And a teachers'group also had strong words for his budget...they said it did not make sense. The suggestion was that he exaggerated the deficit to get rid of 900 positions which might include art, music and physical education.
From the Small Talk blog:
Chicago's CEO short listAccording to this morning's Trib, Rahm Emanuel's short list of outsiders for new school's CEO includes current Rochester supt. Jean-Claude Brizard. Even though Brizard, the latest through Rochester's revolving door of school bosses, just recently signed a three-year deal, he's ONLY making $235,000 in Rochester and could be using the Chicago offer to leverage more back home. He would certainly do better money-wise in Chi-town where a broken school budget never stopped those at the top from enriching themselves or moving on to bigger and better things. He has a background in education which Emanuel thinks might placate those in the union and some community groups who have made this an issue. Plus he's married to a charter school entrepreneur who could do well in Chicago's booming charter school market.
In Rochester, Brizard is embraced by local biz reformers and despised by many teachers and parents. In February, he received a vote of "no confidence" from an overwhelming majority of Rochester teachers. He was hired by Mayor Duffy to push the corporate reform agenda in Rochester, including school closings, war with the unions, privatization, and "merit pay."
..."Brizard spent 20 years working his way up through the NYC bureaucracy and cut his teeth on business reform under Joel Klein and the Broad Foundation's superintendent training camp.
The superintendents trained in the Broad Superintendents Academy have a way of
getting reforms done very quickly.From the link, here are many of the Broad featured graduates who do not hesitate to fire or layoff teachers to get reforms done more quickly.
"Featured graduates"
Bobb, Robert (Class of 2005)
Brizard, Jean-Claude (Class of 2007)
Carter, Arnold "Woody" (Class of 2002)
Cerf, Chris (Class of 2004)
Deasy, John (Class of 2006)
Gist, Deborah (Class of 2008)
Goodloe-Johnson, Maria (Class of 2003)
Levenson, Nate (Class of 2004)
Malone, Matthew (Class of 2003)
Melendez de Santa Ana, Thelma (Class of 2006)
Olson, Kimberly (Class of 2005)
Peebles, Thandiwee (Class of 2002)
Porter, John Q. (Class of 2006)
Sheffield, LaVonne (Class of 2002)
Sims, Deborah A. (Class of 2005)
Ward, Randolph (Class of 2003)
Wise, Joseph (Class of 2003)
Many are or have been in the news because of their seeming lack of respect for public school teachers.
Recently a group of parents questioned Brizard's budget. Here is more on that from the Democrat and Chronicle.
Union, parents chide Rochester City School District over proposed budget cutsThe hearing came several hours after leaders with the Rochester Teachers Association released their analysis of the budget, saying that the district grossly misstated the deficit and calling for an independent audit to review finances. The union review puts the district's budget deficit at $15.9 million, significantly lower than the $76.5 million the district is projecting.
RTA President Adam Urbanski said that he suspected the district overstated its deficit for additional state funding and to get teachers to agree to a pay freeze.
"I've seen a lot in my many years as a spokesman for the teachers in Rochester," said RTA president Adam Urbanski. "I have never seen anything like this. Something is wrong with this picture."
The budget that Brizard presented last week calls for eliminating 900 positions, something that union leaders say could mean the loss of art, music and physical education programs at the elementary schools.
This is the thing, though. If I were a Chicago teacher I would wonder why Rahm Emanuel would want a CEO who received such a massive no confidence vote last year.
From the Perimeter Primate:
Teachers Vote "No Confidence" In Superintendent Jean-Claude BrizardAn overwhelming number of Rochester teachers take a stand against their superintendent. In a lopsided vote, some educators are telling Jean-Claude Brizard change your ways or change your job.
Nearly 82-percent of eligible teachers took part in today's vote. The ballot was simple: “Yes, I have confidence in Superintendent Brizard" or "No, I don’t.”
It took hours to sort through boxes of ballots. Here are the results: just 140 teachers said they do have confidence in Brizard, compared to the more than 2713 who said they don't. A vote like this has never happened in the history of the Rochester City School District
The parents of the district also had a say:
But some parents are already saying Brizard should look for a new job.
“He's making it clear that he does not value parents and community members as partners in terms of developing a solution to this crisis,” said RCSD parent Howard Eagle…
The Perimeter Primate has collected other articles about Brizard. They are at the same link.
I just did a search for the latest on Rahm's choice. Looks like Brizard is
the "very" short list. Rahm recently declared that schools would have school days that are 90 minutes longer. He said it was non-negotiable.
He also recently said that teachers are not underpaid.
He is aligning himself with
reform forces that are anti-union.From Huff Post in January:
Shaking hands at "L" stops around the city, Emanuel said he has seen "an emptiness in kid's eyes that I would never accept in my own children."
The "emptiness" Rahm claims to see may actually be a reflection of growing child poverty and hunger in the city. Nearly a third of Chicago children are now living below the poverty line, which could account for the growing gap in measurable learning outcomes between wealthy and poor kids and schools.
Rahm hasn't mentioned the worsening conditions for many of the city's children and families. Instead he has joined forces with anti-union and anti-public employee groups, like the Oregon-based Stand for Children, who are pushing legislation in Springfield that would deprive teachers of tenure and the right to strike. Rahm raises the bogeyman of dangerous teacher strikes, comparing them to strikes of firemen and police, which could endanger citizens. This even though there hasn't been a teachers' strike in Chicago in 23 years.
Rahm's solution to the city's growing educational woes after 15 years of mayoral control of the schools: Fire thousands of teachers; increase class size; make those remaining work longer hours for less pay; arbitrarily close 35 neighborhood schools (he never specifies which schools or how they will be determined); and put teachers on a pay-for-performance contract tying pay to student test scores, eliminating all forms of job security. Rahm also promises to import the so-called "parent trigger" strategy from California. Under this law, a group of parents may petition to have a public school closed and turned over to a private management company, pitting parent against parent and neighbor against neighbor.
Good luck to Chicago public school teachers on all of those things. The parent trigger in CA allows 51% of parents in a school to turn the school over to a charter company.
Very convenient for those waiting in line to profit from a once great public education tradition.
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