Scott brings experience, BY FRAN SPIELMAN AND TIM NOVAK STAFF REPORTERS Twenty years ago, Michael Scott was dumped from the Chicago Board of Education after he repeatedly clashed with Mayor Jane Byrne. Now Scott will become the board president, because of his unbending loyalty to Mayor Daley, who will announce his selection of Scott today. Their relationship began after Byrne fired Scott, and it's the second time Daley has chosen Scott to serve as president of a city agency in a job with no salary. The president of the Chicago Park District since 1999, Scott is hailed as an effective administrator who can work with diverse groups while avoiding the media spotlight. It's a private style that differs from outgoing school board president Gery Chico and Schools CEO Paul Vallas, who often clashed in public. Scott's aversion to reporters began after Byrne appointed him to the school board in 1980, only to fire him a year later. "She asked me to support Tom Ayres" for school board president, Scott said in a recent interview. "I told her I didn't know him. I didn't know if I could support him. I remember there being headlines the next day that suggested I wouldn't support her choice for board president. From that minute on, I've been cautious of the press." Byrne declined to discuss Scott. "That was a long time ago," she said Wednesday. Byrne replaced Scott and another black school board member with two white women, angering African Americans, who boycotted the 1981 ChicagoFest as part of the movement that elected Harold Washington as mayor in 1983. Scott has "a rare ability" to work with a variety of people, skills he used to help reform Chicago's parks, said businessman John Rogers, who was the park district president when Scott joined the board in 1992. "It's rare to be able to do that, because the parks have so many different constituencies to reach," Rogers said. "He comes with a wealth of experience. He's a natural for this job. His ability to work with community groups, all types of people from all types of backgrounds. He's demonstrated he can do that very well. The mayor's making a terrific decision." Scott said his management style is based on teamwork. "It's important that you be able to build a team," Scott said. "In agencies like the park district, if you don't first build an effective team of people with a common goal and everybody working toward that common goal, you can't be successful. That team starts first with the head of the agency and its board president. If that's not correct, it's difficult to accomplish team building down the line to accomplish tasks." Scott, 51, has spent the last two decades serving four mayors. He began his political career as a housing activist on the city's West Side, where he grew up. After his school board stint under Byrne, Scott hooked up with Daley. When Daley ran for mayor in 1983, Scott was his deputy campaign manager. Daley and Byrne lost to Harold Washington, who hired Scott as deputy director of special events. After Washington's death in 1987, Mayor Eugene Sawyer made Scott the special events director. A few months later in June 1988, Scott was shot in the abdomen while chasing two men who tried to break into his home near Douglas Park on Chicago's West Side, where he lived with his wife, son and daughter. Daley was elected mayor in 1989, and Scott was appointed to the city's cable television commission. He created controversy when he quit that post to work for Prime Cable, which has recently been bought by AT&T Broadband. Scott works in government relations for the company. -- 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/>
