With a rare ripple of dissension among its own ranks, the Chicago Board of Education approved the consolidation of several schools Wednesday at the final meeting of the current board.
The controversial merger decisions, which will affect 12 schools, prompted angry reaction from an alderman, community members and parents who said they felt disenfranchised and left without options because selective enrollment, magnet and charter school application deadlines have already passed.
The schools slated for consolidation are: Avondale Elementary merging into Logandale Middle School in the Logan Square neighborhood, Carpenter Elementary into Talcott Elementary in Wicker Park, Schneider Elementary into Jahn Elementary in Roscoe Village, Hans Christian Andersen Elementary School into LaSalle II Magnet Elementary School in Wicker Park, and three small high schools – Bowen Environmental Studies High School, Chicago Discovery High School and Global Visions High School — with New Millennium High School to form one large school at the Bowen Campus on the Southeast Side. The board announced these consolidations at last month’s meeting and public forums for each consolidation were held throughout the beginning of April.
Four schools that had been slated for consolidation were spared following public outcry voiced at the forums. The community members who spoke on behalf of the spared schools said the proposed consolidations would force young students to cross rival gang boundaries in order to reach their new schools.
Community members expressed similar concerns at Wednesday’s meeting that the consolidation of the four small schools high schools at the Bowen campus would mix rival gangs. Though the schools are at the same campus, rival gangs have separated themselves into the various small schools, according to Local School Council chair Daniel Estrada.
In an unusual move, one member of retiring Mayor Richard M. Daley’s handpicked board, Peggy Davis, voted against the consolidations, which were lumped together in a roll call vote. Historically, the board has unanimously approved the resolutions put forward by the CPS CEO.
Davis did not indicate which specific school merger she opposed, but said she was unaware all five consolidations would be voted on at once. Asked by a reporter after the meeting adjourned, Davis said, “it’s in the record.”
Ald. Joe Moreno (1st Ward) spoke against the consolidation of Anderson Elementary and LaSalle II Magnet Elementary, primarily because parents’ alternative options are limited this late in the year.
Several parents at the meeting expressed frustration over not having their voices heard.
“I see the hypocrisy in the treatment of parents,” said Felipe Hernandez, a parent who spoke against the consolidation of Avondale and Logandale. “They say we are essential to the academic success, but when it comes to this our opinions don’t matter.
After the meeting, outgoing board president Mary Richardson-Lowry acknowledged the emotional tenor of the consolidation decisions and predicted the incoming board will face similarly charged votes.
“We understand the passions and the concerns,” Richardson-Lowry said. “There are consolidations under this board, I humbly submit there will be consolidations under the next board. This is something that’s difficult, but it will be part of this district’s future, as it is with districts across the country.”
Next month, an entirely new school board appointed by Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel will take over, marking the first complete overhaul since Daley took control of the school system in 1995. Two members, Norman Bobins and Tariq Butt, have sat on the board for 16 years.
In outlining his plan for public education, Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel has said he wants to shake up the status quo and has looked for leaders who are capable of doing so.
“I’ve decided to have a fresh start and hit the reset button on education,” Emanuel said when he announced his new schools chief and board earlier this month. “Parents, principals, teachers and administrators will need to stand together to choose reform over inertia.”
Not all longtime observers are convinced much will change once the transition takes place.
“I really don’t see much difference between the positions of Emanuel and Daley. I see very similar board members on both boards,” said Donald Moore, executive director for Designs for Change, an organization that advocates for increasing community input in school decisions.
“I think the only way you can get the board to listen is to pass legislation telling them what they must do because otherwise they won’t,” Moore said.
Although the board approved the consolidations, they left one major item on the table for the incoming leadership: the budget.
Richardson-Lowry said if the current board released a budget, it would essentially define all programming at both the administrative level and for individual schools.
“If they came in and wanted to unpackage that, that means that every school would have to redo their budgets and that would’ve been disruptive,” she said.
Still, some consider consolidations just as disruptive. Josephina Rojas, a member of the Education Facilities Task Force, which worked on state legislation that would require the district to give six-months notice before closing or consolidating a school, said the district knows the consolidation process is messy and asked the board not to “do dirty work” for the incoming board.
Cynthia Lloyd, Local School Council chair for Anderson Elementary School, asked the board to give the school one more year and said they had an opportunity to do the right thing because they are on their way out.
“As an outgoing board, don’t let your legacy be putting politics and business over education,” Lloyd said.
