August 17, 2010. Lane Tech Budget hearing transcript shows unprecedented critique of CPS priorities
The transcripts of the annual budget hearings conducted by officials of the Chicago Board of Education on August 17, 18, and 19, 2010 have now become available at the Board of Education's official public website (www.cps.edu). They were not available to the public prior to the Board's August 25, 2010 meeting, at which a truncated version of the "Proposed Budget" that had been supplied to the public (and served as the text for the hearings) was available. CPS officials also avoided many of the most important questions raised during the hearings, as the record shows. (CPS officials told the public during the budget hearings that they would answer all of the questions on line, but by the day of the Board meeting, no one could find the Q and A that had come out of the three hearings).
Substance has worked to convert the transcript format (with numbered lines) into a more linear narrative format for easy replication for schools and others, taking more than a dozen hours to make the conversions. If readers need the original Court Reporter version of the transcripts they need to get them from the CPS website in their original format.
By the time Jonathan Goldman of the "Raise your hand coalition" spoke about the need for TIF money to go to the schools, the crowd in the Lane Tech auditorium had grown to more than 200 people, the largest ever for a CPS budget hearing. The August 17 crowd was the first of three large turnouts, resulting in the 2010 budget review being the most widely attended in the history of Chicago's public schools. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.CPS Chief Executive Officer Ron Huberman and the seven members of the Board of Education were truant during the three days of hearings. Board of Education President Mary Richardson Lowry claimed at the August 25 Board meeting that the members of the Board had read the transcripts, but their questions to Ron Huberman during the meeting showed otherwise. Almost none of the questions raised during the public hearings was answered by the seven members of the Board, or Huberman during his presentation at the beginning of the Board meeting.
As the school year begins for all Chicago school children, Substance will try to present our readers with the complete transcripts of the hearings. The transcripts of public participation of Board of Education meetings are not kept, as most of our readers know. Most of the Board members (and almost all of the executives working directly under Ron Huberman) consider the Board meetings' public participation a waste of their important time, and many spend the meetings with their Blackberries or casually reading while parents, teachers and students try passionately to do something about the schools.
The following is the transcript from the August 17, 2010 hearing at Lane Technical High School in Chicago, converted by Substance to Word format for this website. Those who wish the original Court Reporter format (with line by line delineation) can get it from CPS on the CPS website at:
In The Matter Of: 2010-2011 PROPOSED BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING AT LANE TECH HIGH SCHOOL, August 17, 2010, Original File AUGUST 17_2010-CPS-LANE TECH.txt Smith's Court Reporting Service, (312) 726-2266
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET FISCAL YEAR 2010-2011 PROPOSED BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING, Tuesday, AUGUST 17, 2010, 7:00 P.M.
Held at: LANE TECH HIGH SCHOOL, 2501 West Addison Street, Chicago, Illinois
Smith's Court Reporting Service, (312) 726-2266
PRESENT: MS. DIANA FERGUSON, Chief Financial Officer; MS. CHRISTINA HERZOG, Budget Officer, MS. JORY SIMMONS, Moderator.
The crowd grew in the Lane Tech corridor as 7:00 p.m., the opening of the hearing, neared. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.MS. FERGUSON: Everyone to turn off their cell phones. We want to make sure there is not interference with the speaker system. My name is Diana Ferguson. I'm the chief financial officer for Chicago Public Schools. I'd like to welcome you all here tonight. I greatly appreciate your time and interest in our budget hearings as evidenced by your attendance here tonight. We
appreciate your interest and commitment. We have approximately two hours scheduled tonight, and virtually all that time is going to be devoted to public comment.
In the past years of these hearings, we have done a presentation, and then turned it over to public comment. And this year because of the interest level, we would like to devote as much time as possible to hearing from you. We are here as representatives of the Board of Education to take your input, listen to your comments, and take that and translate it back to the board incorporated into our budget process going forward.
We, in addition to representing the Board of Education, we clearly represent a large stream of people across the district who work on putting the budget together; perhaps most importantly, the principals from our 680 schools across our district and our communities. And on that note, I would like to take a moment to thank Principal LoBosco and her staff for welcoming us to Lane Tech tonight. And now I would like to turn it over to Christina Herzog, who is our budget officer here tonight to also welcome you.
MS. HERZOG: Thank you. I'm going to echo Diana's appreciation of your commitment to Chicago Public Schools as well as our students. I look forward to hearing your feedback and comments on the budget. As you appreciate, you know, our budget is based off of revenues that we can expect at the time that we develop the budget, and those refers come from a variety of sources. They can be state, local, federal as well as grant funding. As we've seen this year in particular and really in the last week as well, the amount of revenue that we can expect, changes depending on the actions of our legislatures, and it greatly impacts our budget.
We know that in a budget year like this one, there's going to be some people who agree with the reductions that we had to make to be able to close our deficit, and people who don't agree. And that's why we're here tonight. We definitely want to hear what you have to say about the budget and the process. So we know you've had a chance to examine the budget that we posted online, so our job here tonight is to listen to you, is to ensure your questions and concerns are put on record, and to take those questions and concerns back to our larger team and to the Board of Education. So that's what we're going to be doing with you here tonight.
My colleagues throughout the audience and we also have a transcriber who will be reporting your questions and comments. And, you know, we'll post the appropriate questions and comments online along with the responses so that those who are not here tonight, can be part of this process and be part of the responses to those questions and concerns.
If you actually have a comment about a budget, a specific school budget or a specific program at a school or a position at a school that is individual, we will connect with you one-on-one, so that we can make sure to get your individual contact information to provide you feedback to your comment. So let's go over a few of the ground rules for tonight in advance of us starting.
For the evening, we have provided a Spanish translator, as well as a sign language interpreter. If anyone needs assistance, can you raise your hand and let us know so I can make sure you get the headphones for the Spanish translator and have the sign language interpreter sit with you as well.
(No response.)
Okay. Let us know during the proceedings if you need somebody. We have a list of registered speakers for the evening, and when your name or organization is called, please proceed to the microphone, which is right over there (indicating). Each speaker will be given two minutes to speak. And will be notified at the one minute, 45 second mark. So that the speaker can conclude. And we will ask that you adhere to the time limit, so we have the opportunity to hear from all of the speakers that are scheduled tonight.
Ms. Simmons, who is sitting up front here, has graciously accepted the moderator job for the evening and will notify the speaker of when to conclude and when time is up.
Okay. The public comments are scheduled to conclude at 9:00 p.m. So we're going to begin in a second. I just want to begin and thank you on behalf of Chicago Public Schools. And the budget office has worked hard on putting this budget together, and is interested in hearing your feedback and your comments as well, and for taking the time to participate in today's hearing. So with that, let's begin with the first speaker.
THE MODERATOR: Rod Estvan.
Access Living's Rodney Estvan presented a detailed analysis of the budget, while Christina Herzog (far left) and Diana Ferguson (second from left) and others took notes. Although CPS officials promised to answer every question on line, they did not. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.MR. ESTVAN: It is not on. My name is Rod Estvan, E-S-T-V-A-N, from Access Living of Chicago. I have been reviewing Chicago Public School budgets for five continuous years now. And I have a number of comments I would like to make in regards to the budget.
The first issue that has been in the media is the reserve fund. Access Living supports the position of the Chicago Public Schools on utilizing all reserve funds if necessary in order to avoid layoffs. We support that position. Access Living has real questions about the implementation on what is called a budget response intervention. [Response to Intervention?}. We don't believe that there are enough funds available to implement it effectively. And we think it's going to be a real problem.
We know it's a state mandate. We recommend that the damages be limited by capping the amount of time any one student can stay in the intervention process to no more 9 than 12 weeks. We've also submitted a 57 page document to the Board on this.
We also believe that there are many, many problems with the way the various deficit numbers were presented this year. We would strongly recommend the deficit numbers not be used for bargaining purposes. We think that that's what happened.
(Applause)
The numbers changed so many times. Some of those changes were based on unknown estimates of state calculations that were being done sometimes by the governor and sometimes by general assembly appropriations. We don't think that those met the best principles of performance management.
THE MODERATOR: Mr. Speaker, please conclude.
MR. ESTVAN: In our written comments, we go on to extensively discuss these issues. And we not support the level of cuts to city wide services for special education. The layoff of psychologists and behavioral therapists and others.
We do support the additional aides that were hired. We think that that's important. And we do respect the small level of cuts to schools for special ed teachers, and we recognize that it did take place.
However, there will still be numerous special education teachers that are unemployed because of other issues. And we hope that schools will hire them rapidly.
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Adam Heenan.
MR. HEENAN: This is a request to find out who is after that.
THE MODERATOR: The next speaker after Mr. Adam Heenan will be Susan Dunn.
MR. HEENAN: Thank you for hosting this tonight. My question is about --
THE MODERATOR: Say your name.
Curie High School teacher Adam Heenan (at microphone, wearing hat) asked about TIFs and received no reasonable answer. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.MR. HEENAN: Oh, I'm sorry. Adam Heenan, Metro High School. My question is in regards to tax increment financing. Will CPS ask the city to declare a TIF surplus, and then request those funds to help schools, the funds for this year?
MS. FERGUSON: We appreciate your question. We are not here to do Q and A tonight. We are here to solicit your input. So we noted your question, and we appreciate you coming in to give your comment.
MR. HEENAN: Okay. Okay. Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: Susan Dunn.
MS. DUNN: Okay. Hi, my name is Susan Dunn. I'm here as a member of CORE. And I just wanted to mention that at the last Board of Ed meeting, Mr. Huberman stated that there were no classroom special ed teacher cuts, so my layoff notice, I presume, was sent in error.
(Applause.)
The position was subsequently filled by a classroom teacher who hasn't taught special ed for over 20 years, and two additional first year treachers have been hired at my school. I have 15 years of experience. My question to you is: Why we're tracking elementary school teachers laid off, when there were no increases in elementary school class sizes?
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Judy Schechtman.
MS. SCHECHTMAN: My name is Judy Schechtman, and I'm a social worker at Lincoln Park High School. As a CPS clinician, social worker, I'm aware that the condition, clinical hours of direct service we report are billed to Medicaid. And I know CPS receives a substantial reimbursement from Medicaid for this. How much do you receive and where do these funds go? Where are they reflected in the budget?
