Sign the Petition and Spread the Word!
As the above video and the report below demonstrate, the actions of a Chicagos Mayor Lightfoot’s appointed officials at CPS can be characterized as reckless and irresponsible neglect of their basic duty to provide the training, support, supplies, and personnel to keep school administrators, staff, and community members safe.
Here are some steps you can take to help:
Step 1: Sign the Petition
Sign our petition to call on Mayor Lightfoot to compel her appointees at CPS to provide the equipment, supplies, personnel, and policies needed to keep people safe.
Step 2: Contact the Mayors Office
For the health of safety of principals, assistant principals, staff, and the public they’re interacting with, please contact the Mayor's Office and Demand:
Personal Protective Equipment and safeguards for ALL school staff on site.
Paid personnel, security, and tech support to aid food AND computer distribution.
REQUIRE staff with high-risk health conditions to work from home.
Mayor's Press Office
312.744.3334
press@cityofchicago.org
Mayor
Lori A. Lightfoot
lori.lightfoot@cityofchicago.org
Step 3: Spread the Message
Pass send the link to this web page to at least one person you know. Send it with your own message or use the message below:
Principals and assistant principals are on the front lines risking their health and safety to get food and learning technology to students and families without the protection they need. I just signed the petition to get them protective supplies, personnel, and policies they need for their health and safety. I hope you’ll sign it too. Here’s the petition and here’s a link to a web page where you can learn more.
Read Below to Learn More
The actions of the Mayor's appointed officials at CPS can be characterized as reckless and irresponsible neglect of their basic duty to provide the training, support, supplies, and personnel to keep school administrators, staff, and community members safe during food and computer distribution.
After fielding dozens of calls and emails from school leaders about this neglect, CPAA President, Troy LaRaviere, commissioned surveys to determine the extent to which these concerns reflected the experience of school administrators at-large. The data herein was gathered by a March 15th survey (581 responses, 3% margin of error) and an April 10th survey (356 responses, 4% margin of error).
Safety Procedures: Guidance, Training, and Support
DEFINITIONS
Guidance: Clear Written Procedures
Training: Instruction that helps you learn, practice, and master the procedures
Assistance: Trained personnel to help you implement the procedures with fidelity
While most administrators (59%) indicated they received written procedural guidance from CPS, 92% indicated they received no training, and 87% indicated they received no assistance to implement those procedures.
Supplies: Masks, Gloves, and Hand Sanitizer
Since getting these results, CPAA received disturbing reports that although the district’s privatized custodial and engineering management companies have been distributing “low-grade face coverings” to maintenance personnel, some principals received one covering meant for one-time use and some received no covering at all. Some didn’t receive one because they were not in the immediate vicinity of the person distributing them, and others indicated they didn’t receive one because they were not on Aramark’s “list” of specific principals who were designated to receive them.
“The principal received one. I, as the assistant principal, apparently am not important or respected enough to make that list. Pretty sad that not only are we not compensated correctly, and we lose our pension if we move to a principal position, but now we aren’t even relevant enough to protect.”
Safety Materials: Signs, Space Markers, and Barriers
Disregard for the Heath of High-Risk Personnel
We asked Chicago’s school leaders two questions:
Despite the fact that one-fourth of their administrator have medical conditions that make them a high-risk for not surviving a COVID19 infection, CPS officials attempted to coerce high-risk administrators into reporting to their buildings and interact with hundreds of people--and in some cases more than a thousand--for food and computer distribution with no protective supplies, materials, or training.
What We Need
Equipment and Supplies: Personal Protective Equipment and safeguards for ALL school staff on site
Personnel: Paid personnel, security, and tech support to aid food and computer distribution
Policy: Require staff with high-risk health conditions to work from home
Principal Voices
The following statements were submitted as comments through CPAA surveys on COVID19 safety.
“I had to make face masks for my staff myself.”
“I have never felt more dispensable in my entire professional life. There have been NO instructions about how to safely hand out the technology. I have underlying medical conditions. It feels like CPS truly doesn't care if I get sick, as long as they say they got out technology to students.”
“Grocery stores are having their employees wear face masks/putting up plastic dividers between customers and cashiers - but CPS is not doing that for food distribution workers or administrators.”
“Our zip code has already reported 370 cases of COVID-19. Did they even look at that data before selecting the sites?”
“No hand sanitizer provided. Even after the Chicago Department of Health guidelines, no face masks have been provided. We have basically been told we are on our own.”
“The district was poorly prepared for, poorly communicated during, and poorly responded during the pandemic crisis. Poor leadership at the top continues to shut out the voices of school leadership that could guide them about what it's really like in schools.”
“The district does not care about principals. If they did, they would have surveyed and asked us directly what we need or what we are worried about. We have had no input or voice. The only organization that has asked principals what they need is CPAA. All of CPS’s guidance is vague so that all solutions come from principals. They provide no actual resources, funds, or manpower.”
“CPS continuously repeats what the CDC guidance is, but have provided nothing to help us comply with that guidance.”
“Principals asked our Network Chief about the dangers of 100-300 people arriving for food. Principals were told to 'think of a strategy' to keep people safe. No support, no added personnel, nothing.”
