On the edge of the trenches...Dammmnnnnn it's hot!

So I got the go ahead to start spending 3-4 days a week at Raby.  It was early July 2012 and sweet mother of god, it was hot as hell up in the school!  Not to mention, a hot, hot mess!  The Network Deputy told me to, "get in there, and clean shit up, make the school pretty and figure out what's going on with no one watching the store".  There was no Principal hired yet, which was an interesting, but not uncommon dilemma.  The LSC (Local school council) was struggling to get along, let alone agree on a principal candidate.  The Previous principal had basically checked out in April so the school was a free for all for a couple months.  I was lucky enough to have all the documentation from our previous WSIM (whole school improvement model) team for a turnaround school, which, while this school was only a Transformation school (there is a difference) it needed many of the same supports.

Previously, Raby had been what some teachers had called a "teacher led school".  I didn't understand how ridiculous this was until I saw the mess that was left behind.  Also what this left,  was teachers who did not understand policy and logistics wanting to make crucial decisions for the school.  They wanted to do this, mind you, while the school was still a Tier 3 school (the lowest tier in CPS, which is calculated based on achievement, graduation rates, drop out...etc).  Basic things like unit plans and utilization of the teaching for learning framework were nowhere to be seen.  They did throw a fabulous Prom the year before from what I understood.

I met with the business manager who was a nice enough woman, but clearly not a problem solver or solution seeker if you will.  I helped her work through some bills that were out of control from prom and other issues.  Then it was onto cleaning up the school.  The lockers had yet to be emptied, floors cleaned, walls painted or covered... So with a mini budget, we ordered lunch for the football team and got their assistance with some of the clean up.  The Dean of Students, who is also the football coach was super helpful.  His relationship with the students was pretty amazing.  I was grateful for his assistance and kindness during such a crazy time.  We got posters up, some walls painted, floors cleaned, offices uncluttered and scheduling help for the schedulers!

So finally, with about 2 weeks left until the school, a Principal was chosen - Femi Worrill-Spearman. Ironically, I had worked with her at a previous school where she had been a reading specialist, teacher and POD director.  She was coming to us from Manley, where she had been an AP.  Oh, and I should add, the 2 AP's for Raby had already been picked for her since time was slipping away.  So she walked into a school with no school plans, the inability to choose her leadership team or even her Principal's assistant (which I learned was an extremely important position in the school) and 2 weeks to go.  She got right to work, even bringing in her MOM to help get the school ready.  Crap, her kids were there helping!  But she got registration together in a minute and we were well positioned to start school August 13th!

School started and of course we had the usually issues you have with teenagers, cell phones out, inappropriate clothing, language of all kinds.  I watched Femi closely as she very carefully observed for the first few weeks.  No wide sweeping rules were put in place, teachers were hollering, students were complaining but she held strong.  PD (professional development began and it focused 100% on instruction.  Can you imagine?  How absurd!  Lol.  Anyway, the AP - Jessica Johnson was an exceptional instructional leader and was a great compliment to Principal Spearman as we would soon learn.

Being a track E school (which thank God is no more...all of CPS is on the same track now)  We had  a fall break coming so Principal Spearman could take an assessment of what really needed to be done.  Of course, there was the strike.  I was told to report to Clemente for a "children's first site".  Not going to really discuss the strike.  It carries a lot of passion with many people on both sides and until I am a teacher, I will reserve my thoughts and opinions.  I had plenty of work to do during the strike, we were amending the budget, since Principal Spearman hadn't had an opportunity to create her own budget, there was lots to change.

When the kids came back from Fall break, our uniform policy rolled out.  Man, what a nice change!  Young ladies and men looking respectable, which really does make for a better learning environment.  Trust me.  Yes, some of the boys thought they still needed to show their drawers to the rest of the school (I could write a whole damn blog on that ridiculously self deprecating fashion statement). Also, a cell phone policy went into effect- all phones should be either left in lockers or at home.  If they make an appearance during class, they go to the principal and the parent/guardian can pick it up.  Also, plans were written!  Attendance plan, instructional plan, emergency plan, discipline plan, security plan, staff handbook, student handbook...  all the while, completion of REACH evaluations had to be done!  Here's a piece of advice folks, if you can't or don't like to multi-task, don't be a Principal!

