More staff eliminations, shifts in jobs and a reassessment of salaries will be the next phase of the Chicago Public Schools bureaucratic makeover that so far has resulted in the removal of four top employees.
“We’re targeting more efficiency and more effectiveness in what we do to provide services for schools,” Schools Supt. Argie Johnson said Thursday in a meeting with the Tribune’s editorial board.
“As we continue to look at this, there may be some other people that we have to eliminate,” she said. “But there will be some people shifted to different departments depending upon skills.
“We will be going through each department and each bureau looking at functions, looking at reclassifying positions and making compensation more equitable.”
On Wednesday, school officials dismantled several departments, parceling out the duties to other offices that fall under the guidance of either Johnson or chief financial officer Charley Gillispie.
A new department, procurement and contracts, will now oversee the awarding of contracts from the closed affirmative action office, as well as all other school contracts.
The other functions of the affirmative action office now fall under the department of human services.
The facilities and career services departments were similarly dismantled Wednesday.
Johnson said the removal of a deputy superintendent, a board attorney and two department heads Wednesday was intended to smooth the way for implementation of her “Three-Tiered Proposal,” which puts schools into three categories according to academic performance.
Though an updated version of the plan, which Johnson introduced six months ago, speaks of grouping staff into teams to address specific school needs, it still is unclear how the teams will work and how much the plan will cost.
Johnson said the administrative reorganization is aimed at making the central office a better resource to schools, particularly those that are lagging academically.
Responding to concerns that the plan is aimed at significantly reducing staff at the board’s Pershing Road headquarters, Johnson said, “That is not true.”
In fact, she said, there are several administrative jobs the board is seeking to fill. She said she and Gillispie will look within and outside the system to fill vacancies.
“There will be no massive layoffs. . . . We do not want to convey that we are doing this so that people will be let go,” Johnson said. “There may be other things some people can do more effectively. We’re trying to improve our operation overall.”
In the ongoing effort to improve test scores, the district will, as a last-ditch measure, adhere to the discipline process spelled out in the school reform law, Johnson said. Earlier this week, she expressed shock that no school has ever been placed on probation, although standardized test scores at 37 schools have gotten progressively worse the last four years.
The law says that if a school continues to fail even after school officials have intervened with assistance, principals can be fired and schools closed.
“If we have to go that far, yes,” Johnson said. “That’s why the law is there. We’re not intending to have to talk about closing schools because of non-performance. (But) how long can you allow schools just to remain static without intervening? . . . We must improve.”
Toward that end and to help ward off the fiscal scandals that have pummeled the district lately, Johnson said she will develop “conflict-of-interest” policies for the system.
“We’re working to prevent things like misuse of funds, nepotism and other kinds of personnel disputes,” she said.
