HIT LIST 2013: 'Fullerton Network' hearing February 28 continues protest against 'underutilization' claims for closing schools in the face of complex race, class and gentrification dynamics
The "Fullerton Network" community hearing held Thursday, February 28, 2013, at Armitage Progressive Baptist Church was anything but dull. About 500 participants filled the seats with others standing around the back of the sanctuary. Three schools — Brentano, Jenner and Manierre —were each given a chance to explain why they should not be closed due to "underutilization". Throughout the crowded sanctuary people conducted conversations about passion, commitment, organizing, heritage and determination. .
Children from Ferguson CPC listed their futures on the sign they displayed at the Fullerton Network hearing on February 28. Substance photo by Drew Heiserman.Brentano Elementary School parents, students and teachers, talked about this school’s stellar growth. They told the people sitting in the front (none of whom was a member of the seven-member Chicago Board of Education) that Brentano has a math enrichment class along with activities after school such as basketball and chess. They noted that the Logan Square community is growing and that the "Redman Real Estate" website listed it as the "eighth-hottest" neighborhood in Chicago. Brentano added 30 new students in its early childhood classes when the Friends of Brentano started a successful playgroup in the neighborhood and neighborhood parents began to get involved with the school, they said.
One parent said that the war should not be fought against our children but against City Hall, which wastes lots of money on such things as planters downtown, instead of for our schools.
The same parent asked, “Why can’t they take that money and put it in our schools?” Some suburbs have: IPads in kindergarten. Rosa Rodriquez, a parent volunteer, stated that for years the parents have requested safety guards and have not received them. Now CPS is asking students to travel five miles further to a new school.
George Manierre Elementary School parents and teachers mentioned that the Child Parent Center is vital to parents who have to work. The gym is open on Saturday for the kids. Clara Smith noted that several generations of her family have attended Manierre. Smith noted that students from Jenner and Manierre formed the first classes at Payton High School. Smith warned the people sitting up front who were acting like they were hearing officers, “Don’t gain the world’s soul and lose your own.”
Parents, teachers, and students from Jenner Elementary School made an impassioned case, noting the complex history of Jenner as the Cabrini Green housing project was slowly eliminated around Jenner. Tara Stamps, a teacher at Jenner, emphatically stated that closing these schools is apartheid, which brought the audience to their feet in agreement.
After the hearing, I asked her what she meant by that. She replied that in the last seven years Jenner has taken in two other schools' students that were closed, Schiller and Bird. She said that there are only two black and Latino schools left on the north side that are not Options for Knowledge, magnet or selective enrollment -- Jenner and Manierre. She said that in 2006 and 2007, half of Jenner’s staff retired, so they basically turned themselves around. Stamps stated that CPS doesn’t want to be responsible for black and Latino students, their scores and their education. They want to sell the schools to Charter schools and "warehouse" students creating a new underclass. To continue consolidating, closing and turning around schools causes destruction with far reaching implications causing the down fall of the whole city.
First page of the Erikson Institute letter explaining how CPS would be undermining a major program by closing the schools still on the Hit List for the Fullerton Network Stamps told Substance that when they took away Cabrini Green, the neighborhood was promised a neighborhood school that they could continue attending. City officials also said that the families who were forced out of Cabrini Green would get low income housing in the area. That never happened, with the vacant land being turned over to expensive town houses.
Jill Peters talked about the Sinai Congregation volunteer work with Jenner. Peters pointed out that many of the children at Jenner are displaced, legally homeless and have had to move several times or double up with family and friends. They have lost their church communities, friends and family. Jenner supplies the one stable place for these students. The Sinai Congregation has helped with field trips, tutoring and a national food program called Blessings in a Back Pack. More than 100 children at Jenner are homeless. They are given food in the back pack to take home.
She said that crime is up in the Jenner neighborhood, and the community needs Jenner as a safe place for its children.
Alderman Walter Burnett announced his support to a moratorium on closing schools. Burnett told the hearing that he grew up in the neighborhood and became an alderman because he wanted to "give something back." Burnett talked about the difficulties when Bird and Schiller were closed and sent to Jenner. Even though the Schiller and Jenner students belonged to the same gang, there were fights and problems. Burnett and the community asked for more security. Parents volunteered and the situation improved.
Burnett mentioned that between Jenner and Manierre is a park where a student from Jenner was killed by a student from Manierre. Burnett stated that the neighborhood needs both schools because thousands of low - income units are being built in the neighborhood. These new students need a place to go. Instead of closing down schools, we will need more schools. In March we will begin breaking ground for the new units in the old YMCA residential lot.
When a parent from Brentano loudly objected about Burnett talking about the gang problem, Burrnett stated that this is “our reality that we have to live with everyday.” Burnett went on to say that Manierre has a full day pre-school and the new principal has been turning around the school. Jenner has a half day pre-school and needs a full day pre-school. Burnett emphasized that it was disingenuous of the Board of Education to ask us to support charter schools at the expense of our neighborhood. “If CPS wants to get my support on things, you have to keep these schools open, “he said.
Second page of the letter to Barbara Byrd Bennett from Samuel Meisels of the Erikson Institute.Dr. Jie-Qi Chen, of Erikson Institute talked about the work the institute is doing with all three schools. The Erickson Institute said closing any schools will be short sighted. The institute is in the middle of a$6 million investigation. That is helping schools to develop common standards for early childhood math. The funds are provided by the federal government, and $2.5 million has been spent already.
The investigation was supposed to be for five years. These are the newest standards and the teachers need professional Development to help the students master these standards. The federal government wants every state to reach the standard. After Chen’s presentation, she told me that each teacher has already spent 50 -60 hours with us and all the schools are making progress. In order to get the $6million, Chicago Public Schools had to promise to see it through.
