OPT OUT PROCTOLOGY REPORT: Chapter Two: About 'Chief Accountability Officer' John Barker, brought to Chicago from Memphis, a man who doesn't have an Illinois teaching certificate but who is prattling about taking away Illinois certificates from Opt Out teachers...
Late in the afternoon on March 6, 2014, WBEZ radio news reported that CPS may try to revoke the teaching certificates of teachers who have been boycotting the ISAT and others who have been encouraging opt out by informing parents of their right to opt out their children from the ISAT (and other so-called "standardized tests").
At the April 24, 2013, meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, John Barker (CPS "Chief Accountability Officer"), who had arrived from Memphis four months earlier, was seated in the "cabinet" seats. Seated behind Barker is another out-of-town Broad Foundation pick to help run America's third largest school system, Chief Officer for Innovation and Incubation Jack Elsey (brought in from Michigan). Denise Little, "Chief of Chiefs" is the only person in the picture who is actually certified to teach or administer in Illinois. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.This particular attack on Chicago teachers' teaching certificates is being orchestrated by Illinois State Board of Education President Gery (pronounced Gary) Chico and state schools superintendent Chris Koch (pronounced "Coke"). Since the ISAT Opt Out began on March 3, 2014, the massive drive of intimidation against teachers' First Amendment rights has been pushed by the CPS administration, under "Chief Executive Officer" Barbara Byrd Bennett, via her "Chiefs of Schools" (or "Network Chiefs"). The intimidation has progressed throughout the first week of the ISAT testing program.
The guy quoted in the WBEZ report on stripping teachers of their state certificates doesn't have one. And apparently, that's not a problem for Chris Koch or Gery Chicgo.
The CPS "Chief Officer for Accountability" is John Barker. John Barker has no Illinois administrative credential himself. He has never taught in Chicago or Illinois, nor does he have the required certification to do either teaching or be a principal in Chicago or any Illinois district. His support from Chico and Koch should be challenged, but instead it is the top of the news.
How did Chicago get John Barker? The Chicago Board of Education voted to hire John Barker at its December 2012 meeting. The seven members of the Board voted unanimously to hire Barker at an annual salary of $175,000 per year. At that time, the Board also voted to pay him a "hiring bonus" of $5,000 and "relocation expenses" of $10,000. There was absolutely no discussion of why Barbara Byrd Bennett, who recommended that CPS hire Barker, had to go to Tennessee to get an "accountability" chief. There was no public discussion then of why the seven members of the Chicago Board of Education decided -- again -- to seek the talent to operate the nation's third largest school system outside of Chicago and Illinois. Barker is far from alone in the hirelings brought into Chicago since Rahm Emanuel appointed the current school board in May 2011.
Chief of Staff" Bob Boik was imported from Michigan by Barbara Byrd Bennett. Above, Boik is seen during the October 2013 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.Instead of hiring someone from Chicago or Illinois, however, Rahm returned to the Broad Foundation and brought down Barbara Byrd Bennett, who had been up in Detroit destroying public education there behind that �austerity� smokescreen they all use.
She got the same pay package as her predecessor Jean-Claude Brizard, who was imported in May 2011 from Rochester, New York, where his failure there are superintendent had become a regional scandal. (He had just received a massive "no confidence" vote from the city's teachers -- 90 percent). Barbara Byrd Bennett was thus the second "Chief Executive Officer" (CEO 2.0 some joked) imported from out of town and out of state by the Emanuel administration.
Barbara Byrd Bennett immediately began hiring the "Broads" from all over the country to create her so-called �cabinet.� None has any knowledge of Chicago or its schools.
� John Barker (Chief Accountability Officer) from Memphis
� Jack Elsey (Chief Officer for Innovation and Incubatiion) from Detroit
� Bob Boik (Chief of Staff) from Detroit
� Tracy Martin (Chief) from Cleveland�
The "Broadies" add to the austerity and termination of public education by spending lavishly on one another. They are dedicated to expanding the charter schools ruthlessly and cutting real public schools. Byrd Bennett murdered 49 of Chicago�s real public schools in May 2013, following the Broad Foundation�s school closing scripts). On her motion to the Chicago Board of Education at its May 22, 2013 meeting, the Board voted to close the greatest number of schools in U.S. history by closing 50 schools (49 in 2013; one delayed until 2014). Both the Board members and Byrd Bennett were appointed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
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