A couple weeks ago I wrote about how top administrators with the Chicago Public Schools, from CEO Ron Huberman on down, had budgeted themselves raises even as they threatened to lay off teachers, asked coaches to work for free, and cut sophomore sports to chip away at a deficit approaching nearly $1 billion.
She said she would be happy to explain—if I’d come to the central office at 125 S. Clark to talk about it in the presence of CPS budget officials.
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Bond met me on the ground floor and ushered me to a conference room on the fifth floor, where three officials were waiting: operations manager Jerome Goudelock, chief human capital officer Alicia Winckler, and CFO Diana Ferguson.
They told me they thought I would benefit from what amounted to my own personal budget briefing. Of course, since this was a meeting to clear things up, they placed a condition on the conversation: I could write about what they said, but the only person I could quote directly was Bond. As our conversation continued, Winckler and Ferguson did most of the talking, and Bond occasionally chimed in. Goudelock hardly said a word.
Correct, I was told.
To see that, Bond told me, I’d have to file a Freedom of Information Act request.
OK, let me try a different track: The school board raised the amount of money allocated for the CEO from $204,000 to $230,000—correct?
