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Barbara Byrd-Bennett comes before the Court for sentencing with no shifting of blame
and no excuses. She committed a very serious crime and knows she deserves to be punished.
Her misconduct reflected an extraordinary breach of trust and the obligations she owed the City
of Chicago and its public school children. What Barbara did was wrong on many levelslegal,
moral, professional, and personaland her actions brought with them the hardest imaginable end
to a career spent educating and bettering children, especially underrepresented children. She
knows all of this and is terribly sorry, overwhelmed by fear and shame, and prepared to accept
As the Court considers all of the facts and circumstances and works through each of the
factors enumerated in Section 3553(a), several points warrant special emphasis. Nothing we
offer on Barbaras behalf is intended to downplay her wrongdoing, misdirect the Courts focus,
or encourage anything other than a fair sentence, which Barbara knows will and should result in
incarceration.
First, Barbara has devoted her life to public education, largely in underserved
communities. The legacy of her work over the last 40 years has positively affected the lives of
countless students and teachers for the better. She made a difference, shined light, and spread
hope in the face of enormous challenges confronting children and their families and
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communities, and never relented in her belief that education is the great equalizer and key to
better tomorrows for all and most especially the underrepresented. Her criminal conduct in
Chicago should be assessed in light of a life otherwise dedicated to helping children and their
Second, a term of imprisonment well below the advisory Guidelines range will fulfill the
purposes of sentencing embodied in Section 3553(a). Barbara is 68 years old and will continue
to pay a very high price for her criminal conduct in Chicago. She made choices that have
resulted in her lifes work ending in a felony conviction and crushing humiliation and shame.
But Barbara promptly accepted responsibility for her wrongdoing and fully cooperated with the
government. Although the need for punishment and general deterrence cannot be disputed, in
our respectful judgment, it can be achieved by imposing a sentence of 3.5 years (42 months),
with an accompanying requirement that Barbara perform very substantial community service,
including helping public school systems and their officials adhere to complete integrity and
accurate. The description of Barbaras offense conduct tracks her grand jury statement and the
governments version of the facts, with which Barbara agrees in full. The necessary clarification
relates to the last sentence of paragraph 62 of the PSR. There is no question that the $20.5
million contract between CPS and SUPES was part of the fraudulent scheme. Barbara advocated
for the contract, pressured colleagues to get it approved, and expected to receive future benefits
in exchange for these efforts. She did not believe the benefit would come in the form of a 10%
share of the contract, as suggested by paragraph 62 of the PSR, however. Barbara instead
believed the pay-off would come from guaranteed future (and lucrative) employment with
2
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SUPES and an unspecified signing bonus likely in the amount of hundreds of thousands of
dollars. Barbara does not dispute that a 16-level increase in the base offense level pursuant to
range of 135 to 168 months imprisonment, based upon a total offense level of 33 and a criminal
history category of I. Barbara expects the government to represent to the Court that she
cooperated fully and thus to recommend a sentence of 66% of the low end of the advisory range,
or 89 months.
With respect to restitution, Barbara does not contest the amount sought by the
government of $254,000 and recognizes that the Court will order restitution, including priority of
payment, as part of her sentencing. Acknowledging her joint and several liability responsibility,
we respectfully request that the Court order collection of the funds from her co-defendants,
including the corporate defendants, that received proceeds from the parties criminal scheme.
Only if those defendants cannot make full restitution should Barbara be responsible for any
remaining portion.
Throughout our representation of Barbara, the why question has challenged us: Why
individual who has dedicated her life to educating children, a good and decent person with a
strong religious faith, and someone who was generally succeeding in one of the most difficult
jobs anywhere in public educationengage in such blatantly wrong and deplorable conduct?
Nobody has struggled more with this question than Barbara herself, and at her upcoming
sentencing, she will address the issue candidly with the Court in her own words. Suffice it here
to say that, from our perspective as her counsel, the explanation lies in the toxic intersection of a
3
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few realities that Barbara permitted to occur during her time as a consultant for CPS and then as
its CEO.
