What is SUPES Academy?
Former Chicago Superintendent Barbara Byrd-Bennett is in federal prison because she took payoffs from SUPES.
Now Dallas Dance has been indicted.
How about an investigation of this SUPES Academy?
Archives for category: Chicago
Julie Vassilatos writes about the latest School closing by Chicago Public Schools. It is a heart-breaking story.
The school closing is a real estate deal, she believes. It’s about gentrification, not education.
“Presto change-o, remove the public housing and the mostly-black grade school from the neighborhood, bring in a not-mostly-black high school, and watch the property values go up, up, up.
“These kinds of moves are the reason behind the twitter hashtags #RahmHatesUs and #RahmDoesntCareAboutBlackPeople. Outrageous claims, I bet you’re thinking. But the folks tweeting these hashtags know that actions speak louder than words. And Rahm’s actions via CPS in this new round of school closures tell of a man who will push his agenda no matter how many people it harms, no matter how obviously racist it looks.
“CEO Janice Jackson was not in attendance at last week’s NTA closure hearing. Neither was anyone at all from the board. The mayor wasn’t there. There was a man with a presentation, however, one man, Chip Johnson from the FACE office. He chided the crowd to be respectful this evening, and not carry on in a rowdy fashion like last time. He listened impassively to the 50+ speakers given two minutes each, never taking a note, never answering a question, positioning himself as a neutral party but very much committed to the CPS plan. This entire proceeding transported me back instantaneously to the fall and winter of 2012/13’s terrible school closing hearings, and I was glad I went up to the balcony to watch because I knew that I would probably get emotional or inappropriate or both.
“Because these events are an exercise in awfulness. Listening to one little child after another beg–someone (which public official listens to these things, again?)–to keep open the school they love, occasionally through tears, is something only a masochist can willingly do over and over. Which is maybe why no one from CPS leadership ever shows up.
“Seven children spoke, some as young as first grade. I can’t even imagine the poise of a six-year-old who takes the mic in a cavernous church sanctuary in front of a few hundred people, but I think it has much to do with the bravery that comes from despair. These little ones all love their school and wanted to tell Chip Johnson so. They spoke of their love for teachers and school family, the building, the staff, their classes. One child knew that the reason they were taking his school was that it was a good building with good things. One child knew that the reason they were taking her school was that they could. And one middle-school aged fellow who spoke of NTA’s caring staff had to pause 3 times in order not to cry. That was my cue to start weeping openly up in the balcony.”
It is no longer novel. No one listens to the parents or the children. They are the ones being removed.
A large group of students, parents, and activists demonstrated against the closing of their schools at the elite University of Chicago Lab School Where Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s are students.
“On Wednesday, high school students, parents and education activists gathered near the University of Chicago Laboratory School, 5835 S. Kimbark Ave., to speak out against the proposed closings of their neighborhood elementary and high schools. The group staged a “tent city” outside of the Lab School, which is where Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s children attend school.
“We have stood up and demanded that the school’s in Englewood be fully funded just as schools in other neighborhoods,” said Erica Nanton, a community organizer, and Illinois co-chair for the Poor People’s Campaign. “We have been ignored, pushed aside and students have been silenced. “We come today on the grounds [in a] place where Mayor Rahm Emanuel does care.”
“The group consisted of parents and students and education advocates from the Grassroots Education Movement, Harper High School, Paul Robeson High School, Hope High School, National Teacher’s Academy, Hirsch High School Students, Hyde Park High School and the Journey for Justice Alliance.
“The group presented demands that they are asking the city and Chicago Board of Education to consider before shuttering their neighborhood elementary and high schools for good.
“What if we were your children [Mayor], Rahm Emanuel,” asked Mackenzie Turner, a freshman at Paul Robeson High School in Englewood. “None of our schools are just schools we are a family. We came together and bonded and built that school.”
“Jakil Benson, who is also a student at Robeson High School, echoed Turner’s thoughts.
“We don’t have art classes or music classes or things to help us find our gifts. We want to be doctors, lawyers, and musicians. We are being sabotaged by you, Rahm Emanuel,” Benson said. “We have low enrollment because you took our funds away these decisions affect our future. We still deserve a better education.”
“During the press conference, Lab students inside of the school cheered in support of the group.”
Please tweet:
“2 Hours of Power”
Social Media Action Thursday, Jan. 4th
10am-12pm
#WeChoose
#RahmHatesUs
Overview; Rahm Emanuel seeks to close ALL of the high schools in the Englewood community. and a high performing neighborhood school in the south loop. ALL BLACK SCHOOLS. We have united our efforts and launching campaign targeting Rahm TOMORROW. WE NEED YOUR HELP AND SUPPORT as we will start w/ direct action @ 10am CST tomorrow.
Target tweets at:
@cnnbrk
@cnn
@msnbc
@maddow
@Suntimes
@chicagotribune
@ChicagosMayor
@mharrisperry
WE NEED EMERGENCY MEMES!
