LSC VOTER TURNOUT The CPS Department of School and Community Relations reported the following voter turnout results: 52,611 parents; 25,739 staff members; 15,948 community members and 39,413 students. The voter count decreased in every category from the 1996 elections, with an overall drop of 23 percent. The final election results will not be available until results of ties and contested positions are in.
AT PERSHING ROAD Joyce Bristow, former principal of Black Magnet, and, briefly, executive assistant to Chief Education Officer Cozette Buckney, has been named chief liaison officer for the Chicago Public Schools and the Illinois State Board of Education. Salary: $97,500. Thomas Little, Black’s assistant principal, has been named interim principal there. … Bryn Mawr Elementary Principal Yvonne Bennett has been named assistant director of the Special Projects/Parents as Teachers First department. School Board consultant Edith Sims-Davis, retired principal of Corliss High, is serving as Bryn Mawr’s interim principal.
PRINCIPAL CONTRACTS The following interim principals have been awarded principal contracts at elementary schools: Beverly Blake, Libby; Lawrence Chase, Disney; Nina M. Cook, Fort Dearborn; Barbara T. Glapa, Hedges; JoAnne Gray, Burnham/Anthony Inclusive Academy; Olga LaLuz, Chase; Andrea Newman, DuBois; Mary Ravid, O.A. Thorp; Barbara J. Roberts, Carpenter; and Pierce N. Vaughn, Overton. … Lori Lennix has received a contract at Doolittle East Intermediate and Upper Grade Center. … High school principal contracts have gone to interim principals John Butterfield, Mather; Judith Hernandez, Senn; Sandra Morrow, Graham Training Center; Wesley Smith Jr., Corliss; and Karen Wilson, Julian.
INTERIM PRINCIPALS The following have been named interim principals at elementary schools: Jo Marie Cooper, teacher at Oglesby, Oglesby; Gregory Strickler-Poe, teacher at Steinmetz High, Mount Vernon; and Betty Johnson-Rojas, assistant principal at Haugan, Haugan. (The Haugan LSC offered Johnson-Rojas a contract on April 8.). … Doris Spraggins, a teacher at Harte Elementary, has been named interim principal following the departure of Principal Diana C. Rochon, who left after the Harte council decided not to renew her contract.
PRIZE PRINCIPALS Winners of this year’s School Leadership Awards for Outstanding Principals have been announced. The award, administered jointly by the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, includes a $5,000 check. In elementary schools, winners are: Eleanor Addison, McDade; Gloria Archibold, Leland; Cynthia K. Barron, Addams; Alford G. Bridges, Gresham; Nancy Carter-Hill, Pirie; Hellen DeBerry, Earhart; Emil W. DeJulio, Swift; Rita Gardner, Shields; James B. Gilliat, Pasteur; Robert A. Guercio, Bell; Rollie O. Jones, Kellman Corporate; Chris N. Kotis, Beaubien; Nancy Laho, Burley; Fausto Lopez, Jungman; William G. Meuer, Norwood Park; Elena Savoy, Wildwood; Martha Silva-Vera, P. Sheridan; Andrew J. Tinich, Lincoln. In high schools, winners are Charles Alexander, Morgan Park; Constantine P. Kiamos, Steinmetz; Edward Klunk, Amundsen; and Mary A. Williams, Tesla Alternative.
CPAA ELECTION UPDATE Four additional candidates have joined the contest for general officers of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association; each is running against a candidate slated by the association’s nominating committee. (See Catalyst, April 1998.) Ana Correa, CPAA program director, is running for secretary. Candidates for vice president are Phyllis D. Tate, principal of Einstein Elementary, elementary principals; Frank D. Horton III, principal of South Shore High, high school principals; and Sheryl Brown-Rivers, assistant principal at Amundsen High, high school assistant principals. … Another candidate’s name was misspelled in the April issue. Amirita Rogers, assistant principal of Park Manor Elementary, is the nominating committee’s choice for vice president for elementary assistant principals.
CTU CHALLENGERS Deborah Walsh, a Marquette Elementary School teacher who is challenging incumbent Thomas Reece for president of the Chicago Teachers Union, has announced her slate: James Alexander of Carver High, vice president; Jay Rehak of Whitney Young High, recording secretary; Jacquelyn Price of Revere Elementary, financial secretary, and Barbara Hammonds, a career service employee at Ariel Community Academy, treasurer. The election will be held May 15.