Barbara came to Chicago with and for SUPES and always, including throughout her time
as CEO of CPS, planned to return to SUPES. This perspective led to Barbara effectively feeling
a misguided obligation to look out for and promote SUPES. The loyalty was the product of a
belief that SUPES, in large part because of her own work developing its leadership curriculum,
provided sound and much-needed assistance to CPS and its administrators and principals. Even
though obligated to do so, Barbara never wanted to cut the cord with SUPES and especially with
Gary Solomon. Barbara also harbored a very real and greedy sense of entitlementa belief that
she was earning something she deserved (future employment and meaningful income) by helping
SUPES succeed with CPS. This mindset became entrenched over time.
circumstances, Barbara grew dependent on her relationship with Mr. Solomon as a steady source
of personal support and reassurance when stress levels peaked. Barbara in no way wanted to
lose the very relationship that she viewed as not only essential to surviving the challenges of
leading CPS, but also important to her future financial well being.
Over time Barbara went deaf and blind to the wrong she was committing by not
distancing herself from Mr. Solomon and recusing herself from CPSs continuous dealings with
SUPES. Days raced by; demands overflowed; tomorrows challenge always seemed bigger than
yesterdays; and pressure only mounted. Under no circumstance was Barbarafaced daily with
substantial and unrelenting obstaclesabout to sever the critical professional and personal
support from Mr. Solomon. More simply, Barbara believed she could and indeed was somehow
4
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entitled to have it both ways: giving it her all as CEO while giving up nothing from SUPES and
She now sees very clearly that she traveled a path with red lights flashing and sirens
sounding all around her, but that she purposely failed to hear or see them. She was living in her
own bubble, and reality began crashing down when the FBI knocked on her door in April 2015.
Unprepared and unwilling to confront the truth, Barbara lied throughout the meeting in her
apartment with the agents. Indeed, it was only when we put her own emails in front of her that
Barbara came clean on the full scope and magnitude of her wrongdoing. From effectively that
point forward, as the government acknowledges, Barbara cooperated honestly and fully.
knew she did not sever all ties with Mr. Solomon and SUPES when she joined CPS; she knew
she did not disclose her financial interest in SUPES and Synesi as she was required to do; she
knew she could and should have recused herself from all CELA negotiations; she knew she
advocated for CELA and SUPES within and outside of CPS; she knew she planned to return to
SUPES once she left CPS and that she expected to be paid handsomely at that time. Finally, she
also knew she deleted emails when Mr. Solomon suggested she do so. As she candidly told the
grand jury, the Court, and Probation, Barbara acknowledges that she committed a crime and
violated the duty she owed to the children of Chicago, their parents, and the entire CPS
community.
presumably is more difficult than the Courts determination of what sentence to impose. Barbara
recognizes that the Court has vast discretion to discern the proper sentence and will draw upon a
broad expanse of information and range of considerationsher offense conduct, more general
5
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background, the clear necessity for punishment and general deterrence, the advisory range, the
need to avoid sentencing disparities, and the like. See 18 U.S.C. 3553(a); United States v.
Johnson, 471 F.3d 764, 766 (7th Cir. 2006) (The statute does not weight the factors. That is left
to the sentencing judge, within the bounds of reason, which are wide.).
All Barbara asks is that the Court give full effect to the limitation, embodied in Section
3553(a)s overarching direction, that the imposed sentence be sufficient, but not greater than
necessary, to comply with the enumerated purposes of sentencing. 18 U.S.C. 3553(a). One
very important ingredient should be Barbaras individual background and history, including her
underachieving schools in low-income and often minority communities. Throughout her career,
she worked for those students who needed her help and talents the most. She also worked
tirelessly to promote diversity and inclusion, to fight racism, and to advocate for sustained
funding of public education. She has sought out, not shied away from, challenges, and believed
throughout her life that she was called to bring the hope and promise of education to children and
their families who felt life had stacked the deck against them. At each transition point, she felt
she left a school or district in a stronger position than she first found it.
