In January, John Caldow was inducted into the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame, a testament to his 40-plus years of coaching excellence at DePaul University and other high schools across the city.
Good question. And I can’t tell you what the official answer is since Monique Bond, spokeswoman for the Chicago Public Schools, has not returned my calls.
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Of course, given the district’s massive budget hole, it’s probably hard for some people to get worked up over the track and field program while schools CEO Ron Huberman is talking about laying off teachers, increasing class sizes, and scaling back special ed. I guess I have a bias toward track. My daughters ran it. I coached it. I love watching it. And I know firsthand how meaningful it can be for kids—and not just the superstars—who are looking for a way to have fun, keep out of trouble, and stay in shape.
On the local level, it was only a few months ago that corporate, civic, and political leaders—starting with Mayor Daley himself—swore up and down that their efforts to bring the 2016 Olympic games to Chicago were all about ushering in a new age of sports and fitness in public schools and parks. In fact, they told us, the citizenry would benefit from the Olympic bid even if we didn’t get the games, because civic and corporate Chicago were now committed to developing more recreational opportunities for ordinary youth.
Let’s start at the top. The office of the CEO has a staff of eight and a budget of $1.1 million.In addition, the office of the CEO’s chief of staff has another seven employees and a budget of $1.5 million. If the district is desperate to make cuts, how about taking a knife to the bureaucracy before going after programs for kids? When Huberman took over the schools last year he brought with him five former CTA and City Hall employees, each making at least $120,000. Among them was Barbara Lumpkin. Once described by the Sun-Times as the “City Hall equivalent of a utility infielder,” Lumpkin had previously served Mayor Daley as city comptroller, budget director, city treasurer, and chief procurement officer. She’s now making $154,000 as Huberman’s deputy CEO for External Affairs, which has a staff of 49 and a budget of $5.6 million. Her job is to raise money from the business community.
Then again, there’s no shortage of things to investigate within CPS. In 2008 Lamont Bryant sued the district, alleging he was improperly fired from his job as Marshall High basketball coach after alleging financial improprieties among school administrators. Last year Bryant and the school board settled, with the board agreeing to pay Bryant $500,000. Well, at least one coach is getting paid.
And then of course there are the tax increment financing districts. (Regular readers had to know they weren’t going to get through this column without hearing about them.) When people see the CPS line item on their property tax bill, they might reasonably think all the money in that line item is going to the schools. But in fact a good chunk of it goes to the TIF slush funds controlled by the mayor, which aren’t itemized on property tax bills. Last year alone, the TIFs siphoned about $250 million in property tax dollars out of CPS’s supposed share.
