Case: 1:15-cr-00620 Document #: 113 Filed: 04/07/17 Page 1 of 22 PageID #:2841

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

No. 15 CR 620
v.
Hon. Edmond E. Chang
BARBARA BYRD-BENNETT

BARBARA BYRD-BENNETTS SENTENCING MEMORANDUM

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

the sentence the Court determines is fair and warranted.

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

families realize the benefits of education.

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

transparency, particularly in procurement processes.

I. The Presentence Investigation Report, Advisory Guideline Range, and Restitution

With one clarification, the Probation Offices Presentence Investigation Report is

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

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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

Guideline 2B1.1(b)(1)(I) is warranted, as outlined in paragraph 63 of the PSR.

Barbara accordingly agrees with Probations determination of the advisory Guidelines

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.

II. Barbaras Offense Conduct

Throughout our representation of Barbara, the why question has challenged us: Why

did Barbara Byrd-Bennetta highly educated professional of incredible accomplishment, an

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

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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.

As the pressures of serving as CEO mounted amid equally difficult personal

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

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entitled to have it both ways: giving it her all as CEO while giving up nothing from SUPES and

remaining sure of a profitable financial future.

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.

None of these observations is intended to excuse or justify Barbaras misconduct. She

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.

III. Barbaras Background and Lifelong Commitment to Public Education

Although the sentencing framework established by Section 3553(a) is familiar, nothing

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

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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

lifelong devotion to public education.

Barbaras career as an educator has been dominated by an unyielding commitment to

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.

Following the understandable firestorm of reporting and commentary that accompanied

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

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experience, knowledge, and legitimacy to make meaningful, lifelong differences at both the

institutional and individual level.

A. Barbaras Childhood and Early Career

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

for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

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

supposedly would never amount to anything.

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,

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through sixth grade. By that time, they had earned the highest reading and math scores in the

school.1

B. New York Administrative Roles

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

education of students with special needs, resulting in federal fines.

Margaret Douglas bordered two distinctly different neighborhoods, Harlem and

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

experienced firsthand what it meant to learn.

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.

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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

Margaret Douglas and its students was longstanding.2

In time, Barbara took on broader roles covering more of the New York City school

system, including as Deputy Executive of Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional

Development. In 1994, the Chancellor appointed Barbara to serve as the Superintendent of

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,

N.Y. TIMES, Sept. 22, 1996.

In 1996, Barbara became the Supervising Superintendent of the Chancellors District,

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.

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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

education change that contributed immensely to the development of Barbaras nationwide

reputation. See, e.g., Deinya Phenix, Dorothy Siegel, Ariel Zaltsman & Norm Fruchter,

VIRTUAL DISTRICT, REAL IMPROVEMENT: A RETROSPECTIVE EVALUATION OF THE CHANCELLORS

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.

C. Cleveland Municipal 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

City to tackle an extraordinarily difficult challenge in an altogether new community. In 1976,

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

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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.

During Barbaras tenure, Cleveland saw a 70% improvement on the performance

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

Clevelands successes under Barbaras leadership in supporting Congressional Resolution 414

celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. See 108 CONG.

REC. S28, 9480 (2004) (statement of Congresswoman Jones).

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

earlier, and her family, including Barbaras twin grandsons.

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.

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D. Detroit Public Schools

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

absences, suspensions, and expulsions.

Over two years, Barbara reassigned and hired 91 new administrators, assembled a Detroit

Diagnostic Team, established principal performance-based contracts, developed and

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

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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

individual schools and, ultimately, for students.

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

Association of School Administrators, the Education Research Development Institute, the

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

relationshipsand her mentorship of and influence on a new generation of principals and

superintendentsare reflected in numerous letters submitted on her behalf.4

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.

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time, Barbara regularly spoke and served on panels at the national, state, and local level. By all

accounts, Barbara was a leader in public education.

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

respected. Shortly thereafter, Barbara joined SUPES as a consultant.

F. Chicago Public Schools

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

accomplishments while Barbara was at CPS likewise warrant mention.

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

through 8, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Aug. 20, 2014.

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

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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

RELEASE, Aug. 19, 2014.

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

SCHOOLS PRESS RELEASE, Dec. 11, 2014.

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

high school and are currently attending college.

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.

G. Barbaras Charitable Works

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

Endowed Scholarship at Cleveland State University. This Scholarship provided financial

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

Scholars program. See www.bw.edu/community/bw-scholars.

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.

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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

concerts, and parent-teacher conferences.

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

Housing Authority as a manager in Resident Services. As Barbaras grand jury testimony

alluded, Bruce faces significant health issues.

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

efforts to tutor local school children as a volunteer.

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

result of her criminal conduct in Chicago.

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,

and the integrity of our public school system must be sacrosanct.

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

should operate to encourage individuals, including high-ranking public officials, to come

forward, accept responsibility, and cooperate fully.

Additionally, Barbara urges the Court to impose, as a condition of supervised release, an

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

are reasonably related to the factors set forth in Section 3553(a)).

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,

is in a position to uniquely reach such officials.

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

life devoted to public education.

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

community service in the public interest.

Respectfully submitted,

/s/ Michael Y. Scudder, Jr.

Michael Y. Scudder, Jr.
Lara A. Flath
SKADDEN, ARPS, SLATE, MEAGHER & FLOM LLP
155 North Wacker Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60606
(312) 407-0700
michael.scudder@skadden.com
lara.flath@skadden.com

Attorneys for Barbara Byrd-Bennett

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I certify that on April 7, 2017, I electronically filed Barbara Byrd-Bennetts Sentencing

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.

/s/ Michael Y. Scudder, Jr.

Michael Y. Scudder, Jr.