Monday, September 24, 2012

Jean-Claude Brizard, Chicago Schools CEO, Was Nearly Invisible During Teachers Strike

Jean-Claude Brizard, Chicago Schools CEO, Was Nearly Invisible During Teachers Strike:


Jean-Claude Brizard, Chicago Schools CEO, Was Nearly Invisible During Teachers Strike

CHICAGO -- When teachers on strike took to the Chicago streets for nine days this month, news cameras followed the union president, the head of the school board and the mayor. The Chicago Teachers Union and city representatives would meet for hours, negotiating technical contract details. A throng of reporters was always waiting outside for the latest update.

But the CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Jean-Claude Brizard, was nearly invisible.

As the strike began, Brizard had just come off a shaky performance review that so reverberated around Chicago that Mayor Rahm Emanuel had felt compelled to publicly voice confidence in his first schools chief. Aside from a