Jones College Prep Local School Council students say they were blindsided by accusations against principal
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Members of the Jones College Prep Local School Council sent a letter to district CEO Pedro Martinez outlining concerns with the principal leadership, and now three student members of the LSC are speaking out.
Members of the council have raised red flags about school finances and about student concerns being ignored – and they say principal Joseph Powers has a habit of not showing up for work. All the accusations are detailed in a scathing letter sent to the head of the Chicago Public Schools.
LSC student members Alex Kerr, William Clancy, and Daniel Andrade say they were blindsided by the letter and its accusations. They believe the letter's authors did not follow procedure and take issue with the fact they were never given a heads up about it or asked for their opinion.
They say LSC bylaws state students should come first and that didn't happen in this case.
"The three members who sent that letter didn't follow the correct procedure that's outlined in the back in the bylaws of how to bring charges against the principal, and that was really concerning to me personally," said Clancy.
"Just that lack of communication really stung because we were left in the dark," said Andrade.
"The best thing we can do is bring our concerns forward and continue to amplify both our own voices and the voices of the students in general with expressing our concerns with the way procedures have been handled the past few weeks," said Kerr.
Some parents at Jones feel the group of LSC members who sent the letter overstepped their authority.
In an email Thursday, the board of education's general counsel confirmed there is an active investigation. Jones' principal, Dr. Joseph Powers, did not comment on the allegations against him but instead sent a letter to parents defending his record and accusing the letter's authors of acting on an agenda to get him ousted.
