Ames community fights on to save neighborhood school, as Board moves ahead with plans to change it to a military school
Ames Middle School is nearing the end of a battle between community activists and the Chicago Board of Education. The battle is part of a wider struggle over whether democracy has a place in the decisions that affect Chicago Public Schools.
Ames school parents and supporters surrounded LSC member Delia Bonilla as she told the Chicago Board of Education at its February 26, 2014 meeting that Ames didn't want the Marine Military Academy that was being foisted on its community. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt. A democratic vote on the future of the school is on the March 18 primary election ballot in the precincts surrounding Ames. Parents and neighbors are canvassing for a �yes� vote to save Ames as an open enrollment neighborhood public school. Ames currently serves 7th-8th students in Logan Square, a mostly Hispanic neighborhood on Chicago�s Northwest Side.
A �no� vote would allow the Board to proceed with its plan to have Marine Military Academy High School move into the Ames building, at 1920 N. Hamlin Ave., at the start of the 2014-15 school year.
Well, actually, a �yes� vote also would allow the Board to proceed with its plans. The vote is advisory and non-binding. The Board members are appointed by the mayor, not elected, and can choose to ignore elections.
Still, any mayor or school board interested in democracy might wait two weeks for results of the vote. But on March 3, 2014, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel�s hand-picked school board sent out a letter telling the parents and guardians of Ames students that they had a deadline of March 15 to decide whether to enroll their children in �the new Marine Leadership Academy at Ames� for the coming school year.
Printed on Chicago Public Schools letterhead bearing the name of CPS Chief Executive Officer Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the letter was signed by Todd Connor, chief officer of CPS�s Service Leadership (military) Academies Network.
A few days earlier, during the week of February 24-28, 2014, the Board sent another letter to the parents and guardians of students at other elementary schools near Ames, inviting their students to enroll at Ames Military next year.
Both sets of letters offered other options, as well: a new middle school option being added to Kelvyn Park High School; a new middle school program being added to McAuliffe Elementary School, or �another option not listed.�
Any board of education interested in democracy might not have been so quick to make changes such as those planned at Ames, Kelvyn Park and McAuliffe schools, after neighbors expressed opposition in surveys conducted by the Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA), and parents expressed opposition in votes organized by LSNA at the schools on report card pick up day in November 2013.
Yet in December 2013, the Board reneged on a promise by Board President David Vitale to leave Ames as is, and instead voted to convert it to a �service leadership (military) academy� for grades 7 through 12.
Current Ames students who choose to stay would be joined by students from Marine Military Academy. Marine Military is a grade 9-12 school that currently shares space with Phoenix Military Academy High School in the former Grant Elementary School building on Chicago's near West Side. The Grant building is approximately three miles southeast of Ames.
Any board of education interested in democracy would plan the future of any school in consultation with the school�s own elected leaders. By law, Chicago Public Schools have such elected leaders, in the form of Local School Councils (LSCs). LSCs select the school�s principal and oversee the school�s budget. Ames, like most CPS schools, has an LSC with members elected by parents, by neighborhood residents, and by the school�s faculty and staff. The Ames LSC has opposed the plan to change Ames into a military academy ever since the plan was first proposed years ago.
On January 16, 2014, the Chicago Board of Education�s "Office of LSC Relations" sent a letter to the Ames principal and LSC members stating that next school year, the Ames LSC would be replaced by a �newly-constituted Board of Governors for Ames.� The annual elections in April to choose parent, community and faculty/staff members for the LSC will be cancelled at Ames.
Any board of education interested in democracy would not have ignored citywide community opposition to school closings.
Yet the Chicago Board of Education voted to close 49 schools prior to the start of the 2013-14 school year.
A possible silver lining to such a dark cloud is that school closings could open up other options. If the March 18 vote overwhelmingly calls for Ames to be saved as a middle school, the Board could move Marine Military Academy into one of those closed schools.
Is it likely that the Board would have such a change of heart? And why did the Board choose Ames in the first place as the site for a military school? (Until now, no CPS elementary or middle schools has had a military focus. Ames would be the first in Chicago, although not the first such public school in the nation.)
About a month ago I asked Todd Connor, who oversees the CPS military academies about the possibility of moving Marine Military to some site other than Ames. Such questions are �above my pay grade,� he said. There are few people at the Chicago Board of Education with a higher pay grade � he is only two steps down from Barbara Byrd-Bennett herself.
And now for full disclosure: I am a teacher at Ames � a full-time paid employee of the Chicago Board of Education and a part-time volunteer (unpaid) reporter for Substance News. I can see a place for military academies and JROTC programs in some public schools. I hope to keep teaching at Ames next year, whether it is a military academy or not. I was impressed with Chicago Military Academy in Bronzeville when I taught there � but Bronzeville is a Chicago neighborhood that WELCOMED the military academy.
What concerns me is the lack of democracy in the Board�s decision to give Ames a military focus. Isn�t democracy what our military is supposed to be fighting for?
Comments:
By: David R. Stone
Democracy & the military
I agree with you, Arny, that the U.S. military is a tool of conquest, and its mission is usually for some other cause than �fighting for democracy.� What my last paragraph actually said is that democracy is what our military is SUPPOSED to be fighting for. I ended with that idea in the hope that even people who argue in favor of military academies would agree that the Board is wrong to trample democracy in its rush to move the Marines into Ames.
My focus was on the undemocratic process the Board is using to impose its decision on the community � not really on the decision itself, between military vs. traditional neighborhood schools.
The CPS military �service leadership academies� are not so different from other schools as they are portrayed by their proponents, like Todd Connor, or by their detractors, like Veterans for Peace. Even as a military school teaches students to follow orders, it offers leadership positions where some students take responsibility for some teaching and administrative duties. All public schools teach a mixture of conformity (e.g., follow the bell schedule, stay in your seat, don�t talk back to authority figures) and the skills to think for yourself.
By: Rod Estvan
Academic reality of military programs
I think if we are going to critique CPS military academies, more needs to be discussed than the morality of war. The academic reality of these schools also needs to be examined. First, we need to understand that very few if any of the students who graduate from CPS military academies would even be eligible to apply for admission to one of the national service academies.
Here are some of the average ACT scores for military schools and programs CPS has:
Air Force Academy High High school 18.1
Carver Military Academy 16.4
Chicago Military Academy 17.9
Farragut. 15.6
Marine Academy 17.9
Phoenix Military Academy 18.8
Rickover Naval Academy. 18.7
Roosevelt 15.6
Taft. 18.8
Just to give you an idea of what a fraud these programs are we need only look at the lowest ACT score for a freshman admitted to the US Air force Academy last year which was a 27. Another piece of relevant information is the ACT cut score to be even eligible for an Army ROTC 4 year college scholarship is a 19. Simply put there is not one CPS military school where the average graduate would even be eligible to apply for the Army ROTC college scholarship. By way of disclosure I received one of these scholarships and of course owed the Army duty once I graduated. I graduated from Lake View HS and was not in high school ROTC.
Rod Estvan
By: ARNY STIEBER
Ames and article by David Stone
David - a very good article, except for the last two paragraphs.
The Chicago Chapter of Veterans For Peace (ChicagoVFP.org) sees no place for the military in schools. The military model is conflict resolution by violence. Kids need non-violent conflict resolution skills. The military model is anti-democratic. Kids need the freedom to develop without the "follow orders without question" military model. The military doesn't "fight for" democracy. The military is used as a tool of conquest by the powerful who run this country and make vast fortunes from wars and conflicts. When a child reaches the age of reason they can explore the military. Until then, keep the military out of schools. Facebook.com/DeMilitarizeCPS.