MS. FERGUSON: We noted the question.
THE MODERATOR: Ann Catz.
MS. CATZ: Hi, my name is Ann Catz, and I'm a delegate — I'm a city wide teacher from Chicago Schools — well, let's put it this way: I was. My concern is special ed because that is what my position was. Special education had hired a new person earlier this year to help treat -- streamline, make it more efficient, the office of specialized services. And, basically, it's -- that provides all the services for students with disabilities. Okay.
My question is — it's a two part. My concern is about the Office of Specialized Services in this respect: Number one, will CPS continue to cut services — not services, positions, be it clinicians, be it OT, PT, speech, audiovisual that goes into the testing for hearing and vision? And also cutting the positions in elementary as well as high schools? My question is this: It's two part. Part one -- or part A is: Are you going to continue to hire any more teachers, or are you going to continue to cut or layoff more teachers who deal with children with special needs because those are some of our most valuable and needy students in the school system.
And, Number 2, if you continue to cut teachers, how do you intend to provide the services that are on the IEP, which is a legal document? Take it from one who was a case manager for five years, and I was never out of compliance.
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Jonathan Goldman. And following Jonathan Goldman will be Karen Lewis.
MR. GOLDMAN: Good evening. My name is Jonathan Goldman. I'm the proud parent of two daughters at Drummond (phonetically) Montessori. I'm also a member of the steering committee of the Raise Your Hand Coalition, a growing coalition of Chicago Public School parents.
(Applause)
The budget that we're faced with today has actually come a long way from where we started this conversation a few months ago. But I think it's important to note that even at the end of the day, we're still making very real cuts at the school level, at school programs, and it's a shame that we're at this point. Obviously, there's a lot of factors that are causing that, but one thing that I would like to talk about are the impact of TIF districts or CPS. Even though we're close to making ends meet this year, even so, that's being done through cuts, it's being done through accounting measures that are completely draining the reserve fund. And, you know, I believe, that the remaining deficit at this point is a little under $300 million. We've learned from the City of Chicago recently in the press that not only is there $1.2 billion in cash that is sitting in TIF districts collecting dust right now, but that $700 million of that is completely unallocated for development projects. The state law requires that surpluses be refunded back to the taxing bodies. That would mean a boost in CPS — that would mean a boost in CPS in the current fiscal year of approximately $350 million. More than enough to wipe out all the cuts that the draw-down in the reserve funds, and would really help things for the current year.
THE MODERATOR: Mr. Speaker, please conclude.
MR. GOLDMAN: But we also have to keep in mind that this year's budget is still about a lot of one time revenues and cuts. And moving forward we need to look at something more sustainable. TIFs cost CPS annually about $250 million in property tax money that needs to go to education. We need to reform the system, in addition to turning the surplus down. Thank you.
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Karen Lewis.
CTU President Karen Lewis reminded the Board of Education that it had proclaimed cutbacks, but had raised Area Office costs in the budget by nearly $60 million. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.MS. LEWIS: Hi, good evening. I'm a little concerned that we've got the same thing that happens year after year after year that we're always in a crisis mode, and I'm also concerned that some of the things that we see are repetitive problems and built-in structural issues.
Again, there is a real serious problem the way schools are funded in Chicago. I don't think anyone here would disagree with that. I think also, though, that we need to always think about what our priorities are, and our priorities have to be children must come first. I saw that sign when I walked in.
(Applause)
And signs like that always scare me because you shouldn't have to say that. There's no sign that says don't pick your nose, but we know not to do that. Right? So when I see signs that say, children first, I'm a little worried that they weren't. So there is a couple of questions that I have, and maybe you can get back to me on that. One of the things I did notice a difference between this year's budget and last year's budget, there seems to be a $59 million increase in the area offices. So that kind of worries me, unless it means you are hiring back our coaches from those area offices. So those are the kinds of things that concern me because I really think, as one of our members said sometime ago, and that that $800 million — that was really — we should have 25 kids in the classroom. That's what we should shoot for. And then anything else, should be a luxury.
(Applause)
So what I would hope that we can do is work together to build a philosophy of how we change the revenue side of this — of this problem. And I would like to have some answers to a couple of other questions, which are why can we not even do a modest increase in property taxes? My concern is that, again, it's very political. And our — I don't think our children's lives should be political. So, please, let's work together. Let's figure out a way. And we have to change this yearly insanity where we're always scrambling for money. That should not happen, and there are only a couple of ways to change that. And that is to change the revenue side of how we decide to educate our children. Thank you.
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Lisa Love and following Lisa is Jay Rehak.
MS. LEVY: It's actually Lisa Levy. It's Lisa Levy, and I have very bad handwriting. Okay. So I'm going to talk about this education. I'm very short, too. That's another problem.
Okay. I'm going to talk about this education jobs bill that is — because it's called a jobs bill, shouldn't this be providing jobs? We know that teachers have been cut with disregard to seniority. That they have been — they have been denied due process. And now we get something called education jobs bill. Well, shouldn't we be using that to bring these people back? These are experienced, professional people that we need in the classrooms. So my question is: Are you going to use that money to rehire and to get these people back into the classroom, or are you going to divert that money towards programs?
We don't even know what that means exactly. Programs. It's ludicrous. It's ludicrous. And this disregard for the contract and respect for teachers needs to stop now.
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Jay Rehak. And following Jay Rehak, Lynn Davis.
Whitney Young High School teacher Jay Rehak (who is also a trustee of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund) noted serious problems with the Board's math in the Proposed budget. No answer was ever given to Rehak's questions. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.MS. REHAK: Yes. Jay Rehak. Teacher, parent of a child in Chicago Public Schools, member of the Chicago teacher's pension fund. And I've got good news for everybody here, you don't have to ask the question. I'll give you an answer. On page 90 of your own budget — proposed budget, you list the number of teachers for fiscal 2011 at 20,987. Then you breakdown assistant principals and principals, and education support personal et cetera, et cetera. Educational support personnel is about 13,000. Just a rough estimate. So it comes out to about 26,000 employees that on page 97, you list in expenditures — you actually for some bizarre reason don't breakdown salaries by principals and assistance principals as you did on page 90, but instead you just list it as teacher's salaries with the assumption that somehow the principals are teachers or whatever, but it doesn't matter.
We divide that sum, which is 26,000 people divided by over $2 billion, 2 billion 65, and it comes out to quite a significant amount of money, far in excess of $80,000 per person. We only have about a thousand principals or assistant principals, but let me get to the point here: The point is this: On a separate line on 97, you list the cost of the health care, and you list the cost of the pension as separate items. When we get paid on our own paycheck, just so everybody understands, we get paid — our check indicates that our pension pick up is seven percent as part of our salary.
THE MODERATOR: Mr. Speaker, please conclude.
MS. REHAK: Is has been included evidently because the State Board of Education says the average teacher salary is $67,000 into the teacher expenditure at the top. And it's also included down below in the pension list. What that means is the $140 million that is going — the seven percent pick up is being included twice in your budget. So I just found $140 million for you. So I would like you to give it back to the teachers, if you would.
(Applause)
Thank you very much. The 140 million just make sure you get it down right. It's not a question. It's a statement. Thank you.
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Lynn Davis.
MS. DAVIS: I'm Lynn Cherkasky Davis. And I direct national board certification for the Chicago Teacher's Union and partner with the CPS program on national board certification. So I'm asking you tonight to reconcile two documents that I hold here (indicating). The one in my left hand is the language from page 14 of your budget book under the district funding highlights in the section entitled maintaining and enhancing classroom resources.
And I'm just going to read you a little paragraph from that — a little section from that. And I quote:
"[A]n important measure of teacher quality for many districts such as CPS, is the number of — page 14, by the way, if you want to follow along — is the number of teachers with the recognized achievement status of national board certification. In 2009, there were 302 national board CPS teachers who achieved national board certification. The largest number of new NBCTs in any district in the United States. Since 1997, CPS has had 1,449 teachers earn national board certification and has attracted another 45 teachers who achieved NBC in other districts for a total of almost 1,500 NBCT. Research has shown that this nationally recognized certification has a positive impact on teacher retention, teache leadership, professional growth, and most importantly, of course, student achievement.
"In 2009, more than 62,000 students in 367 CPS schools hosted at least one NBCT on staff, and 52 CPS schools have 15 percent or more of their staff with national board certification. The new teacher center employed NCPTs so coaches and mentors, as did many departments at CPS. They were chosen for these positions, based on their expertise and success with students. In fiscal year 2011, the district in partnership with the state will spend nearly $7 million to reach the goal of ensuring that at least ten percent of teachers at low income at-risk schools are national board certified."
THE MODERATOR: Ms. Davis, please conclude.
MS. DAVIS: Yes, yes. Here in my right hand (indicating) is the list of more than 30 national board certified teachers. The only teachers with an Illinois master's certificate, the highest certificate a teacher in Illinois can attain, have been terminated and not even allowed to go into the reassigned teacher pool or substitute.
There's [Employee Name Redacted], firewall [verbatim] undergoing cancer treatments with COBRA payments, insurance payments that he can no longer afford.
Mrs. O'Brien, who was due to have a baby this month and could not take a maternity leave because she was told she had been terminated, and she had no job in which to take maternity leave. No employer.
THE MODERATOR: Ms. Davis —
MS. DAVIS: Yes, I will. Her unemployment check was less than her COBRA insurance payment.
There's Jennifer. An NBC candidate who had to drop out of the process after paying her nonrefundable NBCT entry fee, only to find a job at a charter school out of her area of certification.
There sits Mr. Mitchell. He was just arbitrarily terminated, even though there are less senior teachers in his school — in his department, and in his area of certification still teaching. I'm almost finished. There is Valerie who was cut from a turnaround school in the middle of her candidacy. She carries a sign that says, "Will work for food and rent."
Rene teaches in the suburbs. Lucky them.
Nicole took a job outside teaching, and Amy worked with an educational organization and not with our children. And there are many more. So —
MS. FERGUSON: You need to respect the time limit.
