BOARDWATCH: Chicago Board of Education ignores parent protests against lies from schools trying to discourage Opt Out...'In addition to this completely unacceptable behavior of adults in our schools, the PARCC continues to disrupt the education of our children:..'

[Editor's Note: Although protests have been taking place across Chicago since the first days of the PARCC testing began, the members of the Chicago Board of Education and Board "Chief Executive Office" Barbara Byrd Bennett . . .

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Joy Clendenning, of Raise Your Hand, listed the illegal attacks on Opt Out children, parents and teachers. The Board members basically ignored the protest. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

BOARDWATCH: Chicago Board of Education meeting of February 25, 2015 continued the Board's privatization and charter school policies despite the verdicts of the February 24 municipal election against Rahm Emanuel and the massive vote for an elected school board!

The Chicago Board of Education met on February 25, 2015, the day after the vast majority of voters in Chicago voted that it should not exist in the form it has taken for more than . . .

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Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey asked the Board of Education to continue to resist the imposition of the PARCC tests on all CPS schools. He also reminded the Board members, all of whom are appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, that the day before the Board meeting, citizens of Chicago in 37 wards had voted by a nine to one margin that the city should have an elected school board. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

BOARDWATCH: Complete report on the November 19, 2014 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. More than 500 people attended the meeting, probably the largest turnout at a Chicago school board meeting in history...

The November 19, 2014 regular monthly meeting of the Chicago Board of Education normally would have been held at 125 S. Clark Street at 10:30 a.m., but the Board is in the process of moving . . .

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Two of the seven members of the Chicago Board of Education (Mahalia Hines and Deborah Quazzo) cut the Board meeting of November 19, 2014, leading some to speculate that they were afraid to face the public after the years of decisions they have made attacking the city's real public schools. The five remaining Board members berated the public during the lengthy session, and ordered security to remove more than a dozen speakers from the microphones when people objected to the

BOARDWATCH: Jerry Skinner on Kelvyn Park High School problems... 'The double standard applied by CPS to the teachers of Kelvyn Park reeks of the irresponsible practice of power...'

[Editor's Note: Substance's BOARDWATCH is publishing the remarks prepared and delivered by the speakers at the monthly meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. The meeting of November 19, 2014 saw more than 500 people . . .

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Kelvyn Park High School teacher Jerry Skinner speaking to the November 19, 2014 meeting of the Chicago Board ofE Education. Substance photo by David Vance.

BOARDWATCH: 'REACH performance tasks are setting our children up to fail!' Sarah Chambers charges readability of reading test questions for lower grades is as high as 'college level' while Board members sit clueless

[Editor's Note: Once again, Substance's BOARDWATCH feature is publishing the remarks prepared and delivered by the speakers at the monthly meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. The meeting of November 19, 2014 saw more . . .

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Saucedo teacher Sarah Chambers told the Board that the REACH performance tasks had readability levels significantly above those of the students being tests. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

BOARDWATCH: Chicago Teachers Union recording secretary leads dozens of speakers demanding arbitration against the 'toxic swaps'

[Editor's Note: Once again, Substance's BOARDWATCH feature is publishing the remarks prepared and delivered by the speakers at the monthly meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. The meeting of November 19, 2014 saw more . . .

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Chicago Teachers Union Recording Secretary Michael Brunson, above, spoke to the Board of Education at its November 19, 2014 meeting demanding that the Board ask for arbitration on the swap deals. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

BOARDWATCH: Veteran teacher Tammie Vinson explicates the impact of closings on teachers, kids, communities and schools when the closings are a serial killing of communities -- and special education children are deprived of the services they need and are legally entitled to...

[Editor's Note: Once again, Substance's BOARDWATCH feature is publishing the remarks prepared and delivered by the speakers at the monthly meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. The meeting of November 19, 2014 saw more . . .

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DePriest Special Education teacher Tammie Vinson told the Board about the problems faced by West Side schools due to closings and turnarounds, then outlined the needs of her severely handicapped students. Few of the Board members were paying attention (see the next photo), and none asked any questions. Substance photo by Nate Goldbaum.

