As long as they're doing background checks for sexual predators at CPS...

A background check on Gary Solomon -- before throwing $20M no-bid contract his way -- might have averted
the biggest corruption scandal in CPS history. 

Speaking of background checks for possible sexual predators at CPS, Rahm Emanuel and his hand-picked school board, probably should have done one on Gary Solomon before throwing that $20M SUPES contract his way. A check might have kept Solomon's partner in crime Barbara Byrd-Bennett out of prison and prevented the biggest corruption scandal in CPS history.

Solomon, a former dean and teacher at suburban Niles West H.S., was accused by that district of sending sexually explicit e-mail messages to female students. Besides those messages, they said he attended a Cubs game with students during a school day when no field trip was planned. They accused him of keeping a journal on a school computer that described several unprofessional relationships with students.

Finally, Solomon was forced out of Niles Township School District 219 under a cloud after he was accused by his bosses of “immoral and unprofessional” conduct, including allegations he kissed a female student, covered up students’ drug and alcohol use,and sent “sexually suggestive, predatory” emails to students, court records show.

While no criminal charges were ever filed, Solomon was barred from ever teaching in the district again. Solomon resigned from his post as part of a settlement back in 2001 and began a consulting business with former Niles West student Thomas Vranas, one that also included a partnership with former Chicago schools CEO and current Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas.

Vallas contracted with Solomon to work at schools in Philadelphia. When he was recruited to revive the schools in hurricane-battered New Orleans, Vallas sent a series of letters to Louisiana officials who oversaw the New Orleans district, vouching for Synesi Associates, the education consulting firm that had been started by Solomon in Chicago.

Synesi landed two no-bid contracts worth nearly $893,000 in New Orleans during Vallas’ time running the Recovery School District from 2007 to 2011. 

But Vallas points out: “I’m not the one who gave Gary Solomon a $20 million, no-bid contract.” He's got a point there. That would be Rahm. 

Last year, Solomon was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in the bribery scandal. His SUPES consulting group employed Byrd-Bennett before she took her position as chief executive officer of CPS in 2012. Solomon admitted his role in the scheme to bribe Rahm's hand-picked CEO by offering her a percentage of the contracts she helped secure for SUPES. He also pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.

This is a man who should have never been allowed anywhere near CPS schools, students or staff. So, as long as they're doing background checks on teachers, coaches, parents and CPS staff, they might want to do them on profit-hungry contractors as well. 

Vallas wanted Rahm to hire him to "fix" the Byrd-Bennett mess

Did Paul Vallas think we'd forget that he was Gary Solomon's partner? Former schools CEO Vallas, who, has already run losing campaigns for Governor (2002) and with Pat Quinn for Lt. Governor (2014), partnered with Solomon in forming Synesi Associates. Synesi was one of the indicted companies that hired Barbara Byrd-Bennett as a consultant, in return for her support in obtaining millions of dollars in CPS no-bid contracts.

It was Vallas who taught Solomon and many of the rest of his Chicago crew, the ropes in one of the great hustles of public schools ever. It often included placing Vallas underlings in district administrative jobs around the country, in exchange for lucrative consulting contracts, often to provide expensive, but worthless professional development (like SUPES) for district principals and teachers. Solomon, who once claimed to be using the "Vallas model", took Vallas' ball and ran with it, offering illegal kickbacks directly to colluding school officials.

When Vallas was Mayor Daley's hand-picked schools CEO, kickbacks for consulting contracts were common occurrences in Chicago schools.

Now Solomon and Byrd-Bennett are both doing time. Vallas is running for mayor against a weakened but still top-dog in the race, Rahm Emanuel. He tells the Tribune that he had the plan on how to control the mess caused by Solomon and BBB. Only Rahm, having brought the corrupt pair in to CPS in the first place, wasn't about the compound the fracture by hiring complicit, former Daley-guy, Vallas.

From Trib's Bill Ruthhart:

It turns out, though, Vallas has his own story of being rejected by Emanuel that left some lingering hard feelings. In 2015, when soon-to-be-indicted Barbara Byrd-Bennett left as CPS CEO amid a kickback scandal, Vallas said he called the administration to offer his services to help stabilize the district.

Those overtures, though, were rejected, Vallas said. Emanuel, whose campaign declined to comment on the matter, ended up tabbing Forrest Claypool as the next schools chief. He, too, left amid a scandal after facing a watchdog’s allegations he “orchestrated a full-blown cover-up” over a clouted legal contract.

“I was told that I did not pass the loyalty test. And, of course, I proceeded to tell everyone I know about that, because it really pissed me off,” Vallas said. “I knew what that was: It’s not about being loyal to the cause or the mission, it’s about being loyal to the individual. It’s all about politics first, and everything else takes a back seat. I didn’t forget that.”

From Sun-Times' Fran Spielman:

Notoriously thin-skinned, Vallas also tried to explain away the close ties he developed with now-convicted education consultant Gary Solomon.

Solomon worked with Vallas at schools in Philadelphia and New Orleans. In Chicago, he’s better known for master-minding a contract kickback scheme with then-Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett. Both Solomon and Byrd-Bennett are now in prison.

“Gary was the vice-president for Princeton Review, one of the largest education service firms in the country. They did business with hundreds of superintendents,” Vallas said.

“I’m not the one who gave Gary Solomon a $20 million, no-bid contract.”

True and yet...