MS. DAVIS: I have worked for many, many years to improve teacher quality in the Chicago Pubic School for national board certification all with the goal of increasing the student achievement. Just when we are building a critical mass of national board certified teachers, you fire the very people who are impacting student learning and teacher quality the most.
Can you please reconcile these two documents for me (indicating)?
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Dr. John Kugler.
Following Mr. Kugler — Dr. Kugler — excuse me -- will be George Schmidt.
MR. KUGLER: I would like a couple of questions answered. How many educators in the house, raise your hand?
(Applause)
How many CPS cronies in the house? None.
You know, from our budget analysis in the last couple of years, which I've been privileged to be part of, we've noticed at least 50 — between 50 to a hundred people the mayor has appointed into CPS. They're non-educators. It would be illegal for them to be in a classroom. And if I was in the classroom, as I was terminated last year from a carpentry class, one of the last ones on the southeast side, again, for budget, I would throw you out of my classroom when you came in because it would be illegal for you to be in my classroom. That's the state law.
The state law also says, we should provide for our children. We should provide safe, healthy and wholesome learning environments. The process of cutting budgets, the process saying there's a million dollar budget deficit, the process of violating a contract and firing teachers and PSRPs is both illegal and immoral.
(Applause)
You are causing chaos, disruption and remedial harm to the children of Chicago. I am not going to even mention the neighborhoods you have destroyed with your ineptitude, with your cronyism and your theft of public funds.
(Applause)
I stand by my statements. And you can directly e-mail me at johnkugler@cturobo1.com [verbatim]. That's where I'm at. If I'm incorrect in any of the statements that I just testified to --
THE MODERATOR: Please, Mr. Speaker, conclude.
MR. KUGLER: Please e-mail them to me, and I will publish you. As I say, again, your process of cutting teachers hurts children. You're not hurting us adults. We're grown. We're going to make it. But every cut you make in a high school is 140 children that you hurt.
In a grammar school, it's usually between 30 to 40 children that you hurt. Every cut you make, hurts a child. You don't take of your children, you hurt the children. I will testify to that every time I come to a hearing. Every time you cut, you hurt a child. Have a good evening.
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: George Schmidt. Following George Schmidt will be Marisol Duer.
MR. SCHMIDT: Good evening. My name is George Schmidt. I'm currently a reporter for Substance. Until three weeks ago, I was the editor, but I've also taken other employment so I am proud to be doing it. My wife and I have two children in the public schools, and my oldest is a graduate of Whitney Young High School, class of 2007.
I'm a former teacher. Proud to have been terminated by Paul Vallas ten years ago this month for heresy. And my wife is still a teacher in the Chicago Public Schools teaching at Steinmetz High School.
For the past 30 years, I've been examining this budget. For the past ten years, I've been testifying at these hearings regularly. And for the past four years, I've been watching this budget progress from simply silly to what I'll characterizes as murky to atrociously mendacious, which is where it is this year.
My wife asked me to start with some good news. And so I can say that at least in this year's budget, you've given us a key in the school list that would define the alphabetical order in the schools. You're still listing the schools by first name, but at least you have a key to say which page the schools are on. And, I guess, that's an improvement over the past budgets.
What's not an improvement, is that since January 19th, the finance department, led by you, Ms. Ferguson, and the chief executive officer have been lying to the people of Chicago by creating a Chicken Little situation. Creating a deficit, which you knew would not come to be. And using it to drive political decisions. The most outrageous of which was the attack on the teacher's pension fund, which successfully in Springfield in April destroyed a lot of the equity in that fund, and restructured the pension fund for all future teachers. You may think that was a victory, but that victory will cost you dearly in the future.
Everyone who's ever made a household budget knows that the easiest way to create a deficit is to overestimate expenditures and underestimate revenues. And since January 19th when you and Mr. Huberman unveiled the first deficit plan — THE MODERATOR: Mr. Speaker, please conclude. Thank you.
MR. SCHMIDT: That's what you've been doing deliberately. Since then — every week or month since then, you have deliberately distorted the actual finance condition of the Chicago Public Schools, as you well know, by reading your own financial statements every quarter. Now, it's come time where those lies have caught up. You've laid off over a thousand teachers this summer, if you count 700 teachers that we removed from the turnaround schools, and every one of those teachers should be back at work.
(Applause)
There was never a budget reason — there was a never a budget reason for doing what's been done, but the one thing that's clear at this point in history is that any word out of the mouth of the chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools about deficits is a lie, and his word is...
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Mario Duer. I may be pronouncing the last name incorrectly. The organization is CICS. And next after her, will be Jeanne Freed.
MS. DUER: My name actually is Marisol Duer. I'm from CICS Irving Park, Chicago International Charter Schools. I have two children — I'm a parent here today of two children who are placed in the school when I decided to look for a school for months trying to find the right school.
I live six houses away from a grammar school. I end up driving a half an hour away in the morning to take them to school. I truly enjoy the school, and feel bad now that my teachers are not there. Everything is taken way from me. It's just not fair. I don't know what to you tell you. I don't know where they get the money from, but you're taking away from the wrong -- the kids do not deserve this. I don't know even know why. This is completely wrong what you're doing. I don't know how to fix it. I work actually for Chicago (unintelligible) school. I'm not here for them, but there is plenty of kids trying to get in at this time. We have waiting lists, if you can imagine. They're not doing anything wrong. I don't know why we can't figure this out. There's got to be a way. We can't be taking way from our children. We try so hard to find the right place to put them in, and when you do, teacher's aides get taken away. Why do you think they're not useful? I bet I can talk to a million teachers that can beg to differ right now, including parents who sit there and have to come in to help sometimes because sometimes a teacher's aide is just not enough.
You need the help. The schools need the help. We need to help them. We need to figure this out. I need someone to tell me that next year my children will be completely educated the way they deserve to be and nothing cut from them. I want them to tell me that they'll be fine. And nobody can get hurt. That's what I want.
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Jeanne Freed. After Jeanne Freed is Jeanne Edmondson.
Teacher Jeanne Fried testified that at Lincoln Park High School they didn't have enough books for the students to take them home to study. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.MS. FREED: Good evening. My name is Jeanne Freed, and I'm a teacher at Lincoln Park High School. I work in the world language department. And I would like to address the fact of a lack of resources in Chicago Public Schools. A lack of very basic resources that teachers need to do their job.
Last year, myself and another teacher shared 30 textbooks for all of our students. Our students, of course, could not take these books home because they were shared with four classes. For one of my classes, I had only 15 textbooks to use, and I had 30 students in that class. This is not unusual in my school. It's also true in the math department as well, and I'm from Lincoln Park High School, the north side. If it's this bad on the north side, I can imagine —
(Applause)
Not only is there lack of textbooks, our paper is rationed. I get five reams of paper a semester. That's it. We need some more basic resources. We need a commitment from the board to fund our schools and resources properly with up-to-date textbooks. And a textbook for every child that that child can take home to help them do their homework. We need computers. We need paper to do our jobs efficiently. Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: Jeanne Edmondson. And after Jeanne Edmondson will be Vanessa Kotesky.
MS. EDMONDSON: Good evening. I am Jeanne Edmondson, a forced to retire teacher from the elite home hospital instruction program. For the 12 years that I was in this program, all of our bosses until the most current, always stressed the fact that all of us had to have these proper certifications, credentials. One of our teachers even had national teaching certification. They told us not even to encourage anybody to apply because most of these people didn't even have these qualifications.
For the record, I want to know exactly who the two six figured salary administrators were allowed to stay in this position over the summer or hiring for the children at the treatment sites and the hospitals sites.I want to know what the credentials are, and everybody in this audience can easily access everybody's credentials on ISPE.net. You can find out immediately what people's credentials are.
I would like to know why a system who encourages educating children would take away from the most educated teachers in the entire Chicago school system?
(Applause)
My life is no more special than anybody else's. Everybody in this room is suffering. And I'm glad that lady exceeded the time limit because President Lewis was told to be quiet several weeks ago, but Mr. Huberman had more than two minutes to respond to her.
Thank you. Have a nice evening.
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Vanessa Kotesky.
MS. KOTESKY: My question is --
THE MODERATOR: Say your name again.
MS. KOTESKY: Vanessa Kotesky, terminated teacher. Has CPS been asked to sign off on the creation of any new TIF districts beginning in 2010? If so, what was CPS's response? How much potential revenue is going from CPS to those TIF districts? And are the answers going to be online since there aren't any answers now? Yes? Okay. Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: The next speaker is --
MS. KOTESKY: When? When are they going to be online?
MS. FERGUSON: As soon as possible.
MS. KOTESKY: What does that mean? A week, two weeks?
MS. FERGUSON: As soon as possible.
MS. HERZOG: As soon as possible.
MS. KOTESKY: That's very vague.
THE MODERATOR: Danielle --
MS. CIESIELSKI: Danielle Ciesielski, Paul Robeson High School.
THE MODERATOR: Can you spell your last name for us, please.
MS. CIESIELSKI: C-I-E-S-I-E-L-S-K-I. On page 64 of the proposed budget it says, our property tax revenues will be declining by 144.9 million from last year to this year. It talks about the population and one-time revenues and things like this.
Every year the board has an opportunity to raise the taxes to the cap. This would increase — if we did it — if we would have voted yes this year, it would give us an extra 80 million approximately. If we would even do it this year and next year, next year we'd get 160 million and so forth. Every year it adds up.
But this — the raising property taxes has always been voted down. I can understand that in all the TIF districts actually raising the property taxes mean nothing, but across the city it has to be some money that would come in and this would not be a one-time expenditure. Raising the property taxes as much as we can, would bring money to the kids every year that they need. I don't understand why this vote is constantly voted down.
This is the only thing that would give you these non-one-time revenues because every time we get this money, it's always a one-time revenue. This needs to be voted up. And needs to be — to help us — to help us to fix the budget. This crisis that is always — comes up every year. We need to stop looking at whatever these one time things are, and stop lying about the deficit. If there really is one, increase the property tax.
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Carrie Maxwell. Following Carrie Maxwell, will be Brian Galaviz.
