Joy Resmovits reports at Huffington Post that Chicago’s Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard was “nearly invisible” during the strike. He says he was visiting schools.
She says that Brizard got a very bad performance rating and that rumors have been flying that he will soon resign or be fired.
The Chicago saga continues.

The best was during the strike when we were marching at Marshall, a school on the poverty-stricken west side of Chicago that’s been turned around multiple times, and we all started hearing rumors that he had resigned. Oh, if only. He will resign or be fired, though. Or maybe he’ll pull a Huberman and take another job right before he’s about to get fired. My guess is that Emanuel will use him as a scapegoat, even though everyone knows Brizard has nothing to do with anything.
I was also frustrated that the one time Karen Lewis left the negotiating table during the strike to give a quick speech at one of our rallies, she was heavily criticized (even though she had a whole team of people still working at the table), but that guy was nowhere to be found during the whole thing and he wasn’t criticized at all. Same with David Vitale, who didn’t even sit in on negotiations until the Wednesday or Thursday before the strike. The media in Chicago is seemingly owned by Rahm Emanuel because these things NEVER get reported, but, like I said, they were all over Karen Lewis stepping out for no more than an hour (probably less) tops to give a speech. SO ridiculous.
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Most likely working on his resume. This guy has bounced around a lot and has always gotten lousy reviews. Somehow he always manages to get a better job. Let’s hope he doesn’t show up in a school district near you. Rahm buy him out and pay him off. Stipulate that he is not to work in or on any school related project or job. Maybe then you can be forgiven for your past conduct and transgressions.
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Brizard is not the underlying problem, Emanuel is. If Brizard leaves, Emanuel will just find someone worse as punishment to those uppity teachers who dared to disobey him.
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Was he visiting the strikers? There weren’t many kids in school.
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Charters were in session. In fact, it was their biggest selling point during the strike!
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Nope, we saw his fancy car pull up at the school where I was joining teachers on the picket line (one of the 144 holding centers). He snuck in the back door, stayed inside for maybe 30-45 minutes, then ran back to his car without once getting anywhere near the striking teachers.
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Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
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Brizard is a graduate of the Broad Superintendents Academy
http://www.broadcenter.org/academy/network/profile/featured-jean-claude-brizard
He stirred up churn in Rochester before coming to Chicago:
The Corporate Agenda for Public Schools: Is Brizard on Board?
http://dragonflyeye.net/jongreenbaum/2009/07/24/the-corporate-agenda-for-public-schools-is-brizard-on-board/
He is one of many Broad Superintendents Academy graduates whose churn has left devastated school districts in their wake:
The Broad Foundation: A Parent’s Guide
http://schoolmatters.knoxnews.com/forum/topics/the-broad-foundation-a-parents
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The Chicago Sun-Times labeled him a “loser” in this strike because he was AOL. And even though Rahm said he supported him, the talk is he is on his way out. Of course it has to be done in a way that doesn’t offend Rahm’s ego because Brizard’s poor performance in Rochester was reported in the Chicago papers when his appointment was announced.
I also heard his replacement will be Cathie Black.
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I’ve heard rumors it’s Barbara Byrd-Bennett. She also became the voice of CPS during the strike, with her and David Vitale taking turns giving false updates and calling it a “strike of choice.” Whatever happens, it’ll be an interesting little soap opera to watch. : )
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schoolgal is kidding about Cathie Black, but I think missprole is right. Triple-B came across as very cool and articulate on the local news.
Also–
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I seemed to have read that J.C.B. chose to take a vacation (was it for 2-weeks-?) right before the strike, which would mean, I guess, that it was during negotiations, so he would be AWOL. Some people were none too pleased about this.
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OOPS!! Forgot the W in AWOL.
Yes I was kidding about Black. It seems that all Academy people from NYC wind up somewhere destroying some state’s or city’s education system.
It’s becoming trendy to hire an Ed Czar who only wants to destroy public education. Even Joel Klein who headed our school system was donating one million dollars to a charter organization (funny enough, headed by Murdoch). Maybe he bought his way into his new job with the great Murdoch. Not only did he donate, he got the city to give Murdoch a multimillion dollar contract with Murdoch’s new education company which Klein now heads. No conflict of interest there!!! Now that’s love.
Meanwhile Rahm’s reformer friends are spending one million dollars on TV spots for Rahm. They are trying to spin the contract as a win for Rahm. Now that’s love.
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He worked originally in NYC and was liked. He went Broad School and then off to Rochester. Big promises,big disappointment.
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Too bad there’s no journalists left who could have found out where Brizard was.
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They knew! It was in the Chicago papers and, certainly, The Reader!
He was constantly written about in the Rochester, N.Y. daily–The Democrat & Chronicle, one famous quote from the RPSD Union President, Dr. Adam Urbanski, “J.C. believes in shared decision-making. He makes the decisions, then he shares them.”
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I wish there was a LIKE button for your comment. 🙂
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the famous quote that i really like is “its always darkest before the dawn”. in life there are things that gets worst first before it gets better.”
My own internet site
<a href="http://www.melatoninfaq.com/precautions-to-consider-when-using-the-melatonin-supplements/“
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