'CPS Celebrates Black History Month by Closing [more] Public Schools in Englewood'... More than 2,000 oppose closings at 'Englewood/Gresham' hearing February 18
"So CPS is celebrating Black History Month by closing more schools in Englewood!?" This was the sentiment shared by over two thousand parents, community members, students and teachers who gathered this past Monday night, February 18th, 2013 at the AFC Center Auditorium at 7859 S. Ashland Ave. in Chicago for the school closing hearing for the "Englewood Gresham Network."
Part of the crowd at the Englewood/Gresham network hearing on February 18, 2013. The discrimination against Substance reporters continued at that hearing, as CPS officials relegated the Substance reporter to the balcony, despite a protest. Substance photo by Jeremy Peters.CPS officials were greeted with chants of �liars� and �let us speak� as the five-member panel attempted to assure the crowd that �not all 129 schools on the list will be closed!� No members of the seven-member Chicago Board of Education were present. The figure of 129 schools was of course in reference to the recent revised school closure list that was released by CPS on February 13th.
Members of the community were understandably upset over recent lies that their neighborhood schools are �underutilized� and therefore subject to closure or other school actions in order to �right-size� the district and better support the schools that remain.
To many in the community, this latest lies are just another chapter in the long history of lies used to justify the disinvestment of city resources from schools that serve predominantly low-income, black and Latino communities, like Englewood. These lies are rooted in the histories of our communities, where our public schools have been sabotaged by centralized control for the past forty years, first directly following the �white flight� of the 1950�s, but more recently intensified by privatization schemes and corporate school reform which serve as nothing more than agents of gentrification across the city.
Community members, students, parents and teachers challenged the �underutilized� classification of their schools. Testimonials were grouped by school, and showcased rising test scores and other �metrics� tracked by corporate-minded bureaucrats to measure the lives of children and the neighborhood schools they depend on for stability and in many cases, survival.
One speaker, a security staff member representing Earl Elementary school, presented a pair of shoes worn by former student Mark Watts, a teen that was murdered Jan 4th, 2012, and demanded that CPS officials have their children �walk in our children�s shoes, before you close down any more neighborhood schools!�
Students like Brian Sturgis, an honor student at Paul Robeson High School, and former graduate from the �underutilized� Banneker Elementary School testified that �these schools are safe-havens, with dedicated teachers that help kids like me succeed in neighborhoods where innocent kids get shot everyday!�
The concerns of community members were not eased by CPS�s assurances that �not all schools on the list will be closed�. Currently 19 of the network�s 31 neighborhood schools are classified as �underutilized� and face potential �school action�. Too many community concerns remain: how will student safety be impacted by school closures? Where will our children go to school if ALL of our schools are closed? And why don�t we have an elected school board that is accountable to the public�s concerns? Although the final school action decisions won�t be announced for another month, the effects of the anxiety is already being felt on the street, and in our neighborhood schools.
The murder rate in our city is already 5% higher this year than this time last year, as student attendance rates in many neighborhood schools have plummeted amidst the district wide push on standardized testing, and �power-standard-aligned instruction� also known as �teaching to the test� proliferates across networks.
Two conclusions are clear: we are destroying the few remaining forces of stability in our most vulnerable communities; and a drastic rethinking of school reform is essential to the survival of our city.
