Hearings to run from January 28 through February 9 with final vote at Board meeting on February 24
Chicago Public Schools will hold 18 hearings, 14 at the school system's central office (125 S. Clark St.) and four in the communities (three at the schools themselves and one at a nearby school), on the proposed changes in schools brought to the public by CEO Ron Huberman on January 19, 2010. A complete list of all the hearings as the information was distributed by CPS officials to the press at the CEO's press conference is at the end of this article.
At the end of the presentation by Chicago Schools CEO Ron Huberman on the school closings, phase outs, consolidations and turnarounds for 2010, Huberman’s staff distributed to the press copies of a schedule of the hearings to be held on the closings. This year, Huberman and CPS are referring to the group of things they are going to do to schools as the “2010 School Actions” (the title of the Power Point Huberman used during his January 19 press conference).
A total of 18 hearings are scheduled as of January 19.
There will be 14 hearings (one for each school) held at the central office at 125 S. Clark St.
Additionally, there will be hearings in the community for each of the four buildings to be permanently closed. Unlike in previous years, under Arne Duncan, none of the hearings will take place early in the afternoon. Under Duncan, the earliest hearings were scheduled for 3:00 p.m. Schools like Copernicus Elementary were forced to defend themselves at the 3:00 slot, when most teachers were just getting off from work and most parents were unable to attend.
Copernicus was subjected to the first wave of “turnaround” in 2008 because it supposedly was a “failing” elementary school that fed into a “failing” high school (Harper High School). When teachers at Copernicus, led by then CTU delegate Lois Ashford, presented the hearing officer with research that the Copernicus graduates were not going to Harper (only four did the year before Duncan slated Copernicus for “turnaround”, the Board of Education, on Duncan’s recommendation, voted to do “turnaround” to Copernicus anyway.
The hearing officers have not yet been announced.
There are no hearings on Sundays or on Election Day (February 2).
Schedule for hearings at 125 S. Clark St.
January 28, 2010. CURTIS. 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Curtis Elementary School (TO BE CLOSED). CEO Presenter Ryan Crosby; LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced).
January 28, 2010. GUGGENHEIM. 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Guggenheim Elementary School (TO BE CLOSED). CEO Presenter Ryan Crosby; LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced).
January 29, 2010. MC CORKLE. 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. McCorkle Elementary School (TO BE CONSOLIDATED). CEO Presenter Pat Taylor; LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced).
January 29, 2010. LAS CASAS OCCUPATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL. 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Las Casas Occupational High School (TO BE CLOSED). CEO Presenter Pat Taylor, LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced).
February 1, 2010. PHILLIPS HIGH SCHOOL. 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Phillips High School (TO BE TURNED AROUND BY AUSL); CEO Presenter Ryan Crosby. LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced).
February 1, 2010. MARSHALL HIGH SCHOOL. 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Marshall High School (TO BE TURNED AROUND BY CPS CENTRAL OFFICE OF TURNAROUND). CEO Presenter Ryan Crosby; LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced).
February 3, 2010. TILTON AND MARCONI ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tilton and Marconi Elementary Schools (TO BE CONSOLIDATED BECAUSE OF UNDERUTILIZATION/ UNDERENROLLMENT). CEO Presenter Jimm Dispensa; LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced).
February 3, 2010. PRESCOTT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Prescott Elementary School (TO BE CONSOLIDATED BECAUSE OF UNDERUTILIZATION/ UNDERENROLLMENT). CEO Presenter Jimm Dispensa; LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced).
February 4, 2010. GILLESPIE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Gillespie Elementary School (TO BE TURNED AROUND BY AUSL). CEO Presenter Ryan Crosby; LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced).
February 5, 2010. PADEREWSKI ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Gillespie Elementary School (TO RELOCATED CONSOLIDATED). CEO Presenter Jimm Dispensa; LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced).
February 8, 2010. DENEEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Deneen Elementary School (TO BE TURNED AROUND). CEO Presenter Ryan Crosby. LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced).
February 8, 2010. MOLLISON AND WELLS PREP ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Mollison Elementary School (TO BE RELOCATED/ CONSOLIDATED). CEO Presenter Ryan Crosby. LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced).
February 9, 2010. SCHNEIDER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Schneider Elementary School (TO BE PHASED OUT). CEO Presenter Jimm Dispensa, LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced).