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Bethune-Cookman students petition

“With all the facts provided, why on earth would Bethune-Cookman University invite Secretary DeVos to be the commencement speaker for their spring graduation ceremony? Bethune-Cookman University doesn't need a photo op from the Trump Administration, we need action done by this administration for all HBCUs.” -- Change.org 

Education reporter Becky Vevea on Byrd-Bennett

"I think there’s a lot more to this story and that there are a lot of layers to peel back on, not just this one company and this one superintendent, but all of the companies that do business with the school district, and all of the people who go in and out of positions, both inside the school districts that they work with and into the companies that then they go work for." -- Chicago Newsroom 

"Invest early and immigrate to the U.S."

Nicole Kushner Meyer in China

“Invest early, and you will invest under the old rules...Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United States.” -- Washington Post 

 Ed Pilkington

The defeat of Le Pen pricks the bubble of populism that had swept the UK with Brexit and the US with the rise of Trump, and as such may have adverse knock-on effects for the new incumbent of the White House. -- Guardian

 Retired N.Y. science teacher Annette Marcus

The original concept for charter schools imagined that they would serve as an experiment, and if successful, be an example that public schools could incorporate. As long as charters have more funding and are in direct competition with public schools, public schools will suffer. And have. -- Letter to NYT

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.

Chicago and its public schools have become profit centers for privatizers

I don't think so. 

Under our last two mayors, the city of Chicago and Chicago public schools have become centers of privatization. All public space from parking spaces, to red-light cameras, to trash collection, to the highways and skyways have become fair game for the privatizers.

The move to privatize everything public, to erode all public space and public decision-making comes as a reaction to the real and sometimes manufactured financial and other crises which have shaken cities from New Orleans, Detroit and now Chicago.

The pains of privatization have taken their greatest toll on public education, turning schools into profit centers mired in corruption and waste and impacting everything from the way we teach to the way we test. Relationships between students and their teachers have been torn apart with the massive closing of neighborhood schools and replacing them with networks of privately-managed charters.

Things will only get worse with the election of privateer Donald Trump and the appointment "choice" fanatic Betsy DeVos and Secretary of Education.

The privatization of CPS has been a disaster. It has further expanded racial segregation. It has led to union busting and the degradation of teachers and school staff. Schools under the management of Aramark and SodexoMagic have been left filthy and disgusting. They are also charging CPS $80M to oversee custodial work instead of custodians reporting to school principals through their union at no cost.

Privatization has also meant massive corruption leading to the great SUPES scandal and the conviction of former CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett who is on her way to prison.

The latest moves by autocratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his hand-picked schools chief Forrest Claypool, to expand the privatization of custodial and building management services, has been met with resistance from school principals, parents and labor unions.

One of those unions is local143 of the International Union of Operating Engineers. Union Pres. Bill Iacullo will be our in-studio guest this Friday on Hitting Left. He will be joined by two of the city's top progressive political campaign strategists and communications specialists, Joanna Klonsky and Brian Sleet.

Tune in to Klonsky Bros. Hitting Left Radio, 105.5 FM, streaming live at 11 a.m. on Lumpen Radio.

Rahm's email dump tells little we didn't already know.

Brother Fred captures Rahm boasting about pension theft. 

Yes, he did use his personal email to conduct city business. So if Rahm ever runs for president (not likely), he will never hear the end of it. But if you were hoping Rahm's forced email dump would produce some new revelations or deep insights into the workings of the Chicago mayor's anything-but-transparent regime, forget about it. This was no Wikileaks, but rather a carefully planned dump of personal emails that mostly reads like a collection of the mayor's news clippings assembled by his overstaffed press office. Nothing revealing about the mayor's cover-up in the Laquan McDonald killing.

What is revealed is the easy access to the mayor for the state's corporate and hedge-fund muckety-mucks (Pritzker, Rowe, Griffin, Rauner...), especially on matters of privatization, unions (CTU) and pension-busting and the privileging of charter schools (especially Noble Network) over neighborhood public schools.

Here, for example is a missive from former Exelon CEO John Rowe to Emanuel on public school reform efforts.

The first line has Rowe coming to bury former Mayor Daley, not to praise him, in a statement that reads like it was from Shakespeare's Caesar. 

Here's another by former ComEd CEO Frank Clark, now President of Rahm's hand-picked school board.

And another from Clark bashing union teachers:

From: Frank Clark [frank.clark@fmcenergy.com]

Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 4:25 PMTo: Rahm EmanuelCC: Spielfogel, DavidSubject: Schools

I strongly support CPS's position with CTU. The strike is regrettable but could have been avoided if representatives for the teachers put education for kids ahead of job protection and outdated seniority rules.

Interesting side-note here. Both Rowe and Clark have a Noble charter school bearing their name.

And then there's more Rahm boasting to city billionaires about how he screwed city workers.
From Chicagoist: 

Emanuel’s controversial call to phase out Chicago’s retiree health program will leave some 10,000 of workers on the hook for coverage—a move he publicly touted as a regrettable but necessary cost-saving measure. In the email, however, Emanuel comes off as downright boastful about the move. Wealthy investor Henry Feinberg asks, “Since when did Rahm Emanuel let a judicial ruling get in his way and not find a creative work around solution[?]” Emanuel replies, “Never which is why I eliminated health care. Only elected official to eliminate not cut or reform a benefit. Thank you vey much. A 175 million saving!”

There's a few other interesting tidbits, like Rahm's Public Affairs Director Lisa Schrader assuring the mayor that indeed, the SUPES/Byrd-Bennett scandal is a big story.

Rahm’s email dump can be found here. You can search by subject. For example, put Rauner in the search box.

