PORTAGE PARK — Gray Elementary School kicked off the school year this week with a new principal, Susan Gross, after Local School Council officials dismissed the sister of a powerful alderman at the request of teachers.
Catherine Sugrue, the sister of Ald. Patrick O'Connor (40th), led the Portage Park school for a year even though she failed the Chicago Public Schools principal selection test twice and was not eligible for the position.
However, in August 2014 Chicago Public Schools officials agreed to to waive regulations to allow the school to hire the alderman’s sister for no more than three years after an outcry from parents and members of the Local School Council who deemed Sugrue, who had served as Gray's assistant principal for a year, the most qualified.
"We were given what we asked for, but we were not really happy with what we got," said Local School Council Chairwoman Jodie Schaefer, who was among the parents who pushed CPS to change the rules for Sugrue. "It has been a humbling experience for the council."
The staff at Gray Elementary, where former Principal Sandra Carlson retired in 2014 after 15 years, asked that Sugrue be dismissed and a permanent principal hired, Schaefer said.
"It has been a tough year, and we want to start fresh and put what happened behind us," Schaefer said, declining to discuss the allegations from teachers against Sugrue, which included bullying and intimidation. "We did not care for the direction that the school was going. [Sugrue's] vision for the school was not what our vision was."
However, Sugrue said she was working to improve the school when she was dismissed without proper notice over a holiday weekend.
"The LSC never provided me with reasons for their decision and I was never given the opportunity to speak during the meeting," Sugrue said.
Sugrue said she pushed for changes at the school that angered members of the council.
"I made necessary changes to eliminate unaccounted for overtime and the accounting of funds and had no tolerance for racially prejudicial behavior directed at minority staff members," Sugrue said. "They were not ready for those changes."
Before taking the reins at Gray, Sugrue served as the district's director of school transition and oversaw 30,000 students displaced by the closure of 54 public schools in 2013, most on the South and West sides. Sugrue also served as the No. 2 official in the district's Office of New Schools, overseeing charters.
But Sugrue, whose brother is Mayor Rahm Emanuel's City Council floor leader, wasn't eligible to lead a CPS school because she twice failed the district's principal selection test, and CPS initially blocked her selection by the Local School Council.
O'Connor did not respond to a message left Wednesday at his City Hall offices.
Gross, a former assistant principal at Taft High School and Ogden Elementary School, was picked by CPS officials overseeing schools on the Far Northwest Side to lead Gray during the 2015-16 school year while the LSC searches for a permanent principal for the school at 3730 N. Laramie Ave. that offers a technology magnet program.
Gross did not return a phone call from DNAinfo Chicago.
"We are looking forward to working with Principal Gross, who comes highly recommended," Schaefer said. "We are going to learn from this experience, and keep our chin up."
Sugrue resigned as a CPS employee July 1, said CPS spokesman Michael Passman.
No changes are anticipated to principal selection process, which "is designed to identify the best school leaders for each school," Passman said.
The Gray Local School Council will undergo "extensive training" on how to find the "best possible principal" for Gray, Schaefer said.
"We have reached the conclusion that maybe CPS does know what it is talking about," Schaefer said.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
