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-52054,FF.html ---Forwarded article---------------- Teachers toss out union's old guard By Michael Martinez In the second major shakeup of public schools in as many days, the Chicago Teachers Union on Friday elected a hard-line activist, 8th-grade teacher Deborah Lynch-Walsh, as its new president. The defeat of seven-year incumbent Thomas Reece, whom Lynch-Walsh accused of "acting more like an agent of management than a guardian of teachers," followed by one day Chicago school board President Gery Chico's resignation. Lynch-Walsh's caucus, ProActive Chicago Teachers and School Employees, scored a near-sweep of the union's 47-member executive board, taking all but the eight seats representing career service school employees. "This election was about respect, it was about dignity, it was about voice," Lynch-Walsh said. "It's a new day for the Chicago Teachers Union. ... Many of our members felt there was no respect, that reforms were being done to them instead of with them." After two unsuccessful attempts to unseat Reece since 1996, Lynch-Walsh handily won the election that was held on May 18, with 57 percent of the 21,378 votes cast. There are about 27,000 teachers and 6,000 support personnel in the union. Reece had emphasized his collaborative record with the mayor's schools team and how teachers were sharing the credit in Chicago's school reform. Lynch-Walsh was portrayed by Reece's caucus the past few months as a militant bent on seeking the city's first teachers strike since 1987 in protest of the crackdowns on teachers in low-performing schools. In victory, Lynch-Walsh said Friday that the teachers sent a message: "We want to see a union leadership that will be out there, very vocal and speaking on the issues." As for her critics' accusation that she will invoke threats of a strike for bargaining leverage, Lynch-Walsh responded: "That's the last thing on our minds. ... We can't wait to begin the conversation to position our members as the key decision-makers, the key participants in the reform conversation." Lynch-Walsh's victory came despite efforts by the school board to sweeten the teacher's four-year contract, which will end in 2003. The board quietly awarded teachers a one-time, 1 percent lump pay increase in April, which Lynch-Walsh contended was a violation of labor law because she said the board was essentially offering money during a union election. Also, board officials recently shelved a plan to hire Edison Schools, a management firm, to oversee academic sanctions at some of the city's most troubled high schools. And the board delayed an announcement this month on how many teachers would be summarily fired in five high schools undergoing "intervention." Schools chief Paul Vallas, whom Lynch-Walsh accused of virtually endorsing Reece, said he was looking forward to working with the new union leader. "I don't endorse anyone, but I acknowledged that I felt Tom Reece did an excellent job and I enjoyed immensely working with him," Vallas said. "But I look forward to establishing an excellent working relationship with Deborah Lynch-Walsh and her leadership team." Vallas declined to comment on Lynch-Walsh's remarks that teachers feel they have been treated unfairly by reform. Union officials said privately that Reece's caucus members didn't campaign as aggressively as Lynch-Walsh's did. Also, they noticed an unusual backlash in Reece's traditional stronghold, elementary schools. Elementary school teachers began wearing "Dump Reece" buttons, even though elementary schools were spared reform's harshest sanctions. The majority of teachers work in elementary schools, and Daley's schools team targeted high schools for its most dramatic crackdowns. Lynch-Walsh began building her political base in high schools several years ago. "She was able to pull together various factions that were off in various turfs," including militant anti-management teachers and more moderate union members, one union official said. "It pulled together this time." Lynch-Walsh, 49, a teacher at Marquette West Elementary on the Southwest Side, will become union president on July 1. She had been a union insider in the early 1990s when she helped establish and lead the union's Quest Center under a MacArthur Foundation grant. The center advocates experimental teaching methods. She returned to teaching one year after Reece was elected union president in 1994. Lynch-Walsh frequently cites as her role model the late union President Jacqueline Vaughn, who was known for her outspokenness on behalf of teachers and her theatrical news conferences. Vaughn, who died in 1994, led the 1987 teachers strike. Reece, 63, was not available for comment Friday. Union spokeswoman Jackie Gallagher said on Reece's behalf: "The members have spoken, and it's been an honor to serve them for as long as he has." ---------------------------------------------------- This is the CPS Mathematics Teacher Discussion List. 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