CTU President calls on teachers to speak out at March 28 facilities hearing
Karen Lewis, President of the Chicago Teachers Union, took issue with the announcement by the Chicago Board of Education on March 23 that it would be "consolidating" more schools, and asked teachers, parents and others to speak out about the consolidations at the hearings sponsored by the Chicago Facilities Task Force on March 28 (Monday): Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force on Monday, March 28, from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. at Erie House, 1347 West Erie.
The CTU press release follows:
CTU President Karen Lewis Urges CPS to Halt School Closings and Consolidations
The Chicago Teachers Union joined with the parents, students, teachers and community members to protest the CPS’s consolidation list. Speaking to the Chicago Board of Education at its Wednesday, March 23, 2011 meeting, CTU President Karen Lewis noted, “A year ago Ron Huberman vowed that parents and educators would be involved in the planning of any proposed school actions. That didn’t happen. Again. … The Board has a moral obligation to honor its promises and stop these consolidations and closings. It’s a matter of trust. And trust is the true deficit CPS faces.”
CTU officials have met with many of the people at the affected schools, and they are expressing their outrage. “Parents know what’s best for their children but when did the Board ask them about these school closings and consolidations? When? After the fact – after the plan is in the can,” said President Lewis. “In the next few weeks the Board expects parents, students, teachers and community members from across the city to travel downtown to have their say. It’s time to flip the script. The Board should go to the communities, to hear directly from the school families slated to be hurt the most by these proposals.”
Noting that each school must chart its own course and do what is best for their children and their community, President Lewis asked all Chicagoans to stand up for public education. “Everyone in Chicago who believes in democracy and each child’s right to a quality public education should stand with their neighborhood schools, volunteer in their neighborhood schools, and invest in their neighborhood schools.”
She urges all concerned citizens to attend the upcoming hearing sponsored by the Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force on Monday, March 28, from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. at Erie House, 1347 West Erie.
