In the struggle between the Chicago school board and the Gale Local School Council over the selection of a new principal, board officials backed off Wednesday from declaring an education crisis.
Instead, they opted to send an official into the Far North Side school for daily observation.
The Chicago School Reform Board of Trustees also decided to seek a court opinion on the way the Gale council voted in July to hire Beverly Martin as principal.
The 1995 reform law states that a 10-member elementary school council must have seven “yes” votes to hire a principal, but the law is unclear how many “yes” votes are required in a second round of voting. The second-round vote to hire Martin was 6-3.
Board officials allege that the hiring was influenced by outsiders, that racial divisions between African-Americans and Latinos among the parents and council members have disabled the council, and that the council violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act and the principal-selection process by ignoring other candidates.
Gale council members charge that the school board is trying to force another principal down their throats. They say the board has intimidated council members and tried to blackmail member Dennis Weekly by threatening to leak his prison record for cocaine possession in the mid-1980s.
The board’s decision to place the school on remediation, enabling an auditor to enter the school, was denounced by Gale council members.
“How many investigations are they going to do? They’ve been doing so many investigations,” said council President Florentina Leon. “This is injustice.”
Council members and their supporters charged that Gale’s remediation order was motivated by political retribution rather than education. Schools chief Paul Vallas said that Gale’s test scores have been stagnant.
Gale, at 1631 W. Jonquil Ter., has been in “an academic free fall the last two or three years,” Vallas said, adding that he would send a veteran principal to the school as the remediation observer.
Weekly alleged Wednesday that he was intimidated and threatened by deputy education officer Carlos Azcoitia, school and community affairs director James Deanes, and board investigator Michael Mahone.
Azcoitia and Deanes denied Weekly’s allegations. Mahone was not available for comment.
