In what Chicago school officials termed a setback to their reform efforts, a federal judge Thursday reinstated Debrona Banks as principal of the Tilton School on the West Side, four months after they cited poor performance in removing her.
U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras ruled against the school system’s assertion that Banks had no contract when she was reassigned to the central office in January. He also said officials failed to follow the 1995 reform act by removing a principal from a school not on probation nor determined to be in crisis.
The judge did not immediately allow her to resume the post, and at a second hearing Thursday, was critical of a noisy demonstration Banks and supporters staged at the school, 223 N. Keeler Ave. He also did not bar the board from taking disciplinary action against Banks.
In an 11-page opinion released at the initial hearing, Kocoras wrote: “While we are extremely sensitive to the necessity of the (school) reform board to have control over its schools as it betters the educational system, we simply do not see any reasonable legal interpretation which supports the reform board’s position.”
Schools chief Paul Vallas acknowledged the ruling was a setback, but he said other administrative avenues can be used to continue his policy of aggressive correction of wayward schools.
“We’re in no way criticizing the judge, but I think this was a setback for the kids in the school. We intervened in that school and removed the principal because that principal was not doing the job, plain and simple.”
Referring to reform efforts, Vallas said: “What we’re doing is we’re moving quickly, and we’re working with a new act. And what we do is going to be subject to being sued. We win the majority of them, but we lose a few.”
Kocoras’ ruling set off a flurry of activity, resulting in his convening an emergency hearing six hours later where he expressed irritation because Banks and a group of supporters had gone to Tilton to order her successor, Faye Terrell-Perkins, to vacate the building by Friday morning.
There were cheers and bouquets from dozens of supporters who had gathered on the sidewalk, waving blue and white balloons, hoisting placards that read, “Put her back now!” Several schoolchildren ran up to hug Banks, as did at least two teachers.
“Victory is always good,” Banks said. “We were right, and I’m happy the judge was fair enough to recognize that.”
Terrell-Perkins said police escorted Banks and some of her supporters out of the school after they had arrived at about 2:15 p.m. and “said they wanted to serve notice on us that as of 9 a.m. Friday, there would be a new leader at the school. It should be made very clear that the bulk of these people were not parents of students here but people from the neighborhood.”
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Shortly thereafter, school system lawyers sought the emergency hearing where Kocoras chided Banks and her supporters for calling a news conference and going to Tilton as classes were ending.
“Nothing I have done would support the dislocation of any principal or any staff member operating currently,” he said. “That’s not a way to run a school, and it’s not the way to react after I issue an opinion.”
The judge said he would not formally enter the order returning Banks to her position until he determined that an orderly transition would occur. He also suggested that with just nine weeks left in the school year, it might be better to wait until classes were over to make the move.
Banks claimed that she had signed a four-year contract with the Tilton local school council in July 1995 that the school board had refused to approve because the 700-pupil school was on remediation status for being chronically non-performing, the judge’s opinion said. She had been Tilton’s interim principal since January 1994.
School board officials said Banks was removed from office after an inquiry found her school’s finances, education and management to be in disarray.
But Kocoras said the school council’s contract with Banks was binding because “we do not believe that the Board of Education has a statutory right to final approval of the principal’s employment contract.” He also said the school system erred by removing Banks while the school was on remediation and not on probation.
“We believe that the Illinois School Code allows Vallas the right to remove a principal only if the school was on probation and failing to perform, not when it is on remediation,” the judge wrote.
When a school is placed on remediation, the central office sends in a team of consultants to work with the principal to fix the problem.
Probation is a more severe measure that requires a hearing that can result in the replacement of the principal, an order for a new school council election or wholesale personnel changes.
Vallas said that in light of Kocorcas’ ruling, he might bypass remediation status and directly place troubled schools on probation.
“What it means in a nutshell is that we will be placing more schools on probation and we’ll be declaring more schools in crisis,” Vallas said.
“We are moving hard and fast to make decisions for the betterment of children.”
Kocoras also said the school system still has the authority to remove Banks again as long as it follows the law and “should the conditions which gave rise to Ms. Banks’ removal as principal resurface.”