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STOP the Chicagounionteacher STOP THE ChicagoUnionTeacher CONTENTS AROUND THE UNION 5 President’s Message 6 Letters 8 Retiree Corner CONTRACT ENFORCEMENT rahm- 8 CPS Breaks Caseload Law, and Now It Has to Pay OUR DISTRICT 10 Walk-Ins at Your School 12 Zombie Board of Dead-ucation 14 Fruit from a Rotten Tree: The Truth about Barbara Byrd-Bennett 17 From A to Z on the Plight of Public Schools 19 LEAD 2015: Changing What We Cannot Accept RAuner THE CHARTERS 22 Chicago Urgently Needs a Moratorium on Charter School Expansion OUR PSRPs 28 PSRP Appreciation 30 You, Me, and PSRP aTtAcks BOARD OF (UN)DEAD ∕ CASELOAD VICTORY ∕ FUNDING OUR SCHOOLS TEACHER EVALUATION ChicagoUnionTeachernovember 2015 / vol. 79 / number 3 THE SUPERHEROES IN OUR SCHOOLS 31 What Teacher Evaluation Should Do for You DESTROYING our schools Harming our communities serving the rich and powerful AJUSTCHICAGO.ORG ■ Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner has ■ As Mayor, Rahm has laid off 7,000 ■ Bruce Rauner owns nine homes 32 How Should We Fund Schools in Illinois? been a top advisor to Chicago Mayor teachers and severely cut retirement worth a combined tens of millions of Rahm Emanuel on school closings and income for thousands of seniors who live dollars. Rauner spent more than BOOKS other harmful education policies. and spend money in our communities. $100,000 to join an exclusive wine club. 37 Union Reading for the Whole Family Juan Rangel, the disgraced former CEO His friend Rauner wants to cut even Asked whether he’s a member of the 1 of charter-school giant UNO, has also more from the limited income of the percent, he responded, “Oh, I’m 38 Black Teachers on Teaching been a close advisor to Rahm. Rangel elderly. probably .01 percent." THE CLASSROOM stepped down as UNO’s CEO after a ■ Both Rahm and Rauner oppose a ■ After leaving his White House job, series of corporate scandals and 38 Grades and Grading, Part II minimum wage hike of $15 an hour for Rahm made $18 million working for two federal investigations into UNO’s misuse s working families in Chicago despite the years in private equity—essential to his of public funds. Photo: COMMENTARY need in our communities. An early 2014 success was Rauner’s support. How did Victor Powell 40 The Spectators Revolt ■ Both Rahm and Rauner back budget poll found that nearly two-thirds of Illinois he make so much so quickly? According Photography cuts for public schools and sending voters support a minimum wage of $10 to Ron Suskind, a Pulitzer Prize–winning 42 Amy Winehouse, Allen Iverson, and “Seeing” Our Students school money to private an hour. former reporter for the Wall Street organizations beyond the democratic Journal: "Paying someone who will be a IN CLOSING control of our communities. future government ofcial a lot of money 46 Procedure for Filling Vacancies for Functional Groups for doing very little? On Wall Street, we 46 call that an investment." Delegates Not Present A Rahm-Rauner agenda threatens ALL OF US. 47 In Memoriam We must build our capacity to fight misguided politicians, well-financed corporate school Contribute to reformers, and people who want to turn back the clock on workers’ rights. Visit CTUnet.com/PAC, and make a monthly donation of $5, $10, or $20. the CTU PAC. THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE ChicagoUnionTeacher Sisters and Brothers, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ∕ Stephanie A. Gadlin The tide is rising. It is time for us to future of collective bargaining in our state. batten down the hatches and prepare for The Board continues to fight us on the ASSOCIATE EDITOR ∕ Ronnie Reese the incoming storm. most important elements of our contract CONTRIBUTING WRITERS ∕ A ship known as Chicago Public demands. Not only are we fighting for Jitu Brown, June Davis, Stephanie Gadlin, Kimberly Goldbaum, Sarah Hainds, Kurt Hilgendorf, Schools (CPS) is broke on purpose, and bread-and-butter issues but also a reduc- Jennifer Johnson, Mahpara Khan, John Kugler, Kathy Murray, Jackson Potter, Lashawn Wallace our district continues to reel from the recent tion in paper work. SUPES scandal that will ultimately send On the political front, our Political CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS ∕ former schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett Action and Legislative Committee released Phil Cantor, Stephanie Gadlin, Nathan Goldbaum, John Kuijper, Matthew Luskin, to prison. We believe her malfeasance is the its early endorsement list in advance of the Rebecca Martinez, Kathy Murray, Braden Nesin, Debby Pope, Ronnie Reese, tip of the iceberg. Therefore, we support upcoming statewide electoral cycle. Gen- Sarah Jane Rhee, Martin Ritter, Gabriel Sheridan the call for an extensive investigation of all eral Assembly candidates participated in Board-approved contracts under Byrd-Ben- an extensive screening process with rank- ADVERTISING MANAGER ∕ April Stigger nett’s tenure, and that the district reverses and-file members that included the com- her decision to lay off thousands of educa- pletion of a mandatory questionnaire, GRAPHIC