Board of Education

Unfair DNH Not Addressed at Chicago Board of Education Meeting

By Jim Vail

Stacy Council is fighting her unfair DNH.

Stacy Council who we profiled as a teacher who was unfairly placed on a Do Not Hire list by a vindictive principal was not able to sign up for the monthly Chicago Board of Education in September.

"The slots filled up in 30 seconds," she wrote in an email. "I can't seem to get in. I'll be trying again next month."

The next BOE meeting is Wednesday Oct. 26.

I decided to listen to the live streamed meeting to understand why she could not sign up for the meeting. What was so important that everyone quickly filled up the slots?

The public participation at last month's board meeting focused on two big topics. 

The first hot topic was the controversial proposed new high school to be built in Chinatown in the South Loop. Most speakers were against Mayor Lori Lightfoot's proposed new high school to be built on land that is supposed to be used to build public housing. The new school would stand on the former Ickes Housing Project that was torn down.

The second hot topic centered on a handful of Charter Schools who were all pleading to renew their 5 year charter contracts with the Board of Education. That would include the Urban Prep Boys Charter High School in Englewood that has had lots of problems, Acero Charter who were involved in many corrupt deals back when they were known as UNO and are currently in a contract fight with their staff and the University of Chicago Charter School where we heard stories that teachers were eased out of their positions after 5 years so that the school could keep its salaries low. The Lawndale Charter School also made presentation to renew their charter and Andrew Broyd from the Network of Charter Schools talked about violence among the youth. It was not quite clear what his point was.

All these speakers work with professional organizations that know how to quickly line up to speak out at the Board of Education meeting.

The last speaker was a parent who lambasted the Chicago Public Schools "inflated grade policy." She said her child received A's for Reading even though he did not understand anything he was reading. She claimed she has been fighting a long time to get special education services and she is on the verge of eviction as a single mother on the South Side.

Unlike past board presidents who liked to ham it up and argue with or praise various public speakers, Chicago Board President Miguel Del Valle, who doubles as Lightfoot's trustee on the Chicago Teachers Pension Board, said little to nothing after each speaker. He did indicate that the last parent speaker should speak with one of the Board people to address her concerns.

Stacy Council hopes that the third time is the charm to register to speak at next week's Board of Education meeting and ask why they will not remove her Do Not Hire mark that involved a situation where she was trying to simply enter her classroom to retrieve her coat on a cold winter night. She is an excellent teacher who has earned high marks, a success story from growing up in the Chicago public housing projects to become a role model in the African American community and yet she was been unfairly deemed a criminal.

WBEZ meanwhile previewed a military instructor who groomed, sexually abused and threatened a CPS student that was covered up, and while his 'commanding officer' in CPS was forced out, he was not placed on a Do Not Hire list.