This year's IL corruption awards go to...

Dick Simpson, Tom Gradel & team document IL's "Banner Year of Corruption". Isn't every year? I suppose their annual report is like the Academy Awards of corruption.

While the Hastert indictment and conviction garnered national news headlines and was the most significant corruption story of the year, Illinois experienced many additional corruption events in 2015. In this report, we document 27 convictions, 28 indictments, and the launching of 11 corruption investigation. In addition we cover the sentencing of 30 public corruption convicts last year, most of whom were convicted in a year or two before 2015.

Chicago City Hall has long been awash in corruption and with the public school system directly under  control by the mayor, thievery, fraud, bribery, and no-bid contract kick-backs have become a way of life at CPS. The cost to school budgets is enormous.

The big one last year of course, so far as Chicago schools were concerned, was the FBI investigation launched exactly one year ago, leading to the arrest and indictment of Rahm Emanuel's hand-picked schools chief, Barbara Byrd-Bennett. The U.S. Attorney charged her with steering $23 million worth of contracts to her former employer, SUPES Academy. Two executives, Gary Solomon and Tom Vranas, who owned SUPES, the company itself, and another company they owned were also charged. On October 12, BBB pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

Yesterday it was announced that Rahm and his CPS board are suing BBB, SUPES and Synesi for $65M. Synesi is the consulting company behind the SUPES/BBB scandal. It was originally started by former CPS schools CEO Paul Vallas in partnership with Gary Solomon and other members of Vallas' Chicago team. Vallas was the master of soliciting no-bid consulting contracts from his network of pet district superintendents. Lucky for him, he fell out and split with Soloman before the shit hit the fan.

The suit made front-page headlines in Cleveland, where BBB long ruled the public schools, and in Detroit, where the SUPES kick-back scheme was originally concocted.

In the lawsuit, the Board of Educations states, "In plain terms, defendants have stolen money from CPS and the schoolchildren of the city of Chicago, and that money should be returned."

But I would argue that the investigation was stopped, as usual, before it got up too high, leaving BBB to take the fall herself. Board members like Andrea Zopp (now running for senator) who voted for the SUPES no-bid contract, and the Mayor himself, were complicit and should be held accountable.Why aren't they included in the suit?

More important, the suit should be a clarion call to end City Hall's direct control over the public schools and to pass the Elected School Board bill.

Trump to enter the belly of the beast is the headline on Natasha Korecki's story in POLITICO this morning.

There should be thousands on hand this afternoon to protest the Trump rally at the UIC Pavilion. The university should have never agreed to hold the rally here in the first place. Trump rallies have been marked by violence and thuggery directed mainly at black protesters.

Thousands of students have already signed up to be part of today's protests.
Korecki writes:

Doesn't know what he's in for: "Other immigrant groups, religious leaders and young African American protesters are expected to join forces in a public rebuke of Trump before his 6 p.m. rally. One group ... built an altar on Thursday and demonstrators planned to hold vigil all night in preparation for Trump's arrival.

'I don't think Donald Trump knows what he's in for here in Chicago,' UIC pre-med student Miguel Del Toral told POLITICO. 'We are very very active in our communities. We will not stand for bigotry, we will not stand for racism. He should expect to find this kind of resistance coming into a university with such a large minority population.'

People will gather at 4:30 p.m. in the parking lot across from the Pavilion.

Former CPS liar-in-chief leaves Rahm's Super PAC to start her own biz.

Substance photo

"She will be a real asset to those that work with her," says Michael Sacks, CEO of Grosvenor Capital Management. -- Crain's

Becky Carroll served as J.C. Brizard's and Byrd-Bennett's liar-in-chief at CPS before moving over to run Rahm's campaign Super PAC. Now, after a year and a half at Chicago Forward, Carroll is setting out on her own. Her new money-making venture is called Chicago Backward (just kidding) C-Strategies LLC and I assume her specialty will be union-busting, school privatization, and attacking progressive political candidates, as always.

Carroll's time at CPS was mostly spent trying to cover up Brizard's ineptness (admittedly an impossible job) and then keep a lid on the BBB/SUPES affair and the UNO corruption scandals. Then there was her CPS budget deception and her selling of the school closings (she named it, "right-sizing"). 

Oh, I almost forgot her efforts to spread dis-information about the Chicago teachers strike in 2012. Quite a track record.

After her relationship with local reporters crashed and burned last year, the mayor pulled her out of CPS' massive Communications Dept. and moved her over to run Chicago Forward where she headed the PAC's $5M effort to elect Rahm's favored puppy-dog aldermen. $2M of that was used to target two progressives, Scott Waguespack in the 32nd and Carlos Rosa in the 35th. Both won handily over machine candidates.

For more on Chicago Forward's failed run at the progressives, see Paul Blumenthal's piece at Huffington, "Chicago Progressives Emboldened After Rahm Emanuel's Super PAC Fails To Beat Them."

Despite this trail of losses, I'm sure Carroll, with investors like Michael Sacks behind her, will make a pile of money in her new venture. Carroll says she's already signed up 10 or so clients, including the Illinois Restaurant Association, who's leading the charge against increasing the minimum wage, and  union-busting education group, Stand for Children.

I can't say I wish her well.

Rahm's hidden corruption tax

As Rahm Emanuel is about to hit city residents with the biggest property tax increase in history, there's another hidden tax we already pay. It's one Rahm never mentioned in recent budget hearings. I  call it the corruption tax, and it's a big one. 

