STABILITY OVER 30 YEARS
BY KENT LAU
I have had the privilege to work at the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association (CPAA) for close to 30 years. I started as a part-time assistant in the summer of 1996 while I was a sophomore at Whitney Young High School. I didn’t realize it then, but I would come to have a front-row seat to watch the challenges faced by school leaders each and every day. So far, in my time with CPAA, I’ve served under three presidents—Beverly Tunney, Clarice Berry and Troy LaRaviere. Each brought their own styles and strengths to the job. While all three came from very different backgrounds and engaged in different priorities, they each shared a unifying commitment to elevating the profession of the school leader. Three presidents over three decades means that the leadership of CPAA has been very stable—an anchor of sorts in the midst of successive leadership changes at Chicago Public Schools (CPS). While CPS CEOs have come and gone (I count at least eight since 1996), the person serving as president of CPAA has been a familiar face and worked relentlessly to build upon the accomplishments of the organization’s previous leaders. Beverly Tunney oversaw a transformative expansion in the size of the organization. It seemed like overnight CPAA grew to over 2,000 active and retired school leaders and strengthened its collective voice to advance an agenda that brought higher wages and a renewed focus on quality professional development. After Beverly’s untimely passing, Clarice Berry would take up the mantle as CPAA President and usher in a period of cautious collaboration (it was still CPS, after all) with
district leadership. Clarice worked tirelessly to ensure that CPAA always had the attention of CPS leadership. She fiercely protected members’ hard- earned pension benefits, and she consistently relied on relationships with district leaders built over a long and storied career as a proud educator in CPS. She was an expert in the use of soft power. And that brings us to the present and the administration of Troy LaRaviere. Troy was elected to lead the organization despite the district’s determination to silence the collective voice of school leaders. Starting on day one of his tenure, CPS decided that it would circumvent CPAA in its decision-making. Instead of accepting that fate, Troy found a better way. I still remember the words he often used to explain his strategy, “make them say ‘yes’ when they want to say ‘no.’” He would go on to accomplish what was once thought impossible, gaining collective bargaining rights so that principals and assistant principals would always have a seat at the table; their voices would have to be heard. He made them say, “yes.” Now we look ahead. Just after the middle of May, the triennial election ballots confirmed that Kia Banks has been elected as the next president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association. Kia will not have to spend much time getting up to speed on what is going on at CPAA or CPS. She has already been involved in much of the work of the past six years. In that time, she aided in the thawing of relations between CPAA and CPS. Kia
46 • CPAA QUARTERLY MAG | Q3 AND Q4 2025
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