Chicago Reporter (https://www.chicagoreporter.com/tag/cps-administration/)
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pulling Chicago School Board Vice President Jesse Ruiz from the School Board. Ruiz is the only Latino on the seven-member body, even though nearly half of CPS students are Latinos.
Dozens of superintendents and other high-level district officials from across the country consulted for SUPES in the crooked deal that got former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett in trouble. And in some cases — from St. Louis and Huntsville, Ala., to Baltimore and Prince George’s counties in Maryland — those officials work at districts that have also had SUPES contracts.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s first two picks to lead CPS were educators from outside Chicago. Now he’s turning to a trusted ally and respected “Mr. Fix-It” with no experience in education.
The district has used some private nursing services since the 1990s. A new contract would turn over more such services to a New Jersey-based firm.
Mayor Emanuel selected four new board members who don’t look much different from the members they are replacing. Critics who have been advocating for an elected school board say who sits on the board is far less important than the man who puts them there.
Over 15 years, The Chicago Public Education Fund has committed more than $50 million to support the programs and organizations that measurably improve teaching and learning in Chicago’s public schools.
The Chicago Public Education Fund supports projects meant to be scaled up as part of the school system. In recent years, it has also paid consultants to conduct searches for top district staff and to help develop plans for the district. Its board includes some of the richest and most influential people in the city. No one outside The Fund’s staff and board of directors know how it decides which programs to support, what the results have been and how or whether the results are communicated to CPS.
CPS mistakenly gave personal student information to five vendors that had submitted proposals to provide management software for the district’s bus system.
CPS corrected a coding glitch that caused errors in more than 4,500 teachers’ REACH scores. The mistake led to incorrect ratings for under 200 teachers, and the district is implementing a “hold harmless” policy.
Of 42 buildings left vacant after the 2013 school closings, CPS immediately found new uses for four. Altogether, 33 are still vacant with no firm repurposing plans. Since the closings, property crimes have gone up in some cases.