MS. MAXWELL: Hi. I'm Carrie Maxwell. I want to know why our schools are falling apart? And as was spoken more about before that we can't get paper, books, other kinds of resources to modernize our classrooms, yet we're spending millions and millions of dollars on consulting projects such as Impact, which is a grade book and attention system that does not work. And if we went to a, you know, system that works for us, and not be centralized, it would save so much money. It's ridiculous how much money is spent on consulting across the board in many different industries, and we are doing — you're doing the same thing. And I want to know why? I want to know why the money is not going back in the classrooms when schools are falling apart? Especially the ones that have been built a hundred years ago? That's it.
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Brian Galaviz. And following Brian Galaviz is Michael Brunson.
MR. GALAVIZ: Hello. My name is Brian Galaviz. And I'm a member of CORE. And before I start, I would just like to see if you all are decision makers?
MS. FERGUSON: No.
Srnn High School teacher Brian Galaviz noted that nobody at the hearing was a "decision maker." Neither Ron Huberman nor any of the seven members of the Chicago Board of Education was present at Lane Tech for the August 17 budget hearing. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.MR. GALAVIZ: No. The decision makers never come. This is CPS's MO. How many times have we been to meetings to where democracy — to where we're made to feel good because we can come in here, and we can tell you it's messed up with all this stuff. And you can write a report so that you all can do nothing about it. This is what happens every year.
(Applause)
When are you all going to stop hiring bureaucrats? When is Huberman going to stop hiring his buddies at the CTA and CPD and all the rest?
(Applause)
I've have two examples. Pat Taylor, the chief operations officer used to work at CTA getting paid $165,000 a year. Never been a teacher. Never done anything. Some other person named Crimson (phonetically), chief performance management officer, also used to worked at the CTA.
Never been a teacher. You got lists of these, as Karen said, at every office the budget has grown. It's not going to grow so that we can get the coaches that we lost back. When are you all going to put the people's qualifications that should be hired online so that we can see where the modification of education is going?
We can see that you're selling out our positions as teachers for his friends — for your all friends. When are you going to put it online so that we can clearly see what their qualifications are, and how much they're getting paid, so that we can see how you are all selling out student's education for your all friends?
THE MODERATOR: Mr. Speaker, please conclude.
MR. GALAVIZ: I'm done.
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Michael Brunson. And following Michael Brunson will be Rosemary Finnegan.
Chicago Teachers Union Recording Secretary Michael Brunson demanded that the Board provide enough copies of the Proposed Budget so that people could study it. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.MR. BRUNSON: My name is Michael Brunson. And I am with the Chicago Teacher's Union. Look here. I'm all decked out. I got the Mac book. I've got an iPhone. I've got the iPad. I've got three notebook computers hooked up to the internet. And I know if I wanted to, I could download this budget and read it from a computer screen (indicating), but I would much rather read it from a book. And I think everybody would. So I came here — I mean, I left work and I drove like a bat out of a cave just to get here in time so I could get a book because I've been trying to get one for the past week.I even walked over to CPS. And all I got was a CD that almost crashed my notebook (indicating).
So I get here, and I rushed over. I got here, and I feel like I took the last potato chip out of the bag in the car because after this (indicating), there's no more books. How many people want one of these books out here? And, see, that's my question. I — you know, I can't ask you a question because I'm still waiting for my response from last year's budget meeting. It was supposed to be e-mailed, and I never got it.
So I'm going to ask the public, and I'm going to ask you for the sake of the public, could you please publish more of these books because I did have a little bit of time to read it. And I found out that you got over two and a half one time money going into your budget for printing as you had last year, so you have the money to print the books. Please — for the sake of the public, please print these books. That's all I have to say (indicating).
(Applause)
THE MODERATOR: Rosemary Finnegan. Following Rosemary, will be Edith Peredo.
MS. FINNEGAN: My name is Rosemary
21 Finnegan. I'm a school psychologist. That's a
22 hard act to follow.
23 I have a question about how many
24 budgets were available this evening? I saw
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1 many people wished they had the budget and
2 missed it. I hope you in the future, of
3 course, will be able to print as many budgets
4 as you expect there to be people interested in
5 them.
6 The other question about the
7 budgets, do you have Spanish editions, or will
8 they be forthcoming?
9 I guess, that's about it. Thank
10 you.
11 (Applause)
12 THE MODERATOR: Edith Peredo. And
13 following Edith, will be Jim Vail.
14 MS. PEREDO: Hello. I have two
15 children going to -- Edith Peredo.
16 I have two children that attend
17 CICS Irving Park.
18 First of all, for all the
19 teachers, I send my deepest appreciation. I,
20 as a parent, have nothing but more than
21 appreciation for all the work that you guys do
22 for our children.
23 One of my children is a child of
24 special needs. So as a parent, of course,
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1 there is concern with cuts to the special
2 needs program, but also with our teachers and
3 the teacher's assistants, I cannot tell you
4 how much teacher's assistants have been a huge
5 help for our teachers who work so darn hard
6 every day.
7 And they take the opportunity to
8 give a child who needs that special care out
9 of their hands for awhile, so that they can
10 get a -- continue with their work.
11 But, as a parent, I wish that
12 these TAs are not cut. And just to hear the
13 fact that teachers and TAs and everybody are
14 affected in such a manner, but it affects me
15 as a parent, knowing that it is going on
16 for -- in my particular school for 30 or --
17 and hear that you guys are going through so
18 much.
19 It deeply affects me as a parent,
20 and just to know that there needs to be more
21 parental involvement for the lack of probably
22 knowing that I have no TA or teachers
23 available, it really saddens me. Thank you.
24 (Applause)
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1 THE MODERATOR: Jim Vail. After Jim
2 Vail is Kurt Hilgendorf.
3 MR. VAIL: Hi. My name is Jim Vail,
4 and I'm teacher at the Chicago Public Schools,
5 also a reporter of Substance Newspaper, and a
6 proud member of CORE.
7 And I have three points I want to
8 make tonight. One is the media. I would like
9 to know if the Chicago Tribune or Chicago
10 Suntimes or any television network is here in
11 this meeting tonight? Would they please stand
12 up.
13 (No response.)
14 Okay. Now, that tells you
15 something because they keep writing how the
16 teachers have to give up their salaries. They
17 have to make huge cuts. And we're seeing
18 there's huge problems with this budget that's
19 being manufactured and states lies.
20 We've got the Substance team here
21 and PR is here, the Socialist Worker. So
22 thank you for reporting the story from the
23 people outside.
24 All right. Corruption, we
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1 mentioned about corruption. Well, let's talk
2 about something a little more specific with
3 corruption in the CPS budget.
4 I spoke to a teacher just today
5 who has a friend who is a consultant who works
6 with -- putting in elevators in the Chicago
7 Public School -- in public schools in Chicago.
8 And he said that when he works
9 with CPS to choose the elevator, they tell him
10 that they want the most expensive one. He
11 says, why don't you take the first one? No,
12 we want the most expensive one.
13 Even now during this crisis? Yes.
14 Well, I asked him if I could get
15 his name. Of course, he's afraid for his job
16 in working there. But I would like to get
17 more information because, obviously, I can use
18 that now as a reporter based on facts, but I
19 could find out more information about it to
20 show you what CPS's priorities really are.
21 And then my third thing is for you
22 guys, perhaps you can answer this right now
23 because I think it's an easy question. This
24 $800 million line of credit. Is it being
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1 implemented now? Have you drawn on it? Who
2 is issuing the credit? Which banks? And what
3 is the interest that you're paying on it
4 because I'm sure you have the answer to those
5 questions right now. You don't need to go
6 back to the office. Could I hear an answer,
7 please.
8 MS. FERGUSON: Not at this time.
9 MR. VAIL: I'm sorry?
10 MS. FERGUSON: We appreciate your
11 question. We will post the answers when we have
12 an opportunity to post them online so every one
13 has access to the answers.
14 MR. VAIL: On the website?
15 MS. FERGUSON: Thank you very much.
16 MR. VAIL: Thank you.
17 THE MODERATOR: Kurt Hilgendorf.
18 Following him will be Cezar Simeon.
19 MR. HILGENDORF: My name is Kurt
20 Hilgendorf.
21 THE MODERATOR: Could you spell that
22 for us?
23 MR. HILGENDORF: H-I-L-G-E-N-D-O-R-F.
24 And while all of the speakers
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1 tonight have focused on a range of topics, I
2 want to focus on derivatives, or what Warren
3 Buffet called financial weapons of mass
4 destruction, five years before our economy
5 effectively imploded as a result of these
6 investments.
7 CPS is heavily involved in interest
8 rate swaps, a specific time derivative. And it
9 is important that the public be informed about
10 the risks involved in CPS's possession of such
11 instruments.
12 Two recent articles are of
13 particular concern. The first by Matt Taibbi
14 of Rolling Stone about Birmingham, Alabama's
15 use of synthetic interest rate swaps, exactly
16 what CPS has. It explains in detail about how
17 these swaps practically bankrupted that city.
18 Toward the end of the article
19 Taibbi mentions that Chicago is, quote, now
20 really under the weight similarly elaborate and
21 ill-advised swaps.
22 More recently, an article by
23 Gretchen Morgenson in the New York Times about
24 the Denver School systems use of interest rate
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1 swaps, cites a study estimating that unwinding
2 Chicago's derivatives would cost $442 million.
3 You can employ a lot of teachers for that.
4 Every single one of CPS's interest
5 rate swaps was under water as of the 2009
6 comprehensive annual financial review, which is
7 now one year out of date.
8 In 2008, Chicago Public Schools
9 paid almost $20 million in derivative contracts
10 despite the risk that these investments or
11 these swaps -- they're not even called
12 investments under board policy. The word
13 derivative is mentioned only twice in the
14 entire 2,000 pages of the Chicago Public
15 School's budget. I know. I searched through
16 all 2,000.
17 And so some questions are in order.
18 And I'll go slowly. I guess these may never
19 get answered, but it's probably important that
20 they do.
21 THE MODERATOR: Mr. Speaker, please
22 conclude.
23 MR. HILGENDORF: One, when did the
24 board begin using variable rate debt? Who made
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1 the suggestion to do so?
