Ron Huberman, Barbara Eason-Watkins, and the school board refused to face those whose schools they closed

Today eight Chicago Public Schools were closed or “turned around” by a secret Board of Education vote. Abandoning past practice, the Board did not have a public roll call vote. Mary Richardson-Lowry, the new Board President, simply ordered to “record the last positive vote,” not even mentioning the schools by name, but referred coldly to them by Board agenda numbers.

“This was a cowardly act by the Board,” said CORE Co-Chair and teacher at King College Prep Karen Lewis.  “This unelected Board sidestepped even the smallest measure of accountability today.  Clearly, thousands of Chicagoans fighting school closings scared the Board into hiding.”

CORE Co-Chair and teacher and Lawndale Little Village High School teacher Jackson Potter warned that the Board’s turnaround policy is dangerous.  “You can’t easily reproduce long-term teacher-student, school-community bonds forged over decades with an entirely new, mostly novice staff who doesn’t stay more than a few years at the school.  Unfortunately, what may prove easy to reproduce is the escalating violence like we’ve seen at Fenger High School, a CPS turnaround school.   The turnaround fanned the flames in a volatile school and no one who knew the students could extinguish the fire.  The school erupted and Derrion Albert lost his life.  This must stop.”

Lewis added that, “Turnarounds are simply a layoff policy.  Between turnarounds and charters, the Board is creating a low-wage, high-turnover work force which is a penny-wise, pound-foolish business move, not an education improvement plan.”

On Monday, hundreds of parents, students, and teachers packed the City Council chambers to urge support for the Council’s school closings moratorium resolution.  The group then picketed   on the “5^th floor” to demand a meeting with Mayor Daley on school closings.  Representatives of targeted schools and CORE co-chair Jackson Potter are presently in negotiations to meet with the Mayor.  “The Board is not in power.  Ultimately the Mayor is responsible for our schools,” said Potter.

CORE is continuing its fight against turnarounds in the courts.  On behalf of African American teachers fired via the turnaround policy, CORE filed an EEOC complaint against the Board of Education, citing that it has a disparate impact on African American teachers.  The EEOC has upheld the case and CORE is pursuing it.   “This isn’t over,” vowed Lewis.

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The recount was held on Monday, November 16th by Election Services Corporation and showed an even bigger CORE victory than first reported with both Ashford and Rehak picking up votes from the preliminary totals.   This election was a test for competing caucuses before the big union elections in May.   Even more importantly, the two teacher trustees will work to protect an ever shrinking pension fund and insist that the Chicago Public Schools meet their obligations to properly fund the pension fund.

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