Curie principal still out
Hispanic majority on LSC refuses to reverse vote

March 11, 2007
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Staff Reporter
The highly rated African-American principal of Curie High School remains ousted after the new Hispanic majority on the local school council refused to reverse its vote Saturday under pressure from school and city officials.




"The school is 62 percent Hispanic, and they want a Hispanic principal," Otis Davis Jr. said Saturday after he and two other LSC members who support Jones stormed out of the meeting to deprive members of a quorum.

African-American supporters of Principal Jerryelyn Jones shouted, "Speak English!" at anti-Jones LSC member Maria Lopez as she addressed the crowd in Spanish. A Hispanic Lopez supporter said the African-American Jones supporter behind her was kicking her chair. "You should be ashamed of yourself," Jones' supporters shouted after the vote.

Mayor Daley, as he has before, blasted the decision and suggested state legislators should weaken the power they gave local school councils a decade ago to hire and fire principals.

Supporters of local school control say Daley and other leaders should not use this controversy to go "backward" on that reform, which they say has had a positive impact at most schools.


No one else switched
"Why isn't the LSC listening to us?" student Flor Carabez pleaded with the council Saturday after the vote. "We demand the reasons for taking our principal away. Why can't Mrs. Jones stay here?"
LSC Chairman Tom Ramos said rules prohibited him and other members from answering that question, though they denied race had anything to do with it.

"I can't say why we did not renew the contract. It's a legal thing," Ramos said.

After Daley initially weighed in, schools CEO Arne Duncan called Ramos, a city worker, in for a "heart-to-heart" talk Monday, and Ramos -- who had voted to oust Jones, agreed to split from the other Hispanics and vote to consider keeping her.

But none of the other Hispanic members switched their votes, so Saturday's vote was 5-4 not to renew her contract.

"I told Arne I was only one person -- maybe they thought others were going to switch," Ramos said.


'You don't have a quorum'
Immediately after they voted not to give Jones another chance, the new majority, which took office last summer, proposed hiring attorney Elaine Siegel to represent them in the arbitration Jones is seeking against their decision.
In an attempt to derail that vote, Davis, a pastor who used to be chairman of the board and is the only African-American left, stood up and said, "At this time, I am exercising my right to walk out of this meeting." Jones' two other supporters on the board, both white teachers, joined him, and as they headed out of the room, Davis announced, "You don't have a quorum."

But Ramos, consulting with School Board attorneys, said that because Davis and the others had not made it through the door when the other six members finished voting on Siegel's contract, the quorum was still there.

Once the three members had left the room, Ramos acknowledged he had no quorum and could take no more action, so $12,000 they were supposed to transfer into a fund to let teachers stay after school to grade papers and tutor students could not be approved.

"We learn not only from school -- we learn from watching our elders," student Danielle Martinez told the six Hispanic board members. "If we came in here and tried to learn something, all we would learn is corruption."

Support for Jones did not entirely follow racial lines. Just about all the students, Hispanic and African-American, at Saturday's meeting supported Jones. Likewise, some African Americans cheered on the board for standing up to pressure from Daley and School Board officials.

apallasch@suntimes.com



Pressure on council, arbitration may come next
The next meeting of the Curie High School local school council is not until May 17, but people on both sides of the controversy over ousted Principal Jerryelyn Jones expect action before then.
School officials persuaded one member of the majority, LSC Chairman Tom Ramos, to switch his vote from ousting Jones to giving her another chance. If they can persuade one more member of the 5-4 majority to switch, another special meeting can be called.

Jones has requested arbitration of the decision not to keep her on, which means the LSC has about a month to give her a list of reasons her contract is not being renewed. Attorneys for her and the council will then appear before an arbitrator who will determine whether those reasons are "reasonable."

Mayor Daley said Saturday, as he has before, that state legislators should reverse or trim back the law that gave local school councils the right to hire and fire principals.

"Her contract still runs through October, so she will be there for a while," Chicago Public Schools spokesman Mike Vaughn said.

Abdon M. Pallasch




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