2 Two, when were the first interest
3 rate swaps used? Some of these contracts were
4 signed before the board passed its official
5 derivatives policy in August of 2008. Isn't
6 the use of these interest -- or these
7 instruments a violation of board policy if
8 they are used before that policy is passed?
9 Three, who recommend that the CPS
10 become involved with interest rate swaps.
11 Banks might have. We would like to know who
12 there are.
13 Four, how much of the debt service
14 fund is set aside for payments on the
15 derivative instruments known as interest rate
16 swaps?
17 Five, what is the current position
18 on derivative instruments?
19 Six --
20 THE MODERATOR: Mr. Speaker, please
21 conclude.
22 MR. HILGENDORF: I have two
23 questions. Thanks.
24 Six, are the derivatives mentioned
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1 above, are those CPS's swaps, or do they
2 belong in a different city? Is it O'Hare? Is
3 it history downtown? Which one?
4 Seven, consistent with the
5 district's debt management policy, the board
6 will prepare a quarterly derivative report.
7 Do you have those with you, and can we get
8 those now?
9 My guess is the budgets haven't
10 been printed, so we probably can't get those
11 either. If not, how can we acquire copies of
12 said reports?
13 Thank you.
14 (Applause)
15 THE MODERATOR: Cezar Simeon. And
16 following Cezar Simeon will be Carol Hayse.
17 MR. SIMEON: Cezar Simeon.
18 Terminated teacher, current Chicago resident,
19 voter and taxpayer. I mean, parking meter user.
20 Please excuse me if I wasn't
21 prepared for my question because I've tried to
22 find a copy of the budget. Even at the public
23 library, but it wasn't available. So I just
24 saw it now.
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1 And one of the things that I
2 didn't find in the budget, if it's here, I
3 didn't see it, were the salaries of the top
4 leadership in CPS and the board.
5 I ask this because in the spring,
6 I was able to download a salary listing of
7 each employee by school and by name,
8 principals, teachers, security guards and
9 PSRPs off of the CPS web site, but I wasn't
10 able to find the same information regarding
11 the CPS CEO.
12 It just seemed that CPS is ready
13 to advertise the great expense of CPS
14 educator's salaries, and create a public furor
15 toward highly paid teachers, but finding equal
16 information regarding the salaries of CPS
17 leadership, specifics on consulting fees and
18 outsource contracted services, are obfuscated
19 by a really large budget called the
20 publication. That may or may not contain
21 information that I seek.
22 For example, prior to becoming a
23 CPS teacher, I was a highly paid business
24 analyst and computer programmer. And I see
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1 $27 million for 203 employees being paid to IT
2 services. I've used the e-mail services.
3 I've used student information systems, and if
4 I were in charge of that department, I would
5 have fired that vendor.
6 (Applause)
7 THE MODERATOR: Carol Hayse. And
8 following Carol Hayes will be Nathan Goldbaum.
9 MS. HAYSE: I'm a CPS employee --
10 THE MODERATOR: Please say your
11 name.
12 MS. HAYSE: Carol Hayse.
13 Ms. Ferguson, as the steward of
14 the budget, you are surely concerned with how
15 effectively the budget monies are used.
16 You are likewise surely aware that
17 the largest study conducted so far of charter
18 schools in the U.S. and Chicago, show that
19 they are performing at or below the level of
20 public schools by truly public schools.
21 (Applause)
22 Charters are bleeding money from
23 the truly public schools to feed unregulated
24 shadowing, unaccountable enterprises.
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1 Since this will probably persist,
2 a reasonable person might conclude that the
3 reason for the existence of these charters is
4 other than improving the education of Chicago
5 children. What is that agenda?
6 Second, I -- second as a comment.
7 Mr. Huberman sends out the message loud and
8 clear that he is a data driven individual and
9 that those who work for him need to be
10 likewise data driven. However, the existence
11 of data showing that charter schools are
12 ineffective is apparently an inconvenient
13 truth for Mr. Huberman. So that is something
14 that's consistently swept under the carpet, as
15 many of the misappropriations and
16 misexpenditures of the school have been.
17 For instance, the -- I think it
18 was the 60 million-dollar TAP program
19 supposedly to give incentive money to teachers
20 if their children's test scores were high.
21 The program was a flop, of course. And I want
22 to know where the rest of the money went, and
23 why that got swept under the carpet as well?
24 Apparently, this business about
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1 being data driven reveals, Ms. Ferguson, that
2 you're swimming in a sea; that you're
3 surrounded by people who are breathtakingly
4 hypocritical and cynical. And I want to know
5 how you all sleep at night?
6 (Applause)
7 THE MODERATOR: Nathan Goldbaum, and
8 following Nathan will be Raymond Flowers.
9 MR. GOLDBAUM: My name is Nathan
10 Goldbaum, G-O-L-B-D-B-A-U-M.
11 And I have -- my first question
12 is, I understand that answers to questions
13 will be posted online. Will the entire
14 transcript of these proceedings be posted
15 online because I think people have made some
16 very important statements that should be
17 presented to the public. And I want to make
18 sure that the entire transcript --
19 (Applause)
20 MS. FERGUSON: We will certainly
21 consider it.
22 MR. GOLDBAUM: Okay. The second
23 issue that I have has to do with TIFs.
24 Now, somebody asked about
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1 whether -- whether any new TIF districts had
2 been approved by the CPS. And I actually want
3 to -- I want to put into you that I don't
4 think CPS should approve any new TIF districts
5 until we can assure that we have a balanced
6 budget, and that all of our school's needs are
7 served.
8 And so I would like to have an
9 answer online, will you agree to forego any
10 TIF districts that are presented to CPS
11 that -- will you deny any TIF districts until
12 we can ensure that all of our schools are
13 fully funded.
14 And I want -- actually, I wanted
15 to thank the Raise Your Hand folks for having
16 actually explained that to us because many
17 people are not aware that those TIF districts
18 require the approval of taxing bodies like the
19 CPS in order to -- in order to be -- in order
20 to be approved.
21 The third concern that I have has
22 to do with the positions that have been closed
23 due to budgetary reasons. Now, supposedly
24 many of them will be reopened thanks to --
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1 thanks to our finally acknowledging that the
2 money is there.
3 But what I'm concerned is that
4 teachers that have been inconvenient for their
5 principals or who otherwise are inconveniently
6 paid, that is teachers who are veterans, and
7 who maybe cost the city a little bit more
8 money because of their years of experience,
9 will be washed out with the tied only to have
10 new positions opened up, and those positions
11 be given to other teachers. Teachers that
12 should have the guarantee of seniority.
13 So what I'm very concerned, and
14 what I would like to hear for sure is that no
15 new positions will be opened up in places
16 where old positions have been closed; that
17 those same positions will be opened and given
18 to those same teachers.
19 (Applause)
20 THE MODERATOR: Raymond Flowers.
21 And following Raymond Flowers is Susan Zupan.
22 MR. FLOWERS: Good evening. My name
23 is Raymond Flowers.
24 THE MODERATOR: Speak into the mike,
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1 please.
2 MR. FLOWERS: My name is Raymond
3 Flowers. I'm from Powell High School.
4 And last year I came to the board
5 hearing at Edison and showed you a map that I
6 made of all the TIF districts in Chicago, and
7 how much money they get from the school.
8 I asked why doesn't the board
9 amend some of the money TIF takes from our
10 school, but I didn't get an answer.
11 This year the news said there was
12 a $1.2 billion surplus in the TIF funds. So
13 I'm going to ask the same question. Why
14 doesn't the board demand the money from the
15 TIF districts to pay for some more research?
16 (Applause)
17 THE MODERATOR: Susan Zupan. And
18 following Susan will be [Student's Name Redacted].
19 MS. ZUPAN: Susan Zupan. I'm a
20 Chicago Public School teacher. Member of CORE,
21 and I work for substance abuse.
22 I have a suggestion actually how
23 CPS might raise revenue and actually save some
24 money. You can raise revenue by charging more
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1 than one dollar rent for charter schools that
2 are taking over the public schools.
3 (Applause)
4 I know that charter schools are
5 paying public schools, and they pay one dollar
6 rent per year. So maybe reconsider that, to
7 raise some funds. I don't think that's a good
8 deal for the taxpayers. I think it's a
9 rip-off.
10 One particular charter school,
11 which I'm concerned with is the Learn Charter
12 School on the south -- southeast side taking
13 a -- sharing space with an elementary school.
14 One of the -- Learn has a couple of schools,
15 but one of their schools for which there is
16 data from a 2009 elementary report card, their
17 attendance rate, teachers -- you know, how our
18 attendance rate is 94, 95? You know how the
19 attendance rate of your school is less than
20 95 percent -- Learned Charter Schools
21 attendance rate is 75 percent.
22 But instead of shutting them down
23 the way you would have probably shutdown my
24 school or other schools at that rate, you
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1 rewarded them with one or two more charter
2 school.
3 And I looked in the budget, and
4 one of them -- the one at South Chicago is
5 costing CPS over $1.5 million. A different
6 one is $2.3 million. So right there you can
7 say, oops. We made a mistake. We're going to
8 take that back. And I just saved you about
9 $4 million.
10 Please consider those sources of
11 revenue and cost saving.
12 (Applause)
13 THE MODERATOR: [Student Name Redacted],and
14 following [Student Name Redacted] will be [Student
15 Name Redacted] MS.[Student Name Redacted]: Hi. I'm [Student
16 Name Redacted]. I'm with CYT, Chicago Youth
17 (unintelligible).
18 THE COURT REPORTER: You have to
19 speak into the microphone.
20 MS. [Student Name Redacted]: I'm here to talk about
21 cuts and how it hurts students. Cuts based on
22 the learning process, and what I mean by that is
23 when you cut teachers, you have substitutes.
24 And some substitutes come in, and they really
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1 don't teach us anything that we need to be
2 learning. They just sort of sit there, and talk
3 about the check to them.
4 Also violence occurs. Like, last
5 school year, we had so many killings and
6 shootings, it -- since you cut the teachers
7 this year, it's going to be even more.
8 New teachers, they won't -- new
9 teachers that come in, they won't know how to
10 help some of the students. Like, for
11 instance, their old teachers, they understood
12 them, and they knew what they was going
13 through. And when you bring a whole new
14 different teacher in, they're not going to
15 know much about the students, and what they're
16 going through.
