About 1,500 janitors who clean hundreds of Chicago’s public schools are continuing to push for sick days, warning that without time off, they could get ill and infect students with swine flu.

Outside Walt Disney Elementary School in Buena Park this morning, several janitors handed out leaflets and small packets of hand sanitizer to parents walking their kids to school. Many parents seemed unaware of the issue; only a few took time to talk with the janitors.

“People are really sensitive about the children, and that’s really what it’s all about,” says Edward Washington, a janitor at Fermi Elementary School...more

The Chicago Public Schools are launching a major new effort to cut down on student shootings, going so far as to identify the 1,200 students most at risk of being shot and pairing them up with mentors, schools chief Ron Huberman said yesterday.

Huberman noted that not a single shooting incident in the last year happened on school grounds but called the number of students shot, more than 500 last year and three dozen killed, “unacceptable.”

“I have not gone more than three days without having to talk to a parent who has lost a kid,” Huberman said.

Huberman spoke...more

There is plenty to recap on the Chicago Public Schools beat. Let’s get right to it.

• The Sun-Times and the Chicago Teachers Union surveyed 1,200 teachers and found that in the last year, a fifth were pressured to change their students’ grades. It was more of a problem at high schools, where nearly a third were pressured, and overall, 20 percent caved and raised grades. 
• At the behest of Mayor Richard M. Daley, Progress Illinois says, Gov. Pat Quinn dumbed down a law that would have put more oversight on CPS’s school closure process. Daley will...more

"As Chi-Town's editorial staff is aware, the CHA would gladly produce inspection records in response to a properly submitted request for information under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act."

Those were the words of Chicago Housing Authority spokesman Matt Aguilar, in response to my post two weeks ago about the authority's refusal to comment on any aspect of Clarence Walker's death.

"Gladly produce inspection records?" Actually, the CHA didn't produce them at all.

Walker died one month ago after he fell down an elevator shaft at a Cabrini-Green...more

The newly created Chief Area Officer positions at CPS will each earn about $151,000 per year, according to documents from the school district. For the nine previous Area Instructional Officers who will slide into the new roles, that’s no change in salary, but some CPS administrators will get raises of as much as 43 percent.

The new positions replace the existing Area Instructional Officer structure. The new officers will be responsible for geographic clusters of elementary schools or high schools, meeting regularly with principals to share performance data, CPS has said. One officer will be responsible for overseeing all special...more