her resignation from CPS and the subsequent criminal charges and guilty plea, individuals from
nearly every chapter of Barbaras life and professional career reached out to her to ask how they
might be able to help. The letters submitted to the Court as Exhibit 1 cover wide-ranging
chapters of Barbaras life, and, when read collectively, paint a clear picture of a deeply
committed educator who not only cared intensely for her students but who also had the
6
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experience, knowledge, and legitimacy to make meaningful, lifelong differences at both the
Barbara grew up during the 1950s and 1960s in low-income housing in Harlem with her
mother, father, and sister. Despite living in the projects, Barbaras home life was safe, positive,
and loving. She was a bright child and because the local school did not offer strong academic
opportunities, Barbaras mother rode the bus with her every day to a better school. Thanks to
this sacrifice, Barbara benefitted from teachers who invested in her and shaped her own life and
career. Barbara learned firsthand that a quality public education could be the essential difference
Barbara graduated high school at age fifteen and enrolled at Long Island University.
Shortly after graduating, she took a teaching position at a new community-controlled public
school in East Harlem. Her first assignment was a class of 36 second-graders, who had been
labeled as unruly, disruptive, and slow learners, that had managed to make three previous
teachers quit. Even though Barbara felt underprepared for the challenge, she identified with and
invested in these children. She saw herself in these studentskids from the projects who
The circumstances facing these children were often unimaginable. To this day, Barbara
recalls well the time she learned one of her students lived with his siblings in an abandoned
building. The living conditions were so bad that she took this student and a sibling into her own
home for a time. In spite of Barbaras care and attempted intervention, these children tragically
died young. Ultimately, Barbara stayed with her original class, which grew to 42 students,
7
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through sixth grade. By that time, they had earned the highest reading and math scores in the
school.1
In 1984, a Superintendent of the New York City Public Schools assigned Barbara to be
interim (and eventually permanent) principal of the Margaret Douglas Early Childhood School,
which had the lowest academic performance on New Yorks annual standardized tests.
Attendance was deficient and the schools resources were severely lacking. Apathy pervaded the
faculty, and the school found itself failing to meet basic federal requirements regarding the
Morningside Heights. Most of the students from Harlem, like Barbara herself, grew up in low-
income housing projects inhabited mainly by African American and Latino families.
Morningside Heights, on the other hand, consisted of mostly middle-to upper-income white
families who did not send their children to the neighborhood school. Barbara knew this reality
all too well from her own experience. As a result, she felt she owed it to the students to turn
around Margaret Douglas and to make it a school worth attending, a place where minority kids
Barbaras experience at Margaret Douglas also brought with it acute pain that remained
with her throughout her career. Barbara remembers like yesterday learning that a five year-old
student was murdered and dismembered by her parents, only later to turn up in the Hudson
River. This tragedy was very personal to Barbara. As principal, she had implemented a policy
1
The lasting impact Barbara had on this group of children went beyond improved academics.
Marvin Reid was one of Barbaras original second-graders and submitted a character letter in
support of Barbara, describing how he is alive, educated, and prosperous because Barbara
sacrificed part of her life for him.
8
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that if a student was absent for three consecutive days, either Barbara or a family worker should
make a home visit. In this instance, no visit ever occurred. Seeing the crime scene pictures of
the young girl still haunts Barbara and, in large part, is one of the reasons why school attendance
became and remained such a priority for her over the course of her career.
By the end of her tenure at Margaret Douglas, enrollment had doubled, racial tensions
lessened, and students had the highest standardized test scores in the district. Barbara attributes
the success in no small part to a comprehensive professional development program for teachers
that she helped to implement. As the letters submitted on her behalf attest, Barbaras impact on
In time, Barbara took on broader roles covering more of the New York City school
District 17, a take over district in Brooklyn with nearly 30,000 students. District 17 faced
serious obstacles, including local community frustration, extreme gang violence, racial division,
and federal funding violations. By the end of Barbaras tenure, student and teacher attendance
increased, suspensions and expulsions decreased, and student achievement had been
demonstrably accelerated. See Somini Sengupta, After Reviving District, a Citywide Challenge,
sixteen schools within the New York City school system identified for intervention and redesign.
These schools were the ones in most dire need of immediate help. Barbara applied a prescriptive
2
Individuals who knew Barbara in almost every capacitystudent, parent, peer, and
colleagueand during every chapter of her time in New York submitted letters on her behalf.
See, e.g., letters from Melina Bernadine, Bertrand Brown, Marjorie Elliott, Irving Hamer, Zella
Jackson, Leaura Materassi-Eaton, James Ray, and the Spann family.
9
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model that sought to reduce class size, extend the school day and year, provide regular student
assessment and data analysis to track progress, and increase teacher professional development
opportunities. The Chancellors District became a highly documented and studied model of
reputation. See, e.g., Deinya Phenix, Dorothy Siegel, Ariel Zaltsman & Norm Fruchter,
DISTRICT, 1996-2003. (New York Univ. Institute for Education and Social Policy 2004);
Nicholas Lemann, Ready, Read!, ATLANTIC MONTHLY, Nov. 1998; Joseph P. McDonald,
AMERICAN SCHOOL REFORM: WHAT WORKS, WHAT FAILS, AND WHY, 43-44 (2014).
Through each change in leadership within the New York City system, Barbara built a
reputation for being careful, focused, and a consensus builder at both the city and state level.
Through her work leading the Chancellors District, Barbara was introduced to the Mayor of
Cleveland, who encouraged her to apply for the opportunity to lead an entire urban school
district.
In November 1998, Barbara became the Chief Executive Officer of the Cleveland
Municipal School District. Accepting this new position meant leaving her home in New York
the Cleveland Public School District was placed under a federal desegregation order. As a result,
many middle class families, African American and white alike, relocated or removed their
children from public schools. Indeed, from 1980 to 1998, the student population in Cleveland
decreased from 120,000 to 80,000. The students who remained in Clevelands public schools
were predominantly African American, with over 80% also below the poverty level. The system
also had been operating under state receivership due to the continued academic and financial
10
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emergency. By the time Barbara arrived, the District was nearly $200 million in debt, had a
graduation rate of 28%, and had failed all 27 of the state-level performance indicators.
indicators and received recognition from the state as the highest performing large school district
within Ohio. Barbara successfully negotiated contracts with the teachers union and other
collective bargaining unions, increased teacher salaries, lengthened the school day, and
developed an annual schedule of required professional development for all 11,400 employees. In
addition, the Districts financial circumstances improved dramatically, leading to the removal of
financial emergency status. The District also came into compliance with the requirements of the
federal desegregation order. Cleveland was the first district in Ohio to launch a breakfast and
lunch program at no cost for students. Student immunization and vision exam rates improved
dramatically as well.3 In May 2004, the late Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones discussed
celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. See 108 CONG.
After nearly thirty years in public education, including nearly eight years in Cleveland,
Barbara resigned in 2006. Her husband, Bruce, also left his job in New York, and they chose to
live in Cleveland to be near Barbaras daughter, who had relocated from New York a few years
3
Many individuals from the Cleveland community submitted letters on Barbaras behalf. The
letters from Richard DeColibus, Lisa Ruda, Charles Scott, Deborah Ward, William Wendling,
and Lynne Woodman, for example, discuss the impact Barbara had in Cleveland and beyond.
11
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Shortly after resigning as CEO in Cleveland, Barbara entered into a series of consulting
roles that afforded her reduced hours and substantial flexibility, while also allowing her to
continue earning income. Each of these roles built upon Barbaras vast knowledge of
professional and curriculum development as well as her extensive network within public
education. Barbara also began commuting to Washington, D.C. to work with Chancellor
Michelle Rhee at New Leaders for New Schools. This organization aimed to identify, recruit,
and prepare transformational leaders (who are often non-traditional educators) to advance
policies and procedures for enhancing academic achievement, especially in high poverty urban
areas.
While working for New Leaders for New Schools, Barbara received a call from the
Governor of Michigan asking her to consider working for the newly-appointed Emergency
Financial Manager in the Detroit Public Schools (DPS). In May 2009, Barbara began serving
as the Chief Academic and Accountability Auditor in an independent consultant capacity. DPS
at the time faced a massive budget deficit, low graduation rates and test scores, and high levels of
Over two years, Barbara reassigned and hired 91 new administrators, assembled a Detroit
implemented principal and teacher evaluation tools, helped establish four new schools, and
created extended day programs at each elementary school. Although this work made a positive
difference, at the end of Barbaras tenure DPS continued to face serious challenges.
