Results tagged “ronhuberman”

• A man recently paroled after almost 30 years in jail for rape has been charged with a sexual assault that occurred early Tuesday in Lincoln Park.
• There's a bit of trouble for Mayor Daley's press secretary Jacquelyn Heard as it seems like she's the owner of a reputed drug house.
• Someone's taken their political differences too far: Cook Co. Commissioner Deborah Sims received racist and threatening phone calls over her decision to switch sides and back Todd Stroger's tax veto.

After announcing that he's holding the line on property tax hikes and giving Chicagoans an "abatement" by raising the property tax below the full amount allowed, Mayor Daley expounded on the fundamental unfairness of excluding city teachers from the state pensions system. “We pay a double-tax. The pension is picked up by state government for all teachers outside Chicago. As a taxpayer in Chicago, you pay a tax there. Then, you pay another tax because the state excludes Chicago teachers. So, you’re paying two pension taxes: one for the state and one for the city,” Daley said Wednesday. “We’re the only, only local government doing that in the whole state. That puts a huge burden upon the school system. ... You’re paying two taxes. This is really unfair and we have to do something about it immediately.”

Chicago Public School officials are proposing raising property taxes. But instead of referring to the hike as an increase, Mayor Daley is calling it an "abatement." But rather than increasing the tax by the maximum allowable rater - 4.1 percent - the rate would be increased by about 1.5 percent, garnering $43 million, instead of "$83 or $100 million." Although the mayor had a lot to say about the tax hike and his proposals to cut pay in the schools, as well as his demands that federal employees take Chicago-style furlough days, he refused to discuss the $900 million projected deficit in the public schools 2010 budget.

• First Clout College, now this: the Chicago Tribune reports that the Chicago Public School system has launched an internal investigation looking at how students are selected to admittance for some of the more elite schools after, according to CPS CEO Ron Huberman, information showed, "that existing policies may not have been followed."
• Several media outlets report today that Brian Dugan is ready to plead guilty to the 1983 murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico; Dugan is already in prison serving two life sentences for two other murders.
• A section of the outbound Bishop Ford Expressway was closed for around eight hours today after a tanker truck spilled corrosive coal tar in the road early this morning.

Situated in the Gold Coast steps away from the new Barneys store, Ogden International Elementary is considered one of Chicago’s finest public schools where students of well-off parents from the neighborhood can choose from a curriculum of after-school activities such as yoga and drawing classes.

Okay, now this is getting kind of serious. This morning, Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman announced that Kilmer Elementary School in Rogers Park would be closed today and tomorrow due to a 12-year-old student who is home with what is being called a "probable case of swine flu." A sample from the student is being sent to the CDC today for confirmation.

Chicago Public Schools will be increasing its number of "year-round" schools this fall to 132, a move CPS CEO Ron Huberman says is being made because the extended schedule was requested by many parents and educators. "Year-round" is a misnomer (although we're sure the students don't feel that way) -- there's still a 6 week break as classes will end in mid-June and start again the first week of August, and additional breaks are added throughout the year making the total number of days spent in a classroom similar to other schools. Huberman says the new schedule reduces "the amount of learning forgotten over the long summer break and give[s] children a 'safe environment' for most of the summer, when violence levels tend to spike." We'll give him the safe environment part, but if kids are really forgetting what they've learned in 3 months, then they haven't really learned it in the first place -- which would mean something else is broken besides summer vacations.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan joined Pat Quinn in visiting Andrew Jackson Elementary School on Chicago's West side Tuesday. Duncan discussed the $3 billion in funding that the state would get as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. $2 billion of those funds will go to the state's Fiscal Stabilization Fund, which Quinn wants to use to make general aid payments to the state's school districts. The remaining $1 billion in funding will go to support programs and operations in public schools around Illinois. "These funds allow Illinois to pay its bills to schools quickly, which keeps our teachers teaching and protects our children," Quinn said.

Chicago Public Schools today announced that they will open nine new schools and expand two existing schools, just weeks after the CPS school board voted to close 16 schools based on low enrollment and low performance. The CPS will create seven high schools, three elementary schools and one middle school. They've proposed for some of the schools to fill the spaces that are currently occupied by the 14 elementary schools and two high schools that the CPS has decided to close.

