Teachers union has new boss May 26, 2001 BY STEPHANIE ZIMMERMANN STAFF REPORTER An eighth-grade teacher who led a revolt of dissatisfied colleagues has won the presidency of the Chicago Teachers Union in a lopsided vote that she described as "a cry for help" for those on the front lines of school reform. Deborah Lynch-Walsh, 49, a teacher at Marquette Elementary, won 12,220 votes to the 9,158 votes for Thomas Reece, 61, a former Disney Magnet teacher who has been president since 1994. Lynch-Walsh assumes the post July 1. Lynch-Walsh's slate of candidates from the ProActive Chicago Teachers & School Employees Caucus (PACT) movement swept all the major union offices, as well as most lesser positions. After the tallies were announced, Lynch-Walsh, who had received 42 percent of the vote in her 1998 bid to oust Reece, stood before cheering supporters at CTU headquarters, shouting, "We made it! "We are absolutely, unbelievably humble and grateful to the members of the Chicago Teachers Union for their trust and their support and their belief that today is a new day for the Chicago Teachers Union," Lynch-Walsh said. "This election was about respect, and it was about dignity, and it was about voice." Reece could not be reached for comment. The vote was more than a repudiation of Reece's style, which some rank-and-file teachers viewed as being too cozy with management. It also was seen as a referendum on the school reform efforts of CEO Paul Vallas and former School Board President Gery Chico, who resigned Thursday. Vallas said he doesn't expect any confrontations. "I congratulate her, and I look forward to working with her," he said. Reece's supporters had pointed to his back-to-back four-year contracts and steady gains in teacher pay. But Lynch-Walsh tapped into anger from those in the trenches who thought their concerns about top-down central office initiatives and crowded classrooms were being ignored by union leadership. Lynch-Walsh dismissed critics who said her confrontational style would bring the threat of teacher strikes and turn off middle class families Mayor Daley wants to bring back to public schools. "That is the last thing on our mind. Right now, we can't wait to begin the conversation with the powers that be," Lynch-Walsh said. The election is a "seismic" shift, said Gail Purkey, spokeswoman for the Illinois Federation of Teachers, of which the CTU is an affiliate. Linda Lenz, editor and publisher of Catalyst, a magazine covering school reform, agreed. "There has been a long lineage of the ruling party that has groomed successors" since the 1960s, she said, "so this is really quite surprising." -- This is the CPS Science Teacher List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
