VIDEO: 'Shutdown at the CPS Board Meeting'... 25-minute Labor Beat video of the December 14, 2011 Chicago Board of Education meeting gives most detail of all Peoples Board videos
Two weeks prior to the December 14, 2011 School Board meeting, the Chicago Public Schools announced a long list of schools it wanted to either close or 'turn-around' (fire everybody and re-hire from scratch). But community organizations affected and the Chicago Teachers Union have shown over the years that these schemes — leading often to increasing private charter schools — impair education, harm the students and communities, and expose the machinations of property developers with political influence. Throughout the years of these school actions, the CPS has carried out a charade of pretending to consider the input of the school communities affected, while all the while making the real decisions beforehand behind closed doors.
Chicago Board of Education President David Vitale responding to the protests against his proposed expansion of charter schools and closing or turnaround of more real public schools during the December 14, 2011 meeting of the Board. Substance photo by Al Ramirez.The CPS Board of Education is appointed by the Mayor, not elected, and is infested with bankers, millionaires, a billionaire and property developer, and corporation heads. The Board's president, David Vitale, is a banker who has among other things been head of the Chicago Board of Trade. Two other Board members, Jesse Ruiz and Andrea Zopp, are wealthy attorneys. And the most famous member of the Board is Penny Pritzker, the billionaire who served as Barack Obama's chief fundraiser during the 2008 presidential campaign and who is worth approvimately $1.6 billion herself, according to Forbes magazine.
Teachers union leaders, teachers, parents and students participated in the cold and rainy camp out on Clark St. the night before the December 14, 2011 Board of Education meeting so that they could sign up to speak against the latest round of attacks on Chicago's public schools. Above, CTU vice president Jesse Sharkey (left) during the night. Labor Beat photo.On the eve of this Board meeting, hundreds of protesters rallied in front of the Board of Education offices in Chicago's Loop, then took to sleeping bags in a cold rain all night to secure places at the Board meeting the next morning.
When Board President David Vitale began the meeting, it wasn't going to be business as usual, as a multiple mic check stopped everything, forcing the Board to beat a retreat into closed session.
Speakers include: Jesse Shakey, V.P. Chicago Teachers Union; Marcellus Barnes, International V.P., Trustee ATU 241; Karen Lewis, President, CTU; Jitu Brown, Dyett Local School Council; and teachers, food services workers, parents. Length - 25:52
The URL for the video, for those who can't get a hotlink, is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAiDwPf7G8E
Comments:
By: Chris Rudzinski
John Whitfield
Hello,John. Hope you will be able to get a job. I was sure that the union you were representing vigorously provided you with a winning strategy.
Are you still unemployed? Shame on Karen, your BIG sister.
By: David R Stone
More vinegar
Shame on YOU Chris, for blaming the UNION for what the BOARD does wrong, and for adding personally offensive "humor" about a person's size.
-David R. Stone
By: J. Whitfield
Vinegar face Vitale
I know that face when I see it, that's a "cara de vinagre", yes, a vinegar face. That's definitely a 1 %. What do you think 99 % ?
That first picture, that is, the appointed (not elected) President of the Chicago Board
of Education, David Vitale.
Loan me some $ Mr. Vitale, so I can buy my Lipitor. I heard that you are loaded. I have been unemployed since November 10th, 2011.