Officials, Community Activists Fight Over Englewood School Closings
Officials, Community Activists Fight Over Englewood School Closings
By Christopher Shuttlesworth
Illinois State Senator Jacqueline Collins (16th District), Illinois State Senator Mattie Hunter and Alderman David Moore held a press conference at City Hall, to express theirconcerns over the recent announcement of four Englewood
school closings and the creation of a new $75 million high school.
Senator Collins says the school closings come at the expense of black children and are a continuation of the city’s failed school reform experiment, Renaissance 2010, an initiative designed to create more high-quality educational options across Chicago.
“We refuse to have our kids be used as ponds in this city’s public education experiment,” Collins said. “As legislators and stakeholders, we are our outraged at Chicago Public School’s (CPS) proposal to close these [Englewood] schools.”
Chicago Public School leaders recently announced that the four Englewood schools closing in June 2018 will include Paul Robeson High School, John Hope College Prep, Harper High School and Team Englewood Community Academy.
The new $75 million high school will be on the grounds of Paul Robeson but construction won’t be completed until fall 2019, which may leave Englewood students at a one school year loss, according to the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).
Alderman David Moore said he isn’t against closing the schools but he doesn’t think the children should be left homeless without a new completed high school.
“We want a high school but it’s about the process of not closing schools before opening one,” Moore said. “You don’ttake no-one out of their house until another house is built.”
Dori Collins, co-chair of the Greater Englewood Community Action Council (CAC), said she is in support of the new high school and explained that the Greater Englewood CAC informed parents in the community, for more than a year, about the reasoning and building plans of the new high school.
“Right now we have students in classrooms that are not receiving credit courses for graduation,” Dori Collins said.
“Elementary schools in Englewood have had the highest growth in academics, but when it’s time to go to high school, the students are leaving the community. So, this high school will now provide the opportunity for students to have access
to a robust, academic experience, which they are currently denied.”
Illinois State Representative Mary Flowers said students should receive everything that the constitution calls for in regards to local communities and children. Flowers explained that when she was first elected 34 years ago, she introduced the bill, Transportation Reimbursement for parents, which
prevents students from having to walk in danger zones.
“We want our children to be loved and protected but in the meantime we don’t want to put them in danger,” Flowers said.
“We want them to have access to transportation and not have to walk more than four miles to [the new] school.”
Flowers continued to say that she has always fought on behalf of the city’s children and she is asking that everyone, including Mayor Rahm Emanuel, think as much about the children as they are thinking about the new school building.
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