EAST SIDE — Teachers, parents and students at George Washington High School, 3535 E. 114th St., are rushing to the defense of the school's principal after its Local School Council threatened to end his contract.
At a special meeting of the LSC Tuesday, a majority of the council abstained in a vote over whether to renew the contract of Kevin Gallick, currently in his fourth year as principal.
During a nearly two-hour public comment period Tuesday, dozens of community members gave impassioned testimonies, demanding to know why a slim majority of the body appeared poised to oust the principal.
Teachers and students pointed to a total shift in the school's climate since Gallick took the reins from previous principal Florence Gonzales, who was forced to resign after being the target of a 2012 discrimination lawsuit.
The school's college enrollment rate jumped from 35 percent in 2011 to 59 percent in 2014, and the amount of money students received for college scholarships more than quadrupled between 2012 and 2015, according to Chicago Public Schools data. The school also posted year-to-year gains in attendance, ACT scores and college readiness since 2012.
Many community members at the meeting linked those gains to Gallick's leadership, pointing to his open collaboration with teachers and his introduction of new college-readiness programs.
But after new representatives were elected to the LSC in 2014, parents said, its members began to take a hostile view of Gallick. By the end of the school year, the body started rating him poorly on evaluations.
"He had everything on track and he provided everything that was asked of him, and they still gave him this really poor evaluation," said Veronica Arias, who served on the LSC as a parent representative from 2009 to 2015. "The only explanation they gave was that he didn't have the data to support the work he'd done, but that's not true. He submitted everything."
On Dec. 2, Gallick wrote a letter to the school's staff saying that he wouldn't pursue a renewal of his contract, which expires June 30.
"I do feel that it’s fair to say that I have not been treated as a professional, and, in my opinion I feel that the principal evaluation process has been used as a political tool," Gallick wrote. "Moreover, I think it’s important to realize that when trusted public officials do not act in the best interests of the students ... then the public trust can be broken, opening the doors for abuse of power, and a decision-making process which is driven by personal desires rather than professional responsibilities."
LSC Chair Tina Perez, who called for Tuesday's special meeting on two days' notice, could not be reached for comment.
Word of the emergency meeting reached more than 100 people in time for them to pack into a classroom Tuesday night, taking turns testifying their trust in Gallick.
"I don't understand how the LSC can say it's representing the students and teachers when the students and teachers are all here representing themselves, and you're still not hearing us," one student said before the crowd, as recorded in a video of the meeting. "We still see those gang things written in textbooks and on bathroom walls. Those are scars of a different Washington. A Washington that didn't have Principal Gallick there."
Even Karen Saffold, the CPS area chief of Washington's Network 13, backed Gallick at the meeting, saying she's "heard he's done a wonderful job here, and I'd like to keep him here as well."
By the end of the hours of public comment, Gallick said he was too proud of his students to be fazed by the building drama.
"In my second year, around this time, one of the things we were concerned about was that not enough people were involved in the change process," Gallick told the room. "We said it's not enough to be leaders ourselves — we have to engage everyone in a movement. And guys, this is it. This is all we've ever wanted."
The LSC has until February to decide whether to renew Gallick's contract. The group has a regularly scheduled meeting on Saturday.
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