Equity does not equal abdicating a responsibility for accountability. Biz - and everyone on the Board during Horton’s tenure - should step down.
And their conduct should be investigated. They basically bankrupted the district and allowed their hired superintendent to steal resources from our kids.
However, I don’t believe the Board has the reflective capacity or humility to step down.
Equity does not equal abdicating a responsibility for accountability. Biz - and everyone on the Board during Horton’s tenure - should step down.
And their conduct should be investigated. They basically bankrupted the district and allowed their hired superintendent to steal resources from our kids.
However, I don’t believe the Board has the reflective capacity or humility to step down.
The question is...do you actually *want* them to step down? That only means appointment of someone else who wasn't elected. The only one I'd want to step down at this point is Sergio. He's the board president, was one of the board members responsible for hiring Dr. Horton (and went on to be a major cheerleader and apologist of him), and also has ~3 more years on his term.
As of now, the only person who was part of the board that hired Horton who is actively running for office is Candance Chow, who is running for alderman. She voted for Horton and endorsed the closed process months after she quit the board.
The board would certainly have known about the tens of thousands of dollars Horton owed the city of Chicago as part of his real estate business. The board should have known about his personal bankruptcies had a background check been conducted. If they didn't conduct a background check, then Chow's endorsement of the process seemed even more problematic.
If I were voting for her for alderman I would ask that she explain how she can defend such an opaque process and what does her endorsement of such an obviously flawed hire tell us about her judgment.
In the letter she wrote below, she argues for using the governance structure of the D65 board for the city council, which would be disastrous.
This has come up a couple times so I've reached out to Ms. Chow to comment on this and do an interview with me to address this! Stay tuned, hopefully she says yes, I think she (or anyone) does deserve the opportunity to set the record straight or admit mistakes.
Also, the board at the time Horton was hired was (from the meeting minutes)
That's cool. I'm not trying to pick on her, but I was really disappointed during the last election that Sergio, in particular, never had to account for the Horton selection process.
I do think it is problematic that Chow--like Mendoza, Taynavutti, and Weatherspoon--all quit mid-term. Why would you run for office and then just quit?
If she agrees to an interview, you should also ask she can confirm that the 5th ward school was discussed with Horton during the winter/spring of 2020 as he asserted in his exit interview. That seems to be relevant since she quit the board on Feb 10, 2020.
From what I understand —she was forced out. Some of the BoE members aligned against her, stripped her of her second year as president, took her off of finance committee (at the time I believe she was the only one with any business acumen or background). I think there’s a lot we don’t realize in terms of what was happening at the end of her tenure…there were other BoE members that decided not to run also around that same time. IMHO, the writing was on the wall back then —to people on the inside. Though I’m not sure any of them had any ability to predict this unmitigated disaster.
Tom —great idea to interview CC. I hope she agrees.
Equity does not equal abdicating a responsibility for accountability. Biz - and everyone on the Board during Horton’s tenure - should step down.
And their conduct should be investigated. They basically bankrupted the district and allowed their hired superintendent to steal resources from our kids.
However, I don’t believe the Board has the reflective capacity or humility to step down.
The question is...do you actually *want* them to step down? That only means appointment of someone else who wasn't elected. The only one I'd want to step down at this point is Sergio. He's the board president, was one of the board members responsible for hiring Dr. Horton (and went on to be a major cheerleader and apologist of him), and also has ~3 more years on his term.
As of now, the only person who was part of the board that hired Horton who is actively running for office is Candance Chow, who is running for alderman. She voted for Horton and endorsed the closed process months after she quit the board.
The board would certainly have known about the tens of thousands of dollars Horton owed the city of Chicago as part of his real estate business. The board should have known about his personal bankruptcies had a background check been conducted. If they didn't conduct a background check, then Chow's endorsement of the process seemed even more problematic.
If I were voting for her for alderman I would ask that she explain how she can defend such an opaque process and what does her endorsement of such an obviously flawed hire tell us about her judgment.
In the letter she wrote below, she argues for using the governance structure of the D65 board for the city council, which would be disastrous.
https://evanstonroundtable.com/2020/11/06/reader-calls-for-consideration-of-the-negative-impacts-of-making-personnel-preferences-in-public-meeting/
This has come up a couple times so I've reached out to Ms. Chow to comment on this and do an interview with me to address this! Stay tuned, hopefully she says yes, I think she (or anyone) does deserve the opportunity to set the record straight or admit mistakes.
Also, the board at the time Horton was hired was (from the meeting minutes)
Hailpern, Chow, Mendoza, Hernandez, Lindsay-Ryan, Tanyavutti, Kartha
That's cool. I'm not trying to pick on her, but I was really disappointed during the last election that Sergio, in particular, never had to account for the Horton selection process.
I do think it is problematic that Chow--like Mendoza, Taynavutti, and Weatherspoon--all quit mid-term. Why would you run for office and then just quit?
If she agrees to an interview, you should also ask she can confirm that the 5th ward school was discussed with Horton during the winter/spring of 2020 as he asserted in his exit interview. That seems to be relevant since she quit the board on Feb 10, 2020.
From what I understand —she was forced out. Some of the BoE members aligned against her, stripped her of her second year as president, took her off of finance committee (at the time I believe she was the only one with any business acumen or background). I think there’s a lot we don’t realize in terms of what was happening at the end of her tenure…there were other BoE members that decided not to run also around that same time. IMHO, the writing was on the wall back then —to people on the inside. Though I’m not sure any of them had any ability to predict this unmitigated disaster.
Tom —great idea to interview CC. I hope she agrees.
It's interesting - she was listed in the roll call for the vote to hire Horton but in the vote to establish Horton's first day, she was gone