Claypool's administration... Millions being spent for new bureaucrats, while the schools become more filthy and are threatened with additional cuts...
Eight of the eleven expensive bureaucrats depicted in the above photograph (taken during the May 25, 2016 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education) were not in executive positions at Chicago Public Schools one year ago (in May 2015). Most of them were brought in from outside the school system after Mayor Rahm Emanuel dubbed his City Hall "Chief of Staff" Forrest Claypool to become the fourth "Chief Executive Officer" of the public schools since Emanuel's May 2011 inauguration. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.During the last ten months, since Mayor Rahm Emanuel dubbed him to be the fourth "Chief Executive Officer" for the nation's third largest school system since Rahm's first term inauguration in May 2011, Forrest Claypool has expanded the CPS bureaucracy -- at great expense. This expensive expansion of administrators being paid well over $100,000 per year has been done while Claypool has been talking endlessly about how the city's remaining real public schools are facing massive cuts. While some try to continue to ignore even recent history, it's necessary to do a review as the city again looms on the verge of getting another "Proposed Budget" (which is supposed to be provided to the public, with public hearings, in June, prior to the June 30 end of the fiscal year).
As so, first we need a historical review of who's been the "CEO" of "CPS" since May 2011:
-- Jean-Claude Brizard was imported to Chicago by Rahm Emanuel in May 2011 from Rochester, where he had just faced a vote of no confidence from the city's teachers.
--Barbara Byrd Bennett was imported to Chicago by Rahm Emanuel in October 2012 following the alleged "failure" of Brizard to head off the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012.
-- Jesse Ruiz was dubbed "Interim CEO" of CPS in May 2015 following the criminal charges against Byrd Bennett (the SUPES contract for $20 million to train principals).
The joke's on anyone who believes that CPS is facing a "billion dollar deficit," although those laughing during the May 25, 2016 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education are being paid more than a quarter million dollars a year. By appointing Forrest Claypool (left) to be Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Public Schools and then approving Claypool's appointment of Ronald Marmer (right) to be the chief lawyer for the nation's third largest school system, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel took the position that the best people to operate schools had been running buses and subways. Both Claypool and Marmer had worked together when Claypool was chief of the Chicago Transit Authority. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.-- Forrest Claypool was imported to become the current CEO of CPS from his job at Chicago's City Hall in July 2015. Claypool's most recent job before going into education leadership had been "Chief of Staff" to Rahm Emanuel. Prior to that, Claypool had done stints as head of the Chicago Park District and the Chicago Transit Authority,
For the sixth time in six years, the public is treated to the tune that plays about a "billion dollar deficit" (the first was proclaimed by Ron Huberman, the last CEO appointed by Richard M. Daley) and as usual, the huge number gets the headlines, while examinations of the actual CPS budgets by our colleagues in Chicago's media are lacking.
The difference in 2016 is that a faction of the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union has joined City Hall in singing the same tune. There is no difference, in reality, between the CTU's talking point -- BROKE ON PURPOSE -- and Claypool's claim that the school system is facing a "billion dollar deficit." As a result, for the first time in years, the union has painted itself into a corner where the austerity budget proclaimed by the boss is echoed by some of the leaders of the union.
