Chicago Public Schools: Is Bankruptcy Inevitable?

Chuck Burbridge joined the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund (CTPF) as executive director in March 2015. Before joining the CTPF, he served as chief financial officer of the Atlanta Public Schools (APS). During his time at APS, Mr. Burbridge drove a focused vision for the finance, technology, and facilities functions as well as serving as interim chief information officer, where he helped implement the Infinite Campus student information system. Prior to his post in Atlanta, he held a variety of senior level positions with the Los Angeles Unified School District, including deputy chief financial officer, chief financial officer and interim chief information officer from 2003 to 2007. In addition, Mr. Burbridge has held several positions in Illinois, including director, state and local government management assurance services at KPMG, deputy chief financial officer at Chicago Public Schools, deputy chief financial officer for Cook County, and as an economist at the Illinois Economic and Fiscal Commission. He was a Certified Information Systems Auditor who has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics from the University of Illinois. He is an active member of the Council of the Great City Schools and received the Bill Wise Award for Outstanding Urban School District CFO in 2011. Mr. Burbridge served as co-chair of the Microsoft K-12 Advisory Council and is on the board of the Community Health Charities of America.

Troy Anthony LaRaviere is the principal of Blaine Elementary School, one of the highest performing neighborhood schools in Chicago, and a relentless defender of public education. He is a CPS principal, CPS parent, and CPS graduate. In July 2013, he became the first Chicago principal to speak out against the destructive school policies of Chicago’s mayor, with a powerful speech at City Hall. In May 2014, he followed up with a compelling Op-Ed in the Chicago Sun-Times that generated significant media coverage of City Hall’s heavy-handed approach to silencing principals. His Op-Ed was later republished in the Washington Post. During the summer LaRaviere and other concerned principals founded the Administrator’s Alliance for Proven Policy and Legislation in Education (AAPPLE), an organization committed to defending and promoting high quality public education. He added to these accomplishments in August when his analysis of student assessment results revealed that public neighborhood schools produced significantly more academic growth in students than charter schools. A few weeks later AAPPLE exposed filthy conditions in Chicago Public Schools that were the result of the city funneling $340 million taxpayer dollars to two private for-profit custodial management companies. More recently, LaRaviere uncovered the fact that CPS Office of Accountability officials altered charter school test score data. Today LaRaviere continues to lead his school while working to inform the public of the dangers of the sub-standard parasitic school system reorganization underway in Chicago and across the country.

George Panagakis serves as one of the deputy practice leaders of Skadden’s Corporate Restructuring Group. He represents clients in complex business reorganizations, debt restructurings and insolvency matters. Mr. Panagakis advises companies experiencing financial difficulties, as well as lenders, creditors, purchasers or other parties with an interest in such companies. Mr. Panagakis has been lead counsel in numerous Chapter 11 cases, including Amcore Financial; Avado Brands; Eagle Food; Enesco International; Hartmarx; Ingersoll International; Master Graphics; Neumann Homes; Primus Telecommunications; Shorebank; and Synagro Technologies. He also has led the successful out-of-court restructurings of a beverage producer, communications company, satellite telecommunications company, global baking supplier, steel company and auto supplier. In addition, Mr. Panagakis has advised in the restructuring of TORM and Clipper Group, two of the largest shipping companies in Denmark and other companies, including Comdisco; Delphi; Friedman’s; Service Merchandise; and USN Communications. Mr. Panagakis also has advised creditors and other parties in interest in troubled situations. In particular, he has represented CIT, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan Chase, Nuveen Investments and other lenders as agents or significant participants in both debtor-in-possession and out-of-court rescue loans. He also has represented official, as well as informal creditor committees. In addition, Mr. Panagakis has represented clients with the purchase of distressed companies or their assets. Mr. Panagakis repeatedly has been selected for inclusion in Chambers Global, Chambers USA, IFLR1000 and The Best Lawyers in America. In July 2009, he was named “Dealmaker of the Week” by The Am Law Daily and, in 2002, he was named by Turnarounds & Workouts as one of the top 10 restructuring attorneys under the age of 40. Mr. Panagakis is a frequent speaker on restructuring topics and has served as a contributing author to Norton’s Annual Survey of Bankruptcy Law and the Illinois Institute for Continuing Education.

Jesse H. Ruiz is a Corporate & Securities partner at the law firm of Drinker Biddle & Reath. For over 18 years, he has focused his practice on business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and private equity investments, equity and debt offerings, financings, the purchase and sale of assets from bankruptcy estates, and a variety of commercial transactions. Since 2006, Jesse has also served on the board of directors of Commonwealth Edison, an Exelon company. Jesse is also a long-time public education advocate. Since May 2011 he has served as vice president of the Chicago Board of Education. From September 2004 to May 2011 Jesse served as chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education, and also chaired the Illinois Council on Re-enrolling Students Who Have Dropped Out of School. For almost five years prior to his ISBE appointment, he was a commissioner on the Chicago Public Schools Desegregation Monitoring Commission. From 2011 to 2013, Jesse also served on the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity and Excellence Commission. Jesse recently completed a three-month assignment as the interim CEO of Chicago Public Schools. He is also a member of several other nonprofit boards, including the Chicago Bar Association Board of Managers and the Chicago Community Trust Executive Committee. Jesse received his Juris Doctorate from The University of Chicago Law School, where he served as an editor of the University of Chicago Law School Roundtable, and his Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

As CEO of the Chicago Public Schools from 1995 to 2001, Paul Vallas eliminated a $1.25 billion, 5-year projected budget gap, structurally balanced six $4 billion budgets, earned thirteen bond-rating upgrades, negotiated two teacher contracts without disrupting labor peace and left the district with $1.2 billion in reserves and a fully funded pension system. During the 2002 gubernatorial primary, the Chicago Tribune endorsement noted that Vallas “airlifted CPS out of its ocean of red ink without asking for any special bailout from the legislature or the city.” Recently Crain’s called Vallas “arguably to the most effective schools superintendent in recent decades.” Vallas was also Director of Chicago’s Office of Budget and Management and Executive Director of the Illinois Economic and Fiscal Commission. The School District of Philadelphia hired Vallas in 2002, where he instituted long-term financial planning that shifted $200 million into classrooms and produced five structurally balanced budgets. In 2007, Louisiana recruited him lead to the post-Hurricane Katrina Recovery School District, where he implemented the nation’s first 100-percent school-choice district and managed the U.S.’ largest school rebuilding initiative. On the academic front, Vallas’ student scores improved every year at rates that exceeded state growth, including a 75-percent drop in the achievement gap between African-American students in New Orleans and the state. He is a strong believer in data driven instructional management systems to give teachers the tools to effectively develop lesson plans. In Chicago, he created the nations’ first “cradle to the classroom” program. He has also advised Haiti and Chile’s Ministries of Education in the wake of their respective earthquakes.