According to a recent study, everyone in this state pays an annual corruption tax of $1.308 and Chicago remains the "corruption capital" of the U.S. with 1,642 public corruption convictions from 1976 through 2013. That total has obviously risen in the past two years.

The latest installment of the tax will go to pay the lawyers defending the CPS Gang of 4, charged or implicated in the SUPES scandal. That's Barbara Byrd-Bennett and her three aides (who've also been named as perps in Detroit's Houghton Mifflin Harcourt corruption scandal) Sherry Ulery, Rosemary Herpel and Tracy Martin. While CPS isn't currently on the hook for Byrd-Bennett's criminal defense lawyers, they (we) are still paying a hefty sum for her salary, benefits and golden parachute contributions.

According to the Sun-Times, Chicago Public Schools’ lawyers’ bills for the corruption case that took down BBB have already topped $280,000. And things are just getting started.

The Gang of Four

Then there's the millions in lost services from SUPES and possibly other contracts steered by BBB, like the one to Global Workplace Solutions. They won the $30.9 million bid to help Rahm close 50 schools. A portion of the business was subcontracted to a company called The Robert Bobb Group, a company run by Robert Bobb, the former Emergency Financial Manager for Detroit Public Schools. Bobb hired Byrd-Bennett in Detroit in 2009 as Chief Academic Auditor and paid her a salary of $18,000 per month.

Of course, that's a drop in the bucket compared to the more than $100 million the city has already spent on on settlements and legal fees in the case of of CPD torturer Jon Burge and his crew. But it still could add up to millions more by the time the trials and investigations are over.

CPS spokesperson, Emily Bittner says that the board, "covers legal fees for employees within the scope of their duties.” The implication here is that the Gang's SUPES dealings with Gary Solomon and Tom Varanas were "within the scope of their duties" and defined by the board and the Mayor. In that sense, I have to agree.

Who still thinks that making CPS a wing of Chicago City Hall, under the autocratic rule of the mayor, is a good idea?

WEEKEND QUOTABLES Rauner's a 'sociopath'. Does anyone still doubt it?

"Sociopath" Rauner sends Chicago a dead fish.

CTU Pres. Karen Lewis

"I do want to say something about that sociopath governor," Lewis said during her talk Friday before launching into a long story about an encounter with Rauner.

"He told me what he believed in, and then he told me what he didn't believe in," she said. "He said, 'I don't believe in collective anything. I don't believe in communal anything.'"

"But then he told me we had something in common," Lewis said. Rauner noted that they both attended Dartmouth College. "Worst two years of my life," Lewis said. -- Chicago Tribune

Alliance Charters spokeswoman Catherine Suitor

"Of course, we are going to comply with the order. It actually doesn't change much. It says no one will coerce or threaten [unionizing teachers] and we agree with that and haven't been doing that." -- L.A. Times: Judge issues temporary restraining order against Alliance

Daily Tar Heel Editorial

Charters perpetuate segregation, cater to affluent white communities and drain money from local public schools in the process. -- North Carolina should not expand charter schools

CREDO's Margaret Raymond

"It is literally as if the kid did not go to school for an entire year." -- Study on online charters

Ben Joravsky 

On May 28, the Emanuel administration sent Ruthhart 19 heavily redacted e-mail chains. There were so many redactions it was impossible to determine who was saying what to whom. Moreover, the redactions were made with some sort of white material that blended in with the page, so it was hard to even tell how many e-mails had been redacted. -- The Reader

How can cities’ NAEP report cards be OK, when students are doing worse? - https://t.co/rCX7sdQ4Yk

— The Hechinger Report (@hechingerreport) November 2, 2015

Vallas' shadow hangs over Chicago's SUPES/Byrd-Bennett scandal

Disgraced Chicago former schools CEO, Barbara Byrd-Bennett pled guilty to corruption charges today as protesters rallied across the street from the courthouse demanding an elected school board and an end to mayoral control of the schools

For the past few months I have been pointing to the Paul Vallas connection with the Chicago SUPES scandal. So far, the Chicago media has completely missed or glossed over this connection even though Vallas, who just ran a losing race for Lt. Governor, was Gary Somomon's former partner in Synesi Associates. Synesi is one of the indicted companies that hired Byrd-Bennett as a consultant, allegedly in return for her support in obtaining millions of dollars in CPS no-bid contracts.

Today I am posting a piece written by blogger supreme, Jonathan Pelto, which delves more deeply into the Vallas connection. Jonathan ran for governor of Connecticut as a write-in candidate in opposition to Gov. Malloy's corporate-style school reform policies. His exposés of corrupt corporate "reform" practices ultimately helped lead to Vallas' firing as Bridgeport's schools chief. .

******

Jonathan Pelto

Prior to being hand-picked by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to run Chicago’s Public Schools, Byrd-Bennett worked as a consultant and lead teacher for The Supes Academy, worked as a consultant for Synesi Associates and was listed as a part of the management team at PROACT Search.

While many key actors in the Corporate Education Reform Industry have been involved with Gary Solomon and his companies, one of the most prominent names on Solomon’s list of close colleagues is the Great Paul Vallas, the Education Reform Guru and former CEO of the Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans public school systems.

More recently, Democratic Governor and education reform disciple Dannel Malloy brought Vallas to Bridgeport, Connecticut and then twisted Connecticut law in knots so that Vallas could stay for two years until local residents had finally had enough and forced Vallas to leave the job and return to Illinois.

As for the situation in Chicago, it could certainly be said that Gary Solomon’s ability to build such a “successful” corporate education reform company is due, in no small part, to his close relationship with Paul Vallas.

