MOVING IN/ON Sarah-Kathryn McDonald has been named associate director for policy research at the Consortium of Chicago School Research; she will work to increase awareness of the Consortium’s research findings and direct its communication programs. She has taught marketing, management, research methods and international business at several universities, most recently the University of London. She also has served as a government and public affairs consultant.
AT CLARK STREET Dion G. Smith, deputy chief of staff to the office of school financial services, has been appointed deputy chief fiscal officer. … William Clark, operations manager at Senn High School, has been appointed director of financial administrative services. … Ethel J. Collier, director of citywide pupil support services, has been appointed director of violence prevention and intervention programs. Karen Sykes, senior advisor in the Psychology Department, succeeds Collier in pupil support. … Anthony Pitruzzello, a research analyst and evaluation manager in the Education to Careers Department, has been named to the new post of director of assessment services for the Academic Accountability Council.
VALLAS ADVISES BUSH Chicago schools CEO Paul Vallas joined a group of school, civic and business leaders for a Jan. 11 brainstorming session with then-President-elect George W. Bush. Others present at the meeting included the National Urban League President Hugh Price, Pennsylvania Education Sec. Gene Hickok, Arizona State School Supt. Lisa Graham Keegan and the chief executives of TRW, the Hartford Financial Group, Texaco, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Lockheed Martin and Pfizer.
PRINCIPAL CONTRACTS Lilliana Evers, assistant principal at Nathan Davis elementary, is the new contract principal at Funston. Julie A. McGlade has been promoted from assistant principal to contract principal at Gary. Interim principals who received contracts are Ivette Robles at Lyon and Stephen L. Jones Sr. at Yale. Patricia D. Kennedy, acting principal at Fuller, also has received a contract. Artie L. Borders, principal at Gregory, and Shirley Miggins, principal at McDade Classical, have had their contracts renewed.
RETIREMENTS Principals who are retiring: Mary Margaret Burke, Turner-Drew; Valerie R. Doubrawa, Hubbard; Leslie L. Fant, Goodlow; Fannie L. Gibson, Mays; John Frank Hawkins, Woodson South; James Johnson, Canter Middle; Ruth Lewis Knight, De Priest; Mary M. Meike, Edwards. … Also retiring is Mary Goosby, deputy officer in the Office of Curriculum and Instruction.
LAWYERS’ GROUP The work of the Lawyers’ School Reform Advisory Project has been assumed by the Children’s Health and Education Project (CHEP) of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc., a parent organization of the project. Sara Vanderwicken, director of CHEP, says the focus of the work has changed from advising individual local school councils to broader legal issues facing school reform.
SURVEY COMING The Consortium on Chicago School Research will conduct its biannual survey of Chicago Public Schools March 6 – 9, asking in part about the use of technology in schools. Questionnaires will go to all teachers and principals and to students in grades 6-10. Schools with at least 50 percent participation will receive individual school reports after the results are compiled.
NEW CHARTER SCHOOLS The Board of Education approved applications for three more charter schools even though, under state law, it has only two charters left to give. CPS charter director Greg Richmond has until March to arrange for one of the new schools to become an additional campus of another. “We will try to give them as much independence as we can,” Richmond says. The new schools and their sponsors are Passages (sponsored by Asian Human Services), L.E.A.R.N. (sponsored by a newly formed board of affiliates of Lawndale Community School, a West side private school, and former State Treasurer Lolita Didrickson, among others ), and the Chicago Children’s Choir. All three plan to open this fall.
NEW REGION 7 The Corrections Education Office, headed by Michael Woods, has become Region 7 of the Chicago Public Schools. It oversees Nancy B. Jefferson High School and Consuella B. York Alternative High School, both housed in facilities operated by the Cook County Board of Corrections. Its work includes creating and improving transition and prevention programs that help students re-enter regular schools, find jobs and avoid future brushes with the law.