HIGH SCHOOL TRANSFORMATION STAFF Allan Alson, head of High School Transformation, is leaving his post. Angus Mairs, who planned the district’s High School Transformation curriculum, has left CPS to become executive director of K-12 curriculum design and alignment for Highline School District, near Seattle. Karen Boran, who was a High School Transformation senior leadership coach, is now director of IDS (Instructional Development Systems) curriculum, a newly created job similar to Mairs’ former position. Boran will help implement curriculum, coaching, assessment and professional development strategies in the 43 transformation high schools. Rukiya Curvey-Johnson is now the director of IDS operations, another new position in the office. Both positions are part of High School Transformation’s expansion and integration into the main Office of High School Programs.
JOINING TRANSFORMATION Eighteen schools will join the High School Transformation Project this fall, joining 25 schools that were part of the first and second years of the project. Seven of the new schools are on the North Side; previously, most of the schools were on the South or West sides of the city. The new schools and their neighborhoods are: Amundsen, Lincoln Square; Best Practice, Near West Side; Bogan, Ashburn; Corliss, Pullman; Foreman, Portage Park; Gage Park, in Gage Park; Hancock, West Elsdon; Harlan, Roseland; Juarez, Pilsen; Kelvyn Park, Hermosa; Mather, West Ridge; Orr, Austin; Richards, Back of the Yards; Robeson, Englewood; Schurz, Irving Park; Steinmetz, Belmont-Cragin; Sullivan, Rogers Park; Von Steuben, Albany Park. Earlier this year, CPS had said 20 schools would join the project for fall 2008. The new schools bring the total number of transformation high schools to 43, short of the 50 that the district initially said would join the effort during its first three years.
TURNAROUND DIRECTOR Donald Fraynd, principal at Jones College Prep, has become director of the district’s turnaround project at Harper High. He will transition to full-time duties at the Office of School Turnarounds when Jones finds a replacement principal.
AT CLARK STREET Renee Grant-Mitchell, chief specialized services officer, and Gail D. Ward, chief officer of the Office of Principal Preparation and Development, are retiring. … Adrian G. Willis, former principal at Earle Elementary, is now the Area 14 instructional officer, replacing José Torres, now superintendent of Elgin School District U-46. … Laurence Stanton has left his post as director of strategic planning at CPS to do workforce development consulting. Bryan Samuels, chief of staff to CEO Arne Duncan, will take over Stanton’s position temporarily.
ACADEMY FOR URBAN SCHOOL LEADERSHIP David Vitale, the former CPS chief administrative officer who most recently served as a senior advisor to CEO Arne Duncan, has become chairman of the board of directors for the Academy for Urban School Leadership. Vitale replaces former chairman Martin ‘Mike’ Koldyke, who will remain on the board as chairman emeritus. For the upcoming school year, AUSL, which for the first time will oversee school turnarounds, is planning to double the size of its urban teacher residency program. AUSL had 44 graduates this year; 87 are enrolled for the coming year. The expansion will allow the organization to better meet their turnaround schools’ need for teachers, according to AUSL.
ARTS EDUCATION Chicago’s public-private partnership to fund and promote arts education is one of the models school districts across the country are using to expand arts learning in the face of widespread budget cuts, according to a report by the RAND Corporation. The report examined how six districts, including Chicago, provide arts education by working with community groups, launching initiatives targeting at-risk youth, coordinating networks of arts agencies and increasing arts coursework. In Chicago, The Chicago Community Trust and 17 other private funders are helping to fund arts programs. CPS now has 275 arts organizations providing programs in schools, up from 144 in 2002, according to David Roche, director of fine and performing arts. A fine arts high school is also in the works. The report, “Revitalizing Arts Education Through Community-Wide Coordination” is available at http://www.rand.org/.
NEW PRINCIPALS Erin Roche, former principal at Ravenswood, has been awarded a contract at Prescott. Ravenswood new contract principal is Heather Connolly. …Assistant principals Edwin Loch at Reinberg and Catherine Reidy at Mount Greenwood, as well as interim principals Colleen Conlan at Canter Middle and Hattie King at Cather, have been awarded full contracts. The following principals have had their contracts renewed for another four years: Yvonne Austin, Plamondon; David Domovic, Alcott; Zoila Garcia, Whittier; Katherine Kennedy-Kartheiser, Coonley; Martha Miranda, Salazar; Carol Perry, Attucks; Mary Ellen Ratkovich, Healy; Kenneth Staral, Ogden; Jeannine Wolf, Lawndale. Gregory Mason, formerly an assistant principal at Miles Davis, will become principal at Murray on July 1. He replaces Michael Keno, who is retiring.
NUTRITION EDUCATION Students at Inter-American Magnet School will help plan their school lunches and participate in other nutrition programs next year with a $10,000 grant from the Love Your Veggies Nationwide School Lunch Campaign. Inter-American is one of 51 schools across the country to win the grant.
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