I was in awe of what had been done by Winter break!  And the school still had an intersession academy for one week of the break.  I also was intrigued by the ongoing disrespect between the teachers and ESP's.  Neither thought the other "had it that bad or worked that hard" so useless time was spent trash talking about the other group.  One teacher actually said during a PD meeting, "I mean, do we really need 3 clerks to push papers around and answer a phone that never rings".  For someone who was a proponent of a teacher-led school he didn't have a clue.  Likewise, the clerks didn't quite understand what it was like to be held captive in a classroom with 20-30 unruly students, no time to even go to bathroom, let alone take lunch (because really, what teacher really "takes a lunch" when there are student that need you during that time?) Oh, and of course, the teachers who came from the "teacher-led" regime slowly weeded themselves out, but some stayed and bitched incessantly about Admin.  Then there was a group of teachers that just freaking got it done!  Maddy Wang, (TFA), Trang Le (TFA), Kristen Yenior (NBCT), our ENTIRE Low incidence department, Mr Carver, Mr. Peterson (new teacher), Ms. Harrell (career changer)......I am certain I left some off, but man, they just got to it!  I was in awe of their passion, ability, resourcefulness.  When they spoke at a meeting, they had something to say that was truly valid and meaningful.  Most of these teachers, by the end of the school year, if they weren't already, comprised the mid-level leadership of the school.  And funny, they had VERY important roles, with huge impact on the school, yet, they didn't feel they need to weigh in on every administrative decision.  Why?  Well I asked a couple of them before I left.  The one comment that stood out in my mind the most was the following,  "Why would I want to worry about running the entire school when my role in this huge machine is to focus on student well-being and achievement?  If I want to go into administration at some point, I will, but that is not the best use of my role at this time". Boom.

So, we got through the year, so many initiatives and programs that were a success - our technology upgrade to the school (smart boards in 8 classrooms, ipads, laptops, new desktops) , Junior Boost ( our Junior Intervention for ACT  and college preparation), College tour to North Carolina (yes I went...what an adventure!), Acheive 3000 intervention, Raby Day of service (an ALL school day of service), peace march, service projects, Mothers day brunch, Saturday school (sponsored by the School but open to the district!), Boys and girls club programs....our little school had a fantastic year.  And no, we didn't make it to tier 2 this year, we were VERY close. I am quite certain they will make it next year.   Oh, and with all the budget cuts, Raby was able to not cut ANY teacher positions.  This determined by many late night conversations with Principal Spearman about the budget.  Her mind is always on, and she is always thinking about her kids, teachers, staff and school.   That's another reason a "teacher-led" school is unrealistic.  A good Principal NEVER gets to stop being on, at least during the school year! Could you really expect that from ALL your teachers?  With a union contract?  Anyway,  The end of the year awards program included EVERY staff member.  Unheard of, and extremely considerate when you consider we are adults and in it for the kids.  For a Principal to take the time out to recognize in an entire meeting, every staff member is amazing.  I never got "recognized"  for just doing my damn job working on wall street.  You're reward was your paycheck.    

My take aways from this year and the next leg of my journey: 

• Keep my head down and learn as much as I can, from ALL my colleagues.  A 23 year-old new teacher may have something amazing to teach me to be a better teacher.
• Share in public settings when it's really helpful for the entire group.  If not, shut the hell up.
• Reach out to admin sparingly.  They have north of 100 teachers, staff, network, and central office people asking them for something every day.  Understand they can't be everywhere, all the time. Particularly the Principal, they have a school to run.
• Create and hold fast to boundaries with students.  I learned the hard way this year.  You can care and love without stepping over those lines.
• Set aside a budget I can use for students, school items..etc.  The need is endless.  My income is not.
• LISTEN to evaluation feedback and PROCESS quietly to myself.  Feedback will make me a better educator.  Arguing about the feedback and observation will not.
• LOVE KIDS.  When you stop this, you need to move on.

I start my new adventure July 1 with AUSL.  Stay tuned!

The beginning of the beginning: please title your emails....