17 Cuts hurts students so much. My
18 teacher got cut, and he was actually the one
19 that started me with social justice
20 activities. Like, he opened a way and showed
21 me different things. He helped us get grants
22 to get bus cards and stuff to go to different
23 things.
24 And hear a lot of people say that
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1 children are the future, but I don't think
2 they understand that if we are the future,
3 then you need to treat us like we are the
4 future. You need to give us the resources and
5 the education to be the future.
6 (Applause)
7 THE MODERATOR: [Student Name Redacted].
8 And following [Student Name Redacted] will be [Student
9 Name Redacted].
10 MR. [Student Name Redacted]: I'm [Student Name Redacted].
11 And I just want to ask a couple of things.
12 First, why isn't the budget
13 available in Spanish? I see that a couple --
14 that you have a translator. Seeing that, it
15 means that there are those people who probably
16 would like to read the budget in Spanish or
17 whatever language.
18 Second, tonight there was a sign
19 that said, Children First. But firing
20 teachers and cutting programs are messing up
21 my transcripts and keeps students from
22 graduating on time. Especially seniors who
23 might have their language cut. And they may
24 have to take two years of another language,
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1 but if you're a senior, that would mean you
2 graduate later in the school year because you
3 have to take some school classes or whatever.
4 I just want to know why would you
5 all do that when we're supposed to be the
6 people you're looking out for first?
7 (Applause.)
8 THE MODERATOR: Jerry Skinner. And
9 following Jerry Skinner will be Louis Pyster.
10 MR. SKINNER: I'm Jerry Skinner.
11 I'm a teacher at Calvin Park High School and a
12 union representative.
13 Since the last week of school, and
14 over the course of the summer, according to my
15 count, 14 teachers at our school have received
16 either termination notices via letter or
17 phone, or did not receive a schedule for last
18 year -- or for next year.
19 One of the teachers, which is a 14
20 year tenured veteran, who has led our school
21 to two CPS varsity championships, and about
22 ten sophomore and freshman team championships
23 in volleyball.
24 And I what I would like to know
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1 is -- is since the education jobs bill will
2 allow many of these jobs to be filled again,
3 these positions, is the Board of Ed and the
4 principals at our school and the principals of
5 other schools, going to be offering these
6 dedicated, education professionals -- who I
7 can attest are valued by their students and
8 their colleagues, are they going to be
9 offering them an opportunity to get their jobs
10 back? Thank you.
11 (Applause)
12 THE MODERATOR: Louis Pyster. And
13 following Louis Pyster is C.K. Johnson.
14 MR. PYSTER: Louis Pyster, retired
15 teacher. Thank God.
16 Some quick -- quick ideas.
17 First of all, we have two more
18 budget hearings coming up tomorrow and the
19 next day, maybe one or two more of the Board
20 of Education members will come and sit and
21 watch -- and watch. Not answer any questions,
22 just sit and watch. They did that at the
23 hearings on the closings and the turnarounds.
24 And in some cases it appears that
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1 they had some valuable input. So I think that
2 would be a good idea.
3 The next Board of Education
4 meeting is on August the 25th. By that time,
5 the question that was asked by Mr. Vail about
6 the eighty -- the $800 million should be
7 answered. That should be part of the
8 discussion at that board meeting. Maybe even
9 the derivatives should be answered because
10 that has come up.
11 And a real discussion by the board
12 members and the board staff on TIF because
13 based on my understanding, some of what was
14 said tonight may not be totally correct, not
15 out of -- whatever. If it is a complicated
16 thing, there are some information, but it
17 needs to be reported adequately so it can be
18 done.
19 And on the TIF money, I'll get
20 back to that in a moment.
21 I assume that if teachers have
22 been laid off, displaced, and they will be put
23 back once it is agreed as it will be once that
24 money that has come under -- from the federal
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1 government has arrived and in place, that
2 those people will have their jobs back.
3 When they have their jobs back, it
4 should be the same people with their jobs
5 back. Not someone else.
6 (Applause)
7 And that is the job of the CPF, and
8 it would be the job of the CTU to make sure
9 that happens.
10 One other thing, some people
11 decided to take their pension because they
12 thought they had to do that. I hope that the
13 Board of Education will do everything in its
14 power to give those people an option to come
15 back to work for CPS without that.
16 THE MODERATOR: Mr. Speaker, please
17 conclude.
18 MR. PYSTER: And some of them may
19 have taken the pension and enhancement where
20 they pledge that they will never return, but
21 board administrators and principals have come
22 back, special arrangements have been made. And
23 I'm not saying anything underhanded, that has
24 been done because they have decided they need to
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1 come back.
2 The next thing I think is in terms
3 of the TIF. If somehow the CPS gets their
4 hands on some of the TIF money, I would suggest
5 that they use that money -- and this is a
6 little sneakier way, but to use this money to
7 make sure that all the after school programs,
8 all the security personnel, all the safety and
9 security plans and all that, and argue that
10 this is vital to the safety of our students.
11 And that may provide millions of dollars.
12 And once you provide that through
13 TIF, and make the argument with the mayor of
14 the City of Chicago that it is not in his
15 interest to have any -- and if this sounds
16 horrible, what I'm going to say, so be it --
17 any more shot or dead students. It is not in
18 anybody's interest for all kinds of reasons.
19 Obviously, for the student's interest and their
20 families, but it is not. And he can use that
21 argument as maybe they could use some of the
22 TIF money out of the city council when they
23 decide that in order to make sure there's no
24 enough police out there on the street, this
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1 would be a way of making an argument of
2 figuring out some way of that TIF money being
3 used.
4 And once you free up the money for
5 safety and security, you can use it to make
6 sure all these programs that we have talked
7 about will be handled.
8 And I think if you do those kinds
9 of things --
10 THE MODERATOR: Mr. Speaker, please
11 conclude.
12 MR. PYSTER: -- I think you will be
13 acting in the interest of everybody. Thank you.
14 (Applause)
15 THE MODERATOR: C.K. Johnson. And
16 following C.K. Johnson is Gina Baruch.
17 MS. JOHNSON: My name is C.K.
18 Johnson, Carol Keating Johnson. I'm a parent.
19 I have an eighth grade student, a
20 son at Coonley. I'm very happy at that
21 school. Love the teachers. And I, as a
22 parent, want to thank all the teachers.
23 My father was a special ed teach
24 for 30 years. And ended up being
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1 disciplinarian -- his position became
2 disciplinarian of Marshall High School, rather
3 than teaching students, which evolved from the
4 system.
5 I want to thank the teachers for
6 their hard work. I'm a volunteer. I am a
7 parent. I have been for many, many years. I
8 see the importance of parents getting involved
9 in volunteering because the teachers do need
10 the help because of where it is at. Unfunded.
11 I have a master's in public
12 health. And I see this as a public health
13 issue big time. One of the major causes of
14 poverty, of course, is lack of education. And
15 with -- I think our system is developing into
16 a system where we have children who are
17 undereducated. An inequitable education. We
18 are having children who are frustrated and
19 angry and coming out of a system with a lack
20 of education that they need to survive in this
21 new world of science and technology.
22 My question was, my son has been
23 involved with a CPS tech group for over three
24 years. And I've heard that it will be cut.
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1 I'm very upset and disappointed by this. He
2 and other students, particularly minority
3 students, need to be involved with technology.
4 That is a sign of the times, I guess.
5 Even though I'm 54 years old and
6 don't understand, it's a sign of the times.
7 I wanted to know if these programs
8 will be continued to be funded? How will they
9 be funded including science programs, because
10 I'm planning to be a science teacher. Maybe
11 I'm crazy in the system, but I do want to be a
12 teacher. And so I would like to see some
13 answers to these questions. Thank you.
14 (Applause)
15 THE MODERATOR: Gina Baruch. And
16 following Gina is Xian Barreh.
17 MS. BARUCH: Hi, my name is Gina
18 Baruch.
19 I've been an art teacher with CPS
20 for the past 17 years. But on Friday the
21 13th, I received a letter stating that I was
22 being honorably dismissed.
23 I've been tenured for the last 14,
24 and over those 14 -- over those 14 years, I
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1 received a superior rating. I've also been
2 awarded over $90,000 worth of grant money for
3 grants that I applied for. And I never
4 received a negative comment about either my
5 teaching or my program.
6 And yet, as an honorably dismissed
7 teacher, I am not entitled to insurance now.
8 And neither is my daughter. And I'm not
9 entitled to be part of the displaced teachers
10 school, which essentially says I now have to
11 go on to unemployment.
12 I am very concerned that because I
13 was only about three years away from being at
14 the 20 year mark for retiring, that I am being
15 told they don't want me to complete that 20
16 years, which will greatly reduce the ability
17 for me to receive a decent pension.
18 And I'm also concerned that there
19 are other tenured teachers out there who are
20 also being put in the same position. I am
21 also concerned that in CPS, art teachers and
22 art programs are dropping like flies. And due
23 to the fact that creativity is after all
24 considered a higher thinking -- a higher level
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1 thinking skill. I question what this is doing
2 for our students in terms of preparation.
3 I can speak honestly that teaching
4 middle school, my sixth graders who are coming
5 from school, who did not provide an art
6 program, barely knew what to do with the art
7 tools that I was giving them or providing them
8 with. And barely understood the word
9 imagination.
10 So I hope this will get addressed
11 that, as an art teacher for CPS, that I might
12 still get to retain my job. As money flows
13 in, I will be restored. And our students will
14 again be given the ability to receive art in a
15 classroom. Thank you.
16 (Applause)
17 THE MODERATOR: Xian Barreh. And
18 following Xian is Deborah Simmons.
19 MR. BARREH: Hello. I'm Xian
20 Barreh.
21 Recently as of last week, I was a
22 teacher at Julian High School. I -- at
23 Julian, we had the last remaining open
24 enrollment in their Japanese program.
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1 I also work closely with student's
2 parents and other educators to lobby for a
3 hundred million dollars for CPS jobs from the
4 federal government that some of the other
5 speakers have talked about. So on Wednesday
6 we celebrate that bills passage. And on
7 Thursday, I received a letter honorably
8 terminating me.