Vallas not only hired Solomon and his companies when he worked in Philadelphia, but brought Solomon with him to New Orleans.

And Vallas worked to bring other business to Solomon and his companies as well.

While Vallas has publicly claimed that he has no financial interest in any of Solomon’s consulting activities, in Vallas’ Philadelphia days Solomon’s consulting company advertised that it had “the exclusive rights to Paul Vallas’ model of education reform.”

Solomon’s Synesi Associates went on to brag on its website that it had played a leadership role in, “‘the successful implementation’ of Vallas’ plans when Vallas was heading up the Louisiana Recovery School District.”

The close relationship between Vallas and Solomon was explored in a detailed expose published on Philadelphia’s education website, The Notebook, in April 2005. In an article entitled Cashing in on ‘The Vallas model’ the Notebook laid out the story as follows;

Even with all the private company entrepreneurship revolving around Philadelphia School District initiatives lately, local observers expressed surprise at signs that District CEO Paul Vallas himself was appearing to be in on the action.

Evidence of a business initiative involving the use of Vallas’ name and reform approach recently surfaced on the websites of two related Chicago-based businesses. Information about the venture on one website was apparently pulled from the web minutes after Notebook inquiries. The other website disappeared the next day. (Images of several of the removed pages referenced in this story were saved by The Notebook, and are linked to in this story).

Solomon Consulting Services Inc. (SCS), a new for-profit enterprise that counts among its team a number of prominent administrators and leaders who’ve worked under or with Vallas, had obtained exclusive rights to “The Vallas Model,” according to the website of SCS’s partner and online marketing firm.

Vallas categorically denies any such deal. But questions linger about how a website devoted to marketing Paul Vallas’ accomplishments and approach came into being and what will become of the enterprise that created it.

[…]

Through a District spokesperson, Vallas said he has no commercial relationship with Solomon Consulting, adding that SCS had not been authorized to use his name or sell his reform model.

Spokesperson Cecelia Cummings said Vallas has acknowledged awareness of a number of his associates forming an enterprise. Cummings said the District had threatened legal action over the SCS website, which implied that the School District was a client of SCS.

[…]

SCS’s team list names Phil Hansen, a former Chicago chief accountability officer who served on Vallas’ Philadelphia transition team and who now works for Princeton Review; Cozette Buckney, Chicago’s chief education officer under Vallas and a member of Vallas’ Philadelphia transition team; Sue Gamm, chief specialized services officer in Chicago during Vallas’ tenure, who also served as a consultant to Vallas during his transition…

[…]

SolomonConsultingInc.com, disappeared from the web April 28, one day after the interview with Solomon. [Solomon had told the Notebook that a newly designed site was to be posted soon. A new SolomonConsulting Inc.com was posted Saturday, April 30, with no references to Vallas and no list of personnel].

Vallas on ticket with Quinn, was soundly defeated in his race for Lt. governor

When Solomon’s website reappeared there was also no mention that Gary Solomon had also served as assistant vice president of educational partnerships with the Princeton Review, but….

On April 20, the School Reform Commission approved a resolution for $2.6 million in categorical/grant funds for Princeton Review to provide curriculum, educational materials and professional development for the District’s summer program. Other Princeton review contracts this school year have been for $600,000 for consulting for four transitional high schools – Lamberton, Sayre, Vaux and Parkway Gamma High, and $750,000 for PSSA test prep materials, support and professional development.

During the interview, Solomon initially said he no longer worked with Princeton Review. However, in a Notebook phone call to Princeton Review’s New York office, an operator responded that the company did indeed have a listing for Gary Solomon. When the call was transferred, Solomon answered, and explained, “They’re a client of mine.”

And, has been repeatedly reported, the close bond between Vallas and Solomon was just beginning.

When Paul Vallas moved on to New Orleans to head the Louisiana Recovery School District, Solomon picked up even more lucrative contracts.

But it is a story out of Illinois that provides a true snap-shot and insider’s view into how Vallas and the Corporate Education Reform Industry works;

While Gary Solomon and his companies profited greatly via Vallas in Philadelphia and New Orleans, it is the somewhat more hidden story surrounding the Rockford School District (PSD 150) in Illinois the provides telling evidence about how Vallas and the Corporate Education Reform Industry works.

BBB, Rahm, Vallas & Soloman

The December 13, 2007 headline in the Rockford Star newspaper proclaimed, Vallas will ‘assess and evaluate’ District 150 – for free. The story read,

School reform trailblazer Paul Vallas is willing to assess the educational program at District 150 and develop a “vision” to effectuate change, all for free.

“My role would not only be to assess and evaluate but also to lay out a comprehensive vision for the district. … Given the fact that I would do it for free, there’s certainly no loss of investment,” the New Orleans superintendent said Wednesday.

But the question remains: Will District 150 take advantage of his services or hire consultants he has recommended to assist the district in reform efforts?

Vallas met with district leaders in November, and he and consultants offered educational services to the district. The consultants are Gary Solomon and Phil Hansen, of Synesi Associates.

Vallas is willing to help for free, but the consultants have a cost. School Board President David Gorenz said Synesi has quoted the cost of its consulting services at $600,000.

Vallas, the former head of schools in Philadelphia and Chicago, emphasized Wednesday that he is not affiliated with the consultants and doesn’t benefit financially from their services. They are, however, among a group of people he recommended be part of a successful school reform process.