BOARDWATCH: '...according to CPS�s own budget figures, more than 200 library positions have been cut in the past two years....' Librarians ask CPS to join other large districts to assure librarians in every school

[Editor's Note: Substance's BOARDWATCH feature is publishing the remarks prepared and delivered by the speakers at the November 19, 2014 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. The meeting saw more than 500 people present . . .

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Megan Cusick speaking to the November 19, 2014 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. Substance photo by David Vance.

BOARDWATCH: Board meeting sees fewest 'public participation' participants in more than a decade at the first meeting of the Chicago Board of Education for the 2014 - 2015 school year on September 24, 2014

Sixty slots were available for people to speak at this month's regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, September 24, 2014, at the Chicago Board of Education (BOE) at 125 S. Clark Street. Only twenty-six people signed . . .

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Chicago Teachers Union Staff Coordinator Jackson Potter tried to get the Board to agree to go to arbitration over the so-called

BOARDWATCH: Chicago Board of Education meeting of July 23, 2014 highlighted by large public protests against budget lies before the Board doubles down and votes to approve its $6.8 billion budget for the 2014 - 2015 school year

The Chicago Board of Education began its July 23, 2014 meeting at a little after 10:30 a.m. The roll call showed that six of the seven members of the Board were present, along with "Chief . . .

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Six of the seven members of the Board of Education were present for the July 23, 2014 Board meeting. Above, left to right, Henry Biened, Mahalia Hines, Jesse Ruiz, and David Vitale. Substance photo by David Vance.

BOARDWATCH: Community -- through W.A.N.T. -- again asks CPS to stop expanding Passages charter school and subsidizing 'American Quality Schools'

[The following is the statement read on July 23, 2013 by Diane Daleiden at the monthly meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. The statement provided to Substance by the Ms. Deleiden and is reprinted . . .

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Dianne Daleiden speaks to the Board of Education's July 23, 2014 meeting about the attempt by American Quality Schools to expand the number of seats at the Passages Charter School which it operates against the community's wishes in the Andersonville Community on Chicago's North Side. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

BOARDWATCH: Chicago's school board continues lies, while outrage explodes at the July 23 meeting. The $6.8 billion budget again increases money for charters (including those under federal FBI investigation) while continuing draining dollars from real public schools...

It has been months since all seven members of the Chicago Board of Education (all appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel) have been at a monthly meeting of the Board together. Considering that they only have . . .

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Three Board of Education security staff wrestled Jesus Burgos and dragged him out of the January23, 2014 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education after he told them to stop harassing his wife, Rousemary Vega. The two, along with their children, were at the Board meeting, where Ms. Vega had registered to speak against the priorities of the proposed 2014 - 2015 budget. When Board member Jesse Ruiz, who claimed to represent the north side Latino community, began leaving the Board chambers as criticisms of Board members' hypocrisy grew. Vega said

BOARDWATCH: Vitale's police state expands attacks on press freedom, as parents are hauled out of Board meeting and even the Tribune and Sun-Times are warned against 'disrupting' the meeting by covering the news

One year after the Chicago Board of Education made the Guinness Book of World Records for ruthlessly closing the largest number of public schools in the nation's history and then trying to cover up the . . .

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After she had stood alone for less than two minutes denouncing the attacks on democracy and real public schools by the members of the Chicago Board of Education and

BOARDWATCH: Chicago Board meeting shows disregard for protests from communities against AUSL, 'turnaround'

A large number of individuals who protested the proposed turnaround of Dvorak, McNair, and Gresham elementary schools dominated the public participation portion of the Chicago Board of Education monthly meeting held on Wednesday, April 23, . . .

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Chicago Public Schools

BOARDWATCH: February 26, 2014 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education continues Vitale's policy of suppressing democratic speech against CPS policies with escalating viciousness...

