CPS special education still plagued with troubles 3 years after state ordered reforms suntimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from suntimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Janice Jackson took the helm of the Chicago Public Schools at a time when it was, again, a mess.
Her three predecessors had been pushed out, the latest in scandal, the one before him imprisoned. As an educator who’d worked her way up through her hometown school district, Jackson was tasked with stabilizing and restoring the public’s confidence in the country’s third-largest schools system.
Armed uniquely with a history they sorely lacked experience and valuable relationships as a former CPS student, teacher, principal and administrator plus parent of students Jackson shored up budgets, developed a five-year plan and promoted talent from within to assemble an uber-diverse leadership team loaded with CPS teachers. Principals halted their exodus.
Group home prepares for first residents
Bonnie O’Donnell, director for Mental Health Association’s GRIT Holyoke program, pauses in the dining room where residents can eat “family style.” O’Donnell was giving a tour of the group home on Yale Street on Thursday. STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING
Flower decorations, a gift from supporters in Boston, line the upstairs railing at the group home on Yale Street in Holyoke. Cordero Crenshaw, program supervisor for the home, is in the background. STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING
A handicapped-accessible bedroom on the first floor of MHA s GRIT program home on Yale Street in Holyoke. Photographed on Thursday, April 1, 2021. STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING