LSC Help & Info

The law requires that LSCs use the CPS-prepared form for your annual principal evaluation. The form directs much of what you do, but PURE has some older material HERE which may help in your process.  

 

We were first introduced to the CPS Super Donut with this flyer brought home by one of our high school sons during IGAP (the old ISAT) testing week in 1997. Apparently Paul Vallas had heard that a sugary breakfast taken before testing could bump up student scores, and he was never one to miss an opportunity to enhance his legend. 

Today's Tribune report on the 3-doughnut breakfast CPS offers our children these days shows how little has changed. The Super Donut continues to be an apt symbol of the system's larger operations. 

According to the Tribune, the CPS breakfast menu and food service make it possible for a student to eat a breakfast that consists of a doughnut, a Pop-Tart, and Frosted Flakes, or -- as the reporter saw one student do --  three doughnuts. 

The reporter points out that the word doughnut is not actually used on the school's posted menu, but the brand name, "MVP Breakfast," so most parents don't realize what their children might be eating every morning.  

While CPS's breakfast menu is "within federal guidelines" (think No Child Left Behind), every nutrition and health expert interviewed was alarmed by the potential short- and long-term negative effects of such unhealthy fare.

Substitute "high-stakes testing," "flunking students," or "school closings" for doughnuts and you have CPS's education reform plan in a nutshell. Research is clear that these efforts are also bad for children, but CPS ignores the experts there, too.

The suggestion that an unhealthy breakfast is better than no breakfast at all is reminiscent of the "retention versus social promotion" debate, or the "we can't wait another moment to replace failing schools" argument --- as though the choice is between depriving children altogether or simply feeding them improperly.  

And then there's the inevitable district cover-up. Monica Eng's sidebar describes the efforts of CPS central office staff to stage a healthier cafeteria scene for the reporter, but the students expose the ruse. "They have this supervisor here today, and they don't let us have what we usually get," a girl complains.

Let's hope this healthy investigative cynicism spills over into the Tribune's reporting on other CPS policies and practices, some of which may have even worse consequences than doughnuts for breakfast. 

Update: Steinberg says that he has seen an LSC do this. OK - so why weren't charges filed? It is illegal. 

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So far I have neither read nor heard any comments in the media from people who oppose the appointment of Ron Huberman on the basis of his sexual orientation. So why are columnists and bloggers raising the issue, and why is at least one of them associating such a position with local school councils?

Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg states that, of course, being gay isn’t an issue in terms of Huberman’s job performance, but he goes on to say, “But it will matter, perhaps enormously, to some he had to deal with, particularly those who object to some action of Huberman's and are searching for what they consider a fault to bludgeon him with.”

So, opposing Huberman is anti-gay. Bad enough.

Then he goes on to equate the anti-gay feelings in those who oppose Huberman with the LSCs which, according to him, have fired principals for being the wrong race.

Wow.

And there’s no evidence that these supposed race-based firings by LSCs have happened. On the contrary, we know that many principals have tried to keep their jobs by filing discrimination complaints and lawsuits, yet none has ever succeeded in those efforts. The LSC training material explicitly instructs LSCs about discrimination laws and what they may and may not consider in their principal contract decisions. 

Like most people who don’t keep up much with schools issues but believe everything written about them in the newspapers, Steinberg is most likely referring to the Curie LSC case, where the Mayor tried to conduct a media witch hunt when a family friend's principal contract was not renewed by an LSC. I've referred Steinberg to the You Tube clip which gives just one example of the type of unprofessional antics which actually led to the principal’s firing.    

This one-pager presents some of the key data about LSC effectiveness. It compares the impressive improvements in previously low-performing schools under LSC governance with the poor performance of schools put on probation where CPS made all the decisions.

This fact sheet takes on some of the misinformation that has been spread about LSC principal selection processes and Curie High School.

How to testify before the Board of Education

The Board of Education gives the public an opportunity at every monthly meeting and at special public hearings to provide input into decision making. This is one important opportunity to affect the quality of our schools and our children's education.

Click here for details and tips about testifying at the Board of Education. 

Research is showing that LSCs are effective school reform agents.

Read the good news here! 

Click here for an LSC meeting “cheat sheet”

Keep these 2 pages in front of you during your LSC meetings to answer those pesky process questions: Do we have a quorum? How many votes do we need? etc.

LSCs now have the right to have an official CPS identification badge. PURE promoted LSC IDs because too many LSC members were being threatened with arrest or actually arrested for trespassing in their own schools as they carried out LSC business.

Here's how to get your ID badge. 

How to know when and where an LSC meets and what business they will conduct

Click here for a one-page set of recommendations for effective LSC budget planning and monitoring. 

Click here for a sample list of tasks that you will need to accomplish during the LSC principal selection process, arranged as a meeting schedule.

 

PURE's LSC workshop menu offers a variety of topics and credit for lessons 7, 8, and 9. Call 312-491-9101 to schedule a workshop for your LSC!