« Thousands of CPS Teachers, Students March on City Hall During Rush Hour | Quinn Vetos, the Illinois House Revises the McCormick Place Legislation » |
Education Wed May 26 2010
CPS Posts Positions, Names, and Salaries of Employees Online
The Chicago Public School system announced today that it has posted and will continually update the CPS Employee Position File, which records the names, positions, and salaries of all CPS employees.
Coming the day after a thousand-strong teacher rally at City Hall to protest CPS inaction on school budget cuts (where chants of "Hey hey, ho ho, Huberman has got to go" could be heard down the block), one has to wonder at the timing of this release. But this is undoubtedly not quite what those teachers were looking for in terms of "action," while the CPS is looking at a potentially $1.2 billion deficit for 2011.
According to a press release on the CPS website, CEO Ron Huberman considers this "an example of CPS making public information readily and easily available to the public" and evidence of their "ongoing commitment to transparency."
This may be part of it, and District 299's Alexander Russo muses that the publication of salaries will likely add some weight to CPS' call for salary freezes and its plea for funding, but the 834-page document is barely navigable. It certainly doesn't offer indisputable proof that CPS employees should forego their scheduled pay raises, but then again, who really knows what a Director of New Construction does, and if their job is worth $136,000?
Mike / May 26, 2010 5:06 PM
This information has been on the BGA's Web site for a couple years. Look for the link to the Payroll Database. It has all city employees and I think maybe state employees too. It's a little cumbersome, but you can look up any employee. My girlfriend's a CPS teacher (although only for three more weeks, thank God) ... she's in there. My uncle's a fireman ... he's in there too.