Embattled Marine Leadership Academy principal Kristin Novy is resigning from her post as the head of the Logan Square school for 7-12 grade students – to take a city-wide position within Chicago Public Schools, the district said in an emailed statement Wednesday.
For parents and community members who’ve been calling for Novy’s removal for months, the development can be summed up in a word, Board of Governors member Mercy Lamourt said at a meeting at the school Wednesday: “Disappointing.”
(At Marine, which follows a military model and is affiliated with the U.S. Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program, the Board of Governors is akin to a Local School Council.)
When Novy was hired in 2021, in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said he was confident she could rebuild trust at the school. Instead, parents and community members at a Board of Governors meeting at the school Wednesday told the Tribune they’ve experienced a culture of disregard at the predominantly Latino school.
Novy was present at the meeting, where she abstained from key votes and declined to comment, directing the Tribune to follow-up with CPS. The district provided a letter she sent to the school community immediately after the Board of Governors meeting.
“I have served this school diligently since 2021 and am proud of what we have accomplished together in the past three years,” Novy wrote, citing increased college enrollment and freshman and sophomore on-track rates during her tenure and new courses added at the school.
“Please know that I will be approaching my final few months as principal by focusing on the same core values of honor, courage, and commitment that have guided my entire tenure and that we hope to model for our students every day,” Novy wrote.
In an emailed statement, CPS said Novy accepted a position as a city-wide administrator and will continue to serve as Marine’s principal through mid-June. The Board of Governors will commence a search process to replace her, CPS added.
“It’s déjà vu,” said Lamourt, who’s served on the Board of Governors as a community representative since the previous administration of former principal Erin Galfer, whom CPS promoted to a central office position in the summer of 2021 before firing that fall. According to CPS officials, Galfer had failed to report “several instances” of prohibited conduct between adults and students at Marine. (In a complaint Galfer later filed against CPS in federal court, the former Marine principal described herself as a scapegoat.)
“CPS knows that they failed again with everything that we’ve reported and this is just their easy way out,” Lamourt said of Novy’s new position.
Over the last year, at a protest at the school and during public comment at Chicago Board of Education meetings, parents and community members have decried the school environment as unsafe due to school administrators’ failure to act.
In September, parent Salga Soto told Chicago Board of Education members that her seventh grade son was brutally beaten after reporting three prior threats he’d received to administrators – whom she said took no pre-emptive action and did not call an ambulance when he could barely walk and had trouble breathing.
“My son has nightmares. He is falling into tremendous depression and has expressed concerning inner thoughts he’s been having. It has been more than two weeks since the attack and no one from CPS has provided us with any support or resources,” Soto said through an interpreter.
“I am afraid this is being ignored, like previous child safety concerns at Marine Leadership Academy…this time it is bullying policy,” she said to the Chicago Board of Education in September. “I stand before you today, begging you to take action on the matter today so that no other child goes through what my son went through and the horrible effects it’s having on my other children and myself as his mother.”
Another parent called into the same meeting to say that an ambulance was not called for her daughter either, after she was found unconscious in a bathroom in an unrelated incident.
Leobardo Guzman, a parent representative on Marine’s Board of Governors, said Wednesday that he fears for his son on campus, where fights between students are frequent despite a large security presence. Novy fostered a culture of apathy, and the school rarely took action after reports of violence, according to Guzman.
“These children deserve respect, they deserve an education in a safe environment,” Guzman said. “We want a new leader with experience, someone who actually cares.”
Fernando Barrios, a member of the Board of Governors, expressed shock and frustration towards CPS upon hearing of Novy’s promotion. He said she rarely interacted with students and teachers, particularly the Latino community, and seemed disinterested in improving the school’s toxic environment.
“I don’t understand how CPS is promoting a person who doesn’t work with the community,” Barrios said.