DESIGN ∕ Eric Ruder tors and close 50 neighborhood schools. addressing a myriad of issues impacting PRODUCTION ∕ Eric Ruder ∕ Progress Printing Corp., Inc. We who dare to teach must never cease the lives of educators. The Illinois primary to learn. That is why we are pleased to will be held March 15, 2016. discover that more than 97 percent of our We are focused on getting an elected, OFFICERS members believe they will vote “yes” to representative school board in Chicago, Karen GJ Lewis, NBCT ∕ PRESIDENT authorize a strike when the time comes. progressive revenue solutions that will fund include: State Sen. William Delgado (Dis- Jesse Sharkey ∕ VICE PRESIDENT Our November 5 “mock poll” revealed that our school district and halt the attacks on trict 2), State Rep. Elgie Sims (District 34), Kristine Mayle ∕ FINANCIAL SECRETARY teachers, paraprofessionals and clinicians our pensions, and the full restoration of State Rep. LaShawn Ford (District 8), Michael Brunson ∕ RECORDING SECRETARY remain unified, organized and ready to our collective bargaining rights. Therefore, State Rep. Ann Williams (District 11), engage the mayor’s hand-picked Board of our first priority is to get champions in the State Rep. Cynthia Soto (District 4), State TheChicago Union Teacher is published eight times a year in September, Education and CEO Forest Claypool on statehouse. This means that we need polit- Rep. Robert Martwick (District 19) and October/November, December, January, February, March, April, May/June. what’s important to us—protecting our ical leaders who are grounded in our mis- community leader Jay Travis (District 26). TheChicago Union Teacher is the official publication of the Chicago Teachers Union, profession and ensuring our students have sion to strengthen our schools; and, they Let’s continue to rally and build our which is the exclusive bargaining agent for teachers, counselors, librarians, clinicians the schools they deserve. must be able to win. solidarity and power. That’s why I look and paraprofessional and school-related personnel in the Chicago Public Schools. We still have much work to do. Since We believe early endorsements buoy the forward to seeing every CTU member at August, we have added more than 1,000 hopes of challenging candidates by infusing our November 23 Winter Rally and Tail- Chicago Teachers Union • Local 1 • American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO. new members to our bargaining unit. Our their campaigns with much-needed gate Celebration. We’ll rally, encourage one paraprofessionals, to whom this issue is resources. As we fight for the LaSalle Street another, cheer on our issues, and celebrate TheChicago Union Teacher is affiliated with the International Labor Communications Association dedicated, remain the backbone of our Tax on financial transactions at the Chi- the upcoming holiday season with hot food and the AFT Communications Network. schools. Their insight, skill and commit- cago Board of Trade, a commuter tax and and beverages. If you missed May 23, you ment make them everyday superheroes to a millionaire’s tax, we are also pushing for won’t want to miss November 23. Bring Chicago Teachers Union affiliations include the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL), parents and students across the city. Many an Elected Representative School Board. your grills, food, noisemakers and signs. the Illinois State Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (ISFL-CIO), of our brothers and sisters remain encour- Strong and focused legislative leaders will Dress for the occasion. Let’s show the city the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), aged, focused and concerned about the pave the way. The CTU’s endorsees the full beauty and power of the CTU. the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). In solidarity, 222 MERCHANDISE MART PLAZA SUITE NO. 400 CHICAGO, IL 60654-1016 TELEPHONE: 312-329-9100 Karen GJ Lewis, NBCT E-MAIL: [email protected] (GENERAL) [email protected] (ADVERTISING) WWW.CTUNET.COM CHICAGO UNION TEACHER november 2015 5 LETTERS LETTERS Easy Come… email from Alderman O’Shea indi- have written sincere letters of recom- roughly 10 SECAs and PSRPs who were stolen With a $500 million shortfall and cating that he had obtained informa- mendation. Additionally, I have worked years ago, that from CTU and given to SEIU be able thousands of teacher layoffs looming, Easy Go! tion from Dr. Janice Jackson that the tirelessly and dedicated countless hours required all of to return to our powerful union?” While handing out extra start-up funds for Our school delegates are awesome Dr. Griffin will not be joining Chicago to the improvement of my practice, and us non-certi- I was going through this incredibly new charters is robbing current Chicago folk. Public Schools in any capacity. I am more than halfway through the fied interpret- unjust cut in pay, my family expanded Public School students at a time of their Way to go, David! process for National Board Certifica- ers to take an to include the care of my four grand- greatest need.
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