The CPS scandal and the Marine takeover of Logan Square’s Ames Middle School.

I was always puzzled why Logan Square’s Alderman Roberto Maldonado and Mayor Rahm were so insistent on turning our neighborhood’s perfectly fine Ames Middle School into a city-wide military school back in 2014.

Yesterday my brother followed up on Sun-Times reporter Lauren FitzPatrick’s story about Gary Solomon, SUPES and Synesi Associates.

I won’t sum all that up. You can go read it yourselves. But this is all coming out of the $20 million no-bid contract that led to the resignation of CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and the federal investigation now in process.

Reading Mike’s post the first thing I thought of was what happened to our local neighborhood middle school.

The Reader’s Ben Joravsky wrote about Ames in February of 2014.

The looming debacle at Ames is a good example of those head-shaking maneuvers in which the mayor manages to create a problem where none exists.

In all fairness to Mayor Emanuel, the idea of turning Ames into a military academy wasn’t his—it was the brainchild of 26th Ward alderman Roberto Maldonado.

I’m not sure what exactly inspired the alderman, and he didn’t return my call to explain.

But according to a 2012 interview he gave to Mark Brown of the Sun-Times, he saw some kids flashing gang signs in the hallway at Ames one day a few years back. And he essentially said, that’s it—I’m turning this into a military school!

Technically, he proposed to move an existing high school—the Marine Math and Science Academy—from its current location on the west side to Ames, at 1920 N. Hamlin in Logan Square.

His proposal didn’t sit well with the Ames parents. Not that they support gang-sign-flashing in the hallway—it’s just that they think there are more practical solutions to discipline problems than sending in the marines.

Moreover, Ames is a relatively new school that the locals pressured former mayor Richard M. Daley into building in 1998, after many protests, to alleviate overcrowding. So it had a symbolic importance.

Yes. What inspired the alderman?

His constituents were absolutely against it.

A local non-binding referendum in the precincts surrounding Ames was held and the result was overwhelming in support of leaving Ames as a neighborhood school.

Parents and local community organizations like the Logan Square Neighborhood Association protested.

Yet the Mayor and the alderman persisted.

The Sun-Times’ FitzPatrick reports that the Gary Solomon connected Synesi was found unqualified to be a partner of schools receiving state grants.

And the transition of Ames to a Marine academy was going to be funded by a $270,000 state grant based on partnering with Solomon’s Synesi Associates.

Oops.

In April 2013, grant applications were submitted for Carver Military Academy, Corliss, Farragut and what then was called Marine Math and Science Academy, now the Marine Leadership Academy at Ames. Each planned to pay Synesi $270,000 per year for its help, according to the schools’ proposals. None of the principals answered Sun-Times questions.

The Chicago Board of Education approved Synesi in July as a possible partner for “school improvement services,” but the company still needed state approval. That same month, the ISBE announced grant recipients. None of the Synesi schools won but two other CPS schools who had different partners were awarded the grants.

In August, ISBE evaluated Synesi’s qualifications separately and found it didn’t score enough points to become a lead partner, ISBE spokesman Matt Vanover said.

Culloton said Synesi had begun working before being approved because ISBE’s process was delayed and CPS “was eager to move forward with the school improvement work.”

“At the direction of CPS” the company had begun to help schools work on their improvement plans, he said, and was paid about $135,000.

Yet money for the transition of Ames to a military school was found.

So when you think about what drove the alderman and the Mayor to take a neighborhood school, established 30 years ago as a result of a community struggle against overcrowding, loved and supported by parents, in the face of overwhelming organized community opposition to the change, the answer might be what it usually is in this town.

Money.

And who ended up getting some.