Chicago Teachers Union field rep exposes latest expensive corruption in Claypool administration
Chicago Public Schools "Chief Executive Officer" Forrest Claypool and General Counsel Robert Marmer were both put into power in July 2015 following the indictment of former CPS CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett on federal corruption charges. Neither Claypool nor Marmer (nor any of a dozen other top administrators put into power by Claypool) had any experience or credentials in public education prior to their appointment by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. At the time of his appointment, Claypool became the fourth CEO of the nation's third largest school system since the election of Emanuel in 2011. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.Chicago Teachers Unon field representative Joseph McDermott have uncovered that latest Claypool corruption, malfeasance, harassment and coercion against the members of the CTU, and the expose has now been aired on the WTTW Chicago Tonight. The corruption involves a newly created and massively expanded office of the Claypool administration.
“Next thing you know, it’s a full-on investigative interview,” McDermott said. “There were times when people said, ‘Hey, do I need a union rep? What’s going on here?’ And they would say, ‘No, you don’t need a union rep, it’s OK.’”
CPS claims a huge deficit and is proposing to close schools all of June, while CEO Forrest Claypool was creating and expanding a department and jobs with a 400% increase in spending for what amount to a Board of Education secret police. The "Office of Audit and Compliance" comes to Chicago's public schools in addition to the costly group of cronies that Claypool brought into the system when he was appointed CEO of CPS in July 2015 by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Virtually all of the top executives put into power by Claypool came from the Chicago Transit Authority and had no prior experience in public education. Nor did any of them come to CPS with Illinois education credentials.
At a time when schools’ resources and staff are scarce, and funding is limited, Nora Flanagan, an English teacher at Northside College Prep High School, said that “what they don’t need is CPS harassing their employees about taking time to be with family.”
The Office of Internal Audit and Compliance is relatively new. Its staff size has gone from seven people a year ago to 15 people at the end of March. And its budget has grown from almost $900,000 in 2015 to $4.4 million this year.
http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2017/04/20/teachers-claim-cps-harassing-members-over-sick-leave
