District Administration - February 2010 - (Page 28)

Ron Huberman talks with parents on Chicago’s South Side after a Back to School rally last September. Pursuing Peace in Chicago vived the Holocaust, moving to Tennessee and then to the suburbs of Chicago, as his father, a cancer researcher, changed jobs. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Huberman joined the Chicago Police Department, where he worked as a beat cop and gang specialist before moving into administration. “I was looking for a different kind of experience and loved public service, where I could give back,” Huberman says of his career decision. “And nothing could be more interesting than being a beat officer.” While working for the police department, he added to his public service credentials with a master’s degree in business and social service administration from the University of Chicago. He then served as the mayor’s chief of staff and head of the Chicago Transit Authority, when he often took the train to work and was known occasionally to remove unruly passengers. Security First At CPS, Huberman hit the ground running with a flurry of initiatives, none so urgent and nationally publicized as his extensive plan for school security and student safety, which will use $30 million in federal stimulus funds over the next three years and draws heavily on the new CEO’s background. “My years as a police officer, viewing the world from the streets of Chicago, gave me a very good lens on the challenges our students face,” Huberman says. “On a very fundamental level, the issues of violence and how it affects communities and schools hasn’t changed that much since then.” Michael Shields, the district’s director of security, says the city’s nearly 300 street gangs and 10,000 gang members—many of whom are Chicago school students—represent a longstanding problem. “Many of these gangs, especially the larger ones, have been in this city for 50 years,” says Shields, a former 22-year police veteran. “It’s part of the fabric of this city, and it’s something we’re trying to overcome. Ron has an excellent grasp of how gangs impact schools on the outside and inside.” 28 February 2010 Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, with Huberman behind him, outlines initiatives to curb violence at Chicago schools in October. The plan includes more police officers at schools during dismissal times and after-school programs. Shields, who emphasizes that Chicago’s schools themselves are generally safe, says the district has been keeping track of casualties to its students outside of school for more than two years. In the 2007-2008 school year, 23 students were killed on Chicago’s streets, while 211 were shot. The number of student deaths rose to 34 in 2008-2009, when there were a record 290 shootings. A Safety Plan Takes Shape But one particular attack brought the city’s problem to national attention. Last September, an honors student on his way home from Christian Fenger Academy High School on the city’s tough South Side, was bludgeoned to death by a group of young men. The attack was captured on cell phone videos for a shocked country to witness. Kenyatta Stansberry, the principal of William Rainey Harper High School, also on the South Side, says that particular crime has left its mark locally. “Parents are speaking up more. They’re very fearful,” she says. “And we have more parents picking up and dropping off kids than ever before.” “It put the spotlight on what we had set out to do, and it underscored the need for the program that Ron was pushing,” Shields adds. That program, which is still a work in progress, has developed over the past year through meetings among central office officials, local school administrators and the Chicago Police Department. It includes intensive mentoring for CPS students at the greatest District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - February 2010

District Administration - February 2010
Contents
Advertiser Index
News Update
Facilities Update
District Profile
Administrator Profile
New Books
Problem/ Solution
Pursuing Peace in Chicago
English Language Learner Charter Schools
Tweeting Your Own Horn
Tech Disruptions
Professional Opinion
Research Center
New Products
Product Focus

District Administration - February 2010