E. Transition to Consulting
In 2011, Barbara left DPS and returned to living full-time in Cleveland. She wanted to
spend more time with her family and therefore declined several opportunities to lead school
12
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districts around the country. She did choose to return part time to consulting, however, and
concentrated her focus on improving school and system leadership, an area that Barbara
passionately believed and publicly articulated was a critical component of success within
To say that Barbara was a leader in the field does not capture her full reputation and
experience. She was the first woman and first African American president of the Urban
Superintendents Association of America (the USAA). She has spoken at and served on panels
at national, state, and local conferences and conventions sponsored by the USAA, the American
Council of Greater City Schools, state Education Departments, the National Governors
Association, the Aspen Ideas Institute, the Conference of Mayors, and the Democratic National
Convention.
As with many other fields, relationships matter in public education leadership and, on this
front, Barbara knows everyone, and scores of teachers, principals, and administrators know her.
Barbara jokes she was considered the gramma of superintendents. The depth of those
Barbaras impressive and vast network was part of why she was such an asset as a
consultant. After leaving DPS, Barbara began to accept long- and short-term consulting work,
including with the Broad Academy, New Leaders for New Schools, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,
Catapult, the Gates Foundation in Texas, and the Pittsburgh Board of Education. At the same
4
Among others, Paul Dulle, William Hite, Rosa Smith, Alan Ingram, and Linda Harwick speak
to Barbaras impact on a legion of educators in their letters.
13
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time, Barbara regularly spoke and served on panels at the national, state, and local level. By all
During this period, and as recounted in the her plea agreement, Gary Solomon
approached Barbara to work with SUPES. Barbara agreed to attend a SUPES planning meeting
focusing on leadership and professional development with other educators that she knew and
Many will forever remember Barbaras work for CPS by recalling only her offense
conduct. A more expansive inquiry is warranted by the Court, however, as Barbaras broader
background and accomplishments in Chicago should inform the determination of a fair and just
sentence. Many of these accomplishments, including the resolution of the 2012 teachers strike
and the closing of numerous schools in 2013, have been controversial and well publicized. Other
Graduation rates and test scores rose over Barbaras tenure. As of May 2013, the CPS
high school graduation rate was 63%, the highest rate since 1999. See Noreen Ahmed-Ullah,
CPS high school graduation rates continue to rise, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, May 28, 2013. The
graduation rate increased to 69% in 2014. See Noreen Ahmed-Ullah, Chicago Public Schools
reports graduation rate up, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Aug. 27, 2014. As of August 2014, CPS
students in grades 2 through 8 had increased their standardized test scores, with more than half
scoring above the national average in reading, and high school students recorded the highest
average ACT on record. See Noreen Ahmed-Ullah, CPS test scores show gains in grades 2
In December 2013, Barbara created a task force to tackle the crisis of absenteeism and
truancy in elementary schools as she had in New York and other cities. See Gary Marx and
14
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David Jackson, Chicago officials try to tackle K-8 grade truancy crisis, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Dec.
7, 2013. In 2014, both elementary and high school attendance improved after the comprehensive
attendance plan was piloted. See Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CPS CEO Byrd-Bennett Announce
Increased Attendance Across Every Grade Last Year, CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS PRESS
In 2013, CPS created its first-ever comprehensive Arts Education Plan. In January 2014,
CPS leveraged $21.5 million in TIF surplus funds to hire teachers who could assist with arts and
physical education programs across the city. See CPS Expands Students Access to PE and the
Arts, CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS PRESS RELEASE, Jan. 21, 2014. As of December 2014, CPS
invested an additional $10 million in arts education for the 2015-2016 school year. See CPS,
Mayor Emanuel Announce $10 Million Investment for Arts Education for 2015, CHICAGO PUBLIC
Perhaps most compelling are the letters submitted on Barbaras behalf from people who
worked with her or knew her from her service with and for CPS. Despite her criminal conduct,
people regard her as an influential, motivating, and caring leader who benefited CPS. They
recount her work ethic, her passion for the mission of public education as a form of social
justice, her commitment to an inclusive work environment, her deep belief in the importance of
developing innovative and transformational educational leaders, and her dedication to equitable
supports and services for CPS students, teachers, and principals. Her former colleagues recall
Barbara personally reading hundreds of pages of notes from community feedback sessions about
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each and every school under consideration for consolidation to be sure that these incredibly
difficult decisions were made only with the greatest of care and thought.5
Not only did former colleagues and parents submit letters on Barbaras behalf, but so did
two former CPS students, Joshua and Joseph Stamps. These brothers were successful basketball
players who won the City High School Championship. That championship was taken away,
however, due to academic ineligibility. Barbara committed to getting these two boys back on
track, including buying them bus passes to get to school and downtown for tutoring sessions and
making sure they had food to eat. In their own words, after all the attention of the championship
being revoked, no one cared and everyone disappearedexcept Barbara. Both boys graduated
Despite the good that she was part of while at CPS, Barbara recognizes and in no way
seeks to diminish the enormous struggles and challenges that the District facedand continues
to facetoday.
