CPS Critics: School Officials Ignored Red Flags Over No-Bid Contract
(CBS) – At the heart of a federal probe into Chicago Public Schools is SUPES Academy.
But what is it, and who is the man who founded it?
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports.
SUPES Academy is housed in a nondescript Wilmette office building. According to its website, the academy trains and coaches school principals on leadership.
CPS CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett has a relationship with the company, and its founder, Gary Solomon, that goes back many years.
She worked as coach and trainer for Solomon's company.
Sources tell CBS 2 it was Byrd Bennett who strongly pushed the Chicago Board of Education to hire SUPES Academy to do principals training, arguing only that firm was qualified to fill that task.
CPS watchdogs like Wendy Katten from the parents group Raise Your Hand say that's simply not true.
"The fact that this outside group that almost no one I talked to at the time knew of was being brought in, and Barbara Byrd Bennett worked for this company raised a lot of questions," she says.
Sources say Byrd Bennett claimed no other contractor in the country could do the training SUPES Academy would supply. That was the justification for not putting the deal out for competitive bids.
In fact, education departments at Loyola and the University of Illinois-Chicago are already involved in training and coaching CPS principals.
There are questions as well about Solomon's background.
In 1999, he left a position as a dean and teacher at Niles West High School, after he was accused of sending sexually explicit e-mails to female students. Solomon never faced criminal charges, and the District 219 school board eventually paid him a $50,000 settlement.
As for the ongoing CPS investigation, a spokesman for SUPES Academy says the firm stands behind the countless hours of training provided to CPS principals.