Top CPS officials trying to use principal resignations to spin latest attack on Chicago teacher pensions... 'Our principals and teachers are leaving for jobs where their district doesn't have to take hundreds of millions of dollars out of the classroom to fund their pensions...' Jackson claimed...
Janice Jackson, the $200,000-a-year "Chief Education Officer" for Chicago Public Schools, told a reporter that principals were resigning from their schools in Chicago because of the cost of the teacher pension fund. Not one principal cited the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund (CTPF) as the reason they are resigning, but Jackson and "Chief Executive Officer" Forrest Claypool ($250,000 per year) are trying to spin the story about a large number of resignations against the teacher pension fund, hoping that the corporate media in Chicago will ignore the overspending by Jackson and Claypool on bureaucracy and privatization. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt during the May 25, 2016 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. The "Chief Education Officer" of the nation's third largest school system continues trying to use the school system's financial problems to attack the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund and the city's more than 25,000 retired teachers (including this reporter). On June 19, 2016, Janice Jackson, who became the "CEdO" of Chicago Public Schools in July 2015 after Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed his City Hall Chief of Staff Forrest Claypool as "Chief Executive Officer" at CPS placed the blame for principal resignations on the teachers' pension fund.
In one of the more bizarre attempts to spin the current situation away from the mismanagement of the schools by the Chicago Board of Education and other appointees by City Hall (including Janice Jackson), the Chief Education Officer told DNA Info Chicago that the principals are leaving because of the cost of Chicago teacher pensions! "Our principals and teachers are leaving for jobs where their district doesn't have to take hundreds of millions of dollars out of the classroom to fund their pensions — and this is one of the reasons we are fighting so hard for equitable funding," Jackson was quoted as saying in the most recent article on principal resignations.
Not one principal has cited the cost of Chicago teacher pensions as a reason why she has resigned, but CPS officials ignore their own actions (including massive borrowing and a significant increase in local bureaucratic hiring) to try an utilize propaganda and spin instead of acts. Over the past year, Claypool and Jackson have added more than three dozen officials paid more than $100,000 per year to the school system's already bloated bureaucracy, while the Board of Education has continued to throw as much money as possible into privatization contracts which only benefit politically connected vendors, many with virtually no record of decent services to the schools.
The Agenda for the upcoming meeting of the Chicago Board of Education shows that the skewed priorities of Claypool and Jackson continue unabated.
THE DNA INFO STORY QUOTING JACKSON IS HERE:
Saucedo Principal Resigns, Joining 50-Plus Other CPS Principals, By Stephanie Lulay, June 17, 2016 3:00pm, Updated June 20, 2016 8:45am
LITTLE VILLAGE — A Little Village principal has resigned, joining the more than 50 CPS principals who have resigned or retired in 2016.
Maria Saucedo AcademyPrincipal Isamar Vargas Colón has resigned from the school, according to an email sent to teachers Friday. The principal notified the Saucedo Local School Council Friday, a teacher said. Colón, who served at the school for five years, is leaving the school to take a position at another school district, she wrote.
"Today I inform you that I accepted a position at another school district, this was not an easy decision but I take with me memories and experiences that empowered me to be a better leader and a better person," Colón writes. "I leave with great pride that I was able to work next to amazing teachers that always go above and beyond."
Colón could not be immediately reached for comment on Friday. Sarah Chambers, a Saucedo special education teacher who also serves on the Chicago Teachers Union executive board, said that the school's teachers are worried that the CPS network chief will name an outside interim principal before the local school council takes an official vote to name a new principal.
Instead, Saucedo teachers want current Assistant Principal Charlie McSpadden named to the interim principal post "since he knows our school community," Chambers said.
Saucedo teachers and parents are still fighting a CPS' plan to co-locate John Spry High School students to the Saucedo building. "It should be a decision by the teachers, parents and community, not the network," Chambers said.
Earlier this month, principals at Norwood Park Elementary, Lake View High School and Lane Tech College Prep also resigned from CPS, prompting fear among parents of a mass exodus of city principals to the suburbs. In a statement, CPS said earlier this month that 33 principals have resigned and 21 retired this year. Officials have warned principals to expect budget cuts of about 26 percent as city leaders continue to push state lawmakers to change the way schools are funded and close CPS' $1 billion budget deficit.
Top Chicago Public Schools officials have blamed unequal state education funding for its threatened exodus of principals and teachers. "Our principals and teachers are leaving for jobs where their district doesn't have to take hundreds of millions of dollars out of the classroom to fund their pensions — and this is one of the reasons we are fighting so hard for equitable funding," CPS Chief Education Officer Janice Jackson said this month.
