Was It Something We Said?

The date had been pushed around, rescheduled and finally agreed upon.  A five-person team from Raise Your Hand was to meet with Ron Huberman on Tuesday, November 2, Election Day.  I scheduled a sitter two weeks in advance, looked for something business like to wear, and downloaded map quest directions to the offices of the Chicago Public Schools. My first sitter cancelled on me so I had to quickly arrange a back up.  I still cannot find a box containing all of my “good” clothes from our move three months ago, so I had to make do with a business-iffy ensemble instead. 

Although I looked forward to having a conversation with Mr. Huberman, I must confess, the circumstances leading up to this meeting seemed peculiar.  We had scheduled this get together months earlier, when Mayor Daley seemed firmly planted in his seat, and as far as I knew, Ron Huberman CEO of CPS, had just ordered another gross of business cards. Fast forward to late October 2010.  Mayor Daley announced he would in fact NOT be seeking reelection.  Those of us Chicago savvy know full well that those in charge like to pick their own lieutenants and appoint their own CEO’s.  Daley appointed Huberman. Thus, Mr. Huberman would be living with the invisible, yet unmistakable, “Guy from Previous Administration” tattooed all over him.  The odds of another mayor keeping him in such a high profile position was next to nil.  Knowing this, I wondered what we would talk to Mr. Huberman about during our scheduled 45 minutes.  It seemed pointless to talk specifics about the future of CPS when the person at the helm would be gone. By the same token, I did not want to let the opportunity to meet with the person ultimately responsible for my children’s education, at least thus far, pass me by.  The Raise Your Hand quintet had a list of points to hit, but we also decided to see where the flow of conversation would lead, now that it was free of prescribed plans and goals.

Mr. Huberman was on time, so were we, a good start to any meeting.  Mr. Huberman had an assistant with him, nice guy, young, with that “eager to assist” quality still going for him. After a break the ice chat about the bedbug situation in the CPS building, we got down to the main question on all of our minds.  RYH asked Mr. Huberman, point blank, how long would he be in his current position? Weeks? Days? Hours?  He replied “months”.  That sounded encouraging.  A great deal can be accomplished in months.  Now we can have a conversation.

Mr. Huberman praised the success of the turnaround of several elementary schools.  He gave full credit of those successes to the parents at these schools for improving their schools reputations, raising the test scores, increasing enrollment, and implementing auxiliary programs, ultimately making them attractive to neighborhood parents.  He expressed a need for this same type of activism and involvement to occur on the high school level.  Many parents are apprehensive about their children attending neighborhood high schools and yet the selective enrollment schools may not be a viable or realistic option for every student.   Much in the same way parents decided to make their neighborhood elementary school an attractive choice for their children, he suggested that these same involved (some might say intense) parents continue on with this idea and work their magic at the high school level as well. I agreed with the idea in principle, but I have to admit, the mere thought of being an active intense advocate beyond elementary school, made me slump in my seat.  I’ve been doing this for years now for little kids, but on the high school level? Really? Is this what is in the cards for me?  It took a few seconds for this idea sink in and for me to accept that this is a very real possibility. I would like my kids to go to a selective enrollment high school, but what if they don’t get in or what if they don’t want that for themselves?  Even if they do get in, it is in everybody’s best interest to have a safe, attractive, active, successful high school in the neighborhood. Yes it sounded like a lot of work, but it also made a whole lot of sense.  I think I had just gotten a glimpse in to my future. It looked a lot like my present but with harder homework, more hormones and less crayons.

We discussed testing and test scores.  It is no secret that Ron Huberman likes data.  It is also no secret that many teachers and administrators feel there is too much testing done in the schools. Mr. Huberman specifically went over the value of the Scantron test, how the instant the student is finished, the teacher can see how well he or she scored as an individual and as compared to the rest of their class.  I know there are many opinions on these tests.  I’m neither condemning nor defending them.  I’m just letting you know, we talked about them.

Mr. Huberman mentioned the changes to the admission policies that would be announced later on that day.  In particular he noted that siblings would no longer face the possibility of being separated with regards to magnet schools.  Schools that required a test to get in would still admit students by test scores with no sibling preference.  This policy is too little too late for me.  Years ago it was this “no guarantee that siblings would be together” decree that kept me from playing the lottery past my eldest child’s kindergarten year. My kids are competitive enough as it is without adding the “my school is better than your school” to the already ungodly long list of things they fight about. For parents just entering the system, this is good news for you.

Raise Your Hand broached the subject of lengthening the school day.  Chicago Public Schools has one of the shortest school days in the country.  I remember having 3:15 etched into my brain as my release time every day.  I don’t know when that half hour was taken away from the public schools, but I’d like it back for my kids to use….and if you run into my kids, don’t tell them I said that.  Learning that I am pushing for a longer school day would completely blow my cover and make it even harder for me to do this type of advocacy work.  

Overall our conversation with Ron Huberman was very pleasant, but at least for me, one that seemed a little hollow considering this man, with his thoughts, ideas and personal goals for CPS, would soon be gone. Whether we were going to agree or argue with him over his tactics was now a moot point.  Of course none of us in that room had any idea as we shook hands with Mr. Huberman and said good-bye, just how soon he would be saying his final farewell.

When I heard the following day that Ron Huberman announced he would be leaving at the end of November, my first thought was what happened to “months” as his response to how long he was staying?  Was it something we said? Years ago I interviewed Mr. T.  After a pleasant conversation, much like the one with Ron Huberman, Mr. T. went back to his home in Lake Forest and promptly chopped down all his trees, making headlines in the process.  Most of my colleagues at the time kidded me with “What did you say to him Claire”?  Most of my fellow CPS parents said the same thing this time “Hey Claire, what did you say to Huberman to make him quit?” Nothing. Not a thing.  I thought back over our meeting. Did Huberman know, even as he was talking test scores with us, that he would be making this announcement the following day?  Did something happen between the time we left and the time he went to sleep that made him feel the need to get out of Dodge now? Did the mayor, who had already hung up his “gone fishing” sign, want to employ some lame duck style of clout and pressure Mr. Huberman into resigning? Who knows?

While the meeting with Ron Huberman seemed only vaguely productive at the time, it seemed almost pointless now in light of his fast approaching exit. However, with a few days having passed, I can see some value to this meeting. You need to know history to understand the present.  It was good for me to meet this CEO to understand him and his perspective as I hopefully meet the new one. The CPS system including all the students, parents, teachers and administrators have all had a history of working under Ron Huberman.  Much like Mayor Daley’s fingerprints were on Huberman, so are Huberman’s prints on all of us.  As we move forward with future discussions of the Chicago Public School system, it is good to keep in mind that all the people involved will be entering into these talks with “this is the way it’s been done” on their lips.  It’s beneficial for us to understand the architect of “old way” even as we anticipate the new way yet to come.  Meetings are held for all sorts of reasons, planning, brainstorming, announcements, morale boosting.  This one originally was held to focus on the future of CPS under the helm of the current CEO.  But life throws us curve balls all the time doesn’t it?  You know the old saying “the best laid plans” and all that. For me, our meeting with Ron Huberman ended up being an information gathering and soon to be recent history lesson.  This is what we know was done under the current CEO.  Here are his motives and reasons behind his decisions.  File that away as “duly noted” and now let’s look to the future.