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Thursday, April 21, 2011

New CPS chief owes us $100K for quitting, Rochester schools say - Chicago Sun-Times

New CPS chief owes us $100K for quitting, Rochester schools say - Chicago Sun-Times

New CPS chief owes us $100K for quitting, Rochester schools say

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Rochester city school superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard addresses the media during a press conference about his decision to accept a job as the superintendent of Chicago schools. | Annette Lein~Democrat and Chronicle

Chicago’s next Schools CEO, Jean-Claude Brizard, should pay the cash-strapped Rochester, N.Y., school district to cover the cost of searching for a new superintendent — an estimated $100,000 — now that he’s walking away from a three-year contract that began Jan. 2.

That was the view Wednesday of a two-term Rochester School Board member who calls himself a “fan’’ of Brizard’s.

“You don’t have to be F. Lee Bailey or Johnny Cochran to figure this out,’’ Rochester School Board member Van White, a civil rights lawyer, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “To make the taxpayers pay for this wouldn’t be right. It wouldn’t be fair.’’

Controversy kicked into high gear Wednesday over Brizard’s decision to leave his three-year deal, starting at an annual salary of $235,000, as superintendent of Rochester’s 32,000 public school children for the top spot in the nation’s third-largest school system, with 410,000 students. Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel announced Monday that Brizard, 47, was his choice for Chicago Schools