Chicago Public Schools chief Paul Vallas said Friday he would take no disciplinary action regarding a controversial internal memo that Hispanic parents and activists criticized as bigoted last month.
Katherine Konopasek, who works in the school board’s Department of School Quality Reviews, wrote an internal memo last school year about Juarez High School in Pilsen that was part of the board’s probation crackdown and academic audit of the school.
The memo, citing a social worker and nurse at Juarez, said that “cultural mores” allowed a cycle of domestic violence and alcoholism in the Hispanic community.
Konopasek no longer conducts academic audits of schools, but her reassignment to another unit within the school board’s Office of Accountability came before the internal memo became a public controversy, Vallas said.
The nurse and social worker cited in the memo told board investigators that comments were taken out of context, Vallas said.