Barbaras commitment to teaching and public education also manifested itself through
her establishment and funding of charitable organizations. In 2003, using the proceeds of a
performance bonus she received in Cleveland, Barbara established the Barbara Byrd-Bennett
Foundation for Clevelands Children, a 501(c)(3) organization, which assisted parents with some
of the financial barriers preventing them from supporting their childrens achievement. For
example, the Foundation helped allay the cost of musical instruments, art supplies, applications
5
The character letters submitted by John Barker, Joy Virginia Cunningham, Aarti Dhupelia,
Dalia Flores Contreras, Annette Gurley, Paulette Poncelet, and Scott Stephens, for example,
speak to Barbaras time in Chicago.
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for college admissions and visits, and participant fees for competitions.6
After Barbara retired from the Cleveland Municipal School District, the Foundation
dissolved and transferred its remaining assets of $30,000 to create the Barbara Byrd-Bennett
support for local Cleveland Municipal School District students. See Barbara Byrd-Bennett
Endowed Scholarship Established, CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS RELEASE, Jan. 16,
2008, www.scholarship-positions.com/barbara-byrd-bennett-endowed-scholarship-established-
cleveland-state-university/2008/01/23/.
With another performance bonus of approximately $25,000, Barbara also provided some
of the initial funding for the Barbara Byrd-Bennett Fellows Scholarship Program, a partnership
with Baldwin-Wallace College to provide scholarships and to help cover dorm expenses for
Cleveland area African American male high school students. These students were generally C-
level students with less than exemplary academic progress reports and difficult personal
circumstances. Once selected, these students received mentoring and tutoring support to meet
certain progress criteria, which would enable them to receive college scholarships. See Margaret
Bernstein, First of Cleveland kids who got Baldwin-Wallace scholarships earn their degrees,
PLAIN DEALER [Cleveland, Ohio], May 9, 2011. Of the first class, 18 eventually graduated from
college. Although no longer funded by Barbara, this program continues today as the BW
6
The character letter submitted by Inajo Chappell, who was a Board Member and Secretary of
the Foundation, explains some of the Foundations works and provides examples of some of the
specific students it supported.
17
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H. Barbaras Family
Barbaras good character can also been seen through her family relationships.7 Family is
extremely important to Barbara and has been a huge source of strength to her throughout her life.
In 1969, at nineteen, Barbara married her first husband and three years later, had her only child,
Nailah. A few years later, Barbara and her (now-deceased) husband divorced. Barbara received
no alimony or child support and raised her daughter as a single mother. Barbara and Nailah are
as close as mother and daughter can be. So, too, does Barbara have an especially close
relationship with her twin grandsons. She sees them multiple times per week now that she is in
Ohio and for years has gone to great lengths to attend school events, sporting events, music
Barbara has been married to Bruce Bennett since 1988. Like Barbara, Bruce has devoted
his life to public service. When they met, Bruce was counseling young men who had recently
been released from prison and who, as a condition of their release, were attending school. Later,
he managed a start-up transitional living program in Harlem for non-substance abusing young
men who were no longer eligible for the New York City foster care system. Bruce retired from
this role in 2006, when he moved to Cleveland. Since then he has worked for the Cuyahoga
Although not differentiating her from many other defendants, it is important for the Court
to know that Barbara feels crushing guilt for letting down her family. Having to look her
husband, 89-year-old mother, daughter, and grandsons in the eyes and tell them she committed a
7
Many in Barbaras family, including her mother (Helen Lee), sister (Patricia Lee), daughter
(Nailah Byrd), son-in law (Ed Suggs), and husband (Bruce Bennett), submitted letters to the
Court.
