Phase One of Elected School Board campaign completed with nearly 10,000 signatures turned in
The first phase of getting an elected school board for Chicago was completed on August 7, 2012. Raise Your Hand, one of the groups participating in the campaign organized under the name CODE, announced in a press release on August 7 as reported below. (Substance even forgives them for not listing the Substance coverage in "Some media coverage" although we agree that it was important to leave out the coverage of how Alderman Joe Moore, acting as Rahm Emanuel's nit picker, sabotaged the work of ten aldermen to increase the total of signatures. What readers need to know is that an "Advisory Referendum" on Chicago's November ballot is "non-binding." Any legislation to get an elected school board for Chicago and end mayoral tyranny must be approved into law by the Illinois General Assembly and signed into law by the governor. So the real fight will go to Springfield.
Phase 1 Complete of Elected School Board Campaign
We are very happy to report that as part of CODE (Communities Organized for Democracy in Education), RYH helped turn in 9,768 signatures in 204 precincts and 26 wards on Monday at the Board of Elections. It was a great moment as parents, teachers, students and community members joined together from all corners of the city to hand in the petitions. Raise Your Hand helped to collect signatures in 15 of the 26 wards. Thanks to everyone who spent time working on this campaign!
This was just phase 1 of the campaign to get an advisory referendum on the November ballot in a sampling of precincts across the city. What we learned from canvassing is that we need to expand the informational campaign to make people aware that we do not (and have never had) an elected school board in Chicago. Please email us if you would like to get involved with next steps of this campaign – info@ilraiseyourhand.org.
Some press coverage:
CBS
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/08/06/group-submits-10k-signatures-seeking-vote-on-elected-school-board/
Catalyst:
http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/notebook/2012/08/06/20314/grassroots-coalition-submits-signatures-voter-referendum-elected-school
Trib:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-cps-elected-board-20120806,0,511705.story
By: John Kugler
Playing with Balls and Kissing Up
While we are bargaining, and our members are doing the heavy lifting of putting the schools, classrooms, and lesson plans back together for Monday. CEO Brizard is at Wrigley throwing out the first pitch. Priorities? CEO Brizard practicing his pitch... He'll be throwing 1st pitch for @cubs http://instagr.am/p/OJ67Dfvhlh/ #cpsb2s
plus in a CBS 2 interview Brizard says:
“I think Chicago really has one of the best school boards ever seen in history,” Brizard said. “I’ve worked for both, elected and appointed school boards. By far, this is the highest-performing board I have ever seen.”
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/08/09/brizard-appointed-school-board-is-fine-the-way-it-is/