Two months into merger, Ogden principal benched after attendance problems

Two months into a sensitive merger with a lower income school, Ogden International School of Chicago's principal has been "reassigned" over allegations that Ogden's attendance records were falsified, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

Chicago Public Schools Inspector General Nicholas Schuler is recommending that Principal Michael S. Beyer be fired after Schuler found evidence that Ogden used improper out-of-district and homeschool transfer codes for students going on long vacations as a way to get around unexcused absences.

Beyer has been "reassigned from his principal duties" immediately, Ogden parents were told Thursday in a letter. An acting principal has been installed during Beyer's reassignment, the latest in a series of leadership changes at the Near North Side school in the past decade.

The letter continued that CPS officials were informed of Schuler's findings in late June, months before the start of the new school year in which Ogden's students, who were mostly white and relatively wealthy, merged with those who attended Jenner, who were mostly low income and African-American.

The merger was proposed by the communities as a solution for Ogden's overcrowding and Jenner's low enrollment, and took several years due to its sensitivity. It since has been held up as an example of how communities can propose their own solutions to facilities problems.

Schuler's report, which CPS officials redacted before releasing, recommended Beyer's termination. Four other staffers were also investigated, but no other discipline has yet been handed out, CPS spokesman Michael Passman said.

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