The following article was selected from the Internet Edition of the Chicago Tribune. To visit the site, point your browser to http://chicagotribune.com/. ----------- Chicago Tribune Article Forwarding---------------- Article forwarded by: Cayata Dixon Return e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Article URL: http://chicagotribune.com/news/local/article/0,1051,SAV-0105300248,00.html ---Forwarded article---------------- Daley grants Vallas a luke-warm blessing By Gary Washburn, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune reporters Michael Martinez and Ray Quintanilla contributed to this... In a less than robust endorsement that raised new questions about the future of Paul Vallas, Mayor Richard Daley on Tuesday said the public schools chief can stay in his post if he wants to, but he then asserted that there are "a lot" of people qualified to replace him. Daley also said he would not try to persuade Vallas to stay at the helm of the school system if Vallas decided to resign. Asked directly whether he would like to see Vallas stay or go after last week's surprise resignation of school board President Gery Chico, Daley replied, "It's up to him. He can stay if he wants to." But when a reporter inquired whether Vallas would be difficult to replace, the mayor said there are plenty of talented people, both inside and outside the school system, who could do the job. "We have people, " Daley said. "There are a lot of people. ... Like anything else, I could be replaced tomorrow, so don't think you are invincible. Everybody thinks, `I am the only one and if I leave, the city will fall apart.' I disagree with that. Don't ever believe that one person is the key to everything and is irreplaceable." If Vallas were to leave, "we will get a new team," he said. Daley spoke at a press conference called to outline the city's hot weather emergency preparedness plan. Numerous city department heads and top executives of sister agencies such as the Chicago Transit Authority and Chicago Housing Authority flanked the mayor. But the public school system was represented by Chief Operating Officer Tim Martin, and Vallas was nowhere to be seen. In answer to another school-related question from a reporter, Daley said, "I can't ask anybody [to stay on] if they decide not to stay. I have found that out in government. If someone wants to leave, they want to leave and when you keep them there, it is counter to what you want to do or what they want to do." For his part, Vallas said Tuesday that he had no intention of immediately leaving his post. "I am not resigning," he said. Vallas will wait until the last day of the school year, June 12, to evaluate his future with the school system, he said. "I take it one year at a time," Vallas said. "When the school year is out, I'll make a determination and then I'll have a conversation with the mayor on where we go from there. The mayor has told me it's my decision to make, and I'll take him at his word." Vallas said he still planned to give a speech Wednesday on the state of the schools before the City Club of Chicago, discussing everything from test scores to legislative plans. "I look forward to doing that," he said. Since Chico announed he was stepping down from the board, Daley has been interviewing candidates for the position. One of them, Rev. Martini Shaw, pastor of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, confirmed that he met with Daley on Tuesday. Daley has been frustrated by stalled progress, particularly in reading, among public school students, and he has been critical of what he contends has been a lack of creative thinking by school officials. But Fred Hess, who established Northwestern University's Center for Urban School Policy and is a key researcher on Chicago school reform, warned now is not the time to replace Vallas. It would take months to bring another chief executive officer up to speed, and that would only seriously delay new efforts to bolster reading at the system's most underperforming elementary schools. "I can't understand the impatience," Hess said. "The way things have gone in the last two years, with [standardized] test scores plateauing, you need someone who has been there." Daley said Tuesday that he has been "interviewing a number of people, five or six people" as possible replacements for Chico. Addressing another matter, Daley said he believes Chicago Housing Authority officials will opt to save "some parts" of the ABLA public housing complex, but he asserted that "you couldn't save the whole thing." The Tribune reported Monday that preservationists want to save at least some of the buildings in ABLA. Meanwhile, Daley labeled as "silly" and dangerous a call by a pro-gun organization for people to bring unloaded handguns to the Taste of Chicago in a demonstration for their rights. ---------------------------------------------------- This is the CPS Mathematics Teacher Discussion List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