[…]

“Should they decide that they want my help and should they decide that they want me to recommend a full team to come in and do the job … I will be very specific in identifying the people I feel (are) some of the best people out there to come in,” Vallas said.

The superintendent of Recovery School District in New Orleans said he’s inclined to help districts when he can. Plus, he has always enjoyed Peoria, and the city is close to his permanent home — his wife still lives in Chicago.

Days later, on December 22, 2007, the paper expanded its coverage reporting Vallas will meet with Peoria District 150 officials after Christmas,

Noted education leader Paul Vallas was in town Friday talking to local business leaders about school reform, and he plans to meet with District 150 officials sometime after Christmas.

Vallas has offered to help the district reform its educational system and bring in consultants to help implement changes. He first made the offer to district officials in November, after being asked to come to town by Mayor Jim Ardis.

The superintendent of Recovery School District in New Orleans stopped by Peoria on his way home to Chicago for the holidays. He spoke at a meeting of the CEO Roundtable Friday morning and met with the Journal Star editorial board afterward.

“All I’m going to do is try to tell them what I think works and what doesn’t work and to try to provide them with some guidance. The rest is going to be up to them,” Vallas told the editorial board.

Vallas is willing to help for free, but the consultants that he would recommend would have a cost. School Board President David Gorenz has said that a consulting firm that was represented at the November meeting quoted the cost of its services at $600,000

And while Vallas said he would work for free … who were the consultants that District 150 would need to hire?

The consulting firm that is in contact with District 150 is Synesi Associates. Company officials Gary Solomon and Phil Hansen were both at the November meeting. But Vallas said there are multiple people he is willing to bring to District 150, people he referred to as “the best seasoned educators around.”

As the Chicago Scandal played out in the news this year, the Chicago Tribune reported that,

“No contract was ever signed in Peoria and Vallas disputed the assertion that he had pitched work specifically for Solomon’s firm.”

But there is often more to these types of situations then meets the eye.

Earlier this summer, Paul Vallas and his relationship to Illinois Public School District 150 surfaced yet again. The local PJ Star newspaper reported, Efforts for independent review of District 150 continue despite rejections,

 

PEORIA – … the current School Board already had rejected at least two attempts at outside evaluations orchestrated by Mayor Jim Ardis, with help from his recently retired education adviser Bill Collier and Peoria County Regional Superintendent of Schools Beth Derry.

The Illinois State Board of Education apparently declined to get involved in a request made by Collier, according to Freedom of Information Act requests. Derry backed off after the school district attorney questioned the legality of her office’s involvement.

But Ardis and Collier haven’t given up on getting the board to agree to an independent review. The School Board’s make-up will change Wednesday with the seating of two new members who support the idea. Either the board or Superintendent Grenita Lathan could have a change of heart, Ardis said last week.

“Support has started to build,” Collier added. “It’s really for altruistic reasons.”

Local business leaders would have donated about $60,000 for a third-party evaluation conducted by a team led by nationally-known, but controversial, education reformer Paul Vallas, who has been school superintendent in Chicago, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Bridgeport, Conn.

[…]

According to Vallas, he met with Derry and the teachers’ union leadership, all of whom were supportive. Ardis and Collier presented the proposal to school officials.

Board members were wary of the motives behind what Ardis, Collier and Derry say were sincere efforts to gain an unbiased analysis of District 150’s strengths and weaknesses.

“It was presented as a fait accompli,” said District 150 Chief Legal Officer Rick Rettberg. “The consultant had already been chosen, the scope of the review had already been decided and there was no disclosure of who was paying for it.”

By April, Derry was planning to incorporate the Vallas team’s evaluation into the standard compliance review her office conducts for all Peoria County school districts every four years. That plan was dropped after Rettberg pointed out an expanded compliance review was beyond the scope of her authority.

“What you are proposing in your letter is both extraordinary and problematic,” Rettberg wrote to Derry, reminding her the ROE’s office does not have authority to conduct a quality review, much less delegate it to a private consultant.

[…]

The letters between Rettberg, Lathan and Derry were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The letters show the district filed its own FOIA request to obtain copies of a contract and correspondence between the ROE’s office and Developmental Specialists Inc., or DSI, the consulting firm Vallas recently joined.

Vallas emphasized he was providing his services for free, a favor he has done for Ardis in the past…

The $60,000 cost would go to the four-person team he assembled to conduct the review.

So while the federal government was closing in on the contract and kickback scheme involving Chicago School CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and Gary Solomon this summer, Paul Vallas was a few miles up the road telling local officials in Illinois’ Public School 150 that he was willing to, once again, work for free. All local taxpayers had to do was pay a hand-picked company selected by Vallas.

But this time Vallas was instructing them that they would have to pay a company that he had publically joined about sixty days earlier.

…READ Jonathan Pelto's piece in its entirety, here.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Thousands at 'Justice or Else' Rally in D.C. on 20th anniversary of Million Man March

David Nakamura and Hamil R. Harris

The peaceful rally was a reminder that seven years after the election of the nation’s first black president, enormous frustration remains among segments of the African American community about progress on civil rights. -- Washington Post

Charles Pierce

"And when the history of the Obama Administration is written, its willingness to go along with charter-school grifters at the behest of Arne Duncan is going to be a very big debit on the ledger."  -- New York Magazine

Duncan's charter scandal. 

