Charters Demand Renewed Renewal Process at Chicago Board of Education October Meeting
I was ready for sparks to fly at the October 25, 2023 Chicago Board of Education Meeting after hearing the volcanic rants from Principals Union President Troy LaRaviere about the injustice and racism of CPS for removing several black principals at the last few meetings.
But alas, no Troy this time. I bet the Board members were wiping their brows in relief this time. Chicago Board of Education President Jianan Shi told everyone before the public participation that a new rule mandated union leaders cannot go beyond 10 minutes to speak. LaRaviere spoke, or rather exploded, for almost 20 minutes at the last meeting.
Chicago Teachers Union Recording Secretary Maria Moreno spoke first about the burdensome directives coming from the networks on walkthrough demands, such as demanding objectives for pre-k be posted, when in fact most pre-kindergarteners do not know how to read.
The insanity of the networks and their war on educators has contributed to the massive turnover of teachers and teaching shortage. Many new and veteran teachers express their frustrations on the CTU Members Facebook page about the constant pressure they are under during constant walkthroughs. In fact, principals have told me that they are forced to explain their ‘data’ of scores that are in the red, social conditions and crazy expectations be damned. One said they wanted to bring back data walls to show their network they are addressing these problems, even though the Mayor’s Office with a former CTU official running the schools said no more data walls!
Moreno also talked about environmental justice to make the schools more energy efficient and green, a CTU concern in the next contract. She said the CTU worked with CPS to register the kids for schools and a 48 percent increase in homeless kids (STLS - Students in Temporary Living Situation) resulted, but there is not enough bilingual staffing.
CTU Charter Chair Jen Conant updated the Board on the 32 charter schools negotiations for new contracts. They said negotiations with Aspira are going well, but the Instituto del Progreso Latino is refusing to agree to provisions to address discrimination in the contract and employer accountability for safety and health, plus they want lower pay for teachers and a longer school day.
Then the typical deluge of charter school advocates, teachers, students, administrators, and plenty of others told their inspiring stories of how the charter school saved their lives and made them what they are today, coated in the honeyed corporate lingo of leverage and equity and global productivity.
IL Network of Charter Schools President Andrew Broy, in a role reversal where he was once the leading weapon in the ruling class assault on public schools, was pleading on behalf of 48 charter schools to stay open.
He said he went to Springfield for a 10 year longer renewal period for charter schools performance, “but in recent years we’ve seen a recent trend toward shortened renewal, including some as short as 3 years.” He said shortened terms force schools into endless renewal cycles, stealing time and resources from students and classes. “A short term undermines school operations, creates job instability for teachers, and burdens schools with more expensive costs for borrowing for school facilities, meaning more public dollars go to banks and not classrooms.” (Wow, sounds like CORE in the early days when they first got active fighting against charter schools replacing public schools during privatization assault). He asked the Board of Ed for a 7 to 10 year renewal for all deserving charters. The charter onslaught continued loud and strong throughout the roughly 2 hours of public speaking.
A couple parents once again addressed the Board about the lack of busing for their selective enrollment children. They even used the ever seductive words of racial justice because these selective enrollment schools are supposed to be diverse, but how can they be if the diverse kids can’t get to those schools. “Federal oversight of the desegregation decree ended in 2009, so does CPS revert to segregation when they aren’t being watched?” one white mother said. “These selective enrollment and magnet schools provide a safe place to be bright because at these schools they aren’t the anomaly, they are the rule,” another white male parent speaker said. “Now that’s the kind of peer pressure you want in a school. You don’t want to worry about negative influences. We want to talk and not hear about driver shortages, we have solutions!”
The Hubbard High School Principal spoke about the need to buy vacant properties nearby to reduce massive overcrowding at her school. Their successful programs, including vocational classes, are the reason they are overcrowded, stated 19-year Hubbard veteran teacher Benjamin Coyle. He said they have the right leadership, staff and students (that order is usually reversed when politicians speak about schools!), so they need the Board of Ed to support their request for more space.
Marshall High School parent Jasmine Brown talked about her son who was present with her who just 66 days prior was given drugs from another known drug-dealing student at the school. (Marshall was an AUSL school until the corrupt private management company was disbanded a couple years ago.) She said her son was rushed to the hospital for treatment after she received a call that he was found unresponsive by staff members in the lunchroom. Even though her boy was turning purple, nobody from administration to date has given her a call about the matter. She added that the video of the incident in the lunchroom had been erased.
Ms. Brown next spoke about the Marshall Principal Jammie Poole, who told her if she were to escalate the matter it would label her son a snitch, and that could lead to retaliation. She said the Network 15 Chief Michael Boraz, who was the principal at Lincoln Park High School for nine years, seemed uninterested in her problem during a zoom meeting, noting that he was repeatedly looking away from the screen.
She said Mr. Poole was removed from Orr Academy and slid under the radar, but due to his connections, got hired at Marshall Academy. “He often boasts about his connections to the Network and the District, saying they saved his job.” She added that Mr. Poole had created a hostile work environment for staff, lowered the ratings of those he wanted to get rid of, hired a lot of family and fraternity brothers which she termed ‘nepotism’, and even forced into retirement the legendary Dorothy Gates, the winningest coach in Illinois high school basketball history! Special ed students like hers are not getting their services and students are being illegally suspended without the proper paperwork. Ms. Brown went beyond her allotted time limit, but the Board was gracious and said there was a staff member she could speak to after her speech.
The old attack on the public schools and its students came via Dr. Angel Alvarez who removed his mask and fired away. When he demanded that there must be no taxation without representation I knew right away who we were dealing with. He demanded more accountability, said the recent rise in test scores was premature, sex ed still doesn’t include age appropriate instruction, and CPS needs to address the migrant situation. “The only reason CPS didn’t lose students this year was because of the ‘illegal’ busing of migrants,” Doctor Angel said. “This is not sustainable or humane. Maybe we should impound the buses that engage in illegal human trafficking.”
Board President Shi said with emphasis at the end of his rant, “Thank you Angel!”