Byrd-Bennett asks judge for less jail time. Says she wants to be a schools consultant.

“If you need ** ANYTHING** let me know. A cocktail, some laughing, a quick run to the casino, we’re here for you!!!” -- Vranas to Byrd-Bennett in 2012. 

“You guys are my family away from home,” she responded. “CASINO….hmmmmm (:”

While prosecutors are calling for at least a seven-year sentence for convicted felon and former Chicago schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, she is asking the court for half that. She also told the judge, she'd rather do  "community service" as a schools consultant.

According to the Sun-Times:

 “Barbara wants to help others learn from her mistakes,” defense attorney Michael Scudder wrote in a 27-page sentencing memo published Friday. “She believes that superintendents and school districts across the nation need to redouble their efforts to avoid conflicts of interest with consultants and providers.”

In other words, BBB would like to spend the next few years on the outside, warning school districts against hiring or consulting with people like herself. Brilliant!

I'm in the process of checking out rumors that she also asked the judge if she can have her own pillow, in case she has to do some time.

I can relate to that. I can't sleep a wink with hotel pillows.

She also wants her partners in crime, Gary Solomon and Tom Vranas who profited the most from the $20M rip-off of CPS, to pay the restitution costs. It's only fair, since she indicated in her captured emails, that she already spent what would have been her share of the take, gambling in Vegas and paying for her grandsons' tuition.

Again, I can sympathize. If a woman can't reach out to help her own grand kids, what kind of a world are we living in?

Her lawyer added that Byrd-Bennett is not in a financial position to pay her share of $254,000 in restitution to CPS, unless the others who actually saw profits from the scheme can’t pay the whole thing on their own. “Only if those defendants cannot make full restitution should Barbara be responsible for any remaining portion,”

 Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s second chosen schools chief was busted for agreeing to take kickbacks from educational consulting companies owned by her former employers, to whom she’d steered some $23 million in no-bid contracts in 2012 and 2013. She never pocketed any of the millions made by those companies’ owners. She was not going to collect any of the kickbacks until leaving CPS to return to their employ; she intended to use the money for her twin grandsons’ college funds.

“I have tuition to pay and casinos to visit (:” read the email that secured her a place in Chicago corruption history.

To me, it's like the man who murdered his own parents and then threw himself on the mercy of the court, pleading that he was an orphan.

Elected officials oppose Vallas' appointment

AND WHAT A PERFECT DAY for Chicago State's Board of Trustees to announce the appointment of Solomon's former Synesi partner, Paul Vallas as a top interim administrator.

According to the Tribune:

Frank Horton, who graduated from Chicago State in 1964, stood to speak against Vallas.

 "Paul Vallas wrecked Chicago Public Schools. He wrecked Philadelphia. He wrecked New Orleans," Horton said, referencing places where Vallas worked. With each proclamation, a woman in the audience replied, "Amen!"

He might have also mentioned Bridgeport, Haiti and Chile...

Horton finished his speech by exhorting the board not to "let this Bruce Rauner bring his people in to control you."

Too late, I'm afraid.