So I did it.  I gave my notice, packed up my desk, threw away anything securities or banking related and stopped watching CNBC.  I was now an employee of the Chicago Board of Education.  I was a SENIOR grants management analyst (soon I would learn titles are VERY important in CPS).  I was excited as hell!  Yes, I took a disgusting pay cut, and yes, just two weeks after starting furlough kicked in, which my new manager failed to tell me about, but it was all good.  I was doing good, honest work. I reviewed and managed grants, primarily IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) and NCLB ( No Child left behind) grants.  It was new and it was interesting to me!  I threw myself into the work tirelessly.  I also was training for my first triathlon at this time.  It was perfect timing.  I had hard hours in this position - 8:30am to 4:30pm and believe me when I say chairs were spinning by 4:31pm.  It worked well for me with my training and beside the fact I was pretty micro-managed, things were great.  The head of our department or "Director" if you will,  was Kayleen Irizarry, a fiery Puerto Rican, who besides being a PhD, was a freaking walking education legislation know-it-all.  I saw her rattle off shit in meetings that made the most smug Suit go skulking away.  She was, and is awesome.  I started to become intrigued with her background and how she came to be such a valuable resource to education.  Attorney maybe?  Lobbyist perhaps?    And there it was..she started as a teacher.

 I offered to work on some weekends when a colleague had some School  Improvement grants coming due.  I was struggling a bit with my manager as she and I butted heads.  She was previously a teacher, and I am quite certain, was amazing when she was in the classroom.  Her adult management style was an "acquired taste". I believe one of our biggest, ongoing arguments was the titling of my emails.  Seriously.  I was getting antsy and wanted more of a challenge and an opportunity to show the work I was capable of doing with my background.  An opportunity came up in OSI (office of school improvement) and I put in for the move.  My manager couldn't get rid of me quick enough and I couldn't move fast enough. LOL

Here I started my real education of the education system as we know it, in CPS. My first role was Project manager for Productization. Yes, that is a made up word so don't bother googling it.  I was working under the management ( and I use that term loosely) of Gavin Doughty.  Brilliant man.  Oh and the reason I used the term loosely is because Gavin was always more of a thought partner and colleague than manager.   He has empowered every person that worked for him to be great.  I learned so much working for and with him!  So, in this role I was charged with "productizing" all things OSI...from Teaching and Learning - ie. "Teaching on the Block", Syllabus construction"; to Climate and Culture - ie. "Restorative Justice" , "Hall Sweeps" to the entire Human Capital process.  I should add, all this was also also under the direction and brain child of Don Fraynd and Randel Josserand.  Two really wicked dudes.  Both insanely passionate about education and kids.  The best advice I ever got was from these two men who basically said (and I paraphrase) " ...you have to get out in the schools to really understand what's going on. Ingratiate yourself into the school culture."  They were so right.  So off I went to Marshall High school and humbly asked if I could work at the school a couple days a week. I learned more in my time at Marshall, and Fenger and Harper...than I ever did sitting behind a desk at Central office.  Honestly, if CPS really wanted to get rid of the space issues, they would fill schools with different departments in different schools.  There is definitely an Ivory Tower Effect when people work "down at the Board".  I am sure in the coming years I will have plenty on this topic.  Stay tuned.

In the midst of all this, I was trying to figure out what "road" I was going to go down.  Did I want to be a Broad Resident?  Move into operations and deal with budgeting in schools?  As I continued learning I kept coming back to the same conclusion - you need to teach to really understand and be able to lead in education.  With that in mind I started to research programs...TFA?  CTF?  Both amazing programs.  but not for me. Inner City Teaching Corp perhaps?  Go back full time??  So much to figure out.

Quickly I needed to hire someone to team and was blessed with the most amazing woman, Kelly Weiss.  Her work is extraordinary.  Anyway, she rolled in and  I moved on, in the same department, to become the head of our Human Capital group.  We were in the business of turning around schools so by the time the schools got approved, which was LATE February, we had less than 4 months to end of school to hire an entire school staff for the reconstituted schools.  Through this process I really got to see the good, bad and ugly of CPS.  I saw some amazingly talented people get pushed out,  while at the same time,  I saw some insanely lazy, un-talented people with confusingly undeniable job security. Last, and this was the one that killed me, there were people with ZERO education experience who were rolling into schools, telling Principals how to operate more efficiently and effectively!  Sweet mother of god, was that a joke!  It would be like a dentist coming in to look at your broken ankle.  She's probably brilliant, but you want her looking in your mouth not your ankle.   Right?  Maybe it's just me...

So I brought on a small army of people, and we hired up 4 schools in record time.  No thanks to the Central office...it's so funny but people in other departments were calling our group in OSI to help with hiring as opposed to downtown.  It's a shame really, we could have done something really great in terms of hiring for the entire district and been a leader, like we should be as such a big district.  Ironically, other districts are using our process.  I get calls often to have web conferences to share the process.

