCs and concluded: "The vast majority of LSCs are viable governance organizations that carry out their mandated duties and are effective in building school and community partnerships....These individuals deserve our praise and our thanks....It is troublesome that the constructive efforts of so many go unacknowledged." Why are the more than 900 elected Illinois school boards (which are overwhelmingly white) seen as the best way to govern school districts in the rest of Illinois, but commenters disparage Chicago's elected LSCs and seek to strip them of their powers, despite this positive research evidence? Could it have something to do with skin color?
Don Moore
Thank you for adding a note of civility and rationality here.
typos
Hey I actually wrote that email about LSC. I just had a bad keyboard and I was angry.
However, my point is...when our country was formed, did our leaders say that only the rich, literate and "educated" should have a hand in democracy? We need a check and balances...maybe the LSC is not the answer, but a hand picked school board (mayor’s rubber stamp club) isn’t the answer either. BTW ...I thought the whole "spelling" "grammar error" judgments were kind of passé in the blog world. I want a world where ALL people have a vote and a voice. I don't want a corrupt LSC either. However, we need a system at CPS where people are judged by something other than Principals who run their schools like little fiefdoms. They only have to answer to an area office that is run by MBA types who claim to “do it for the children with their 130k salaries. If you want to talk about illiteracy, take a look at the Common Core test CPS wrote last October. It was filled with typos like "techer" and other insane spellings. Talk to them about illiteracy.
People make spelling mistakes, but I'd rather see a bad speller run CPS...than a cunning Mayor and CEO!
However, looking at my last message, you do have a point about a illiteracy hahaha
LSCs
Typos, I read your concerns and they are valid. Hopefully, a reasonable solution can be created and drafted if the opportunity presents itself.
allone will need to see is how many run for LSC
our teachers beg our LSC to help to stop the board from taking programs and positions away from our school every year. less and less programs and CPS makes us pay for more and more--our LSC does nothing.
LSC
LSC gives parents a voice to what is happening in their child's/children's school. Yes, they hire the Principal; but consider the alternative. Would you like Rahm and his band of billionair's to do the hiring? We have to hold onto what little (real or unreal) control we have.
The mayor seeks to distroy the Union and LSC because they are in his way of gaining more power and control.
Yes, those LSC groups that are on the news recently should do whatever it takes, even if it is screaming and shouting. Because they are not being heard or respected. Look at yourself and see what you would do when frustrated by the lack of respect given to you in any given situation.
The majority of LSC's are doing a great job. The problem or the blame is not theirs. The problem is the crisis we are in and how the powers that be are dealing with it to their own survival. All I really know is that they don't really care about us.
LCS's Controlled by Outside Organization's for Personal Gain
It is true that some LSC's do a terrific job. However I do not believe that any of them should have the task of hiring or firing the Principal. I also do not believe that individuals that are leaders in community organization's who provide social services, should be the one's controlling LSC's. In many African American communities, these organization's join LSC's with the intention of gaining support to provide afterschool programming. However, we usually never hear about their track record for success, but just their big mouths if a school will perspectively be closed because it will impact their bottom line financially. Mainly becaulse they are paid thru government subsidies. Many of them are entrenched in LSC's in black communities, but are paid a salary thru their outside organization's in order to lobby and keep the status quo of mediocre performance in schools. I say this because if the school is really performing, their services would not be needed in most cases, and if they tried to get into a performing school, they would probably be investigated first. However it is sad that they use the LSC's for their own personal gain, while doing practically nothing to close the achievent gap.
LSCs controlled by the minister that Rahm rents protestors from?
LSCs are controlled, you claim, by the ministers in the under-privileged neighborhoods.
They are the same ministers that CPS gives money to for after school programs.
They are the same ministers from whom CPS rents protestors when it serves the Mayor's pr agenda?
Now the Mayor doesn't want their input on the LSCs?
So all LSCs must go away?
Faulty logic, here.
TO: LCS's Controlled by the minister that Rahm Rents
If you are talking to me, I never said anything about ministers. My response was concerning outside community organizations like KOCO (Jitu Brown) who have one of their leaders who is paid a salary to champion the cause of schools thru the LSC's. I read an article that this organization also provided the afterschoool programming for Dyett. IF Dyett closes then they lose a customer account, right!!. How would this affect their government subsidies if they are in several failing schools (afterschool programming)that are closed? Do they lose their government grants completely? Does their orgnization fold? When you look at their media attention from another perspective, one wonders if they are really concerned about the kids or the bottom line of their organization financially. I never mentioned in my comments about them being paid by Rahm or that they were ministers. I was not referring to the "Rent a Minister". I know nothing about that situation. I know about KOCO because they claim to represent Bronzeville when they donot represent all of Bronzeville. They have certainly not come to our community and asked our opinion!!
LSc's Controlled by Minister's Cont'd
I also never said that all LSC's should go away. I said that "LSC's should not have the power to hire or fire Principal's. This is too much control for them." I also stated that "Surely an entity more appropriate can be found" to hire or fire Principal's.
LSCs
Hear, hear Grandma! What you said - doubled in brass!
LSCs
Grandma, what you said about KOCO, absolutely on target. Bronzeville is tired of being held hostage in the media and our schools by these pseudo "community" organizations. We gave had enough.
LSCs
We have had enough of these "community" organizations like KOCO, they do not speak for us.
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