9 I learned early at Julian that
10 most of our city only really notices our
11 students is when we have to bury them, as I
12 have had to do with four of my students.
13 And so I've worked very hard with
14 my students to teach them about skills of
15 civic engagement through our social justice
16 club, which was nationally recognized
17 including via President Obama.
18 They were also very involved in
19 educational policy. And often have been here
20 to tell many members of this panel up here and
21 the actual decision makers at CPS, how they
22 should actually be running things, but we're
23 not actually listened to very often.
24 So my real question is just -- and
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1 I would like an answer -- an honest answer to
2 this on the web site is who is going to take
3 care of my kids?
4 (Applause)
5 I know you are all basically good
6 people. And as you know, I'm a calm,
7 cheerful, kind of goofy role model for my
8 kids, but I stand here absolutely beside
9 myself with rage today. I'm outraged that
10 standing here today called to take -- called
11 to this table after the fact, after all these
12 decisions have been made to cut all these
13 vital programs, and after the central office
14 has decided how to hurt my students.
15 And we are here not for a genuine
16 conversation, but for a one-sided input
17 session that will go nowhere. We don't even
18 get to look at the budget thoroughly. I don't
19 even know what I'm supposed to do with this
20 right now (indicating). I mean, it's so many
21 thousand pages, and it's not really very
22 legible in this format right now.
23 THE MODERATOR: Mr. Speaker, please
24 conclude.
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1 MR. BARREH: I will. Thank you.
2 I did get it online last week, but
3 it's kind of hard to get through that many
4 pages in such a short time. So, I guess, I'll
5 have a lot more time now to look at it.
6 I always taught my students not to
7 make excuses for treating people inhumanely.
8 I taught them to take action, not to complain
9 about their own situations, but to step up and
10 not just to think about themselves, but to
11 think about others.
12 So I want to tell them you know
13 what you're doing is wrong. It's wrong. It's
14 wrong. It's wrong. It's wrong.
15 You've heard the evidence from
16 other people with real details, and I know
17 you've been given your orders on what to do
18 about this budget. And I know that you
19 honestly in your hearts don't want to hurt
20 children. Every individual has a choice.
21 I know because I swore from the
22 first day of teaching at CPS, I would do no
23 harm with my children. I would never lie and
24 mislead or miseducate my students. I kept
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1 this covenant and in many ways that's exactly
2 why I stand here today, and I may never be
3 allowed to teach my students again.
4 I urge you to take this same oath.
5 Walk out of here and return to the board a
6 real community minded budget. Minus the
7 patronage contracts, the performance
8 management insane legal cuts, and every bit of
9 bureaucracy that's currently drenched in the
10 blood of our students.
11 You'll get fired, but you'll be --
12 you will be able to look your own kids in the
13 eye, and stand with all of us who really care
14 about the student.
15 (Applause)
16 THE MODERATOR: Debra Simmons. And
17 following Debra Simmons is William Lamme.
18 MS. SIMMONS: Hello, my name is
19 Deborah Simmons. And I'm a parent of two
20 children that attend Meecham [verbatim] College
21 Prep. It's a charter school and it just opened.
22 Right now I just found out that
23 our school was going to be having cuts
24 financially.
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1 And it comes at a time when I have
2 two students that are excited. I've never had
3 excited children who are trying on their
4 uniforms. When I'm carpooling, all they're
5 talking about is their school. Their school.
6 Their teachers. They want to go to school.
7 They can't wait for summer to end. They want
8 to get back to school. It's -- the kids feel
9 safer in school than they do on the streets of
10 Chicago.
11 I'm a product of Chicago Public
12 Schools. I went on to do great things. And
13 in doing those great things, I instilled in my
14 children that education is where it's at. And
15 without having the teachers here today,
16 they're the ones that are educating our future
17 leaders and our future everything.
18 They're putting more police on the
19 street. Hiring them to fight crime, when it
20 won't keep the teachers in the classroom to
21 educate and get the kid off the street
22 corners.
23 So I'm just here to say that my
24 school -- my children's school -- I call it my
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1 school because the day they enrolled, I
2 enrolled as well. I'm one of those parents
3 who are hands-on. I'm always at the school.
4 Always calling. I carpool anybody's children
5 while I'm not working right now who can't make
6 it there.
7 My family has suffered great
8 tragedy. Three weeks before the school year
9 both my parents were murdered, three weeks
10 into the school year. And I told that to the
11 school, and they rallied around my children.
12 And with that, you know, in our family
13 tragedy, they kept a 3.9 and 3.3 GPA
14 throughout the whole school year with such a
15 tragedy behind us. And I owe that all to the
16 teachers because I couldn't have done it by
17 myself.
18 I love Meecham College Prep, and
19 pray this to everyone that I know. And I have
20 had friends come over from the Catholic school
21 system that are now attending Meecham College
22 Prep. And just want to say thanks to all the
23 educators for making it possible for us to do
24 what we do every day.
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1 (Applause)
2 THE MODERATOR: William Lamme. And
3 following William is John Moran.
4 MR. LAMME: Yes, I'm William Lamme.
5 And I'm a teacher at Kelly High School, and a
6 member of the local school council.
7 Many of us have had an edge in our
8 voices up here today, and I think there's two
9 reasons why.
10 One is because of the very
11 misguided policies that we believe CPS is
12 pursuing at the moment. And the second is
13 that they don't care to hear our opinion on
14 it. And I think that this hearing is a sign
15 of that that there's no one here to answer the
16 questions or make an attempt to answer those
17 questions here today.
18 We want to have some dialogue, and
19 there isn't any with this format.
20 So why come? Well, it's not really
21 just to blow off steam. Although, we certainly
22 have got some, but actually I think we're
23 actually building up steam in our movement to
24 sweep away this policy, which seems to be
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1 carried out by people who are practicing the
2 policy of impunity and unaccountability.
3 (Applause)
4 There is no interest -- there is no
5 interest in partnering teachers. There is no
6 interest in hearing the community input.
7 Now, why is this working the way it
8 is? Well, I suggest that what's happening here
9 is a certain etiology on the part of the Board
10 of Education that we need to impose market
11 reforms -- market style reforms in our schools.
12 And yet as was pointed out earlier,
13 there's really no data to substantiate this
14 particular policy. And, in fact, there is
15 increasing data to show that this is flawed.
16 The New York experiment just was
17 confronted by some very disappointing test
18 results this year, which is just additional
19 ammunition to the fact that the charter school
20 way is not a solution to the crisis of public
21 schools.
22 THE MODERATOR: Mr. Speaker, please
23 conclude.
24 MR. LAMME: Yeah, but I will talk
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1 for a little bit.
2 Now, I think that what part of the
3 problem is here is that it's well-known that
4 the public school quality is not good. And,
5 therefore, we need -- the Board of Education
6 needs to have an explanation for this. And
7 this is the current explanation, we need to
8 use market performers. But this has been a
9 failure for decades.
10 What we've seen is a parade of
11 different administrations who go through
12 giving us change without improvement. There
13 is change -- in fact, there's change that is,
14 in fact, undermining civility, which -- and it
15 is not bringing us any closer to quality
16 schools.
17 Paul Vallas left after his scores
18 went down. Arne is going to fail on a much
19 grander scale.
20 (Applause)
21 And it's just -- it's an
22 unfortunate thing. And, I think, that the
23 real answer that's being avoided here, and I
24 think that perhaps some people in the CPS
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1 administration would agree with this, is that
2 our number one problem is the failure to
3 adequately fund the schools and to have
4 smaller class sizes.
5 And we are not going to --
6 THE MODERATOR: Mr. Speaker, please
7 conclude.
8 MR. LAMME: -- otherwise.
9 Now, they can get away without
10 adequately funding schools in Chicago
11 because -- in fact, we have two public school
12 systems. We have a small, elite public school
13 system, which you attested to. And we have a
14 neighborhood school system, which is for the
15 also rans.
16 And my kids went to one of the
17 elite schools. They went Whitney Young. And
18 I am glad they did. They had a good
19 education, but that's the kind of school all
20 our kids should go to.
21 (Applause)
22 I'm almost done. And what we are
23 seeing at the moment is those who have
24 influence are able to get their kids into
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1 these schools, not just because of
2 connections, but also because of their
3 economic and educational advantages, the kids
4 are going to test in to those school.
5 And they're going to avoid -- be
6 able to avoid reforming the rest of the
7 schools for the rest of us.
8 So we stand here with the desire
9 to sweep away and change the entire
10 prospective of the board. And it's the
11 policies that there should be a uniform school
12 system for all children. No privileged, no
13 special prestigious schools, but all quality
14 schools for all the kids. That's what we
15 want.
16 (Applause)
17 THE MODERATOR: John Moran. And
18 following John Moran is Phyllis Smith.
19 MR. MORAN: John Moran.
20 Woe-be-known elementary music teacher, soon to
21 become special ed teacher, thank you to your
22 budget. And CT delegate.
23 I speak against the passage of
24 this budget. I'm appalled at the arrogance
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1 that there is not one Board of Education
2 member here tonight to hear these comments.
3 I'm appalled that there is not one Board of Ed
4 member or you willing to answer our serious
5 questions concerning the CPS budget, the
6 stakeholder that would be affected by this.
7 I'm appalled by this.
8 I'm appalled that we're having
9 budget hearings after the budget year has
10 already started. I'm appalled by the fact
11 that there is not enough written copies.
12 Everyone does not always want to use a
13 computer. Especially, when something like
14 this comes available.
15 Now, my first point is when we
16 have almost a $7 billion -- a billion with B
17 dollar budget, that year after year after year
18 you can never balance your budget without
19 threats and cuts. Everyone -- anyone that
20 works with this budget should be fired. If
21 they were in the private industry, they would
22 be fired.
23 (Applause)
24 And if you cannot do a better job
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1 of allocating resources, you don't deserve
2 your very highly paid position.
3 In that $7 billion budget, you've
4 got priorities for consulting services, almost
5 a billion dollars. You've got capital
6 development for private schools called charter
7 schools. And I'm not speaking against the
8 parents here who made those choices. I
9 respect that.