At the regular monthly meeting of the Chicago Board of Education at 125 S. Clark Street on February 26, 2014, more parents of children at traditional neighborhood schools finally got a chance to speak during . . .

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Accompanied by Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis (half obscured behind the speaker) and CTU Quest Center and NBCT coordinator Lynn Cherkasky-Davis (above right),one of the more than 100 new NBCT teachers told the the Chicago Board of Education about her work and the program. After praising the program, the Board then went into its meeting, where teachers were again disregarded and major Power Point presentations on educational issues were delivered by highly paid CPS executives who had never taught in Chicago schools and whose main qualifications for their current administrative offices are the fact that they hold MBA degrees and are willing to deliver carefully scripted Power Point presentations in support of usually destructive corporate school reform programs. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

OPT OUT NEWS: Great video 'Ain't Gonna Teach To The Test No More' needed to begin every class today... Few corporate media news reports from the February 26 Board meeting get to the truth about what was said during the long meeting

A new You Tube video "Ain't Gonna Teach To The Test No More" to the tune of "Gonna Lay Down My Sword And Shield..." is going viral on You tube, thanks to the talented . . .

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One of many students who have been analyzing and criticizing the standardized testing fetish of Chicago's mayor and his hand-picked public schools leadership was Audobon school student Eleanor Griffith, who spoke with precision to the February 26, 2014 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. Ms.Griffith told the Board that she had critically analyzed the NWEA MAP test and that the test was offensive: it didn't test what the children had been taught, often demanded that they know subjects above their grade level (e.g. high school math), and created a poisonous reality in the classroom (by forcing children to view one another as numbers that indicated that some were

BOARDWATCH: More Than A Score versus CPS on testing... 'we call on you to change the culture of fear and paranoia that feeds this misinformation by lowering the quantity and stakes of standardized testing and increasing the value placed on high quality learning.'

[Substance Editor's Note: The following statement was delivered at the February 26, 2014 meeting of the Chicago Board of Educatoin by Cassie Crestwell of More Than A Score. The members of the Board of Education . . .

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Cassie Creswell of More than a Score presenting to the February 24, 2014 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

CONGRESSMAN DAVIS BETRAYS UNIONS... Final meeting of the Chicago Board of Education for 2013 continues Board's assault on the city's real public schools while eliminating more and more of the public from the 'public participation' in the lone public meeting of the month

The December meeting of the Chicago Board of Education on Wednesday, December 18, 2013, at 125 S. Clark Street began with festive holiday performances by Kenwood Academy and Lane Tech High School. Kenwood Academy guys . . .

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For thousands, the most shocking moment during the December 18, 2013 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education came when Congressman Danny Davis took the podium to betray decades of friendships and political allies by announcing that he was supporting the production of another union-busting charters school on Chicago's West Side. In a rambling five-minute orgation, Davis told the Board that he had always supported the public schools and that he loved the Chicago Teachers Union and that he had been a union member -- but instead of fixing the real public schools of the Aistin community he would prefer that a local community center be rewarded with a charter school charter and millions of dollars in public money for additional privatization. Before the meeting was over, many of Davis's former allies were branding him a traitor and preparing for the future. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

BOARDWATCH: 'This was a deceptive backroom deal with no transparency, no public input, and no community meetings!...' Michelle Villegas' statement to the Board of Education exposing the hypocrisy of the Lincoln Elementary School addition

[Editor's Note: The following statement was read to the five members of the Chicago Board of Education during public participation at the November 20, 2013 meeting of the Board. Board members Andrea Zopp and Mahalia . . .

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Michelle Villegas reading her statement to the Chicago Board of Education on November 20, 2013. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

Why Ames? Follow the Money!... Ames is not for sale!

[Editor's Note: The following statement was read to the five members of the Chicago Board of Education during public participation at the November 20, 2013 meeting of the Board. Board members Andrea Zopp and Mahalia . . .

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As Elizabeth Koutny continued to charge corruption on the part of Alderman Roberto Maldonado, the Board secretary screamed