July 16--Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday introduced a new team to run the beleaguered Chicago Public Schools, saying it's time to write "the next chapter" in the district's history at a challenging time.
Forrest Claypool moves over from City Hall chief of staff to become the school district's new CEO. Frank Clark, a retired ComEd executive who helped the mayor during the 2013 school closings process, will be the new chairman of the Chicago Board of Education. And Janice Jackson, a fast-rising middle manager at the CPS, will be the new chief educational officer.
The changes are reflective of the troubles at CPS, which faces a massive budget hole, a federal investigation into contracting and negotiations on a new teachers contract.
Emanuel called Claypool the right person to lead the schools while grappling with financial problems, noting Claypool's relationships in Springfield and his skill as a manager. "I've never seen a manager with Forrest Claypool's capacity for leadership," Emanuel said.
"He is proven to be unique with a set of skills in public service, public talent and a spirited sense of public service, from City Hall to the CTA, and now he will show that again with our schools," Emanuel said. "I know Forrest is exactly the right person at the right time to lead CPS at this moment. With the financial crisis at CPS having reached the doors of our schools, Forrest has the skills but also the relationships in Springfield to work through these challenges to ensure the gains we've made educationally continue on the right path and that the financial challenges do not threaten them."
Claypool praised the educational gains he said have been achieved in recent years in the schools but added that "those gains are at risk because of strong fiscal head winds" the school system now faces. He then repeated Emanuel's recent complaints about the way Chicago has to make pension payments compared with the rest of the state. The mayor has called on lawmakers to change that funding formula.
The last permanent schools CEO, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, resigned in May amid a federal grand jury investigation connected to a $20.5 million no-bid principal training contract that Emanuel's hand-picked school board agreed to with no public discussion. As part of the investigation, the grand jury has subpoenaed records related to Byrd-Bennett and some of her top aides, who have since left the district, and the company that received the contract and once employed Bennett. Since her departure, board member Jesse Ruiz has been filling in as CEO.
In addition, CPS is grappling with a budget shortfall of about $1.1 billion in the coming school year. Cuts already have been made, but school officials say it could get much more difficult come midyear if the district does not get some relief from state government. The district's preliminary budget depends on $500 million in relief from state lawmakers and the governor, who are deadlocked on their own budget amid partisan warfare.
Claypool and Emanuel are longtime friends and allies dating to the early 1980s. Claypool has a long history of being called in to clean up troubled agencies by both former Mayor Richard M. Daley and Emanuel. Claypool was chief of staff twice under Daley, and between those stints he served as superintendent of the Chicago Park District, where he was lauded for cutting costs and streamlining bureaucracy.
Claypool takes over for Ruiz, who will return to his post as board vice president.
Clark replaces David Vitale, who led the board when the training contract was issued. Vitale, a former vice chairman and director of Bank One Corp., also presided over the district's financially disastrous auction-rate borrowing strategy beginning in 2003, first as chief administration officer, then as chief operating officer, the Chicago Tribune has reported.
"Today, we're writing the next chapter in the story of Chicago Public Schools," said Emanuel, who spent a considerable portion of his message thanking Vitale for his service. Vitale and Ruiz were present at Thursday's news conference.
Jackson's appointment is the latest step in a rapid rise, bringing her to a position of critical importance to the district, with one CPS observer likening the duties to the artistic director of a performing arts organization.
It's no coincidence that Emanuel used the Westinghouse College Prep high school campus in the East Garfield Park neighborhood to reveal Jackson as his choice for chief education officer. Jackson served as principal there after it reopened following a massive renovation that was part of the costly Modern Schools Across Chicago initiative.
Under Byrd-Bennett, Jackson was promoted last year to chief of the district's 13 school networks. Jackson is regarded as bright and ambitious, but she will have to navigate the pitfalls of developing academic policy on Chicago's colossal stage.
Denise Little, a longtime CPS educator, will serve as Claypool's adviser.
The Chicago Teachers Union, which was set to meet with district labor contract negotiators Thursday, blasted the appointments.
"Claypool is a political 'fixer' and longtime mayoral insider who represents another non-education, business-style manager of our schools," union Vice President Jesse Sharkey said in a statement. "This appointment suggests that the mayor will look to cut even more from neighborhood schools, when what we need is a return to an education-centered approach."
The impact of the leadership changes may also be felt at the bargaining table, as both sides push in contract negotiations that have been said to be near a resolution.
"The CTU is negotiating a contract with the board and is willing to work with anyone, but these political appointments are telling us a lot about where the mayor is taking our schools, which is over a cliff," Sharkey said.
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