Left-to-Right, Presidential Candidate Karen Lewis (King College Prep), Vice Presidential Candidate Jackson Potter (Lawndale Little Village High School), Recording Secretary Candidate Michael Brunson(Displaced from Aldridge Elementary), Financial Secretary Candidate Kristine Mayle (Eberhart Elementary)
CORE announced our slate for the May 2010 Union Officer Election at the Educational Summit at Malcolm X College on January 9th, 2010. Our candidates were voted in by CORE membership on January 6th, 2010. CORE believes that we’re living in a new time where the board flippantly closes schools and destroys careers with no resistance from the current Union leadership. That is why CORE has collectively agreed on a slate that represents CORE’s New Way of building a fighting Union.
Presidential Candidate Karen Lewis (King College Prep) considers it imperative that our union take its place on the front lines fighting for justice for our members, our students, and our communities. Our union, indeed our entire profession, is under attack from a well-funded, well-connected foe that sees privatization as its mission. We need an activist leader who isn’t afraid to stand up for publicly funded education in this city. Karen has represented CORE within the Grassroots Education Movement, forging unity with parent, student, and community organizations in fighting for a common educational vision. In this capacity, Karen has demonstrated her ability to speak to the public and the press as an articulate and forceful advocate for our embattled neighborhood schools. Karen has experience in corporate America, as delegate from the largest school in the city, and as a member of the CTU Executive Board. As a 22 year veteran of three high schools (Sullivan, Lane Tech, and King), including a year as substitute in elementary schools, Karen provides a unique vision of how the union can work when it is member-driven, transparent and accountable. This is a new time and it’s time for a new kind of teachers union.
Vice-Presidential Candidate Jackson Potter (Lawndale Little Village High School) is a Chicago Public Schools graduate. He worked at Englewood High School and was the union delegate at the building when Arne Duncan called the school a “culture of failure” and started a phase out in 2005. This was the moment when Jackson began to resist the corporate school reform agenda. He also joined a rank and file group of teachers and formed the Renaissance 2010 committee within the Chicago Teachers Union. He fought to give teachers a right to sit at the table with the initial CUE (Chicagoans United for Education) coalition before the CTU dismantled it. Currently, Jackson is the delegate at Social Justice High School in Little Village. He helped to form CORE in May of 2008.
Recording Secretary Candidate Michael Brunson (Displaced from Aldridge Elementary) came to teaching after working for many years at a large manufacturing plant.Upon entering the teaching profession, he quickly recognized the same production line mentality being imposed on the school system in the name of “quality” and “reform”. He is now dedicated to CORE’s vision of community-driven education. Brunson believes it is time for front line educators to engage and impact this so-called “reform” movement. Real education reform must come from real educators, not the business sector and their “philanthropists”. It is up to the teachers, working with parents, students, community, and concerned politicians to stop the dismantling of the public school system, the bashing of the teachers unions, and the perversion of the very purpose and goal of education itself. Michael was the union delegate at Aldridge Elementary before his position was cut in 2009.
Financial Secretary Candidate Kristine Mayle (Eberhart Elementary) taught at De La Cruz Academy in Pilsen and served as delegate during the phase out of her school last June. She currently teaches special education at Eberhardt Elementary on the south side. She is Chair of CORE’s Membership Committee and has met with teachers from around the country to collaborate on shared issues. She found that in locals across the country, membership numbers are falling and teachers do not feel supported by their union leaders. Ms. Mayle views the role of Financial Secretary broadly, with a vision of expanding our membership in numbers and in participation. Kristine has testified at dozens of hearings, ranging from school closings to charter proposals. She spoke on behalf of CORE at last year’s January 10th event at Malcolm X and has worked to inform educators on union issues at numerous workshops, protests, and press conferences.
