MOVING IN/ON Jobi Peterson, former executive director of the Mayer & Morris Kaplan Family Foundation, has joined the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club as educational policy analyst. She fills a vacancy left over a year ago when Elizabeth Evans left to become director of policy at the Illinois Facilities Fund. … Constance Yowell has joined the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as program officer in the Human and Community Development Program, where she will work on child and youth development, education and juvenile justice. … Philip Jackson, former chief of staff to Paul Vallas and former CHA director, is leaving his post as education advisor to the mayor to become president and chief professional officer of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago.
AT CLARK STREET Kathleen M. Ryan is the new director of libraries and information services, a post vacant since Ann Carlson Weeks left last July. Ryan was previously a district chief at the Chicago Public Library, where she oversaw the city’s Far South Side branches. … Heather Crossley has been named deputy controller, a new post. Previously she oversaw Medicaid reimbursements in the Controller’s Department. … Lt. Col. Julius Taylor will retire in May as director of JROTC in the Office of Education-to-Careers. He will be replaced by Lt. Col. Rick W. Mills, who is now commanding a calvary regiment for the U. S. Army. … Rickey P. Dorsey, a manager in the Department of Truancy Prevention, has been named director of that department. He replaces Ronald Beavers, who left in October to become principal of Chicago Vocational Career Academy. … Anita Rocha has stepped into the position of deputy purchasing officer of the Procurement and Contract Department. Previously she was director of contract compliance and vendor services. …The new director of employee health services is Wendy A. Haas, formerly a branch manager for a managed care firm in Chicago. She replaces Michelle Quigley, who left for personal reasons last October.
PRINCIPAL CONTRACTS Interim principals who received contracts are James C. Lalley at Northside College Preparatory High and Robert C. Malek II at Locke Elementary. Okab T. Hassan, acting principal at Peck Elementary, also has received a contract. Deborah R. Esparza, principal at Stockton Child-Parent Center, had her contract renewed.
RETIREMENTS Albert E. Frost, Jr., director of school intervention, has retired. His duties will be handled on an interim basis by Guadalupe Shields, a former CPS principal and director of the Principal Institute at the University of Chicago’s Center for School Improvement.
NEW BUILDINGS The board acquired property for three new elementary school buildings, including a new building for DePriest Elementary to be located at 123-125 S. Parkside. Two new schools will be created: one in West Rogers Park at Whipple and North Shore and one in Albany Park at Lawndale and Leland. … The board also will open a new school—Johnnie Coleman Academy—in space to be leased from Christ University Temple at 119th and Ashland.
UNION ELECTIONS Deborah Lynch Walsh, an 8th-grade teacher at Marquette Elementary School, will again challenge Thomas Reece for president of the Chicago Teachers Union. Howard Heath, a math teacher at Lane Tech, will run on her slate for vice president. Walsh is the author of the newly published, “Labor of Love: One Chicago Teacher’s Experience,” which highlights her experience as a 25-year CPS teacher and union activist.
HONORS AND AWARDS Rochelle Lee was featured in the January issue of Chicago Magazine as one of eight “Chicagoans of 2000.” A former CPS librarian, Lee heads the Rochelle Lee Fund, which trains teachers to help children develop literacy skills and a love of reading. … Five Chicago public school teachers are among this year’s 10 winners of Golden Apple awards. They are Murray Fisher, a teacher at Southside Occupational Academy; Jacqueline Gnant, a physics teacher at DuSable High; Elizabeth Kirby, a history teacher at Kenwood Academy; Sarah Levine, an English teacher at Curry High; and Tracy Van Duinen, an art teacher at Austin Community High. They will be honored May 14 at a black-tie gala that will be televised on Channel 11, WTTW.
NEW PROGRAMS This fall, CPS will launch a pilot health program with $2.2 million from the $9 billion Illinois Tobacco Settlement the state will dole out over the next two decades. The Great Body Shop program will start next year in pre-K through 6th grades and expand to 7th and 8th grades the following year.