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DO NOT HIRE hearing cancelled by CPS

Jean Schwab - August 22, 2011

Suppose you were invited to a hearing and were told not to come? In effect, that is precisely what the Chicago Public Schools did to no fewer than 17 teachers who had been placed on a “do not hire” list. Most are still wondering why they are on the list in the first place.

Teachers and others protest the latest round of terminations at the July 27 Board meeting. Substance photo by Jean Schwab.The teachers received the letter notifying them of the August 10 hearing one day earlier, on August 9. The letter from the Chicago Teachers Union told them a grievance hearing would take place on August 10 to address their “do not hire” status and the lack of a prior warning from CPS that they were even on the list. Eight of the 17 notified teachers showed up for the hearing.

We all met at the Human Resources desk on the second floor of the CPS headquarters at 10:30 a.m. that day, with John Kugler of the CTU. He told us we were not there to grieve, but instead to tell the hearing officer how we learned we were on the list. The teachers present were a diverse group, consisting equally of men and women. Five were PATs, and three were tenured teachers. All had completed bachelor programs in education, several had completed masters degrees, and two had graduated from the University of Chicago. All of them were unaware they were on the list until they tried to get either a full-time or substitute teaching position. Three had obtained jobs with CPS and worked for a week before they were told they were on the list. One male teacher retired in 1999 and had been substituting since then. He was hoping to get his name off the list because the principal of the school where he substitutes wanted him back this year.

Kugler went with us to the hearing. There we met Curtis Gonzalez, the hearing officer, who told us all to go home because “there is not going to be a hearing today.”

Kugler told him the teachers on the list needed to be heard, but Gonzalez told us to leave—or CPS would drop the grievance. Kugler told him that, according to the contract, we had the right to witness to the question of how we learned we were on the list. Gonzalez told us to write and submit a summary of this information. We went down to the second floor and wrote our stories, as well as what happened to us when we showed up for the grievance hearing. We handed the papers to Kugler. A CTU lawyer spoke to us as well. She told us to write down our expenses and the time we spent to come to the hearing.

CPS lawyer Cheryl Coulson is paid more than $100,000 per year to fend off complaints by teachers about the arbitrary and unfair ways in which "Do Not Hire" is used to purge veteran teachers. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.Kugler suggested that we obtain copies of our personal and medical files. He went with us to Cheryl Colston’s office to find out why we were on the list. We were told there that a PAT is placed on the list if that person is non-renewed once at a school with an unsatisfactory rating. A PAT can also be placed on the list if that person is non-renewed twice with a satisfactory or higher (even superior) rating. We were encouraged to write to Colston, of the Office of Employee Relations, regarding why we were placed on the list.

Most people were unsure why they were on the list. Sybil Miller Wallace thought she was on the list because she was a PAT and a CTU delegate. She felt the CTU would protect her if she filed grievances against her principal, but he told her that, if she filed any grievances, she would not be back the following year at his school, which is precisely what happened.

Another PAT on the DNH list is Earick Raburn who had always wanted to teach as a way to "give something back to the community."

Rayburn wanted to make a difference his life's work. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 2000. Rayburn earned a Masters of Arts and Teaching from National Louis University in 2005. He taught at Julian High School (two years) and Brooks High School (one year) where he earned superior and excellent ratings.

In the fall of 2006 Rayburn was admitted to the UIC Doctorate Educational Leadershiip and Type 75 Program, but resigned from CPS and withdrew from the program (2006-7) to run for the 9th ward alderman, where he garnered 21% and finished runner-up.

He ran for the 28th district state representative in the fall and winter of 2008 and garnered 21% and finished as runner-up.

Chicago was lucky that he returned to CPS in August 2008 and taught at Bronzeville where his rating was satisfactory, yet he was not renewed. Rayburn then was hired at Morgan Park for 2009 -2010 school year, where he earned a satisfactory rating, but was not-renewed.

Even though he asked each principal why they elected to non-renew him, they never gave him an answer. Rayburn feels that a resolution that was proposed by Huberman and passed by the board in June 2010 that due to financial exigency they decided to dismiss teachers, and the PATs were placed on the DNH list.

He was hired at Phillips on August 13th, but could not be staffed because it was discovered that he was on the DNH list. Rayburn states the "by the grace of God he found a math teaching position in November 2010 -2012 school year at Thornton Township High School in district 205." Rayburn has been re-hired for the 2011-2012 school year and is teaching Algebra. This is another case where CPS loses out on keeping and staffing qualified teachers.

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