{"id":473286,"date":"2010-03-25T06:22:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T10:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef0120a977c934970b"},"modified":"2010-03-25T18:23:58","modified_gmt":"2010-03-25T22:23:58","slug":"daleys-nephew-appears-on-schools-vip-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/473286","title":{"rendered":"Daley’s nephew appears on schools VIP list"},"content":{"rendered":"

From today’s print edition<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Daley\u2019s nephew appears on schools VIP list<\/h2>\n

Mayor\u2019s relative made admissions requests on behalf of longtime
\n political supporter<\/h3>\n

By Azam Ahmed and Todd Lighty, Tribune reporters<\/p>\n

A VIP list maintained by Chicago Public Schools included admissions
\nrequests by Patrick Daley Thompson, Mayor Richard Daley’s nephew, on
\nbehalf of a longtime supporter of the family’s political organization,
\nthe Tribune has confirmed.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nAt least two other attorneys from Thompson’s powerful law firm also
\nlobbied to get students into the city’s best schools. The CPS inspector
\ngeneral is investigating one of those cases, a source said.\n<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Mayor Richard Daley denied any role in the VIP lists, which
\nwere kept by orders of then-schools chief Arne Duncan, who is now U.S.
\neducation secretary. However, the Tribune has verified six instances in
\nwhich the mayor’s staff or his nephew intervened for students.
<\/br><\/p>\n

\nDaley spokeswoman Jacqueline Heard said Wednesday the mayor never would
\nhave denied involvement if he knew about the lobbying efforts.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"Do you really believe the mayor would say that unequivocally if he
\ndidn’t believe it was true?" said Heard. "That leads you to believe that
\n the mayor didn’t have knowledge that any of these people were making
\ncalls."
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nLogs indicate Thompson contacted then-CPS schools chief Duncan in April
\n2008 in the hopes of securing two spots at Whitney Young Magnet High
\nSchool for the daughters of a ward loyalist. The girls’ father, a
\nhigh-ranking city supervisor, has donated about $2,500 to the Daley
\nfamily’s 11th Ward Democratic Organization in the past decade.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe father’s name also appears on another once-secret government log. He
\n was listed as the sponsor of three people who sought city jobs for
\ntheir political work, according to a clout list once kept in the mayor’s
\n office that was entered into evidence during the 2006 federal trial of
\nDaley’s former patronage chief, Robert Sorich.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe man has worked as a voter registrar in the ward and lives on the
\nsame street as Thompson, who now owns the Bridgeport bungalow where
\nhis grandfather, Mayor Richard J. Daley, once lived.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nHeard denied Thompson intervened because he wanted to reward an 11th
\nWard foot soldier, and noted the children were not accepted into their
\ntop choice.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"It had nothing to do with the political connections," she said. "It was
\n because he was a longtime friend."
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe logs obtained by the Tribune indicate the students were denied a
\nplace at Whitney Young because their scores were too low. Instead they
\nwere enrolled at Lincoln Park High School, which is not a
\nselective-enrollment school but has several highly regarded magnet
\nprograms.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe Tribune revealed Monday that Duncan ordered his office to track
\nadmissions requests over several years. The lists, used mostly in
\nappeals cases, include politicians and influential business people but
\nalso show inquiries from unconnected parents looking to place their
\nchildren.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThere is no evidence that principals were forced to admit unqualified
\nstudents. Indeed, many students were rejected even after Duncan’s office
\n intervened.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nIn the Thompson case, Lincoln Park principal Bessie Karvelas said she
\nwas never pressured by the district’s central office to accept anyone.
\nOn the log, Lincoln Park often serves as a landing spot for politically
\nconnected children who have been rejected by selective-enrollment
\nschools.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"Nobody said, \u2018I want you to take this student,’" she said.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThompson did not return calls seeking comment.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe names of at least two other zoning lawyers at Thompson’s firm, DLA
\nPiper, appear on the list, as well.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nIn 2006, one lawyer requested a child’s admission to a program that was
\nfull. The student was later placed into a coveted magnet school after
\nCPS officials encouraged the Piper attorney to write a letter to the
\nprincipal, according to the logs. The attorney has worked on several
\nmajor civic endeavors in Chicago and also represented the Chicago Cubs<\/a>
\nwhen they were owned by Tribune Co., which owns the Chicago Tribune.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nTwo years later, Daley education aide Tawa Jogunosimi made a request on
\nbehalf of another Piper attorney who was seeking a child’s admission to
\nAugustus H. Burley School, a magnet elementary that focuses on writing
\nand literature. The student was No. 5 on the wait list at the time and
\nwas later accepted.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe case is being reviewed by the CPS inspector general, a source said.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nA spokesperson for DLA Piper declined comment on lobbying by the firm’s
\nlawyers, calling it a "family matter."
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nJogunosimi also made requests on behalf of a new city hire, according to
\n the 2008 list. The employee’s two children were placed in highly
\ndesirable schools.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe lists also indicate that in 2008, John Dunn, then Daley’s chief
\nlobbyist, requested help for the child of one of his employees.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe student wanted to attend either Lane Technical High School or
\nProsser Career Academy. The student didn’t get into either school.
\nAccording to the log, the Prosser principal was contacted and said the
\nschool already was "60 students over" and that an alderman already had
\nfive students on the waiting list.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"He would love to help but there is not much he can do," according to
\nthe log.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nDunn, who left his job as director of Daley’s Office of
\nIntergovernmental Affairs last year and is now a private attorney, could
\n not be reached for comment.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nOfficials highlighted Dunn’s case as an example of how the system did
\nnot exert undue influence or help politically connected people land
\nstudents at top schools.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"For every person who has the affiliations with City Hall who is on the
\nlist, I can name you 10 with deeper affiliations who are not," Heard
\nsaid.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nTribune reporters Stacy St. Clair and Jodi S. Cohen contributed to
\nthis report.<\/em>
<\/br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From today’s print edition: Daley\u2019s nephew appears on schools VIP list Mayor\u2019s relative made admissions requests on behalf of longtime political supporter By Azam Ahmed and Todd Lighty, Tribune reporters A VIP list maintained by Chicago Public Schools included admissions requests by Patrick Daley Thompson, Mayor Richard Daley’s nephew, on behalf of a longtime supporter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-473286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}