PBC presents proposed plan of new Jones high school building
Nearly 50 people attended a presentation by the Public Buildings Commission of Chicago (PBC) to see proposed floorplans of the new William Jones College Preperatory Academy at the monthly Brown Bag Lunch hosted by Friends of Downtown at the Chicago Cultural Center. Erin Lavin-Cabonargi, the executive director of the PBC and Bryan Schabel, Associate Principal Architect of Perkins + Will presented and answered questions about the project.
The New Jones College Prep, a high-rise school being constructed in a lot just south of the current Jones, will house 1200 students, 400 more than attend Jones now, and will be ready for students in the fall of 2013. Classrooms are designed for thirty students and one teacher. Schabel touted the green design of the new building, replete with energy efficient windows, a rooftop garden, and open terraces. "Classrooms will be all on the fourth and fifth floors," so though students have to climb stairs in the ADA certified building, "most of the time students will not be going to far [to get to class]."
The school will have underground parking lot, and a pool and fitness center on the top floor. Lavin-Cabonargi said that the purpose was to design a building that could also be used by community members on in the evenings and weekends without disrupting classrooms. "The elevators can bypass the classroom floors, and go straight to the open floors." Though she also noted that CPS would have the final say as to whether the building would be accessible during non-school hours.
Community members had many questions for the presenters including some regarding the funding of the new Jones school and the destruction of the current Jones school. Lavin-Cabonargi said the total cost of the new Jones school is $90,800,000 "funded mostly by TIFs."
Lavin-Cabonargi noted that the land on which "Old Jones" is will "most likely be a park," and demolition will allow for correcting dangerous traffic at Harrison St. One of the attendees commented, "I think it's lovely, but it seems like all students in Chicago derserve this kind of beautiful school."
According the Lavin-Cabonargi, "It doesn't matter if you are in Englewood or Rogers Park, you have to know that you're getting high-quality materials. These are not prisons, they're schools."
The link to the July 27, 2011, Board of Education resolution regarding the costs of the new Jones building follows:
By: Sharon Schmidt
New Jones building
We added a link in the story above so others can read the board report on the PBC/board costs on the new Jones building.
My guess is when everything is done, there may be a name change — involving Daley, perhaps. It was he who wrecked the only vocational high school in Chicago (Jones Commercial High School) devoted to business skills training and business job placement. For 60 years, until 1999, Jones provided paying jobs to all its seniors. Daley wiped out Jones (and relocated the Pacific Garden Mission to a non-visible site) to cater to the middle and upper class South Loop residents.
Meanwhile, the poor and working class students of Chicago's south, west, and north sides — who used to learn business skills from Jones' amazing teachers and who used to be placed in paying jobs in downtown banks, accounting firms, hotels and doctors offices in the Loop, through the hundreds of business contacts provided by Jones' teachers — no longer have the option.
In the past, no one needed a high test score to go to Jones. In the past, all students who went to Jones received real jobs.
When Daley, Paul Vallas, and Gery Chico's Board of Education decimated Jones (and another highly successful vocational education high school — Near North — in 1999) we saw thousands of Chicagoans robbed of a real chance to escape poverty.
Sorry for the lengthy comment. I need to byline more outrageous and true Jones stories for those who have forgotten or didn't know that the new Jones, for the academically advantaged, was created in order to move out the needy.