January 9, 2022

Chicago High School for the Arts Board of Directors
ChiArts Foundation Board of Directors

Dear Board Members,

We are the parents of scholar artists currently attending ChiArts, who are primarily but not exclusively part of the Theater Conservatory. We are deeply committed to the well-being of the school and share its core values. We write now, in this spirit, to register our dismay at the abrupt departure of Theater Department Head Annie Calhoun and the crisis of school leadership it reveals.

On the afternoon of Friday December 10, 2022, Ms.Calhoun announced to Theater conservatory classes that it was her last day at ChiArts. Ms. Calhoun is a skilled, compassionate pedagogue, student advocate, and manager of the Theater Department, beloved by students, fellow teachers, and parents. The news of her departure caused immediate disorientation amongst students and teachers alike and compounded the disruption the pandemic has created in teaching, learning, and creative production since March 2020. ChiArts Artistic Director Tina Boyer Brown sent a terse email to parents the following Monday. Of course, most of us had already learned of the news from our heartbroken students. To date, we have not received any communication from Interim Principal Milsap. One teacher has resigned.

These facts drive our concern about the stability and future of the ChiArts arts conservatories and their leadership. Considered in a larger context, Ms. Calhoun’s departure caps what was already a significant turn-over in conservatory department heads. Within the past eight months, the heads of Music and Visual Arts have stepped down, while the Interim Head of Voice’s position has been unstable. All of this has taken place during Ms. Boyer Brown’s tenure. Ms. Milsap has been absent, neither framing a narrative about the departures nor articulating a direction for the school.  

School administrators have not offered students a safe space to process their hurt, anger, and grief. Parents who have expressed concern to Ms. Boyer Brown, Ms. Milsap, and Foundation Director Mr. Ochoa have been met with silence, dismissal, or curt Human Resources legalese. Instead of leading by acknowledging the harm done, the climate of fear, and the lack of transparency, administrators have asked the community to simply “move on.”

We are therefore appealing to the ChiArts High School and ChiArts Foundation Boards of Directors because the administration has broken our trust. We send you this letter as a statement of “no confidence” in the administration based on the poor handling of Ms. Calhoun’s departure; the pattern of conservatory head and teacher resignations; and the climate of fear, if not intimidation, community members experience. 

To address the lack of transparency and accountability on the part of the administration, we ask the ChiArts High School Board of Directors and the ChiArts Foundation Board of Directors to initiate an independent investigation into Annie Calhoun’s dismissal, which threatens the well-being of students, teachers, parents, and administrators. It threatens the school’s reputation as well. 

To repair the harm done to this community, we request that Annie Calhoun be reinstated as Theater Department Head.

To begin to restore trust, we ask for transparent and timely communication and for accountability from the administration going forward.

Sincerely,

The undersigned