LSC CANDIDATES A total of 7,289 candidates signed up for April’s local school council elections—the lowest number since the first council elections in 1989, when 17,096 candidates registered. Between then and now, the candidate total has ranged from a high of 8,390 in 1991 to a low of 7,539 in 1993. This year, a total of 4,106 parent candidates registered; 85 percent of schools have enough parent candidates to fill the six parent slots on their councils, with 58 percent having seven or more parent candidates. Also, 88 percent of schools have enough community candidates (1,540) to fill the two community slots; 97 percent have enough teacher candidates (1,471) to fill the two faculty slots; and 87 percent of high schools have at least one candidate for the one student slot—172 students are running. Elections will be held April 8 in elementary schools and April 9 in high schools.
TEMP WORK Gage Park High School Principal Audrey Donaldson is on loan to the Washington, D.C. school system, where she is serving as assistant superintendent until June 30; her job is to help the district restructure itself and, according to the Chicago board report granting her leave, “replicate the success of the Chicago Public Schools.” Assistant Principal Frank Lacey is serving as the school’s interim principal. … Wendy Jo Harmston, an activist and former organizer with North River Commission, is acting director of professional development at the Chicago Association of Local School Councils.
AT PERSHING ROAD Ariel Foundation Executive Director Arne Duncan is now director of CPS magnet school programs. … The CPS curriculum and instruction department (director: Andrea Kerr) has moved its operations from the school leadership development office (director: Lula Ford) to the CPS accountability office (director: Phil Hansen).
GOLDEN APPLE WINNERS Three Chicago high school teachers are among the 10 winners of this year’s Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching. They are: Lori Real, Crane Tech Prep Common School; Miriam Socoloff, Lake View High; and Julie Soulé, Southside Occupational Academy.
NEAR MISS When the job of Chicago City Colleges chancellor was briefly up for grabs last month, CPS School Operations Chief Blondean Davis was one of two contenders, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The job went to Kennedy-King College President Wayne Watson, who co-chairs the Reform Board’s Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee on Capital Improvements.
BUILDING PANEL Reform Board President Gery Chico has joined a national task force on improving school facilities. The panel is convened jointly by the country’s two major teacher unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. The Chicago Teachers Union is an affiliate of the AFT.
CIVICS TRAINING FOR TEACHERS The Constitutional Rights Foundation is offering the following training institutes for CPS teachers this spring, summer and fall: for 4th- and 5th-grade teachers, VOICE (Violence-prevention Outcomes In Civic Education); for 7th- and 8th-grade teachers, The Law in My Life; and for high school teachers, The American Jury: Past and Present. Fees range from $100 to $250. Applications are due soon. For more info, call (312) 663-9057 or check out www.crfc.org
RETIREMENTS Frank Guerreri, the board’s assistant director of management information services, and Muriel Von Albade, principal of Barnard Elementary, have retired.