Mayor Rahm Emanuel likes to close schools in African American communities. He claims underenrillment but then opens new charter schools to replace the public schools he closed. Is there a master plan? Is this strategy about real estate and gentrification? Large numbers of black families have left Chicago. The Chicago Teachers Union has valiantly resisted School closings, but Mayor Emanuel will not be deterred. Some community activists charge that the school-closing strategy has contributed to the city’s high levels of youth violence. Stable communities support stable schools. School closings disrupt communities and studebts’ lives.
Stop Destructive School Actions
PLEDGE TO ATTEND
CPS’ dishonest “choice model” — which sets up a limited number of well-resourced magnet schools, a large number of charter schools and defunds other schools using “Student Based Budgeting” — has destabilized Black & Latino neighborhoods, driven families from Chicago, and left many neighborhood schools struggling to offer students a quality curriculum, starved of even the most basic resources.
CPS proposes to close all four neighborhood high schools in Englewood: Hope High School, Robeson High School, Harper High School, and TEAM Englewood Community Academy High School. To the Mayor, their students just don’t matter enough to have the same rights, access or education as his children or neighbors.
CPS proposes to phase out National Teachers Elementary Academy because they want to give their building to another community.
The unelected School Board voted to co-locate a clout-heavy charter school whose charter operator is linked to scandal-ridden SUPES into Hirsch Metropolitan High School, a move that would destroy Hirsch to start a new privatized school.
As CTU members, there are ways to fight back. We urge all CTU members to support the educators and families at these schools as they defend their schools and communities. Here are some of the ways you can help:
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Attend closings hearings starting on January 9th. Plan to testify to talk about how student based budgeting and privatization are affecting your school and community.
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Attend actions being planned by the students, parents and educators at these schools. They need our support at these protests to keep the public informed and keep the pressure on Rahm.
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Plan to attend the next Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, January 24.
Click here for more information.
One thing that Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s massive school closings did: They hastened the exodus of African American families from Chicago.
“Chicago was once a major destination for African-Americans during the Great Migration, but experts say today the city is pushing out poor black families. In less than two decades, Chicago lost one-quarter of its black population, or more than 250,000 people.
“In the past decade, Chicago’s public schools lost more than 52,000 black students. Now, the school district, which was majority black for half a century, is on pace to become majority Latino. Black neighborhoods like Austin have experienced some of the steepest student declines and most of the school closures and budget cuts.
“A common refrain is that Chicago’s black families are “reverse migrating” to Southern cities with greater opportunities, like Atlanta and Dallas. But many of the families fleeing the poorest pockets of Chicago venture no farther than the south suburbs or northwest Indiana. And their children end up in cash-strapped segregated schools like the ones they left behind, a Chicago Reporter investigation found.”
Michelle Gunderson, veteran teacher in Chicago, explains here what Mayor Rahm Emanuel is doing to the city’s schools and the damage he is inflicting on communities of color:
On December 1, the Board of Education of the Chicago Public Schools announced its plan to shutter Harper, Hope, Robeson, and Team Englewood High Schools. All of these high schools are located in the predominantly African American Englewood neighborhood. With their planned closing there will be no neighborhood open enrollment public high schools left in this community of 30,000 people.
Schools are the cornerstones of neighborhoods, the place where a community comes together and relationships are built. Once a neighborhood school is closed it is like giving the community a black eye. The message is clear – this part of the city is not deserving of a public school and its children can be educated elsewhere.
You will hear about a beautiful, new high school planned for Englewood. While this sounds good, it does nothing for the current students of these Englewood high schools. NONE of the current high school students at Harper, Hope, Robeson, and Team Englewood will be allowed to attend. The school will start with a freshman class in 2019 and build a new class each year.
In the meantime, current students are set adrift and told to search out another school in an adjoining neighborhood. This brings up both academic questions and serious safety issues for these youth. In essence, Englewood students will be shipped to other schools, and the end of their high school careers sacrificed for a “fresh start” for the new school.
There is only one word for pushing African American children outside of their community in order to make room for a future student population – apartheid.
If CPS sincerely cares for the children of Englewood the current high schools would stay open until the new one was built and there would be a plan for integrating their students into the new school. To ‘start clean’ with only freshmen is to deny the value and humanity of the current youth in this neighborhood.
The narrative around the school closings is that the schools are under-enrolled and that they are not meeting the needs of the students. Janice Jackson, chief education officer of Chicago Public Schools said, “When I look at Englewood, at the experience some kids are getting, I can’t make the case they’re getting a good high school experience.” On this, she is right. The high schools in Englewood have been starved of the resources needed for high quality school programming for years. They have been intentionally run into the ground so that their closings would be inevitable.
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has been fighting for fair funding of schools for many years. The union’s underlying analysis is that the Chicago Public Schools purposefully defunded schools, claimed them as failures, and then proceeded to close them. The city is in fact “broke on purpose” so that these neighborhoods can be taken over and gentrified. What are the values of our society when children’s lives are sacrificed to the real estate ‘gods of gentrification’?