Jeff Bryant

 Why would a secretary so often accused of leading an unprecedented overreach of federal intrusion in state education policy suddenly become so nonchalant about oversight of charter schools?  -- The ugly charter school scandal Arne Duncan is leaving behind (Salon)

Carol Marin

In Chicago, the mayor runs the schools. Always has. But not ultimately responsible? C’mon. Own it, mayor. Own it. -- Sun-Times

 Schiff Hardin Attorney Ron Safer

“We view it as semi-pro bono work. This is not a unique case". -- CPS approves more legal spending for Byrd-Bennett aides

When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it happened or not.

— Mark Twain (@TheMarkTwain) October 12, 2015

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

The 12 Dyett hunger strikers (Day 8)

Jitu Brown

It's a shame that parents have to starve themselves. These are mothers and fathers. We have to starve ourselves to have our voices heard while parents in other parts of the city of Chicago have to, parents in Lincoln Park and in Uptown and Rogers Park simply went to a meeting and said they didn't want a charter school. And the CPS pulled it off the table. -- Real News

CUNY Prof. Andrea Gabor

There is also growing evidence that the reforms have come at the expense of the city’s most disadvantaged children, who often disappear from school entirely and, thus, are no longer included in the data. -- N.Y. Times -- "The Myth of the New Orleans School Makeover"

Jacques Morial

“They’re peddling this notion of a complete recovery: opportunity for all, want for nobody,” say Jacques Morial, a community activist whose brother, Marc, and father, Ernest, have served as mayor. “That’s just not the case.” -- Washington Post

Gary "SUPES" Soloman emails Byrd-Bennett

“Thank you thank you thank you for everything. Really. And we need to make time for one another to just get together and laugh. As tired as we are, as hard as we work, I think it’s important we get together and just laugh a lot." -- Sun-Times

Barbara Byrd-Bennett emails Soloman

“I just cannot be lead [sic] around by the nose like this … just not who I am.” -- Sun -Times

CPS Liar-In-Chief Bill McCaffrey responds

 “I cannot comment due to the ongoing investigation.”  -- Sun-Times

Asked about the #FightForDyett hunger strike, Rahm tells reporters he is unable to comment because there is an ongoing hunger strike.

— Matt Farmer (@mifarmer) August 23, 2015

Another CPS four-letter word -- 'Transparency'

 “The most open, accountable, and transparent government that the City of Chicago has ever seen.” -- Rahm Emanuel

“Chicago Public Schools is committed to a culture of transparency, especially when it comes to spending taxpayer money on contracts.” -- CPS Liar-in-Chief Bill McCaffrey

Raise You Hand's Cassie Cresswell

Then where's the vendors list? asks S-T reporter Lauren Fitzpatrick. Raise Your Hand's Cassie Cresswell wants to know too. Now, so does Inspector General Nick Schuler. Me too. After all, without a scorecard, how are we supposed to know which of Rahm's campaign donors or Gary Soloman/SUPES hustlers, are bellying up to the $5-billion CPS trough?

Remember, the system is supposedly broke -- on the verge of bankruptcy. They're blaming it all on the CTU and on all those greedy retirees trying to hang on to their meager pensions.

CPS has just laid off a thousand people (including SpEd teachers and aides) meaning class size is about to jump, the central office staff is in chaos and totally demoralized and everything but the "essentials" is supposedly on the cutting board.

But which of the vendors are "essential" and which are not?

For example, didn't we just see a report showing that teacher professional development run out of central office, ie. Learning Hub, was a bust -- a waste of time and money? Or how about the millions going to feed Gov. Rauner's favorite, Phyllis Lockett's LEAP Innovations?

So where's the vendors list, Forrest Claypool? It was on the CPS website July 28th but Cresswell says it's gone now.

“I see that site all the time to look up various companies,” she said. “You can never tell with CPS whether it’s weird random incompetence [or] whether it’s someone trying to hide anything.”

Cassie, there's one thing I can tell you about Claypool -- he's competent. And there's another thing I can tell you about CPS -- they're trying to hide things.

McCaffrey says that the vendor lists were removed last year from CPS’ revamped website and never re-linked and that the list "isn't being maintained". But he doesn't say why.

My guess is that this has something to do the current grand jury hearings and the Byrd-Bennett investigation. Someone please tell me I'm wrong.

Professional Debasement

Here's another study that tells us what every teacher already knows. District-run professional development is at best, a boring, irrelevant waste of time and money. At worst, it's downright indictable, as in the SUPES case.

Dejernet Farder, a first grade teacher at Morton School of Excellence on the West Side of Chicago, is part of Educators for Excellence and said, although her school does a pretty good job with development, many of the districtwide trainings are not helpful.

“I’ve been to many that just kind of feel like a powerpoint slide, it’s just an adult talking at us,” Farder said. “There’s no room for discussion, no room for exploration. And just like kids don’t learn that way, adults don’t learn that way either.” -- WBEZ

Feds turn over another rock and the plot thickens

Today's Sun-Times story by Lauren Fitzpatrick takes us even deeper into the seamy underbelly of Chicago's pay-for-play contracting process under the current system of mayor control of public education.

The most interesting part of the story for me was the way CPS practically stuffed it's $20.5 million, no-bid contract into Synesi/SUPES founder Gary Soloman's pocket. This after the State Board had found the group(s) unqualified to help the city's schools improve.

Though CPS touted Synesi’s past work in other urban districts, the Illinois State Board of Education found that Synesi failed at a fundamental level to show how it would actually help the schools improve if they were awarded the money, according to records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

“No indication of a daily work experience that garnered results,” is how another state scorer summed up a segment of the review, awarding just 362 points out of a possible 580. In another graded section of its application, Synesi got just 5 points out of a possible 40, the records show.