Maybe we shouldn't be surprised, given their willingness to spend like crazy on cappuccino machines, but it seems the Chicago Public Schools is the next entity that is facing one helluva budget shortfall for the 2009-2010 school year: $475 million, to be exact. And how does the CPS propose to close the budget hole? Why, with a property tax hike, of course. CPS used $100 million in reserve funds last year to avoid a tax hike and, coincidentally, last year was also the first time since Mayor Daley took over the schools (in 1995) that a property tax hike to benefit schools wasn't put on taxpayers.

Today the Chicago Public School Board voted unanimously to close, phase out, and consolidate 16 schools a day after CPS head Ron Huberman chose to spare six schools.

CPS CEO Ron Huber(super)man saved six schools from being closed, leaving 16 schools on the list of those that will be closed and/or consolidated.

Mayor Daley’s pick to head Chicago Public Schools might have to be approved by the City Council. That’s according to a lawsuit filed by activist and 2007 Mayoral candidate William Dock Walls, who’s just the latest critic to sound off on the appointment of Ron Huberman as CPS CEO. The lawsuit argues that Huberman’s appointment has to comply the city municipal code, which states that the City Council must approve “all officers of the city” who are picked by the mayor. But the mayor receives the power to choose the CEO from state law, which doesn’t say anything about the city council. The lawsuit, however, argues that the state law doesn’t indicate that the city council can be left out of the decision-making process.

He's been in place less than a week but new Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman is already going back to his old haunt, the Chicago Police Department, for some help. It was announced today that The Ron is bringing on CPD spokeswoman Monique Bond for a "a top advisory role" for his new administration. Bond, who's been CPD spokeswoman for four years, previously worked with The Ron in a spokeswoman capacity during his tenure as director of the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

Now that former CTA Prez Ron Huberman has moved on to head up the Chicago Public Schools, the CTA is now looking for his replacement. They have, however, named an acting chief to fill in for Huberman in the meantime. The CTA has announced a special board meeting for Friday at which Dorval Carter, the CTA's executive vice president, will be appointed as acting chief of the CTA. Sources told Crain's Greg Hinz that Dorval isn't currently a favorite to become permanent president.

Newly introduced CPS head Ron Huberman received a less-than-friendly welcome from the gallery when he was introduced at a Chicago Board of Education meeting today, prompting Board President Rufus Williams to admonish the crowd. The crowd criticized the Huberman choice, citing his lack of education experience while other critical comments weren't directed directly at Huberman, but rather at the CPS as a whole for the controversial decision to shut down 22 schools.

As Daley's appointment of Run Huberman to replace Arne Duncan as CEO of the Chicago Public School systems became official, Duncan offered praise for the selection, saying, “Ron is smart. He is committed….He has no ego. He just wants to make things better. He's done that absolutely everywhere he's worked." This in spite of that fact that Duncan had endorsed Chief Education Officer Barbara Eason-Watkins for the slot.

We mentioned this weekend the speculation surrounding the CTA's Ron Huberman replacing the DC-bound Arne Duncan as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. This afternoon, Crain's is reporting a source as saying it's a done deal and could be announced by Mayor Daley as soon as tomorrow. Okay, his experience with the Chicago Police department will probably come in handy with the way the kids are carrying on these days, but wouldn't we want someone with at least a little education experience for this role?

The Mayor is considering the CTA’s Ron Huberman to potentially succeed Arne Duncan to take the top job at Chicago Public Schools. According to the Trib, the Mayor could make a decision as early as next week.

A new plan being considered by the mayor could add a new fee to those wanting to park downtown in an effort to reduce congestion and to raise funds for public transit. The new ordinance, which Mayor Daley introduced ninja-like yesterday apparently hoping we'd be so worried about snow and plows that we wouldn't notice, would also charge per-minute fees on trucks that block traffic during peak hours. But the ordinance seems kind of vague and shady.

The mayor's ordinance makes no mention of specific congestion fees. It merely gives the city's revenue director unbridled power to set the rates and adjust them without City Council approval. A study under way by the Civic Consulting Alliance will determine the size of the increase.

