PURE calls for independent conflict resolution at Curie High SchoolEight O'Clock in the morning Saturday is sounding more and more interesting.
Contact: Julie Woestehoff, PURE executive director, 312-491-9101
In an urgent memo sent today to Chicago Public Schools top officials, Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE) called on Arne Duncan and Donald Pittman to bring in Chicago’s Center for Conflict Resolution to help manage the chaotic situation at Curie High School. The Center’s executive director, Marilyn Smith, has agreed to pitch in if asked.
PURE raised the concern that CPS officials and Mayor Daley have publicly taken the principal’s side in the dispute caused when the Curie LSC voted not to renew the principal’s contract. The problem has been exacerbated by accusations of racial discrimination.
PURE has learned that Mayor Daley and the Rev. Jesse Jackson may attend the upcoming Curie LSC meeting on Saturday morning, potentially adding fuel to an already explosive situation.
There are positive, tested ways to resolve community-based conflict. Two years ago, CPS, PURE and the Center for Conflict Resolution piloted a conflict resolution program for LSCs and schools. CPS chose not to continue the program, even though situations at both of the schools participating in the program came to a satisfying and peaceful resolution.
CPS cannot act as a neutral broker in this conflict, because Arne Duncan has taken a public position on the principal’s side.
An independent body must be brought in. It is essential for the turmoil at Curie High School to end. The principal has asked the LSC for a written statement of their reasons for non-renewal, and for independent arbitration of their non-renewal decision. The LSC has a very limited time frame in which to hire and meet with a lawyer and prepare the statement and their case, all of which is their legal duty. They must be given the opportunity to do their job.
Above all, the school must be able to continue to educate children during this process.
Bringing in independent, professional mediators at this point would help assure the thousands of LSC members across the city that the Mayor’s involvement in this situation is not an attempt to use a complex, racially-sensitive situation to further an anti-LSC agenda, and that he would not show such disrespect to the hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours LSC members spend working to improve our schools.
Letter to Arne Duncan follows.
To: Arne Duncan
From: Julie Woestehoff
Re: Curie LSC problems
Date: March 8, 2007
I urge you to engage with the Center for Conflict Resolution immediately to begin work on a real, community-based resolution to the Curie High School principal selection matter.
I'm sure you agree that the situation is dire, and that the students, the school and the community are suffering.
Having the Mayor and the CEO of the public schools take sides in this matter does not help. Screaming headlines do not help. Fanning the flames of racial tension is a disservice to everyone involved, and to the city as a whole.
We have learned enough about the climate at the school and with the LSC to believe that there is not just one side to this story, and not just a handful of people affected by racial intolerance, but that the school as a whole needs reconciliation.
The pilot program run out of the CPS School and Community Relations office with the Center for Conflict Resolution and PURE two years ago was a success to the extent that, unlike Curie, both situations were managed quietly and came to a satisfactory resolution.
Marilyn Smith, the executive director of the Center for Conflict Resolution, has offered their services, and PURE is available to participate in any and all appropriate ways.
It would be a shame if the school community and the students were further exploited for political ends, when a better way is available.
Your thoughts?
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