“Principals for a Day” Bill Lowry of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Nancy J. Foster of LaSalle Bank N.A. took just one hour touring classrooms Tuesday before striking up a candid exchange with the real principal of Tilton Elementary School about one of school reform’s most controversial issues: The principal expressing exasperation over the laborious process she faced in trying to fire three bad teachers.
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Elsewhere on Chicago’s West Side, a lighthearted moment unfolded. Another acting principal, Christie Hefner, head of the Playboy publishing and entertainment empire whose offerings are off-limits to young schoolchildren, was in a rocking chair in a kindergarten classroom singing “Old McDonald Had a Farm.”
Later, a 7th-grade boy in Casals Elementary School asked pointed questions about what age a student could start reading Playboy. Gracefully fielding the query, Hefner compared her magazine to an R-rated movie’s age requirement and added: “It’s almost a rite of passage, but a very personal decision that parents have to make.”
Throughout 568 Chicago public schools Tuesday, some 677 executives, civic leaders, politicians, celebrities, sports figures and others played “principal for a day” in an unabashed effort to promote the early successes of attempts to reform a beleaguered school system. Not coincidentally, school officials had released the day before heartening results of the latest battery of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills.
At an evening reception in the Field Museum, Mayor Richard Daley told a crowd of about 700 people that the Principals for a Day program, an idea borrowed from New York’s public schools, was a watershed moment in his 3-year-old takeover of the system.
“This signifies a complete appreciation for teachers, principals and students,” Daley said. “What we see today in this generation is just as good as and can be better than our generation.”
On the surface, one of municipal government’s bigger publicity events was an attempt to give local powers a four-hour tour of a single school and its inner workings under a carefully managed scenario. Up to the last minute, school officials tried to limit news media access to 25 schools, although some schools not on the “recommended” list ended up admitting reporters for less-orchestrated viewing.
Beyond that, city and school officials were hoping that the charm of young hungry minds would open pocketbooks of Chicago’s elite and their companies. And perhaps, as a long-shot sales pitch, that executives might even consider sending their own children to a Chicago public school.
Though there were a few awkward moments–Lowry’s name was misspelled “Lowrey” on a welcoming banner, and some teachers were visibly put off by the intruders–no dramatic social blunders were reported Tuesday.
It was hard to gauge immediately how successful the day had been in encouraging the captains of industry and commerce to make a donation to a school or hire students as interns. But Foster, in one such gesture, said five used computers from her bank were loaded with new software and donated to Tilton on Tuesday.
For principals, the day was largely one of flattery and a little pressure while playing host. For students, the event brought some needed positive publicity, though one heat-bothered student at Orr High School was more concerned about the broken air conditioner than the mayor’s visit.
And for teachers, some welcomed the attention, while others said the event should be organized as a “Teachers for a Day” event, since the classroom is the real workplace of education.
“That’s where the pain is,” said Orr teacher Nina Hike-Teague, whose biology class was visited by Daley. “Teach somebody’s class for the whole day, give him a lesson plan, so he can see the challenges that teachers face.”
There were a few last-minute cancellations, and although the volunteer principals were asked to spend at least four hours in a school, some such as Chicago Bears coach Dave Wannstedt were on hand for only two hours. Nonetheless, teachers in Jordan Community School in Rogers Park nearly sacked him to get autographs and photos after his visit.
On the Far South Side, Bob McNeill, a former Rhodes Scholar, was on the lookout for new candidates as he strolled hallways and visited classrooms in Poe Elementary Classical School–one of the top-scoring schools in the state.
McNeill, executive vice president of the Stein Roe & Farnham mutual fund group, had requested a school with academically advanced students, and that’s what he got, he said.
During a 4th-grade math class, students tackled word problems “that sounded more like SAT questions to me,” McNeill said.
McNeill, who works on the Illinois and Great Lakes Region selection committees for the Rhodes Scholarships, said he supports a follow-up forum for participants in the next few months.
At Clemente High School on the Near Northwest Side, students were eager for the chance to repair an image tarnished by a yearlong state investigation of alleged misuse of federal poverty funds. Construction company owner Nelson Carlo and his wife, Maritza Marrero, a vice principal with the City Colleges of Chicago, were the school’s P-FADs–the parlance for principals for a day.
“I hope you have a nice day at Clemente,” said sophomore Rodolfo Rivera as he greeted Marrero.
Rivera said he was happy to see professionals from the community take time off to visit his school.
“I want them to get to know some of the students here and feel comfortable with us and get to know us,” said Rivera, 16. “I actually think it would be great if they could spend more than a day here because then they could see all the negative talk in the media is not true.”
Like other volunteers, city Environment Commissioner Henry Henderson, one of two principals for a day in the Washington/Daley Transition Center G in the Englewood neighborhood, didn’t actually sit behind a principal’s desk. But he thought like a principal, he said.
When he entered the alternative school for failing 8th graders at 838 W. Marquette Rd., Henderson looked over the grounds and thought of improvements the city’s landscaping department could work on. While waiting in the principal’s office, he made a mental note to talk about special light fixtures that could save the school energy and money. And in the classrooms and hallway, Henderson said he thought of ideas for improving the electrical and air conditioning systems.
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By 10 a.m., the “family room” in Arts of Living alternative school, 721 N. LaSalle Drive, began to look more like a boardroom. Seated at the head of the circle, in what usually is the assistant principal’s office, was P-FAD Samuel B. Garber, vice president and general counsel for fur retailer Evans Inc. Positioned elsewhere around the room were some two dozen pregnant teens, who quickly learned one of the perks of the program: networking.
Garber methodically told the group about how good communication helped him climb the ladder of success and how he still has connections at many of his former jobs at places such as Walgreen Co. and Goldblatt Bros. Inc.
“So, if any of you are looking for a part-time job . . . ,” he said.
Before he could finish his sentence, arms began shooting toward the ceiling. After the meeting, he was swarmed with inquiries about jobs.
In another school, a businessman in a heavy, gray-flannel suit went from one sweltering classroom to another–without appearing to break a sweat.
“In this country, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it isn’t handed to you,” Jerry Reinsdorf told the students in Room 203 of Doolittle East School, 35th Street and Rhodes Avenue. “You have to work hard.”
Reinsdorf, lead owner of the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago White Sox, made no secret of his humble beginnings, something that may have helped him connect with his young listeners. Most of the 383 pupils in Doolittle East, located about a mile east of Reinsdorf’s office in Comiskey Park, live in the Ida B. Wells public housing complex.
“I am here for a day, but we are going to be your neighbors forever,” he told members of the Doolittle East local school council at a brief meeting between classroom visits. If the involvement of business executives and civic leaders “ends today, it doesn’t mean anything. Hopefully, people coming into these schools will be moved enough that they will continue to be involved.”