The following article was selected from the Internet Edition of the Chicago Tribune. To visit the site, point your browser to http://chicagotribune.com/. ----------- Chicago Tribune Article Forwarding---------------- Article forwarded by: Cayata Dixon Return e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Article URL: http://chicagotribune.com/news/metro/chicago/article/0,2669,ART-52018,FF.html ---Forwarded article---------------- Chico resigns school post in surprise move By Michael Martinez <br>and Gary Washburn After steering Mayor Richard Daley's reform of the city's public schools for six years, Gery Chico resigned Thursday as president of the Chicago Board of Education. The surprising resignation comes amid a planned shakeup of city schools, prompted by Daley's growing impatience with progress. Just last week, sagging test scores gave the strongest indication yet that six years of improvements in student performance were leveling off far below national averages. The resignation, effective June 30, raises questions about not only who will succeed Chico -- an announcement that could come within a week, Daley said -- but also what role schools chief Paul Vallas will continue to play. Vallas and Chico, the two most responsible for reform since the mayor took control of the schools in 1995, often butted heads. In his position, Chico was to oversee policy and serve as City Hall's check on Vallas. But Vallas, in charge of day-to-day affairs, has pushed his role to include broad policy initiatives, as well, often setting up conflicts with Chico. Chico and Vallas indicated they have felt stung by Daley's criticisms this year. A month ago, Chico began pushing for a reorganization of the system's top brass to heed Daley's call for "outside-the-box" ideas and better reading scores. Now, Chico himself becomes part of that reorganization. At an afternoon news conference, Chico said he was voluntarily resigning to spend more time with his three daughters -- now in 11th, 9th and 5th grades -- and with his law practice, where he is a chairman and a lobbyist representing corporations and other clients seeking contracts with City Hall. His dual role as board president and as a lobbyist representing clients that also won business with the schools sometimes created controversy, and Chico abstained from more than 400 votes to avoid conflicts of interest. "Six years is actually a lengthy period of service in this position," Chico said. "Of the 80 prior presidents of this board, only three have served longer continuously. "This is a natural break point. You would like to leave when there is sufficient time to find a successor, prepare that successor to go and start the next school year as smoothly as possible." Daley had announced Chico's resignation a few hours earlier at an unrelated event. "He has taken this upon himself," Daley said. "He has done a tremendous job. Like anything else, he has a life too. He has given a lot of time and energy away from his family and business. It is an opportunity for other people to serve." Replacement search Daley said he expects to name a replacement for Chico in "a week or so." Speculation at City Hall centered on three candidates, including two longtime Daley allies: Valerie Jarrett, who has served as deputy chief of staff and planning commissioner under Daley and is chairwoman of the Chicago Transit Authority; Gene Saffold, a Chicago school board member who is director of public finance for the Salomon Smith Barney investment firm; and Forrest Claypool, former chief of staff for Daley and a past Park District general superintendent. Administrators at the schools' central office predicted that Avis LaVelle, vice president of the Chicago Board of Education, was the likely replacement. But City Hall sources said she is not a candidate. A mayoral aide said the requirements for the new school board chief are clear: "Someone who has an established job and who has been in the position long enough that they would have some freedom to be away from their primary employment for big chunks of time. And someone who doesn't represent many conflicts." School reform Reforming the schools is a cornerstone to Daley's efforts to making his city viable and attractive to middle class families who might otherwise move to the suburbs for better schools. In July 1995, Daley was given direct control over the city's public schools under a state law, and using a corporate model, Daley installed Chico as board chairman and Vallas as CEO. Chico and Vallas caught the nation's attention by banning the social or automatic promotion of students at certain grades. They have also raised $2.7 billion to build schools, annexes and additions. Under reforms -- which included dramatic academic sanctions under the new law -- the system's scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills rose steadily. In 1995, about one out of every four elementary and high school students read at grade level; now it is about one out of every three. In high school math, scores jumped from about 25 percent of students working at grade level to 45 percent. But this year's high school reading and elementary math scores slipped, erasing two years of gains. Elementary reading scores, however, rose for the sixth consecutive year. Even before those scores came back, Daley was cracking the whip on his schools team as improvements lagged. Chico reportedly was angry when Daley last February publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of reading improvement. Resignation talk The mayoral aide said Thursday that Chico brought up the possibility of resigning earlier in the year, even before Daley's remarks. Whether the mayor's criticism played a role in Thursday's announcement was not known, the aide said. Daley downplayed the tension between Chico and Vallas. "There is always tension there," the mayor said. "Sometimes it is good for people." Said Chico: "People make a lot out of the tension between Paul Vallas and myself, but quite frankly I enjoyed working with Paul, and I hope we get a chance to work in some capacity again some day." Vallas praised Chico but added, "In any relationship over 10 years, there's going to be tension." Their first meeting was in 1991 when Chico was mayoral chief of staff and Vallas was city revenue department head. An increasing source of controversy for Chico was his private legal practice as a lobbyist, which he began after leaving City Hall as Daley's chief of staff. Altheimer & Gray had 18 lobbying clients in 1995, the year before Chico joined the firm as chief of its government operation. Chico became school board president in July 1995. By 2000, his law firm had nearly 200 clients, making it the No. 1 lobbyist in City Hall. "I am proud of the way that I conducted myself ethically," Chico said. "If you read the law and see what it requires and if you really study what those abstentions consist of, you will understand that this was not much of a conflict at all." Pressure on mayor Donald Moore, executive director of Designs for Change, a group that advocates local control of schools, said the pressure is on Daley. "The focus should be on how the mayor is going to change course to ensure the kids are going to learn how to read," Moore said. Chico's departure led to speculation about the future of Vallas who, like Chico, also has spent six years at the helm of the school system.Asked if Vallas had done a good job, Daley said, "I think they all have done a good job. Like anything else, we can do a better job." Asked if he wanted Vallas to stay, the mayor said, "Yes." When it was suggested that was not a glowing endorsement, Daley replied testily, "I am glowing. What do you want me to do, put a moon face on?" Chico's resignation came before Friday's announcement of election results for the presidency of the Chicago Teachers Union, in which school officials have privately expressed fear that incumbent, Thomas Reece, could lose to challenger Deborah Lynch Walsh, an activist who styles herself after the late CTU president Jacqueline Vaughn, who led the last teacher strikes in the 1980s. During Daley's six-year takeover of schools, there have been no teacher strikes. Tribune staff reporters Ray Quintanilla, Stephanie Banchero and Teresa Puente contributed to this report. ---------------------------------------------------- This is the CPS Mathematics Teacher Discussion List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. 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