Olympic Week in America

Join the Mayor's Olympics crusade...or else

Michael Scott is the Mayor Daley's latest hand-picked president of Mayor Daley's hand-picked school board. Scott also doubles as a real-estate developer and entrepreneurial hustler. He offers little in the way of support for teaching/learning in the classroom. In fact, his biggest hustle at present is the push to bring the 2016 Olympic games to Chicago. Daley has gone all out, at great expense to the taxpayer in hopes that his corporate friends and the city can turn a profit through increased tourism, seven years from now. The whole proposition however, is questionable.

So President Scott is putting the hammer down on public schools teachers and principals and counting noses to see who's naughty and nice, pushing them to become soldiers in the Mayor's Olympic games army. He wants to enlist even those teachers in schools slated for closing to make room for Olympics "development." That's chutzpah. Kind of like being made to dig your own grave and then jump in it.

According to the Trib:

In an e-mail sent April 22 to principals, Board President Michael Scott said: "I am requesting that you register your school for Olympic Week in America. Please take a few minutes to identify a staff person who can register your school. ... You must sign up by Monday, April 27." Olympic Week in America is a promotional effort to raise the profile of Chicago's bid starting Monday. Scott's e-mail stated that each school's participation would be graded as "gold, silver or bronze," with the lowest level including developing an "Olympic week proclamation," raising the Chicago 2016 flag at the school and including Olympic-themed activities in the classrooms. The e-mail also said that a person from Scott's office would be following up by phone with the principals.