Team Emanuel was not happy with my Wednesday column, the one in which I gave voice to the critics of the mayor-elect’s choice to run Chicago Public Schools, Rochester City School District Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard.
It was not balanced, members of the team contended in a series of calls and emails. While interviewing Brizard’s detractors in Rochester, N.Y., and knocking down some of the statistical claims for his reform efforts, I hadn’t also sought out the views of those who are enthusiastic about Brizard’s three-year tenure in the troubled system.
I admit this. I felt that praise for Brizard had been given a generous airing in the initial round of stories and editorials, which I’d read carefully, and that I’d use my space here to explore some of the serious concerns being raised about a man who is about to become one of the most important public officials in Illinois.
But I like to be diligent and thorough, so I talked Wednesday and Thursday to those to whom Team Emanuel directed me to for perspective.
Robert Duffy, the lieutenant governor of New York and, until late 2010, the mayor of Rochester: “Chicago picked a great superintendent. The man truly cares. He was a breath of fresh air, and you’re hearing now from the forces who didn’t want change.
“He’s warm, engaging, has a great personality. He’s a strong leader, very clear about what he wants to accomplish. That scares people. He’s a very good person. He just got caught in a power struggle here.”
Patricia Galivan, parent of two students in the Rochester system, including the nonvoting student representative on the school board: Brizard “brought some important issues into the forefront, including a focus on curriculum needs and the performance of minority males.
“I believe he’s brilliant, but his timeline was probably too aggressive. He shot from the hip and maybe was a little too abrasive, which is why we had so much gridlock. But I’m sad to see him go. Three years wasn’t long enough.”
Tom Petronio, chief communications officer, Rochester City School District: “He’s a remarkable educator and a visionary reformer. He’s phasing out nine low-performing schools and has opened five new schools in conjunction with other education partners, such as a trade consortium here in Rochester, and we will hold those schools to a higher standard.
“He listens, he’s courteous and he’s more open to the media than any superintendent I’ve worked for. Though the status quo hadn’t produced good results for our kids, his critics didn’t want to see change. I just hope Chicago gives him the chance to work to his potential because Rochester didn’t.”
Fair enough? In addition, I’ve added numerous links to favorable articles and assessments about Brizard to my online resource collection, complementing links to more critical articles, including the Tribune’s Page 1 report Thursday headlined, “CPS’ new boss faces skeptics — N.Y. district left with failing test scores, fiscal woes.”
But here’s the thing. Team Emanuel, which was quick to criticize me for not having done due diligence in assessing Brizard for an 800-word newspaper column, evidently failed to perform much diligence of its own.
I checked back with the critics and skeptics I’d consulted earlier in the week — including parents’ network head Hilary Appelman and dogged TV reporter Rachel Barnhart — to ask: Had anyone involved in the search for a new schools CEO here reached out to them for a conversation about why Brizard is such a lightning rod for controversy in Rochester?
No, they said.
What about the veteran head of the Rochester Teachers Association, Adam Urbanski, who had enthusiastically welcomed Brizard to town in his newsletter in late 2007 but has recently been feuding with Brizard and offering such quips as “his plans were not good and sound, they just sounded good” and “Brizard’s definition of shared decision-making was to make a decision and then share it with others.”
Did those who recruited Urbanski sit down with him to assess how and why things devolved to the point where 94.6 percent of Rochester’s teachers gave Brizard a no-confidence vote in April?
“No,” Urbanski told me, which was the same answer I got from Howard Eagle, one of the leaders of Rochester’s Community Education Task Force, which also passed a resolution of no confidence in Brizard earlier this year.
Why not?
Becky Carroll, who will be the chief communications director for CPS under Emanuel, told me there was no need to talk to these people, that their views were already known to the search team.
If only they’d held themselves to the high standards to which they hold newspaper columnists.
Comment on this topic and consult the archive of sources on Brizard at chicagotribune.com/zorn.