Once the staffing was completed, a small exodus started in our group. That's their story to tell so I will leave it at that.  CPS lost an amazing Visionary, Don Fraynd, but he has started a company called Teachermatch and is still doing remarkable things for education.  Our other fearless leaders went into Network and District positions to impact change.  Our darling Ellen Kennedy went to be an Assistant Principal at Tilden HS.  Together with the amazing Principal Maurice Swinney there, they killed it!   I had determined by this time I was going to go into a program specifically geared towards preparing individuals for urban education, and found one, appropriately titled: Academy For Urban School Leadership (AUSL).  I had a year until my program started however, and Human Capital was being turned over to the district again.  (because they did such a fantastic job...probably the e-bulletin.  That was a bridge burner)  I put my hat in the ring for a Program manager position at one of the Transformation schools and got it.  Al Raby High School.  This would be my last stop before beginning my "official journey" into education.  What I didn't realize was this would really begin my education journey.  What an amazing year I had ahead of me....

Before the beginning...

Hi!  I'm Carrie.  This is the story before the story.  I figured I should lay the ground work for the crazy that is about to ensue in my life.  This will be a long one so I'll try to be as concise as possible.  So here goes......

Remember that book "Liar's Poker" by Michael Lewis?  The one that tells the story of a bond salesman working on Wall Street in the 80's?  Well, I can share from personal experience it's pretty spot on.  I worked on Wall Street/LaSalle Street (Chitown's version) from 1993-2008.  15 years.  I started as a lowly sales assistant to 10 grizzly, awesomely inappropriate salesmen and traders.  Got promoted, move to NY, worked for a pretty kick-ass All-Star Muni Analyst and then came on back to the Chi to get my MBA.  Back then you pretty much needed to get one if you wanted to move on up.  So I did, while I worked at Lehman Bros. That firm is gone now.   Funny, at least 4 of the firms I worked for in my 15 year career are no more.  Not a big surprise. Lots of good stories from that adventure, but that's a story for another day and another blog.

During my tenure I learned almost every aspect of the business.  In the end I landed at a company we   can call PJ Torgan.  I started in the retail division and worked my way up to the Private client side (PCS).  Had I known what I know now, I would have stayed in retail.   My friend Rob, (one of a handful of true "friends" I actually made in the business) made the smart decision to stay in retail, after numerous requests from me to get him to move up to Private client with me.  In retrospect, he was wise, like Buddha with lots of hair, lots and lots of hair.

Anyway, I did pretty well for myself and the company while I was in PCS.  I was a top producer and started a midwest women's group for the female investors.  I also was the head of our WIN (women's investment network) for Chicago.  In addition, I was able to sit on the board of a Charter school and mentored and tutored with a program called Saturday scholars.  I had always been charitably inclined but these two opportunities had the biggest impact on me.

Now don't get me wrong, I had some FABULOUS clients, some I still talk to and actually reap wonderful advice from.  They have been big cheerleaders in my career change and are salt of the earth people....if you're reading this, you know who you are Dan Z, Bernadette Y-O... love you to pieces.  They made it worth going to work, and made me feel like I was still doing something worthwhile. Together with the charity/community service work I thought I would last...

The lifestyle is stressful, and pours over into your personal life times 10.  Wining and dining, traveling to see clients, and oh yeah, pushing products that aren't necessarily good for the client, but definitely are good for the company!  I remember the first time I sold private equity.  I felt dirty.

Fast forward to 2008, and I was on the top of my game, was running a program for the company with colleagues from KC and Denver that focused on pension rollover and we were doing well.  I was now seeing my mentee, Mark, at least once a week, he had finally learned how to read well, and the charter school I was on the board of seems to be headed in the right direction.  Then, Auction rate securities hit the scene.  Long story short, we were told to sell them as "same as cash/cash-equivalents" because they were municipally backed and we were a market maker in the security, so a client could ALWAYS get out.  Yeah, that couldn't have been farther from the truth.  When the bond market started to take a hit and the Auction rate sec. market started to dry up, clients couldn't get out of their "same as cash" investments.  I had a client with a large dollar amount in these securities.  I was told to keep him in the security because it was good for the company, or we would take a hit.  I got home that night and couldn't look myself in the mirror.  Next morning, I got up, followed proper sales protocol and sold him out of the security.  This cost me my job.  As I left the building that day, I honestly exhaled for the first time in a LONG time.  I knew then, at that moment, I needed a change and started my search for a more purpose driven life.  I made a quick stop at another investment firm while I searched for the right career and was lead to CPS (Chicago Public Schools)  I would be a Senior Grants Analyst.  Boom.