The Local School Council at Jones College Preparatory High School is set to vote Tuesday on whether to recommend their principal be fired after a few members of the committee levied accusations of policy violations against the school leader.
The controversial vote pushes the LSC’s broken relationship with Principal Joseph Powers into further turmoil and threatens to divide one of Chicago’s highest-rated high schools.
Three LSC parent representatives, including the chair, wrote a letter to CPS CEO Pedro Martinez last month alleging Powers has violated the district’s residency requirement by maintaining a primary home in Missouri, failed to properly handle teacher misconduct complaints and fostered an unwelcoming environment for students and staff of color and transgender and gender non-conforming students.
The trio is taking its disapproval a step further Tuesday, putting the concerns for a vote before the entire 13-member LSC that would call on Martinez to approve administrative charges against Powers and begin dismissal proceedings. Under state law, the CEO would have 45 days to either approve or reject the request.
The agenda for the 6 p.m. meeting, to be streamed on the Jones LSC’s YouTube channel, notes more public speakers will be allowed than usual because of “volume of interest.”
In the days since Powers revealed the tension with the LSC and that he was considering retirement in a stunning letter to the school community, some parents, staff and even student members of the LSC have come to his defense — or at least criticized the process by which the three LSC members aired their concerns.
Sarah Kaiser, whose daughter is a senior at Jones, said she wished there was more parent and student input before the LSC representatives wrote their letter because “so many people in this situation were just completely blindsided by this happening.
“If these allegations are found to be true and there are serious issues, then I hope it’s addressed,” Kaiser said. “I don’t think it was gone about in the way it should have been.”
Kaiser said she has appreciated Powers’ leadership, calling him a “well-loved principal,” and felt he has been transparent and appropriately handled problems at the school. Addressing the complaint that Powers hasn’t welcomed LGBTQ students, Kaiser said her daughter, who is gay, has had a fulfilling experience in the school’s Pride Club and appreciated the school’s attention to students’ pronouns and bathroom signage.
Cassie Creswell, the LSC chair and a frequent critic of CPS officials, had maintained that the concerns are widespread. “The need to remove the principal is about student safety, both accountability for past harm and preventing future harm to students, staff and families,” she said this week.
CPS general counsel Joseph Moriarty told Creswell and the other two LSC members who wrote the letter that the district sees no reason to remove Powers while it investigates the allegations. “At this time, the investigative bodies have not indicated that circumstances exist to justify the removal of Dr. Powers,” he said in his response letter last week.