February 10, 2010. BRADWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Bradwell Elementary School (TO BE TURNED AROUND). CEO Presenter (Not yet announced), LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced).
COMMUNITY HEARINGS
January 30, 2010 (SATURDAY). CURTIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Curtis Elementary School (TO BE CLOSED). CEO Presenter Ryan Crosby; LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced). LOCATION: At Curtis Elementary School, 32 E. 115th St.
February 3, 2010. GUGGENHEIM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Guggenheim Elementary School (TO BE CLOSED). CEO Presenter Ryan Crosby; LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced). LOCATION: At Guggenheim Elementary School, 7141 S. Morgan St.
February 4, 2010. LAS CASAS OCCUPATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL. 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Las Casas Occupational High School (TO BE CLOSED). CEO Presenter Pat Taylor; LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced). LOCATION: At Ninos Heroes Elementary School, 8344 S. Commercial.
February 6, 2010 (SATURDAY). PRESCOTT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Curtis Elementary School (TO BE CLOSED BECAUSE OF UNDERUTILIZATION UNDERENROLLMENT). CEO Presenter Jimm Dispensa; LAW DEPT presenter (Not yet announced). LOCATION: At Prescott 1632 W. Wrightwood.
CPS is expected to update this schedule as changes take place. Please check with CPS before planning on the basis of this calendar. This report is based on material provided to the press by the CPS Office of Communications at the end of the CPS press conference on January 19, 2010.
Comments:
By: Zeta
George, Thank You!
Thanks for having the eyes to see the truth, the ears to hear it and the guts to write it.
By: Amber
George, Thank you!
Zeta, Amen.
By: SoloFlyer
She Already Did...
Gater's comments in the Wednesday Jan. 20th Sun-Times:
"Gaters said Tuesday she is reserving judgment about the changes. "I don't think we should look at it as a bad thing," she said. "This school has a very nurturing environment. We have a lot of teachers that genuinely care about these kids and their success, but we also have a lot of kids who are bored.'
By: George N. Schmidt
A Luther Bedford Moment. Dorothy Gaters will be haunted by ghosts if she sells out Marshall now
Before anyone assumes that Coach Gaters of Marshall High School is going to sell out her fellow teachers and the other people working at Marshall so that another Keith Foley can come in and insult 50 years of heartbreak and tradition, they should at least ask her. Coach Gaters was there when I taught at Marshall back under Bob Saddler, and she knows too much of the tragedy and triumph of the school to sell out at this point in her career to a guy like Ron Huberman and a new team of Great White Hopes like Donald Fraynd and Barbara Eason Watkins.
Why didn't Huberman simply fire Keith Foley? Didn't his white guy prayer meetings save Marshall the way they saved Lane Tech? Or maybe they should have paid him another $150,000 a year on top of the $150,000 he got from Arne Duncan as Marshall's "super principal."
Richard M. Daley has destroyed seven Chicago high schools since this "turnaround" stuff began with the destruction of Austin and Calumet, beginning in 2004. The list is long: Austin, Calumet, Englewood, Collins, Harper, Orr.
Now Phillips and Marshall.
Will Coach really be able to sleep at night with the ghosts of Luther Bedford and George Crockett and hundreds of others rattling around in her head if she sells out to -- Ron Huberman -- give me a break.
Some people keep working, even at a measely $82,000 a year, for love of the game.
Marshall will be the school where every dirty little racist secret of Daley's version of corporate "school reform" is finally called out. Everybody from the aldermen who helped the Boss to the now deceased Board of Education presidents who helped destroy Chicago's African American schools (and wipe out a generation of black teachers) are being brought to justice. And the courts last long in this kind of justice.
And there is no escaping every night you have to live with yourself once you've sold your soul on the bodies of those who once trusted and, in some case, loved you for both who you are and for your fierce love of this game we call teaching.
Nope. This is more like Act IV and Act V of MacBeth. Mayor Daley's alone in the castle soon. Even Walter Burnett and Ike Caruthers can't help his addled brain and ugly soul from this moment on. And all that nonsense rattling out of Ron Huberman's mouth and all the MBAs and CTAs now being paid $20,000 a year more than Coach will also be held accountable.
The buzzer just went off.
Everybody who worked at Marshall ever should begin adding to this list of Banquos ghosts now. Only they should all be lining up at the fifth floor at City Hall for this version of MacBeth. It's long overdue for all the lives these hypocrites have destroyed.