 In April 2013, grant applications were submitted for Carver Military Academy, Corliss, Farragut and what then was called Marine Math and Science Academy, now the Marine Leadership Academy at Ames. Each planned to pay Synesi $270,000 per year for its help, according to the schools’ proposals. None of the principals answered Sun-Times questions.

CPS leaders contracted with them anyway, coming out-of-pocket after being turned down for state grants. The reason for such a giant waste of taxpayer money becomes obvious as the feds begin turning over rocks, ultimately leading to the cancelling of the SUPES contract and Byrd-Bennett's hasty departure.

Here once again, I feel this overwhelming need to keep reminding people that Synesi was from its very start, connected to Paul Vallas.  I don't mean to dwell on Vallas other than to show the origins of this shady approach to winning district contracts. It was always Valls' M.O. but an approach not just used by Synesi/SUPES, but throughout the entire system. Vallas continues to deny the connection and Solomon claims he used Vallas’ name without permission and it was a “mistake.”

But the idea from the time Vallas left for Philadelphia after being booted out of town by Mayor Daley, was for Synesi to capitalize on its Chicago connections and have Synesi offer districts a free consultation with Vallas in hopes that it would lead to a fat consulting contract. And it usually did. But not just because of Vallas.

The Synesi/Vallas connection was revealed back in 2005 by Sheila Simmons and Paul Socolar from the Philadelphia Public Schools Notebook.

The trail suggesting a business arrangement involving Vallas and Solomon began with SolTyra, a Chicago-based online marketing firm, which on a web page displaying a “case study” of its work, stated that its services were called upon by Solomon Consulting, “when some of the most successful leaders in educational reform came together to form a for-profit enterprise upon the exclusive rights to Paul Vallas’ model.”

Now we learn (actually many of us already knew) that Soloman and others sweetened the pot by offering both current and former top district administrators jobs as high-paid consultants, as in the case of Chicago schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and her head of strategic services (whatever the hell that is) Tracy Martin, in exchange for those no-bid contracts.

Back then, Soloman touted the "great Chicago successes" under Vallas' leadership and listed on his Synesi roster, the late Phil Hansen, Vallas' chief accountability officer in Chicago; Cozette Buckney, Chicago’s chief education officer under Vallas and now a senior consultant for SUPES; Sue Gamm, chief specialized services officer in Chicago during Vallas’ tenure, who also went with Vallas to Philly; and Gery Chico, who served as chair of the Chicago Board of Education during Vallas’ tenure.

More on this as the rocks continue to turn.

Finally, Vallas appears on the crime scene.

The Synesi/SUPES Connection 

Once S-T reporters finally discovered the Synesi/SUPES connection in the current federal investigation of CPS contracting, I couldn't understand why they missed the obvious connection between Synesi/SUPES founder Gary Soloman and Chicago's first schools CEO, Paul Vallas. For some reason, no reporter would dare mention Vallas' name. This even though he had a direct connection to Synesi and was a central player in Synesi/SUPES expansion into other school districts including Chicago.

I can almost understand the omission. Vallas tried to keep his ties to Soloman and Synesi a secret, especially once the investigation began, even while setting the table for their consulting contracts in district after district. Then Soloman came out and claimed, "he had used Vallas’ name without permission and it was a mistake.”

Sorry -- It always takes me a while to stop rolling on the floor with laughter when I hear stuff like that.

I kept badgering the reporters on Twitter. Sometimes it takes a poke in the eye with a sharp stick to get their attention:

@AJCGetSchooled And it's not just in Chicago. DeKalb too. http://t.co/fL8fXBtD5K… #Supes #Synesi #Soloman Still no mention of #Vallas

— Mike Klonsky (@mikeklonsky) May 7, 2015

Remember, Vallas got his asst. in La., LaVonne Sheffield, hired as Rockford Supt. (Shades of Byrd-Bennett #Synesi) https://t.co/K2RtuV6MQ1

— Mike Klonsky (@mikeklonsky) May 7, 2015

I warned about this in '09. http://t.co/I722w2SgXE

— Mike Klonsky (@mikeklonsky) May 7, 2015

Remember Vallas' Chief Education Officer in Chicago, Cozette Buckney? http://t.co/4qALUi2Shx

— Mike Klonsky (@mikeklonsky) May 7, 2015

#Vallas has a new consulting firm. http://t.co/SWEHo5ZVit No more Soloman. They're the ones doing DeKalb Cty. http://t.co/0pKrHMRzR2

— Mike Klonsky (@mikeklonsky) May 7, 2015

Finally in this morning's S-T we find the following. Credit reporters Lauren Fitzpatrick, Dan Mihalopoulos, and Fran Spielman.

 [Former CPS CEO, J.C.] Brizard is not the only former top CPS executive Solomon knew.

Paul Vallas, who was former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s first schools chief, said he met Solomon about 10 years ago, when Vallas led Philadelphia’s public schools.

Vallas said lawyers for the Philadelphia district sent Solomon a cease-and-desist letter because Solomon’s consulting company at the time boasted of holding “the exclusive rights to Paul Vallas’ model” for education reform. “He apologized and dropped it from his website,” Vallas said...

Another Solomon company, Synesi Associates, worked in Louisiana while Vallas was the top official in New Orleans. On the Synesi website, the company says it participated in “the successful implementation” of Vallas’ goals and led efforts that landed a $10 million grant from a private foundation.

Those assertions and other by Synesi are vast exaggerations, Vallas said. “He played no role in policy development,” Vallas said of Solomon.

See how they run.