10 What I don't respect is that if
11 they're a private school, let them get their
12 own funding for their own buildings. Why
13 should that be taken away from our students
14 that are being put into second rate buildings
15 or even third rate buildings because of this?
16 The lawyers -- I can't believe
17 that I spent the last couple of years studying
18 the budget. You have well over a hundred
19 lawyers in one department. You got lawyers in
20 this department, lawyers in that department,
21 and you still bring in outside lawyer firms.
22 Why? How many lawyers do you need?
23 Is this the Chicago Lawyer System,
24 is that what this is? Are we here to give
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1 lawyers a job?
2 THE MODERATOR: Mr. Speaker, please,
3 conclude.
4 MR. MORAN: No, I will respect your
5 timeline when the Board of Ed respects the
6 people that are here to answer our questions.
7 When you're here, then I will give them the
8 mike. Until then, I will not give up the mike
9 because I'm not finished.
10 This just appalls me. I'm a
11 teacher. I'm a parent. My child has gone
12 through the CPS. And I'm a taxpayer. And I
13 think at some point you are bringing this
14 system totally out. Not us. Not the people
15 in the classroom every day busting our behinds
16 to do the best we can.
17 You people are arrogantly taking
18 salaries double and triple of ours. You ought
19 to be ashamed of yourselves.
20 (Applause)
21 THE MODERATOR: Phyllis Smith. And
22 following Phyllis Smith is Margaret Royzen.
23 MS. SMITH: I'm Phyllis Smith. I am
24 a --
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1 THE COURT REPORTER: Please speak
2 into the microphone.
3 MS. SMITH: I'm a former educator
4 with CPS. I was dismissed last year, not two
5 months ago or three weeks ago like a friend of
6 mine who is a literacy coach. You don't have to
7 worry about her coming back because she's
8 passed. That's just one thing.
9 She got a notice a week before you
10 had your job fair. You can sponsor having
11 private job fairs, and you tell teachers who
12 have been off their jobs that they cannot
13 come? I thought this was a public school
14 system, not a private organization.
15 (Applause)
16 Mr. Huberman -- no, no. Stop.
17 Let me continue.
18 Mr. Huberman, Mayor Daley, who is
19 behind all three of the last three executives
20 have destroyed the public school system in
21 Chicago.
22 Daley had money to flash for the
23 Olympics. That money could also be used in
24 the public school system. Mr. Huberman came
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1 in and after messing up the CTA with a salary
2 higher than Arne Duncan, like, $30,000 more,
3 to the destroy the public school system in
4 Chicago. Daley supports that.
5 Now, they're fighting because
6 Huberman wants to bring a former
7 teacher/principal to the top executive
8 educator's position. And Daley -- I'm not
9 opposed to Catholic schools, but Daley wants
10 to bring a Catholic teacher in to run our
11 public school system. I thought there was a
12 law in this country to separate public
13 education and religion. That's not supposed
14 to be mixed. That's one issue.
15 I would like to know where is the
16 money that the Board of Education has failed
17 to put into the pension fund for the last
18 three years? Why would you buy a system that
19 could not forward the money that is supposed
20 to be going to those teachers who have spent
21 their life educating me, you, and many other
22 people in this audience? Those people deserve
23 their full pension. Where is that?
24 Why isn't it that the Board of
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1 Education cannot live by arbitration
2 decisions? The Supreme Court has even said
3 that when two people sit down with
4 arbitrators, that they are to abide by that
5 decision.
6 THE MODERATOR: Ms. Smith, please
7 conclude.
8 MS. SMITH: The next point.
9 Why is it that Mr. Huberman gets a
10 raise, and does not understand that that money
11 should go to children? And to educators who
12 have spent their life, their money every year
13 buying supplies and going back to school to
14 increase their knowledge base, and then be
15 penalized because our salaries go up? We have
16 invested -- we have student loans that we have
17 to pay back.
18 Now, many of those people who are
19 no longer employed, are going into default and
20 a million other problems. Where is the money
21 that we have put into this system?
22 I'm also one of those property
23 owners that you're talking -- someone
24 suggested that we raise that. That is not the
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1 only place. Daley needs to take the money
2 that he has for all of his special projects,
3 and put it into the public school system.
4 (Applause)
5 THE MODERATOR: Margaret Royzen.
6 And following Margaret Royzen is Rolando
7 Vasquez.
8 MS. ROYZEN: Hi. I'm Margaret
9 Royzen, and I am a math teacher at Hyde Park
10 Academy High School.
11 And I was looking at this
12 summary -- the budget summary, page 35 of the
13 budget. And this said that teacher's salary
14 is projected in for 37 million, if you look at
15 the line. And that means that before the
16 amounts of about 80 million, that's 4 percent.
17 Then the kids -- increase all teacher for
18 80 million and there is -- 43 million, which
19 is about two percent of the salary.
20 Okay. Now, in 2010 we have 28
21 students in the class with probably 27. I
22 have 28, 30 in every class. Two percent of 25
23 is .5 students. Therefore, it should have
24 increased, you know, the students in our
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1 classes from 28 to 29, not to 33.
2 So I would like to address this
3 question, you know, from my calculations our
4 class size should be 29. Thank you.
5 (Applause)
6 THE MODERATOR: Rolando Vasquez.
7 MR. VAZQUEZ: Hi, teacher at
8 Brighton Park Elementary.
9 Just a couple of suggestions. I
10 really like what the one gentleman said about
11 having a representative here. That's really
12 important. And I hope that you guys who are
13 looking at me and hearing my voice, put on
14 fresh ears right now and not just look at me
15 as just another angry person, even though I am
16 that.
17 I challenge you to listen to me
18 with fresh ears and communicate the following
19 message -- all right. There are two more
20 meetings this week, right, at Westinghouse and
21 also at Corliss yet. Have people be there to
22 answer the questions because this is
23 frustrating. Right?
24 (Applause)
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1 Also this is worth reiterating
2 money from the federal government's recent
3 bill to restore teaching positions is supposed
4 to be used to put teachers back to work. The
5 suggestion is this: Guarantee -- that's the
6 key word. Guarantee that this money will be
7 used for its intended purpose.
8 Imagine this. Picture someone
9 that's you -- that's dear to you. Maybe you
10 have children and your child is an atmosphere
11 about this size and asks a question -- or, no,
12 better yet. Your kid's in a class room and
13 says, teacher, how do you find the common
14 detonator of two fractions? And the teacher
15 says, the answer to that will be posted
16 online, I'm not sure when.
17 That's -- I mean, that
18 respectfully, but I mean to use that as clear
19 as possible. That's it.
20 (Applause)
21 MS. HERZOG: I think that was our
22 last speaker.
23 So I just want to thank everybody
24 for your comments and your feedback. We
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1 appreciate it.
2 And we'll follow-up, like we said,
3 to the commitment to put the answers to these
4 questions online. So thank you very much.
5 (Discussion with audience
6 member.)
7 THE MODERATOR: No. We called
8 everyone that I had on the list. I apologize.
9 MS. HERZOG: We have time.
10 MS. BOLIS: My name is Dee Bolis
11 (phonetically), and I used to be a teacher at
12 Social Justice High School until last week.
13 I'm a teacher. I'm a varsity
14 basketball coach. I got nominated for a
15 Golden Apple Award. I'm on the instructional
16 leadership team. Sometimes I stay until
17 9:00 o'clock and not being paid. And never
18 asked for it.
19 I just have a couple of questions.
20 I don't just serve students. I serve their
21 families. I serve their communities. And I
22 don't want to be anything, except a
23 neighborhood public school teacher.
24 And I don't want to work in a
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1 charter school. I don't want to work in the
2 suburbs. I don't want to work in a private
3 school. But that's what I'm being forced to
4 do. I'm a highly qualified teacher. I have a
5 master's degree, and I'm working on a second
6 one. I want to know how much money you're
7 putting into Teach For America? And how many
8 of those teachers are guaranteed jobs?
9 (Applause)
10 And how many of those teachers --
11 or which one is going to take my position when
12 you play around with the positions on who
13 you're going to ask back?
14 I want to know why a selective
15 enrollment school that already has a building
16 is getting another one?
17 And then I want to know, once they
18 move into their new school, if you'll rent
19 that building to a chapter school, how much
20 rent you'll charge them, and where that money
21 will go?
22 I want to know why on the
23 e-bulletin you're advertising for people to
24 develop curriculum for upwards of $93,000 a
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1 year? I develop curriculum. Why should you
2 hire people to do interventions? I do
3 interventions every day -- for upwards of
4 $93,000.
5 Why? If you had highly qualified
6 teachers in the classroom, you wouldn't have
7 to do that. I don't have insurance benefits
8 anymore. I wasn't tenured. And I want to
9 know why my position is done effective
10 August 31, instead of when I got the letter on
11 August 10th? Is that because you don't want
12 to pay me three weeks of unemployment?
13 Because I've already earned the
14 money that I made. I stopped working on
15 June 18th. So why am I being effective
16 August 31st?
17 That's all I got. It would be
18 nice to know these answers. It would be nice
19 to have someone here to answer them. I want
20 to know who is going to help the programmers?
21 I have one programmer in my school that serves
22 four small schools. Class begins in two and a
23 half weeks. Are there going to be teachers in
24 every room? Who is going to help the larger
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1 schools, the 1200 students the programmer --
2 to program all those students?
3 Maybe, again, if you find more
4 money somewhere in a pocket. I just hope
5 there aren't unqualified teachers teaching our
6 children because since Huberman knows that
7 data is the only thing that matters, look at
8 our reading scores. Not highly qualified
9 teachers aren't going to bring those reading
10 scores up. And neither is a curriculum
11 developer, who doesn't know my students from
12 the main office.
13 I hope you guys get it figured out
14 at the expense of thousands of students who
15 are already and have already been left behind.
16 (Applause)
17 MS. HERZOG: Thank you.
18 THE MODERATOR: This concludes our
19 hearing for the evening. And we thank you all
20 for joining us this evening.
21 Tomorrow our next hearing will be
22 at Westinghouse High School, and our last
23 hearing on Thursday will be at Corliss. We
24 invite you to join us there as well.
