New here! And another CPS question..

[Drover]

Originally Posted by patshuca

It would exist regardless where city employees live. Welcome to Chicago.

It's a lot harder to build patronage fiefdoms when many of the beneficiaries can't even vote for you.

[Savoir Faire]

Originally Posted by Drover

"Choice" or "sane leaders" or not... if the residency requirement is ever lifted I'm getting the hell outta here because a lot of middle-class neighborhoods will collapse overnight.

Many neighborhoods where city employees live have been declining in the past decades. This is particularly true of the outer edge areas. I remember in the 70's and 80's Marquette Park and West Lawn were relatively safe areas.

I know quite a few CPS teachers that don't live in Chicago. Have you seen the residency exemption list for CPS employees?

* Special Education Teachers
* Mathematics Teachers
* Science Teachers
* Librarians
* Guidance Counselors
* School Nurses
* Reading Teachers
* Bilingual Teachers
* Physical Education Teachers
* School Psychologists
* Speech Pathologists
* ROTC
* Sign Language Interpreters
* Occupational & Physical Therapists
* Health Service Nurses
* World Language (Exclusively: Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Latin, Farsi)

[patshuca]

Originally Posted by Drover

It's a lot harder to build patronage fiefdoms when many of the beneficiaries can't even vote for you.

Perhaps. But Chicago politics was built on self interested patronage. It's in its DNA and not likely to change unless the entire political structure gets cleaned out.

Residency requirements is one tool of the political patronage system but certainly not the only one or even the main one. Considering that most city voters are not city employees - the ability to influence elections based purely on patronage is incremental.

My point is, even if city employees were allowed to live outside of the city, Chicago's political patronage would be just as robust using other means. It's naive to think getting rid of residency requirements would diminish Chicago's political patronage.

[chet everett]

Just a few months ago a well respected and competent teacher that has a waiver was denied renewal. The trend of CPS has been deny waivers.

The policy is fuzzy on why / how waivers are granted / denied:

By May of each year, the Board will reassess which areas are still considered special needs. Exemptions will be granted only for those areas. The Board will not renew exemptions for job categories no longer assessed to be in special needs areas. Teachers who have been granted a waiver in a job category no longer deemed as special needs, their waiver period shall not be affected. However, to receive a renewal of the waiver, the teacher must be in a position considered a special needs area at the time of renewal.

Teachers whose exemptions are not renewed will be required to establish residency in Chicago within six (6) months of their waiver expiration date.

The Board reserves the right to assign teachers receiving residency waivers to schools or programs with vacancies in the teachers' areas of certification.On October 27, 2004, the Chicago Board of Education amended Residency Policy 01-0425-PO2 for all employees. The purpose of this fact sheet is to outline the requirements of the residency policy. If there are any inconsistencies between this fact sheet and the policy, the policy controls.




Newly hired teachers of the CPS for the 2010 - 2011 school year and who are certified/endorsed in subject areas deemed special needs may apply for a waiver to the residency policy, provided they are hired to teach in a special needs area of education. Such individuals must complete and submit applications for exemptions to the residency policy within 31 calendar days of their dates of hire. If granted, exemptions will be valid for three (3) academic years after the employee's date of hire and may be renewed for subsequent three (3) year periods, provided that the employees continue to be employed in a special needs position.

[Savoir Faire]

I personally know a teacher who received a bilingual waiver (Spanish). Her Spanish consisted of basically "Yo quiero taco bell" Ok, I'm exaggerating, but it was extremely poor Spanish, hardly fluent.

[chet everett]

Real testament to the lack of political influence in administering the waiver process...

[dewthedru]

can i ask why you are moving out of schorsch village? there's a pretty good school here, bridge elementary. not sure about the high school though.

[tonythetuna]

Originally Posted by dewthedru

can i ask why you are moving out of schorsch village? there's a pretty good school here, bridge elementary. not sure about the high school though.

Taft is so-so. Unless the kid gets in the gifted program there is a lot to be desired. Taft is better than all of the other CPS Northwest side high schools though.

I think the OP wants to move closer to the good private high schools on the Far Northwest side ahead of time.

Originally Posted by ChiRNMom

We have considered the whole catholic vs public thing, and I think we've decided to go with public for grade school, and private for high school.