Comments on: CPS: Corrupt Public Servants: SUPES and Byrd-Bennett

By: Joyce Nakamura

Joyce Nakamura — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 14:33:25 +0000

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Principal LaRaviere. As a leadership coach, I have had the honor of working with several CPS principals who have worked tirelessly to improve their schools. I was one of several retired CPS principals who received excellent training from the (NTC) New Teacher Center (School Leadership’s Development Team )(www.newteachercenter.org) in 2011. Working in this capacity ended when principals were required to attend SUPES professional development sessions in 2013. This year I was asked if I would like to work for SUPES. It is my understanding that this was a response to complaints voiced by principals last year that coaches, unfamliar with CPS, could not address their concerns sufficiently. I do not know how many former NTC trained coaches were invited back .
Instead of the 50 hours of direct face to face meetings (NTC), I was only required (SUPES) to have two face to face meetings during the school year and communicate with the principal every two weeks by email or phone. In order to build a relationship with my principals, I chose to visit my assigned principals every two weeks the first semester to become familiar with the school and the principals’ concerns. Each school has its unique challenges and successes and retired CPS principals can be a valuable resource for new CPS principals. This is not a new concept. I benefited from the mentoring my CPS retired principal gave me when I was a first year principal.
Joyce Nakamura

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By: Pillar 5.5*- And by "fiscal responsibility" we mean...

Pillar 5.5*- And by "fiscal responsibility" we mean... — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 01:41:51 +0000

If by “professional development” they mean “sitting in a room where the presenter tells us they need to keep us all there until 1:00 and lets us do work” then consider me professionally developed!

My favorite part is where we were technically allowed to opt out. My chief told a room of principals that we were welcome to opt out but that anyone who did would be held to the highest standard and would used by the network for every example, demonstration, presentation, visit, etc. because we obviously were distinguished and thus needed to examples to others. No thank you- losing a Saturday every other month was way more appealing than that time suck.

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By: George N. Schmidt

George N. Schmidt — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 16:20:20 +0000

Thanks for adding to this record. When I read that stuff about “don’t rely on the Board…” I thought of all the years and years I’ve covered Board meetings which were basically a great giveaway of dollars to private entities and charter schools. It’s like somebody slowly garroting you and saying “don’t rely on God to provide you with air…” I think we may be reaching a turning point. Last Wednesday’s Board meeting agenda was the shortest in history because they were afraid to put out one of those 300-page agendas with 50 or more “purchasing” contracts. But next month, if the heat is off, they will be back to business as usual. Charter school giveaways will be the primary ugliness (hiding behind the smokescreen about the Illinois Charter School Commission, which, you may have noticed, is staffed with former CPS hacks). But they will also be sneaking more “alternative” thingies into that “Department” that is no longer a “Network” so that they can privatize the alternative stuff to for-profit outfits without any fine print details. That’s what you get when the “Network Chief” is an Ivy League lawyer without ever having taught or principalled a day in Chicago. I’m glad that the Substance exposes of this corruption is growing more widespread, but this is like an archeological excavation that’s going to take a lot of hands and strong backs with a lot of picks and shoves. Please send stuff about these scams to us at Substance ([email protected]) and we can print the information based on a reliable source (for those who don’t want yet to be fully public).

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By: Troy LaRaviere: Corrupt public servants. SUPES and Barbara Byrd-Bennett. | Fred Klonsky

Sat, 25 Apr 2015 11:17:04 +0000

[…] From Troy LaRaviere’s blog. Troy is a principal at Blaine elementary school in […]

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By: N.Eck

N.Eck — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 15:47:45 +0000

The CELA by SUPES Saturday sessions were extremely basic leadership essentials that anyone with a Type 75 General Administrative Certificate/License would have received in their first class or two-hardly the kind of PD needed to support experienced administrators. The real affront was the “coaching” and “mentoring” component. When discussing problems of practice with these “master teachers” many of their suggestions were not feasible because they were not aligned with CPS policies or the collective bargaining agreements that govern our interactions with our faculty and staff. We spent most of our time explaining how CPS operates to these outsiders who were being paid big money to “support” us! Many colleagues did not opt out fearing retribution from their Network Chiefs. I sat next to a woman at one session that received an email from her Chief asking why she wasn’t at CELA. She had to hurry to be checked in on the facilitator’s i-pad to get off the naughty list with her Chief. That electronic attendance was quickly being reported to our supervisors for follow-up. The only reason they received any “favorable” feedback from Principals was likely due to people’s fears that the electronic surveys could be tied to their email addresses and people feared retaliation.

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By: Troy LaRaviere

Troy LaRaviere — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 15:14:45 +0000

You’d have to ask CPS for that info. I do not have it. I was just one of many principals who attended. I was not an event organizer and have no access to their data.

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By: Layla

Layla — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 14:17:24 +0000

I would like to know the ratio of principals that attended that were for Charter schools versus public school and how many have a background/degree in education.

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By: CPS: Corrupt Public Servants (Part 1: SUPES and Byrd-Bennett) | Troy LaRaviere‘s blog | Mark Solock Blog

Thu, 23 Apr 2015 02:59:56 +0000

[…] http://troylaraviere.net/2015/04/21/cps-corrupt-public-servants-part-1-supes-and-byrd-bennett/ […]

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By: Dewey

Dewey — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 02:57:11 +0000

This is what every new principal deserves in order to grow and be successful:

“During my first year as principal CPS assigned me a coach: retired CPS principal, Ms. Joyce Nakamura. She would meet with me weekly to give me feedback on my plans and processes for the school. Her feedback was extremely helpful in that it always led to practical steps I could take to get school stakeholders involved in school improvement planning and decision making. Her coaching was made even more relevant by the fact that it was provided in the context of my day-to-day work.”

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By: Current AP

Current AP — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 02:46:55 +0000

Ha. CELA training. I only did a few because my principal was on maternity leave. Waste of time pretty much summed it up

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