While CPS continues to defy Open Meetings and Freedom of Information Act, CTU publishes complete Board Agenda again... AUSL to get more than $3 million in 'management' fees through turnaround scams
For the second month in a row, the Chicago Teachers Union has given the lie to the claims of the administration of Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Ron Huberman by publishing the entire 187-page agenda for the October 27, 2010 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education on the union website (www.ctunet.com) prior to the meeting. Since mayoral control began in Chicago in 1995, the Chicago Board of Education has limited the distribution of the complete agenda to the public, demanding that members of the public personally go to CPS headquarters in Chicago's Loop to get the agenda. Instead of providing the public with the complete agenda (which for October 2010 is 187 pages long), the Board sends out, by fax and e-mail, a summary agenda, which gives no detail. This month's summary agenda is eight pages long.
Above (left to right, front) Chicago Board of Education President Mary Richardson Lowry, CPS Chief Executive Officer Ron Huberman, and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley at a press conference on July 27, 2010 at Chicago Vocational High School. Huberman and Richardson Lowry both worked for Daley at City Hall before being assigned by the mayor to the schools. Both have claimed that CPS cannot provide the full agenda for Board of Education meetings on the Board website to the public in compliance with the Illinois Open Meetings Act, despite evidence to the contrary. Violations of the Open Meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Act are policies of the Daley administration in city government and the Huberman administration at the schools. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.The agenda, which is a public document required by law to be available 48 hours before the Board meeting, can be accessed at www.ctunet.com — but NOT at the Board of Education website (www.cps.edu). CTU sources cite the procedure as another example of the commitment to transparency and community partnerships on behalf of the new union leadership. Most members of the public do not have the time or money (with Loop parking costing as much as $10 per hour) to go to 125 S. Clark St. to get a physical copy of the monthly agenda.
CPS officials, including Huberman's press chief Monique Bond, have claimed (as did their predecessors) that it was impossible to put the entire agenda on the CPS website (www.cps.edu).
The complete agenda is the only document that tells the public how many dollars are being spent for each item proposed. This month, for example, at a time when CPS claims it is facing an unprecedented budget "deficit" that required the firing of more than 1,000 teachers, Huberman is asking the Board to approve management fees in excess of $3 million so that the "Academy for Urban School Leadership" (AUSL) can operate 13 so-called "turnaround" schools. Other expensive items, all of them optional, are also on the lengthy agenda.
Although Ron Huberman repeatedly told the public during the summer of 2010 that he was eliminating virtually all consulting for the Board (except for "emergency" stuff), the agenda reveals that consulting is back, too.
By: Anonymous
DS2 file
How about the secret DS2 file?It is rarely known tool to remove activists from the system.Check your file under FOIA or PRRA to find out your \"overall score\".Very likely you are \"not recommended\".