SUBSCRIPT: Assassinations require highly paid assassins! Who are Adrian Willis and Robert Hubbird -- and why does Chicago pay them $150,000 per year? CPS Assassins routinely have been sent to destroy schools from the inside before 'closing' attack delivers the final blow
If, as the latest report from the Chicago Teachers Union proves, a campaign of destabilization takes place at those schools which are eventually targeted for closing, then the closings themselves constitute a form of public assassination. But for an assassination to take place, there have to be assassins. Usually, in other criminal enterprises, such as the Mafia, the assassins are well paid, but relatively anonymous.
Adrian Willis (above left0 testified against Deneen Elementary School on February 8, 2010, during the time that Ron Huberman was "Chief Executive Officer" of Chicago's Public Schools. Reading from a carefully prepared script, over the years Willis has always claimed the same thing: CPS has spent "millions of dollars" trying to save the school, but all the hard work of Willis and his staff and all the money was in vain, and the school failed anyway. Willis's career in such things began when Arne Duncan was CEO of CPS and has continued through the most recent four CEOs -- Ron Huberman, Terry Mazany (who didn't close any schools), Jean-Claude Brizard, and Barbara Byrd Bennett. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt. It is not so at CPS. In Chicago. The assassins are highly paid public school administrators who read from carefully prepared scripts as they move from year to year destroying schools and communities.
Two of those who come back into focus as the school closing hearings enter their final stages in April 2013 are Adrian Willias and Robert Hubbird. A look at their records shows that both Willis and Hubbird have long records of orchestrating the attacks on schools that result in the problems leading to closings, and that they are well paid for their work. When Hubbird becomes principal of the school, his job is to ruthlessly purge the ranks of teachers of those who would organize against "school actions", playing divide and conquer games while preparing the school, through a campaign that amounts to destabilization, for the chopping block.
Two years ago, Hubbird was put in by then CEO Ron Huberman to be princpal of Guggenhiem Elementary School for a brief time. As the Chicago Teachers Union report "A Tale of Two Schools" shows, Hubbard did everything in his power to disrupt, demoralize, and ultimately destroy Guggenheim. His activities ranged from purging those teachers and other staff who had organized to defend the school, to going to families' homes during the final months before the closing urging parents to transfer their children out of the school.
Two years ago, Hubbard was destroying Guggenheim Elementary School. His actions there are now detailed as a fact of history in the Chicago Teachers Union report "A Tale of Two Schools: The Human Story Behind the Destructive School Actions in Chicago".
Today he is principal of Mahalia Jackson Elementary School, another school on the Hit List.
For several years, Adrian Willis has appeared before Board of Education hearings to read from carefully prepared scripts before the hearing officers assigned to hear the "evidence" that CPS presents when it wants to close or otherwise terminate a school.
Willis has testified as dozens of these hearings over the years, because his "Network" -- Englewood Gresham -- has seen the most destructive impact of school closings (and other radical changes) anywhere. Although Willis claims that during his brief tenure at one South Side elementary school his administration produced radical improvements (in test scores), what his resume neglects to mention is that the "Willis Miracle" (like so many others where test scores promoted careers) was short lived. But by then, Willis had moved on, receiving a promotion to his current job of "Network Chief" (which when he was first promoted was called "Area Instructional Officer."
An example of the work of Willis can be found in the official record of the hearing on the proposed reconstitution of Deneen Elementary School. Officially, Deneen was targeted for so-called "turn-around", a process that doesn't exist under Illinois law. So what the Board does is vote to "reconstitute" a school, a process which results in the firing of almost all the school's reachers and other staff and their replacement by a group of new teachers who, supposedly, have been trained in turnaound methods by turnaround experts.
In order to justify a reconstitution, however, CPS has to build a case and hold a hearing before a hearing officer.
The hearing on Deneen was held at 125 S. Clark St. on February 8, 2010 in front of hearing officer Frederick Bates. Bates, it must be noted, has presided over more of these hearings in the past 16 years than any other hearing officer.
One of the things that has confused teachers, parents, students and many others when CPS goes after a school is the criteria for a closing, turnaround or phase out. Every year CPS has changed the criteria. In 2010, for example, the criteria for a turnaround were based on a "performance management" formula with several criteria. Performance management in 2010 was under the command of the CPS "Chief Performance Officer," a woman named Sarah Kremsner who had been brought to the education field from the Chicago Transit Authority. At the CTA, Kremsner had proved her performance skills by evaluating bus and subway routing. She had no previous experience in or certification in education, education management, or education administration.
In order for the "performance" criteria thrown at the schools in 2010 to be credible, someone with education criteria had to testify before Hearing Officer Bates. That person was Adrian Willis.
Both Willas and Hubbird and paid $150,000 per year, according to the current CPS position files.