Continue reading "City Mulling "Congestion Fee""

Well, at least someone is having a good week. That someone is CTA Prez Ron Huberman who was more than happy to point out that slow zones on the Blue Line are getting less by the day, improving travel times to O'Hare. Now he can take pleasure in both arch-rival Gov. Blagojevich's downfall (take that, free senior rides!) and bask in the glory of the CTA's highest ridership in 16 years. For the first time since 1992, the CTA has broken through the half-billion mark in terms of riders, on pace for 528 million total rides for the year. According to the press release, "Ridership has increased 5.5 percent system-wide, with an increase in bus ridership of 6.7 percent over 2007 and an increase of 3.8 percent on the rail system." It's good to know there are no problems at all with our public transit system and that everything is firing on all cylinders, literally and figuratively. Nope, no problems. At all.

We can't believe this but we actually have...good news to report in regards to the CTA. Beginning this morning, four-track service was fully restored to the Fullerton station. And, don't look now, but the same will be said for the Belmont station by the end of the year, according to CTA President Ron Huberman. Said The Ron via press release: “Completing the three-track operation at Fullerton is an important milestone and marks another chapter in bringing CTA’s largest capital improvement project to fruition. We thank customers for their patience during this project and assure them the accessible stations, longer trains and modernized stations will improve the overall travel experience now and in the future.”

The CTA board meeting scheduled for today has been postponed until tomorrow due to the CTA's failing to post a notice of the meeting as required by the Illinois Open Meetings Act which is in place, "to ensure that public business is conducted in public view by prohibiting secret deliberations and actions on matters that should be discussed in a public forum." Still, one day won't change the suspected outcome of the meeting: an expected 25-cent fare hike. We ran down the ins-and-outs of the new budget about a month back, but said budget is finally coming to pass.

The Fraternal Order of Police is making a move to block CTA President Ron Huberman from claiming his police pension. The Ron, who makes $198,000 a year, claims that he's entitled to it since part of his job at the CTA is managing security. He had previously worked for the CPD for 13 years, serving as both a patrol officer and then an assistant deputy superintendent, focusing on technology; he last worked for the CPD in 2004. In an interview a few weeks ago with the Sun-Times, The Ron had said, "Part of my responsibility is security at the CTA. I'm not saying I'm a police officer because I'm not. But the law says if you're involved in security work and that's part of your responsibility, you have the right to pay in if you're on leave of absence."

The CTA added a new alert system today that enables riders to receive emails notifying them of construction reroutes. Said CTA President Ron Huberman, “Over the last year, it’s become very clear to all of us at the CTA that we needed to come up with a very holistic plan to change how we communicate with our customers." Click here to read more on the system and sign up for the alerts.

Well, this is some great news. The CTA announced its 2009 budget today and it seems those fare hikes we've been waiting will finally come to pass. The Ron said of the increase, “While this fare increase is difficult, we simply felt we had no choice.’’ And then he probably muttered, "Fucking Blagojevich," under his breath. So how will the fare increase affect riders?

CTA head Ron Huberman and other local transit officials faced the City Council today and faced criticism on potential fare hikes and the debacle that is the Block 37 project. On the subject of a fare increase, Huberman said:

Ultra-low diesel, which is what we use on our buses, has increased 80 percent. Next year, we will be spending $50 million more for the same quantity of fuel than we spent the prior year. Electrical costs are coming in over 25 percent higher than they were the prior year. That means that we will be spending $7 million more just for electricity,” Huberman said.

Continue reading "CTA Faces City Council, Higher Fares In 2009?"

Seen on a rush hour northbound Blue Line train, 9/11/2008.

Seatless El cars—which according to plans would be two cars out of an eight-car train—may start running as soon as October, Ron Huberman said today. "We're only going to use them in places where customers currently are standing anyway. They're standing because they can't get on a train. And so we're going to be using them in those corridors where we know we're leaving people on the platforms."

Construction work on the Blue Line tracks between the Rosemont station and O’Hare is wrapping up four days early, with CTA service expected to be restored tomorrow morning at 3 a.m. Repairs to deteriorating rails, tie plates and spikes will eliminate the 15 m.p.h. slow zones on that particular stretch of track, now giving trains the capacity to travel at speeds up to 55 m.p.h.