Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard out by ‘mutual agreement’

[proud2BlibKansan]

Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard, one of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s premier hires, is out by “mutual agreement” with City Hall after just 17 months on the job, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

Brizard was Emanuel’s pick to lead CPS and push through the mayor’s aggressive education agenda. But with the city’s first teachers strike in 25 years in the rear view mirror and a new contract to be implemented, Emanuel said it’s “time for a clean break.”

Brizard leaves his $250,000-a-year job to be permanently replaced with Barbara Byrd-Bennett, a former teacher, principal and Cleveland schools CEO who has been filling in as Chicago’s interim chief education officer for the past six months.

Byrd-Bennett, 62, played a pivotal role in negotiating an end to the strike — and upstaged Brizard in the process. Terms of Brizard’s exit were still being finalized, but are expected to include a full-year’s salary.

more . . . http://www.suntimes.com/15699019-761/chicago-public-schools-ceo-jean-claude-brizard-out-by-mutual-agreement.html

[Starry Messenger]

1. Byrd-Bennett has some baggage too if I recall.

Still, an interesting development in light of the successful teachers' strike.

(Yeah, I wonder how many laid off teachers get a year's wages...crickets...)

[HiPointDem]

3. she sure does. a few lowlights...

Barbara Byrd-Bennett Timeline, with Annotations

August 1996 -- November 1998: Supervising Superintendent of the Chancellor's District in New York City (from her resume: The Chancellor's District serves as a national model for turnaround school efforts)

November 1998 -- February 2006: As Cleveland Schools CEO, Byrd-Bennett defended the use of Compass Learning and other "drill and kill" programs, telling a Baltimore Sun reporter, "I would argue that there is very little intervention (for struggling students) that isn't rote..."

February 2006 --March 2009: Superintendent-in-Residency for Harcourt School Publishers....She resigned this position to take job with Detroit Public Schools....

March 2006--2009: Superintendent Executive Coach, Broad Superintendent Academy.

October 2006--2009: Executive Officer New Leaders for New Schools, Washington D. C. Take a look at the list of participants at the 2010 New Schools Summit...Arne Duncan to the Walton Family Foundation to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Fisher Fund, K12 Inc, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation...

August 2008: Speaker at the Democratic National Convention in Denver...

April 2009. Byrd-Bennett named trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Common Core Curriculum Mapping Project,

April 2009. AFT Launches AFT Innovation Fund; Byrd-Bennett chairs board

April 4, 2010 Harcourt launches a partnership with Detroit Public Schools (Byrd-Bennett was superintendent in residency for Harcourt School Publishers. Then she was hired as Detroit's chief academic and accountability officer. Now Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has received a contract for the largest single deal ever.) Just a coincidence...

lots more here...hard-core deformer, in at the foundation.

http://www.susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1414

[Starry Messenger]

4. Holy crap.

I guess that is why her name rang a few bells. I figured Rahm wasn't going to replace Brizard with anyone less corporate.

[HiPointDem]

2. brizard reportedly wasn't present during strike negotiations etc, at all. seems like he's been on

way out for awhile. something similar at his last job. must be nice just to run from district to district, signing off on the financiers' initiatives and collecting a years' free pay for being the front man for the Big Fuck.

Brizard = Broad.