A Divided House Will Fall
The Hancock College Prep High School Local School Council (LSC) voted 5-4 to not rehire its beloved principal Vanessa Puentes which resulted in massive student protests and a petition drive that gathered over 2300 signatures asking to reinstate her.
The two teacher reps on Hancock’s LSC had a split vote - Habla Ayesh voted to keep Puentes, but Froy Jimenez voted against her.
Many teachers were upset that Jimenez voted against their wishes and called for his resignation from the LSC.
Jimenez told Second City Teachers he could not comment about his decision because of the tight LSC rules that forbid reps to speak to the press. He said a report was made and given to the principal this past week which detailed why the principal’s contract was not renewed. Those reasons came from a Five Essentials Survey that asked how students and teachers felt about their administrator.
In the Five Essentials 2022 Report for John Hancock College Prepatory High School, the question ‘How is Hancock performing on teacher-principal trust?’ was marked ‘Weak.’ However, each individual question about the teachers’ trust in the principal showed high marks. For example, an overwhelming majority of teachers answered that the principal has confidence in them, that they trust the principal at her word, and that the principal cares about them.
Do Teachers feel respected by the Principal? 55 teachers responded to a great extent and 22 teachers said to some extent, while 13 stated to a little extent and 11 responded not at all.
The surveys are anonymous and reflect to a certain degree the staff’s confidence in their leader. How this was used against the principal in the decision to not rehire Puentes is a question that cannot be asked because of the CPS gag order.
The other concern was test scores. Hancock is now a selective enrollment high school on the Southside, but only 50 percent of its students are performing at grade level according to the SAT Test Data, a teacher said.
They say some parents complained that the school’s test scores were not like Lane Tech or Whitney Young High Schools, which rank among the top in the country. Hancock only became a full selective enrollment school in 2018 and they also feature a CTE program that prepares students outside the core academic courses.
“Test scores are not what we are about,” said one teacher.
Hancock Associate Delegate Jessica Rosenbaum said the LSC rep only solicitated email responses for input into the principal hiring decision, but they should have held a meeting to get the teachers feedback.
Puentes has continued to lead her school in a professional manner despite the turmoil created by the unexpected vote to terminate her contract in the middle of the school year in January, said Rosenbaum, who is the art teacher. Principal Puentes has not gone public yet with the LSC reason for termination.
“The community, staff and students supported her leadership,” Rosenbaum told Second City Teachers. “Everyone feels disenfranchised.”
The assoc. delegate said there were certain irregularities conducted during the vote to terminate the principal, including one LSC community rep who was ineligible to serve on her previous school’s school council because she is also a CPS employee, yet she voted after being named the rep for Hancock while still employed by CPS, according to Rosenbaum.
The two LSC teacher reps ran unopposed in the last LSC election.
Froy Jimenez who voted against rehiring Puentes is no stranger to controversy. He once led the Chicago Teachers Union Legislative Committee until the union decided to not back him when he ran for political office. Some suggested the CTU did not want to upset his opponent who was considered a powerful democrat that they did not think Froy could defeat.
Froy Jimenez served as a CTU strike captain in 2019, but decided to not honor the union work stoppage during the Covid lockdown because he did not agree with keeping the schools closed. He recently ran for alderman and lost. He also backed a lawsuit filed by Members First teachers against the union for using teachers’ money for CTU organizer Brandon Johnson successful Mayor campaign. MF lost their suit because the union is a political entity that fights for pro teacher legislation.
Puentes case is reflective of the difficult situation for teachers and administrators wanting to become principals at their schools when education reform programs Ren2010 and Race to the Top kicked in under corporate-backed Mayors Richard Daley and Rahm Emanuel. Puentes was a former teacher at Hancock before she served as an assistant principal at Farragut High School on the Southwest Side. Many others like her applied to be principals at the schools they labored in but were suddenly deemed ineligible as corporate reform dictated future principals be trained at billionaire funded programs such as New Leaders for New Schools that focused on data and statistics rather than community and heart.
Mayor Richard Daley first tried to change the LSC rules that Mayor Harold Washington enacted during his reign to bring in more democracy. Daley complained about LSCs when bitter fights broke out at schools that terminated popular principals. CPS over the years circumvented LSC democracy via charter schools and other special designated schools that had advisory councils where reps are appointed rather than democratically elected.
The Hancock LSC had voted 8-1 in June to renew Puentes contract, but the vote was nullified because they did not conduct a ‘comprehensive evaluation.’ Subsequent LSC votes were also ruled invalid because of procedural errors such as voting in closed rather than open session and using secret ballots which is prohibited.
Former CTU Recording Secretary and retired teacher Michael Brunson who works with LSCs, attended the Sept. 15 Hancock LSC Meeting to address the problems and help with training.
Rosenbaum said even though their beloved principal can only work until January, the teachers and others will continue the fight to bring her back to a community that loves her dearly.
“Hancock is a very special place, and I hate to see that change,” she said.