Will Alderman Smith's 'facilities' money go to break Senn HS into 'small schools'? $6 million on tap for Senn High School?

By Jesse Sharkey - June, 2008

Talk around the halls at Chicago’s Nicholas Senn High School has turned recently to $6 million in “facility improvements” that were floated by Alderman Mary Ann Smith at a local block club meeting in early . . .

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After the Senn High School staff, students, parents and community opposed the placement of the Rickover Naval Academy inside the Seen building (above) on Chicago’s Northeast Side, Alderman Mary Ann Smith of the 48th Ward began a campaign to break up Senn. Despite the overwhelming support for maintaining the school as a general high school (with one of the most diverse student populations in the USA), Smith has tried a number of plans to end the public school character that has been Senn for nearly a century. After failing to have Senn turned over to charter school operators in 2005, Smith continued her campaign. Despite a new Strategic Plan developed with more than a year’s work by Senn, Smith has launched a new campaign to eliminate Senn and replace it with four “small schools.” Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

Four years of Senn struggle reported in Substance

By George N. Schmidt - June, 2008

More than a dozen news reports, analyses, and dozens of photographs documenting the intense struggles of the teachers, students, parents, and community members to keep Chicago’s Senn High School as a general high school are . . .

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Above: On November 5, 2005, behind three layers of security (military; Chicago police; Chicago Public Schools) Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley dedicated the

Teacher defends Senn and general high schools at December 19, 2007, Chicago Board of Education meeting

By Jesse Sharkey - January, 2008

[Editor's Note: The following remarks were prepared by Senn High School teacher Jesse Sharkey and delivered to the Chicago Board of Education at its December 19, 2007 meeting].
My name is Jesse Sharkey. I have . . .

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