The Chicago Public Schools is a system so broke it can’t afford sophomore sports, wants assistant coaches to work for free, and has summoned hundreds of teachers to the principal’s office to let them know they’ll be laid off over the summer. But it can still afford to pay 133 central office officials more than $100,000 a year.
So I decided to do a little digging. After spending hours plowing through the 350-page 2009-2010 CPS budget, I discovered that contrary to cutting wages at the central office, Huberman and the board had given raises to scores of top bureaucrats.
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The story I wrote about it April 1 was widely circulated among angry teachers and students. The central office responded by calling me downtown for my own special budget briefing, where four officials—operations manager Jerome Goudelock, chief human capital officer Alicia Winckler, CFO Diana Ferguson, and district spokeswoman Monique Bond—sat me in a room and assured me that what I’d discovered in the budget weren’t “raises” even though salaries had increased—a distinction I still don’t quite understand.
In other words, the budget, which is publicly available, is inaccurate, but the payroll, which is accurate, isn’t available for public consumption unless we jump through some hoops to get it.
On April 21, she wrote again to ask for more. Mick asked what the delay was, reminding her that Bond had suggested the database was something they probably have on hand—since, you know, the district knows who it’s paying.
At a May 11 press conference with the mayor, Huberman insisted that he’s pretty much cut the central office payroll to the bone. “Throughout this year, the mayor has challenged us to tighten our belt in many ways,” Huberman said. “And in the administrative ranks we’ve reduced or eliminated over 50 positions that make over $100,000, all to tighten our belts internally.”
Sarah Kremsner, chief performance officer, brings in $149,874. She used to work under Huberman when he was running the Chicago Transit Authority. So did Patricia Taylor, who’s making $150,000 a year to serve as chief property officer, and Jerusha Rodgers, who gets $115,000 as acting officer for college and career preparation.
