Ald. Nicholas Sposato (36th Ward) on Monday decided to delay a City Council vote on a zoning change request from the clout-heavy United Neighborhood Organization, which needs the legislation to proceed with its effort to build a charter school in Sposato’s ward.
The freshman alderman’s move effectively killed UNO’s plan to construct and open the new school in time for the 2012-13 school year, said Juan Rangel, UNO’s CEO and a close ally of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
The dispute in the far Northwest Side ward provided the latest flashpoint in the long-running battle over charter schools, with Sposato caught between the city’s most politically influential Latino group and the Chicago Teachers Union. UNO’s charter school network has grown rapidly in recent years, despite strong opposition from organized labor.
On Monday evening, Sposato said he had not yet decided whether he would reject the project but he wanted to continue to gauge public opinion in the ward. He said he had received a lot of feedback for and against the proposal.
“I need a little more time to sort out what the community really wants,” the alderman told the Chicago News Cooperative. “I can’t process it this fast.”
The issue was the topic of a raucous community meeting last month. The crowd at the meeting “overwhelmingly shot it down,” Sposato said. “They didn’t want it.”
In a letter sent Thursday to constituents, the alderman wrote that any school that would be approved must “serve the children in the neighborhood.” And on Monday, a top Chicago Public Schools official sent Sposato a letter promising that the new school would draw its students only from a limited area.
Still, Sposato informed Zoning Committee Chairman Daniel Solis (25th) — the former leader of UNO – on Monday afternoon that he would not be ready to proceed with a scheduled committee vote at Tuesday’s zoning meeting at City Hall.
The property where the new charter school would be built, at 2102 N. Natchez Ave. in the Galewood neighborhood, is not yet zoned for use as a school site. With rare exception, aldermen historically have enjoyed final say over real estate matters in their wards.
Rangel said UNO supporters would show up Tuesday morning at the council chambers during the zoning meeting to protest Sposato’s deferral of the committee vote.
“As the alderman, he knew this effectively would kill the process for this year, and I would hope that he would reconsider,” said Rangel, who was a co-chairman of Emanuel’s mayoral campaign in the February election. “It would be a great addition to his community. For the life of me, I don’t understand why anyone would be opposed to a new school in their ward.”
Even under former Mayor Richard M. Daley, UNO was the most politically influential Latino community group in Chicago. The group now operates 11 charter schools with about 5,600 students in the city after receiving a $98 million state grant in 2009 to expand its school network.
The school in Sposato’s ward would be one of three that CPS officials said UNO could open in 2012. CPS officials on Monday also proposed allowing another three UNO schools to open in 2013 as part of a 12-school expansion of the charter system.
Overcrowded public schools and a growing Latino population make the 36th Ward a natural spot for a new UNO school, Rangel said.
The city’s Latino aldermen also think the area would be a perfect spot for a new majority-Hispanic ward. Under a ward remap proposal being considered by his fellow council members, the boundaries of the 36th Ward would be redrawn radically to create a new ward that would be more likely to elect a Latino alderman. The lawyers representing the Latino Caucus in the remap process include Victor Reyes, an UNO lobbyist who was a top Daley aide and chairman of the pro-Daley Hispanic Democratic Organization.
Sposato, a former city firefighter who is of Italian descent, strongly opposes the remap plan. He was elected in the April run-off election in an upset of incumbent Ald. John Rice, who had the backing of the once-powerful 36th Ward Democrats.
Hunter Clauss and Rebecca Vevea contributed reporting.
Great Article DAN!…I have to give Sposato credit on this one. The Italians are always getting screwed in this City. We Italian Americans always are the ones to suffer when it comes to helping the minorities. Taylor Street-Grand Ave- Marrty Russo- Frank Annunzio-no other natiionality gets pushed out more than the italian Americans. If i was Nick….i would make this a racial issue! In regards to Charter Schools….they are owned by corporations that screw the working class!
This is typical Chicago politics. One organization with influential ties and alot of money wants something done and they get upset when they have to put the brakes on and accept compromises and community input. Let’s take a few months and get this school right for the local community so that this school can be successful for everyone!
Galewood/Montlcare is one of the few areas in the city that is highly integrated and well-functioning in terms of low crime, well-maintained and growing. It’s only natural the people there are concerned that this new school will draw resources away from the neighborhoods existing schools.
Additionally, this school would not be a neighborhood school but would accept students from across the city and therefore would potentially not be available at all to students in the community. Could UNO give preferential admittance to students from the local community? I think that would generate some good will with the residents.
They are not over crowded, some of them are not using all their cllass rooms Schubert’s whole third floor is closed, they have room they just don’t want hire the teachers its all bull their giving their friends the money to build schools they already have and the taxpayers are paying for it, they say they getting private funding for it but its coming from tax breaks the corporations get that part go to campaign contributions
Thank you, Alderman Sposato. I live a block away and do not want my immediate neighborhood rezoned just to accommodate this monstrous building. I am appalled at some of the childish comments made by Solis and RangeI, as well as their outdated style of racial politicking. Clearly they do not really know the people of this ward.
I see too that UNO took bids with no concern for community input. The selected winners are already out there measuring and marking up the place like it’s a done deal. Incidentally, they are not a Latino company, so the divisive rhetoric is apparently only a convenience anyway. Crowds were bussed in to prevent real community discussion of the proposal when a meeting was called, and the arrogance of Rangel and Solis is obnoxious. We have two elementary schools within four blocks, so just what overcrowding in Latino schools are these race mongering Napoleons talking about? If Rahm cannot fix CPS schools, he should not be in charge. It is disgusting what they are doing to the teachers and students in order to sell the promise charters have yet to fulfill. I don’t care how fawning Mr. Rangel is or how much money he contributed to Rahm’s campaign. Why is he sitting on all these Boards and departments anyway? Have environmental study even been done on this site? Should the developing lungs and bodies of children (of any race) be purposefully housed all day on the saturated grounds where steel foundries and heavy industrial factories stood for over a century? Might I add that Radio Flyer moved its parking entrance recently from Grand to Natchez, right across from the fire station, and next to Jefferson Ice House? We do not need more traffic on our little street. Yet UNO wants to bring 600 plus children from all over Chicago to add to the congestion and the dangers to the residents in the surrounding blocks. All this within one block of the Galewood stop with its racing commuters who monopolize the parking already, and don’t even have to pay for a city sticker like the rest of us who you intend to disenfranchise? Just how many 36 warders will be employed or served by this school anyway since you are so busy acting like you are doing us a favor by rezoning our neighborhood for your own profit and perceived political gain? These private charters, which would not be sucking funds away from public coffers, if anyone in city hall had a conscience, are exempt from the city’s resident rule, exempt from full public scrutiny of scores, practices, teacher qualifications, and spending, and exempt from taking in all students who live within its shadow. And since when is public money made available to any private company which seeks to serve only one racial group? Not everyone agrees with UNO’s self-worshipping, paternalistic, and soccer themed idea of “Latino” empowerment anyway. This plan is all kinds of wrong if you are really looking at things from the residents’ standpoint, which Sposato is doing, no matter how the Sun Times wants to characterize his integrity. Every ward should be so lucky to have an alderman as we have now who listens to his constituents and asks the right questions instead of following along with all these profiteers who have been in and around city offices for way too long. We need more elected leaders to step up and serve the people faithfully as Sposato has done.
Personally I’d rather see the land reclaimed as a dog park, but who cares what I think? I just live and vote here.