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New School Board Appointee Karen Zaccor |
In School District 4 (in which Uptown's Goudy, McCutcheon, Courtenay, Brennemann, and Disney are located, along with Uplift HS, Truman Middle College HS and 27 other schools to the west and south), Ellen Rosenfeld won the election for school board member.
Running without the endorsement of the Chicago Teachers Union, Rosenfeld received 41.6% of the vote (49,351), while CTU- and Brandon Johnson-acolyte and Helen Shiller loyalist Karen Zaccor came in second, with 30.2% (35,825).
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School Board member-elect Ellen Rosenfeld |
Not so fast.
Here's the trick: ten school board members were elected, but the remaining ten members of the board are appointed by Mayor Johnson. So losers can win! The system allows Mayor Johnson to appoint one person from each school district (as well as the board president, who can live anywhere in the city).
And who did the mayor appoint to the school board? None other than Karen Zaccor, the loser of the School District 4 election.
So, until 2026, in a true Chicago duality of politics, District 4 will be represented by the candidate who won -- and by a candidate who lost.Chicago politics, folks.
(By the way, Karen Zaccor won't be alone in being a loser-winner. Mayor Johnson appointed another November losing candidate to the board: Anusha Thotakura in District 6.)
And if the whiff of 2000-era Uptown politics isn't strong enough, a previous Johnson board appointee who'll be staying on the Board is Michilla Blaise, a long-time aide to then-alderman Helen Shiller.
Ms. Blaise has been featured on our pages before, including a little backroom politics awfully similar to the current controversy concerning Helen Shiller and the Zoning Board of Appeals we covered last week.
And in a final note, longtime readers will also remember that Ms. Zaccor is the wife of longtime Helen Shiller supporter Alan Mills. Plenty of circles to draw here.
Our loser-winners will be in power on the board until 2026, when each district will be split into halves and all 20 members will be elected, not appointed. But until then, more than half the board will serve at the discretion of Brandon Johnson, who is, of course, closely aligned with the CTU.
It's gonna be interesting.
What an absolute loss and atrocity. Zaccor is not wanted by the voters. But all you really need is to kiss the ring and be a part of the Clay/Shiller/Johnson cabal so she's in. I expect it from the cabal of idiots, but I'm so disappointed in Hoan Huynh and Sean Tenner for supporting this woman too. We need better
ReplyDeleteThe mayor is playing blackjack or poker and banking on his "strong" supporters (CTU) to turn out the vote next time he runs. He's PO'ing everybody it seems, esp. the Black people on the south side.
ReplyDeleteI have spoken with both of these women and was really underwhelmed by Karen Zaccor. She seemed totally clueless about the issues or didn't want to talk about them.
ReplyDeleteStop the steal!? CTU stooges everywhere.
ReplyDeleteOne ought to look at the Financials and performance record of Uptown's Joan Arai school. This school could be the poster child for how activists move in, bleed the resources, use it to groom kids as future activists, and ignore the kids need for a proper education. It is the worst performing school in Chicago's north side and the truancy rate is through the roof. With that track record, Brandon Johnson selects Zacor from that school to guide schools city wide.
ReplyDeleteShe is in good company with her husband,Alan Mills of Uptown Peoples Law Center. The big law firms and bar association give him resources to fight for those unjustly incarcerated.Yet, when we foia'd his court records of clients we found he was representing Uptown's most notorious gang members. Not that surprising given Helen's staffer was mother to one of the gang leaders. I remember the day that gang leader shot and missed a rival gang member. The bullet whizzed in front of me and over a mother with one child in hand and another in a stroller. It pierced the west window of the Dunkin Donuts at Broadway and Wilson. Gang banger shooter's momsie ran out of Shillers office across the street and harassed responding pole officers with Shillers usual police brutality bullshit. Just another day in paradise in Chicago's progressive north shore ward.
Or you can contact your state assembly person (Hoan Huynh for most of Uptown but YMMV) and ask him to get this bill up for a vote:
ReplyDeleteIt is sponsored by La Shawn K Ford:
https://www.ilga.gov/house/rep.asp?MemberID=3272
it would pass a state law that allows for the Mayor to be recalled. The only thing bad about it is that they didn't include aldercritters as well.
Or you can contact your state assemblyperson (Hoan Huynh for most of Uptown but YMMV) and ask him to get this bill up for a vote:
ReplyDeleteIt is sponsored by state assemblyman La Shawn K Ford who interestingly enough is/was a teacher in CPS.
https://www.ilga.gov/house/rep.asp?MemberID=3272
it would pass a state law that allows for the Mayor to be recalled. The only thing bad about it is that they didn't include aldercritters as well.