Thread: Daley: Principal's firing 'a disgrace'

Daley: Principal's firing 'a disgrace'
Mayor wants Curie High chief back -- some pin vote on race, personalities

March 2, 2007
BY FRAN SPIELMAN AND LISA DONOVAN Staff Reporters
Mayor Daley Thursday condemned as a "national disgrace" the ouster of the "superstar" principal of Curie High School and demanded that the local school council overturn its decision or that the Chicago Board of Education be empowered to reverse it.

One day after distraught Curie students and parents issued an emotional appeal on behalf of principal Jerryelyn Jones, Daley sided with them -- and jumped headfirst into a local controversy with racial overtones.


» Click to enlarge image

Curie High School principal Jerryeln Jones was fired. Mayor Daley is demanding she get her job back.
(Tom Cruze/Sun-Times)

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Jones is black. Some Curie parents have accused local school council chairman Tom Ramos, who is Hispanic, of engineering Jones' ouster to pave the way for a Latino principal in a Southwest Side school where 65 percent of the student body is Hispanic.

Jones was fired Feb. 10 by a vote of 6 to 2. The six votes against her all came from Hispanics.

Complicating the situation is an internal investigation of Ramos stemming from a bribery allegation reported to the inspector general by ousted principal Jones. Jones further alienated Ramos by refusing to approve his request to attend a school-paid conference in Washington.

Daley said he doesn't know what the ulterior motives are. Whatever they are, the mayor said it doesn't justify dumping "one of the great superstar principals" from a school where attendance and academic performance are on the upswing and students are clamoring to get in.

"It would be different if they had some substance on this, but there's none. ... This would be a national disgrace -- a great injustice," he said.

"Local control was supposed to better the child's education -- not get into, 'We don't like the principal, her personality and we want to get rid of her.' ... The board does not have the authority to overtuhe decision, which I believe they should have. You can't have local school councils not liking the principal or [because] the school gave too many F's or D's out in classes, say, 'We're going to get rid of these principals.' ... We want quality principals. And she is one of the best quality principals out there."


LSC has 'an agenda': board member
Jones, reached at a downtown meeting of Chicago principals and administrators, thanked the mayor.
"I appreciate his support, I really do, but the data speaks for itself," said Jones. She ticked off a list of improvements at the school in her eight-year tenure as principal that includes better graduation rates, higher attendance rates, lower dropout rates and improvements in test scores.

She said her ouster hurt not just professionally but personally, because she has been at Curie 25 years -- 12 as a teacher, five as assistant principal and eight years as principal. "I feel like it's a blight on my reputation," she said.<

However, letters of support from students and parents have eased the pain somewhat, she said.

Ramos could not be reached for comment.

LSC member Otis Davis cast one of the two votes in favor of retaining Jones. He charged that Ramos has had a "vendetta" against Jones since the principal reported the bribery allegation and rejected the Washington trip last year.

"He ran a slate of Hispanic individuals and they got a majority on the council. This is a racial issue engineered by a rogue LSC who has not properly evaluated the principal based on guidelines set down by the board. They have one agenda and that agenda is to fire her and put a Hispanic principal in," he said.

Inspector General Jim Sullivan confirmed that he is investigating several allegations against Ramos on a tip from the ousted principal -- including a charge that the LSC chairman "solicited a vendor for $400."


Appeal filed with arbitrator
"Our report will be issued in the next couple of ays," Sullivan said.
Jones is appealing her firing to an independent arbitrator, but the track record is not promising. Of the 10 appeals filed by fired principals over the last six years, none have been overturned.

Ramos is no stranger to the Chicago Sun-Times. In May 2004, he called the newspaper to complain that a fellow LSC member tried to physically attack him at Curie. He asked that security guards be assigned to LSC meetings because of "this person's threats and intimidation."

Last fall, he called the Sun-Times again -- this time to complain about fights across the street from Curie.

"I was coming home from work and went to check out the sirens. Unfortunately, they were coming from our school. ... Our students are at it again," Ramos said then, claiming to have a picture of a student "whose head was busted."

Contributing: Rosalind Rossi

http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/ ... 02.article

Finally Mayor Daley gets it right

I surely see this. I mean we have a hispanic McDonalds manager right down the road. There are only hispanics working there. Any new business that opens by a hispanic......hires only hispanics. Atleast at the McDonalds they speak English......but where is this equal oppertunity for their side of this? It seems as soon as they get into any position of power.....they are looking out only for their own.

I heard this story on the radio this morning. From every thing I have read on this, there is no reason what-so-ever to dismiss this woman. She excelled at her job. They had some clip the other day after the elections where people were so glad to have ousted a couple of blacks for hispanic replacements. It's difficult to describe but it's an attitude of "we're winning". "We're taking over". Knowing so many are affiliated with LaRaza and such.......and reading posts on other sites from hispanics......it won't be equal till they oust us all out. Especially white but every other color as well. Majority rules and it's been said 1 too many times to ignore, that they will breed us out.

SO TAKING OVER ANOTHER SCHOOL PAID FOR WITH TAXPAYER MONEY, WE BUILD THEM AND THEY TAKE THEM, SWEET DEAL HUH!!

If we get the government to enforce the immigration laws, watch the numbers dwindle!!!!!

crazybird wrote:

It seems as soon as they get into any position of power.....they are looking out only for their own.

Unfortunately, it's a scenario that is playing out over and over again throughout our country.

Didn't I read an article someone posted on ALIPAC a while back regarding a special fund the Hispanic members of the California Congress have set up to aid in the financing of campaigns specifically for their relatives? Does California's legislative body have any Hispanic member with relatives also serving?

Wish I could remember where I'd seen this.

Yup, MW

I believe I might have posted that piece.
Finding it is another story

Didn't I read an article someone posted on ALIPAC a while back regarding a special fund the Hispanic members of the California Congress have set up to aid in the financing of campaigns specifically for their relatives? Does California's legislative body have any Hispanic member with relatives also serving?

For the latin, by the latin, nothing but the latin..RACISTS

LaRaza = everything for the race. They are indeed slowly being elected into office in Chicago. They practically own Chicago as it has been stated that Guiterriez is "like a son" to Mayor Daley, another scarey alliance.

FedUpInWaukegan: I have been meaning to ask you a question. Do you remember early last year when a Mexican official (in Chicago) was convicted of fraud and he fled to Mexico? Funny how that story disappeared. I've been trying to find it on the internet but can't.

This is just the beginning. They will go from here to bigger and better positions, their goal, IMO, is to get to Washington...and if that is allowed..we are in for a whole new America! SOCIALISM.

Jones was fired Feb. 10 by a vote of 6 to 2. The six votes against her all came from Hispanics.

Gee, I wonder if this vote was somehow biased?