There will be readers who ask, why would a city government plan the demise of the high schools in an entire section of town? The answer is clear – real estate. Englewood sits in prime territory just south of Chicago’s Loop and with ready access to expressways and transportation. This is a real estate grab.
The Inspector General of the Chicago Public Schools concluded an investigation of Forrest Claypool, chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools, and recommended that Claypool had “repeatedly lied” to cover up ethical breaches and should be fired.
Dan Mihalopoulos and Lauren FitzPatrick report in the Chicago Sun-Times:
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s handpicked schools chief “repeatedly lied” and engaged in other “elaborate cover-ups . . . designed to hide improper behavior” that he and the Chicago Public Schools top attorney engaged in, the CPS inspector general alleges in a report publicly released Thursday.
In a blistering, 13-page memo he sent Tuesday to the Chicago Board of Education, CPS Inspector General Nicholas Schuler said he was “left with no recourse but to conclude” that the board should fire CPS CEO Forrest Claypool.
“Claypool greatly compounded the severity of his misconduct when he repeatedly lied to the [inspector general’s office] through two separate interviews,” Schuler wrote.
Schuler said he launched his investigation last year, prompted by a Chicago Sun-Times article that “raised the question of whether” CPS general counsel Ronald Marmer — a longtime friend of Claypool — had violated the schools’ ethics code.
The Sun-Times first reported that CPS had hired Marmer’s old firm, Jenner & Block, to work for the schools even as the firm was paying Marmer a $1 million severance package. The ethics rules prohibit CPS employees from supervising the work of contractors with whom they have a business relationship.
Schuler said Claypool and Marmer ignored the advice of six lawyers who said Marmer was violating the ethics code and instead “searched for an exonerating opinion. They got a seventh, more favorable opinion from a lawyer who was a political supporter of Claypool.
“It is that approach that was fundamentally deceptive,” Schuler said.
He also alleged that Claypool “violated his fiduciary duty under the Code of Ethics to act in good faith” toward the school board, whose members were appointed by Emanuel.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who controls the Chicago public schools, reaffirmed his support for his old friend Forrest Claypool. He said that there are two sides to every story, and he prefers Claypool’s version, not the Inspector General’s. In other words, he will instruct his hand-picked board to ignore the Inspector General’s report and recommendation.
This is yet another reason to oppose mayoral control of public schools. Too much cronyism and favoritism that should not withstand public scrutiny.
In Chicago’s rush to close public schools, one neighborhood will have no high school at all.
Wendy Katten of Raise Your Hand, a public education activist, interviews a parent who describes how the voices of parents were ignored in the latest round of school closings.
More school closings are underway in Chicago. In the Englewood neighborhood, which was hit hard by the shuttering of some 50 schools in 2013, there will be no public high schools left should the city follow through on the latest plan.
The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) claims the community requested the school closings this year but many people in the affected neighborhoods question that claim. Raise Your Hand, a public education advocacy group, spoke to one parent, a member of the Local School Council of Harper High School, one of the schools that’s slated for closure. Clifford Fields, who has been an active community member in West Englewood for decades, said that no one from the LSC, the elected parent body that oversees Harper High, was invited to be part of the group that that signed off on closing every public high school in Englewood.
In an interview with Raise Your Hand, Fields had blunt words for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other city officials who, as he put it, “are treating our kids like they are cars, just trying to shuffle them around.” Fields also cited Chicago’s gang problem, which prevents children in areas like Englewood from moving safely even from block to block. “But you want to shift our kids to other schools in other neighborhoods.” Fields called on officials to redirect resources to schools like Harper. Field’s children graduated from Harper and TEAM Englewood. He was also a Local School Council member at Goodlow elementary, which was part of the 2013 closings.
In Chicago, parents don’t matter. Nor do students.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel continues his crusade to push public schools out of Chicago.
In a wave of closings and consolidation, the mayor found room for a new charter school run by a megachurch and a hip hop artist. The mother of the hip hop artist serves on the zchicago Board of Education.
“Chicago Public Schools on Friday moved ahead with school closing and merger proposals that would affect thousands of kids next school year.
“Under a previously announced plan, four South Side schools would close over the summer and the district would send hundreds of displaced students to surrounding schools. One building would be demolished to make way for a new high school, and privately operated charter schools would take over two other sites, under the district’s plan.
“Students at two predominantly African-American elementary schools near downtown would merge with more diverse campuses. One of those buildings, in the growing South Loop area, would gradually convert into a new high school.
“In addition, Hirsch, one of the city’s lowest-enrolled high schools, would share space for a privately run charter school program that’s backed by a local megachurch and a foundation headed by hip-hop artist Common…
“Hirsch, one of the city’s most underenrolled neighborhood high schools, would open its campus to the Art In Motion charter school next fall. CPS said the charter program, which is backed in part by the New Life Covenant Church and Common Ground Foundation, would first open to seventh- and eighth-graders before expanding to include a high school program.
“Mahalia Hines, a member of the Chicago Board of Education and mother of the hip-hop performer Common, also serves on the board of her son’s foundation.”
Does Illinois have conflict of interest laws?
Diane Ravitch's blog 