Due to a budget shortfall in the city and state, Chicago Public School students and teachers have been forced to make significant sacrifices. Teachers are being asked to forgo raises and pack more kids into the classroom, and sophomore sports programs have been cut. Meanwhile, Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Ron Huberman has reportedly purchased an $898,000 five-bedroom house on the North Side.
The Chicago Tribune reports that Huberman and his partner paid $898,000 for the home:
The 11-room, Victorian-style house, built in 2008, had been listed for $947,500. Features in the three-story house include 3 1/2 baths, three fireplaces, a finished basement, two wet bars, 8-foot solid cherry doors, crown moldings, Brazilian cherry hardwood floors and a chef's eat-in kitchen with Viking and stainless steel appliances, a large island and cherry cabinets.
Huberman, a former Chicago police officer, closed on the deal April 1. That same day, he also closed on the sale of his longtime nine-room vintage condo in Uptown for $405,000. The three-bedroom unit had been listed for $425,000. Huberman, 38, bought the condo in 2001 for $341,000.
The purchase, which Huberman declined to comment on, comes at a good time for Huberman financially.
The Chicago Reader reported in early April that the 2009-2010 CPS fiscal year budget, which Huberman aides crafted, was filled with pay hikes for "top schools brass," while everyone else was asked to make sacrifices.
Huberman's salary went from $204,000 to $230,000--a hike of $26,000, or 12.7 percent, the Reader reports. Other CPS officials who make over $100,000 per year saw big pay raises as well.
The Reader's Ben Joravsky broke it down:
Of course, Chicago is by no means the only school system cutting back in these hard economic times, as Huberman frequently points out. But if Huberman wants more state aid--or if he wants to justify salary and pension cuts--he should be better able to account for the money he's already got. Including how much of it goes to his own salary.