Response to the "Statement on Scammon School Alledgations"

For CPS Planning Purposes:


February 9, 2011



I agree we must rely on our parents, teachers and staff to ensure that the educational outcomes of our children are being met. It has been my experience thus far that the School administration and office of specialized services seems to have the opposite goal in mind. The administration does not support the staff and in fact hinder them from doing their jobs and the right thing. Especially Mary T. Weaver who has lied, mislead, and misrepresented facts to me on many occasions.



With the current state of the supposed lack of funding of CPS and the City of Chicago as well as the State of Illinois, that is talking about cutting our education money even more. It was claimed in a letter sent home from Scammon School that “…these out of state conference expenses were required and reasonable for the special education and bilingual teachers who attended…” In the time of internet conferences and information downloads, they claim it was necessary to go to Vegas. If you can tell me with a straight face that it was cheaper and that these “…conference expenses were required and reasonable” then your education was wasted. If CPS is going to put out a statement about following travel expense policy procedures, then why not show us the expense reports which are public record and let us decide.



Who decided what teachers went and why? Who decided that the expense was reasonable and what definition were they using? Why could they not have the materials for the conference send and have a local professor or attorney give the conference here in Chicago? That way more schools and teachers could have benefited citywide! Why did they have to go during report card pick up when parents have the one time to talk to their teachers and make sure their children are on track? Why is the school refusing to give parents copies of the expense reports and making them go through the FOIA request? If you have nothing to hide then stop hiding!



The Office of Specialized Services is only diligent in my experience with trying to cover themselves and try and deny as much as they can, forcing parents to either fight or surrender under the pressure. I have many documents and proof that everything they said in their letter sent home about IEP’s and 504’s is an outright LIE. So call a meeting and let’s put our papers on the table, play the audio from the meetings, I dare and challenge CPS and Scammon School to do just that. Stop trying to make us believe something we know is not true and let’s bring the truth out in the light of day. Prove me wrong; show that I am not being honest, because I can prove my case against all of you. Dr. Richard Smith let’s get together publically, come to the school at a time when parents can be there and let the media in, or are you scared the real truth will come out. You have my information I await your call, I never graduated High School I have a GED you have a doctorate so don’t be afraid of me.



And please tell the teachers at Scammon to stop telling our children lies and making excuses about their trips when they are there to learn. If you want to explain yourselves then do so to us parents in person with all your documentation. What are you thinking wasting class time explaining how you didn’t gamble in Vegas when you should be teaching what you learned Ms. Wissert. Ms. Kessinger your job is to teach our kids if you want to explain something explain to us parents.



Let me end with Pick on someone your own size, ME!