Wilmette Company At Forefront of FBI Investigation Into Chicago Public Schools

The Chicago Public Schools and CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett are at the center of an FBI investigation in regard to a $20.5 million no-bid contract awarded to SUPES Academy, a Wilmette-based company.

Byrd-Bennett previously worked for SUPES - a company that trains school principals - according to the Chicago Sun-Times. SUPES has been paid a total of nearly $15 million from the contract and other smaller ones over the last three years.

A spokesman for SUPES late Wednesday told the Sun-Times the feds had obtained records and files from the company and informed it of the investigation.

“SUPES will of course cooperate with this investigation. At the same time, the company stands behind the countless hours of training it has provided to Chicago Public Schools principals. Principals are the key to improving schools, and SUPES’ peer-to-peer leadership training shares the best practices of school leaders from around the country,” said Dennis Culloton.

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SUPES received the contract from CPS to provide ongoing training on Saturdays for principals and network chiefs through 2016 for $20.5 million.

“According to the contract, the company was supposed to use experts who’d specialize the training according to the type of school the principal led — including schools set to receive children affected by the massive 2013 school closings,” the Sun-Times article states.

more via the Chicago Sun-Times

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