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crime has been devastating. Her name has been taken off the former Cleveland area elementary
school and current training center that had been named for her. See Patrick ODonnell, Barbara
Byrd-Bennetts name axed from Cleveland schools training center, PLAIN DEALER, Oct. 27,
2015. Now a convicted felon, Barbara also has been turned away within the last year from her
We raise these issues not to create pity for Barbara but to express the magnitude of the
impact Barbara has already experiencedand will continue to feelfor the rest of her life as a
IV. A Sentence Below The Advisory Guideline Range Achieves the Goals of Section
3553(a)
There is no doubt in our mind as her counsel, or in Barbaras own mind, that her conduct
both deserves and demands punishment because of the profound breach of trust that she
committed as the very individual charged with leading the entire CPS system with transparency
and honesty. Education, and particularly public education, is a fundamental pillar of our society,
What is particularly tragic about the circumstances here is that the individual who
committed the crime is also a person who has dedicated her life to public education. Barbara
cheated the very people she devoted her entire life to helping. That realityand her betrayal of
these children and everything she believes incrushes Barbara beyond words.
Taking into account the seriousness of her crime, a sentence of 42 months and a
significant period of supervised release and community service would strike the appropriate
balance to achieve the goals of Section 3553(a). There is no question that Barbaras sentence
must provide significant general deterrence to other public officials tempted by similar
circumstances. At the same time, we urge the Court to credit her full acceptance of
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responsibility and substantial cooperation that she provided the government. Barbara met with
the government multiple times, laid out the entire scheme, and was the only defendant to testify
in the grand jury. She also provided cooperation by meeting and agreeing to meet with
prosecutors from other jurisdictions. All of this should matter. Sentencing determinations
obligation that she perform up to 400 hours of community service with an organization dedicated
to promoting integrity in public education or otherwise in the public interest. See United States
v. Thompson, 777 F.3d 368, 373 (7th Cir. 2015) (reaffirming that district courts are afforded
broad discretion in imposing, or even creating, conditions of supervised release so long as they
Barbara wants to help others learn from her mistakes. She believes that superintendents
and school districts across the nation need to redouble their efforts to avoid conflicts of interest
with consultants and providers. Barbara worries that the very type of relationship she had with
SUPES that resulted in her coming to Chicago and eventually working for CPS is pervasive in
public education today. She wants to help sound the alarm of the necessity for caution and
transparency, which she failed to hear or heed to in Chicago. Barbara, by virtue of her reputation
within the field and the reality that she is a convicted felon who will have served time in prison,
Finally, we urge the Court to consider and credit Barbaras life work in determining an
appropriate sentence. At both the institutional and individual level, she poured everything she
had into improving underprivileged and under-resourced communities and schools, impacting
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thousands of lives along the way. The weight of the letters submitted on Barbaras behalf tell the
story of a gifted educator who cared deeply about the students she saw and treated as essentially
her own kids, and particularly those children who were otherwise frequently forgotten or
abandoned by the system. These one-on-one stories show the depth of character for a woman
who fought for every childs access to quality education, no matter their race or station in life.
Her fall from grace is a heart-breaking and terrible end to an otherwise storied career. All we
can ask is what we know the Court will strive to doto temper the rightful need to punish and
deter this conduct with an appropriate recognition of the remarkable good done over the arc of a
Conclusion
For these reasons, we respectfully ask the Court to sentence Barbara Byrd-Bennett to 42
months imprisonment and to require her, as a term of supervised release, to provide appropriate
Respectfully submitted,
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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
Memorandum with the Clerk of the Court for the United States District Court for the Northern
District of Illinois, Eastern Division using the Courts ECF system, which will automatically
deliver an electronic notification of the filing to all parties counsel of record who are registered
ECF users.