Respect is not something the district can say to you. It is something they must show you. They must demonstrate it.
How many times have you heard a CPS official say, “I truly appreciate all that you do for students,” while making absolutely no effort to demonstrate that respect?
How many times have you heard a CPS official say, “take some time for yourself” while making no effort to the curb the redundant compliance workload that makes it nearly impossible for you to take that time?
How many times have you heard a district official talk about how “proud” they are of you, or how much they “respect” you while never getting any meaningful feedback from you before they launch another ill-conceived districtwide project that negatively impacts your work?
And how many times have you heard district officials tell the public how important and “valued” school leaders are while they fight behind the scenes to suppress even a conversation about increasing your compensation to back up the idea that you and your work are valued?
That is akin to what happened recently with CPS Chief Talent Officer, Matt Lyons, who was recently put in charge of the next “review” of the compensation structure for school administrators. His announcement of the review came on December 20, 2019, the deadline CPAA’s attorneys gave the district to release shameful and embarrassing administrator compensation data to CPAA after they stalled the release for three months. His announcement also came a month after an intense exchange with CPAA in which he either rejected or ignored multiple arguments for a raise for administrators. You can read the exchange yourself, here.
We must remind ourselves of the contradiction between CPS’s words and actions so that we do not go into this compensation review process believing that CPS will act in the best interests of you and your schools. Along with teacher effectiveness, school leadership is the most critical factor in student success. If CPS genuinely wanted Chicago’s schoolchildren to succeed, they’d tirelessly advocate for the revenue needed to set administrator salaries to a level that would attract and retain the best principals, assistant principals, and other administrators.
When it comes to respect, however, CPS has been all talk and no demonstration. They have repeatedly refused to put the district’s money where its mouth is. Our recent legal maneuvers have finally forced a review of administrator salaries, but it’s going to take a collective effort from all of us to ensure that review leads to a compensation structure that demonstrates meaningful respect for you and your work.
Over the next few weeks, CPAA will be releasing our analysis of the latest compensation data and bringing our compensation working group together to create a compensation proposal that demonstrates tangible respect for the work of school leadership. We will keep you informed of our progress, and please contact us if you'd like to be a part of that work.
In solidarity,
Troy LaRaviere
President