As always, this is great Tom. One company of his that nobody seems to discuss is St. Chi Enterprises, which he opened in Sept. 2020 to "purchase and lease real estate across the United States." What do we know about St. Chi's holdings? Given the concerns about gentrification associated with the new school in Evanston, you would think tha…
As always, this is great Tom. One company of his that nobody seems to discuss is St. Chi Enterprises, which he opened in Sept. 2020 to "purchase and lease real estate across the United States." What do we know about St. Chi's holdings? Given the concerns about gentrification associated with the new school in Evanston, you would think that it would be a no-brainer to disclose whether the national real estate firm he is operating on the side is potentially benefiting from the investment of public funds from the District.
On the "white supremacy" stuff. I was on the Zoom call that Fox picked up on in August 2020. I think it was one of the first times he had a quasi-public meeting. I distinctly remember him making the statement about allowing students of color to come back to in-person school first. I didn't care too much about the impact to my kids since we were in no hurry to send them back before they were vaccinated. But my immediate response was "you can't actually do that. It's against the law." This drilled home to me that the Board hired someone who was in over his head. I couldn't imagine previous superintendents Paul Goren or Hardy Murphy being so careless in that setting--even though Horton was navigating a very difficult situation.
I'm not sure how much Horton has actually grown on the job. It is hard to imagine him in charge of such a large district as they have in DeKalb.
Although I hope DeKalb hires him to get him out of Evanston, I have to admire the process they are undergoing when compared to how the feckless District 65 board undertook the Horton hire. Requiring candidates to account for their experience, qualifications, and character is essential. DeKalb may ignore citizen concerns and still hire him. But if/when things go south there will be a demonstrable record that the concerns were well known by the public and the board.
I just imagine how Evanston could have possibly gotten a better candidate if we had a similar opportunity to scrutinize the candidate before hiring.
Tom, I hope you continue this blog post-election. It would be very useful to try and get the board members on the record about how they intend to execute the next superintendent search. I did not see all of the candidate forums, so i don't know if Salem, Hernandez, or Wilkins were asked this during the campaign.
I saw Halperin defend the process recently on the District 65 parents facebook page by saying they wanted it to be anonymous to "attract the best candidates." Of course, this is illogical. They love Horton and he was applying all across the country in 2019 in public searches. Even though the board president claimed during the search that the candidates "requested anonymity", it is pretty much impossible to believe that this was the case with Horton.
Anonymous job searches and hidden processes are antithetical to low-bias recruiting and hiring. More transparency, partner-engagement, clear lines of accountability and articulated, visible, known selection criteria are fundamental to equitable hiring that mitigates selection bias and maximizes community input and investment.
The Board absolutely has an opportunity, and obligation, to be more equitable and transparent in their next hiring process.
This is how I feel about the contract award process too. We want to give contracts to companies owned by women, black and brown folks? Great! Let's open it to ALL those people, not just the ones who happen to be personal friends with the superintendent. This process is severly anti-equity.
Also keep in mind when D65 hired Dr. Horton he wasn’t coming out of the blue. He had relationships dating back to his time in CPS/AUSL. Several staff members and one board member (that I know of) had relationships with him already. It was likely they had him in mind when they started the search.
I have spent hours searching recorder of deeds systems for proof of properties owned by St. Chi and come up empty handed. If it does own properties its not in the tristate area or any major city with a public recording of deeds.
As always, this is great Tom. One company of his that nobody seems to discuss is St. Chi Enterprises, which he opened in Sept. 2020 to "purchase and lease real estate across the United States." What do we know about St. Chi's holdings? Given the concerns about gentrification associated with the new school in Evanston, you would think that it would be a no-brainer to disclose whether the national real estate firm he is operating on the side is potentially benefiting from the investment of public funds from the District.
https://bsd.sos.mo.gov/Common/CorrespondenceItemViewHandler.ashx?IsTIFF=true&filedDocumentid=124077680&version=2
On the "white supremacy" stuff. I was on the Zoom call that Fox picked up on in August 2020. I think it was one of the first times he had a quasi-public meeting. I distinctly remember him making the statement about allowing students of color to come back to in-person school first. I didn't care too much about the impact to my kids since we were in no hurry to send them back before they were vaccinated. But my immediate response was "you can't actually do that. It's against the law." This drilled home to me that the Board hired someone who was in over his head. I couldn't imagine previous superintendents Paul Goren or Hardy Murphy being so careless in that setting--even though Horton was navigating a very difficult situation.
I'm not sure how much Horton has actually grown on the job. It is hard to imagine him in charge of such a large district as they have in DeKalb.
Although I hope DeKalb hires him to get him out of Evanston, I have to admire the process they are undergoing when compared to how the feckless District 65 board undertook the Horton hire. Requiring candidates to account for their experience, qualifications, and character is essential. DeKalb may ignore citizen concerns and still hire him. But if/when things go south there will be a demonstrable record that the concerns were well known by the public and the board.
I just imagine how Evanston could have possibly gotten a better candidate if we had a similar opportunity to scrutinize the candidate before hiring.
Tom, I hope you continue this blog post-election. It would be very useful to try and get the board members on the record about how they intend to execute the next superintendent search. I did not see all of the candidate forums, so i don't know if Salem, Hernandez, or Wilkins were asked this during the campaign.
I saw Halperin defend the process recently on the District 65 parents facebook page by saying they wanted it to be anonymous to "attract the best candidates." Of course, this is illogical. They love Horton and he was applying all across the country in 2019 in public searches. Even though the board president claimed during the search that the candidates "requested anonymity", it is pretty much impossible to believe that this was the case with Horton.
Anonymous job searches and hidden processes are antithetical to low-bias recruiting and hiring. More transparency, partner-engagement, clear lines of accountability and articulated, visible, known selection criteria are fundamental to equitable hiring that mitigates selection bias and maximizes community input and investment.
The Board absolutely has an opportunity, and obligation, to be more equitable and transparent in their next hiring process.
This is how I feel about the contract award process too. We want to give contracts to companies owned by women, black and brown folks? Great! Let's open it to ALL those people, not just the ones who happen to be personal friends with the superintendent. This process is severly anti-equity.
Also keep in mind when D65 hired Dr. Horton he wasn’t coming out of the blue. He had relationships dating back to his time in CPS/AUSL. Several staff members and one board member (that I know of) had relationships with him already. It was likely they had him in mind when they started the search.
I have spent hours searching recorder of deeds systems for proof of properties owned by St. Chi and come up empty handed. If it does own properties its not in the tristate area or any major city with a public recording of deeds.