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Earle STEM Elementary School Still Without a Principal

By Wendell Hutson | August 27, 2014 7:52am
 Earle STEM Elementary School is still without a principal, just days before classes resume for Chicago Public Schools on Tuesday.
Earle STEM Elementary School is still without a principal, just days before classes resume for Chicago Public Schools on Tuesday.
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DNAinfo/Wendell Hutson

WEST ENGLEWOOD — Earle STEM Elementary School is still without a principal, just days before classes resume for Chicago Public Schools on Tuesday.

But Darlene O'Bannon, a Local School Council member at Earle, said she is not worried.

"CPS is doing their best to get us a principal, and they are working with us" parents, said O'Bannon, a longtime Englewood resident. "I am not concerned because Ms. [Elizabeth] Kirby has had someone in place since day one."

Kirby is the Chicago Public School network chief for the Englewood-Auburn Gresham area, which includes Earle.

Cheryl Watkins, an administrator with the network office, said Tuesday she has been "helping out at Earle until a principal is in place."

Earlier this month, interim Principal Demetrius Hobson resigned after eight months on the job, and in December former Principal Ketesha Melendez was reassigned to Crispus Attucks Elementary School in Bronzeville. The next principal will be the third at Earle in less than a year.

According to CPS data, Earle, 2040 W. 62nd St., has been on academic probation for 11 years. In 2013, the school moved into the Elaine Goodlow Elementary School building and became a receiving school for Goodlow after CPS closed it and dozens of other schools.

O'Bannon, 56, said while the LSC is unable to hire a new principal because the school is on academic probation, it has been making recommendations to CPS.

"Yes, it can be unhealthy [changing principals], but CPS is putting stuff together," O'Bannon said. "The teachers, the staff and the community are working together, and we are united as one."

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