MUSIC GRANTS Teachers in any subject may apply for prizes of $500 to $1,000 from the American Music Education Initiative, which aims to improve music education by publicizing and rewarding excellent lessons that use American music. Deadline Sept 1. For more information, contact National Music Foundation’s Gene Wenner at (413) 637-1800 or e-mail AECWENN@concentric.net.
FOUNDATION MOVES Martin Koldyke has been named to the executive committee, or governing board, of the Chicago Community Trust. Koldyke is founder of the Golden Apple Foundation, which has several partnerships with the Chicago Public Schools. … Aida Sanchez-Romano, former executive director of Aspira Inc. of Illinois, is now assistant director of the Trust’s Children, Youth and Families Initiative, managing grantmaking in Logan Square and Edgewater/Uptown, two of the seven communities involved. (The others are Cabrini Green, Greater Grand Boulevard, North Lawndale, West Town and the Southwest Side.)
GATE APPLICANTS About 100 individuals have applied to become math and science teachers through the new Golden Apple Teacher Education (GATE) program. (See CATALYST, March 1998.) “I was disappointed with the low number of applicants but very pleased with the quality” says Dominic Belmonte, director of teacher education for the Golden Apple Foundation. About 2,700 individuals inquired about the program, and 700 requested applications. GATE has not compiled a demographic profile on the applicants, but Belmonte says about 60 percent are minority and that they come from a wide range of professions, including law, accounting and psychiatry. Thirty-six candidates will be selected by May 16.
BROADCAST NEWS Chicago’s WBEZ-FM took first and second place in the radio category of the national awards contest sponsored by the Education Writers Association. Esme Codell and Jay Allison came in first with “Call Me Madame,” a rookie teacher’s audio diary. Second place went to Jody Becker for her series, “Reconstitution: A Final Attempt at School Reform.” … WYCC-TV (Channel 20) welcomes three new staffers for its show Educate, which covers a wide range of educational issues. They are: Lisa Shaughnessy, producer; Tawny Alexander, associate producer; and Micaela Kim, reporter. … Parents United for Responsible Education has launched PURE-TV, a half-hour call-in show aired at 4:30 p.m. every Wednesday on cable’s Channel 21. PURE staffers Johnny O. Holmes and Ismael Vargas host the show, which will cover such topics as the Reform Board’s bilingual education policy, LSC powers, school safety and the importance of parent involvement.
READING HOTSEAT Timothy Shanahan, an urban education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Thomas Trabasso, a psychology professor at the University of Chicago, have been named to a controversial new federal panel that will evaluate various strategies for teaching children to read. The panel’s findings may be used to determine which programs will be eligible for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. … Before the panel was even appointed, critics suggested that its findings would be biased towards phonics-based approaches to reading instruction and give short shrift to other methods. “I think we’ll be able to come up with fair and cogent guidelines,” says Shanahan, but he notes that any findings are likely to be controversial. “In some ways I’d love not to be in on it, but if you’re not in on it once you’ve been invited, you lose your rights to complain.”
LSC CONVENTION The Chicago Association of Local School Councils will host its third LSC convention, “Achievement through Technology: Leading Schools to the Future” June 5-6 at the Clarion Hotel. It will include a resource exposition, hands-on computer workshops, advice from experts and an educational policy forum. The convention is open to all past, present and newly-elected LSC members. For more information, call CALSC Director Sheila Castillo at (312) 663-3863.
TEST QUESTIONS “How do we know what students know? Measuring student learning,” a free workshop on standardized tests, will be held May 2, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan, room 362. It is open to parents, teachers, LSC members and others interested in testing. Sponsors are the Chicago Association of Local School Councils, Parents United for Responsible Education, Leadership for Quality Education, the Teachers’ Task Force, the Chicago Education Alliance, Designs for Change, the Lawyers’ School Reform Advisory Project and the Consortium on Chicago School Research. To reserve a spot, call Wendy Jo Harmston at CALSC: (312) 663-3863.
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT HEARINGS The final Reform Board hearings on the latest version of its Capital Improvement Plan will be held at 7 p.m. May 5 (Curie High, 4954 S. Archer) and May 7 (Walsh Elementary, 2031 S. Peoria). Copies of the plan, which outlines hundreds of millions of dollars in school repair and construction projects, are available for inspection at all public libraries and Chicago public schools.