CPS enrollment: Drops, rises and consequences

Via @ChiTribGraphics

A page you should look at via Chicago Tribune. That in addition to the graphic above:

Chicago Public Schools released 10th-day enrollment statistics and projected changes to school budgets and special education staffing as a result of the changes in enrollment. This is the first year CPS is using this student-based budgeting policy where enrollment is more important than ever. Changes to funding and positions will be finalized based on enrollment as of the 20th day of the school year.

For two of our local schools:

• Bennett
• Harlan 

And of course search for more 10th day enrollment information here.

Those red light cameras...

Before the end of last month's municipal elections we haven't devoted much coverage to the mayoral candidates. In a field of four voters narrowed the race down to Mayor Emanuel and Cook County Commissioner Chuy Garcia.

I show this story from our local ABC affiliate regarding the mayor's decision to remove fifty of the city's red light cameras. Of course there are many who aren't feeling Rahm Emanuel who says he's just doing this because he's got a runoff next month and is looking for an edge.

I'll let you decide that and if this might cause you to swing your vote to Emanuel. I do recognize that somehow these redlight cameras have become one of the sore issues in this campaign.

Look no further than this mailer by Harold Ward when he ran for Alderman of the 9th ward.

CapFax: Ploy or not, Chicago has to administer exams

I've been hearing about this new round of testing CPS students are expected to take. Apparenlty CPS wanted to use this test on a limited amount of students, however, they've decided to administer it to all students 3rd through 8th grades. CPS' argument was that most students in Chicago lacked the technology & technological skill to take a test taken through a computer. Well is this good or bad?

Tribune: Aldermen turn up heat on CPS' bond deals

Ald. Thomas by Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune

I was amazed to see that Ald. Latasha Thomas of ward 17 is leading this charge. I'm wondering if her leaving the city council at the end of her term has anything to do with this:

The Chicago City Council’s Education and Child Development Committee will hold a hearing to examine Chicago Public Schools’ borrowing practices, committee chair Ald. Latasha Thomas said Wednesday.

Eight aldermen signed a resolution calling for the hearing in the wake of a Chicago Tribune analysis of the school district’s foray into auction-rate debt. Leading the effort is 2nd Ward Ald. Bob Fioretti, who plans to run against Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the Feb. 24 mayoral election.

The Tribune found that CPS' 2003-07 issuance of $1 billion in auction-rate bonds, paired with interest-rate swaps, could cost the district $100 million more than traditional fixed-rate bonds would have.

"They were gambling with our children’s future," Fioretti said Wednesday in an interview with the Tribune.
...
Thomas said she had yet to see the resolution but was willing to explore the issue at committee level. Thomas, unlike Fioretti, typically sides with the mayor on major issues.

No hearing date has been set.

WBEZ: CTA overcharges kids to get to summer school, job programs

WBEZ/Linda Lutton

As often stated I don't have children yet. It would be unacceptable that CTA and CPS hadn't adequately einsured that students still get reduced fare to get back and forth between home and their schools. Especially during the summer session as indicated in this recent article.

In what appears to be another stumble in the city’s transition to the new Ventra fare-collection system, thousands of young Chicagoans are paying more in train and bus fares than they should be this summer.

Typically, students under age 20 going to summer school or jobs programs would pay reduced CTA fares—currently $0.75 per ride and $0.15 for a transfer.

But many have gotten a rude awakening this summer when they’ve used their student cards on buses or trains.

“I swiped it, and I had (added) a dollar. Usually a dollar is good for me to get over here, but it said ‘insufficient fares,’said student Cesar Fierro in the hallway of his high school, Noble Street College Prep. Fierro rides on a student Ventra card he purchased at school.

He’s been paying $4.50, every day, to get to and from summer school—if he has the money.

“Like yesterday I had to walk all the way home,” said Fierro. That’s a 4.5-mile hike, from Augusta and Milwaukee to Fullerton and Kostner.

 And while school officials attempt to solve this issue, they seem to get the runaround:

School staff at Noble Street say they’ve “easily” spent 10 hours on the phone over the last two weeks trying to get reduced fares for summer school students— “calling back and forth to Ventra, being sent to CTA, the CTA saying, ‘Go back to Ventra.’ It seems to be a very confusing time for the companies as well as the schools,” said Noble Street administrative assistant Nicole Baily.
...
CTA spokeswoman Lambrini Lukidis says that’s because reduced fares are for students enrolled in an educational program, not for all youth. “If you're enrolled in the regular fall term, once that term finishes, the entitlement on the Ventra card is turned off automatically,” said Lukidis.

For students to get reduced fares during summer, schools must submit each student's individual transit card ID number to the CTA (or to one of Ventra's subcontractors). Lukidis says the transit agency has been working since spring with schools to prepare for the summer session. She says 5,500 Chicago Public Schools students and 9,500 students from charters and private schools are already receiving the reduced fare.

“So we have mechanisms in place for this to work successfully, and it has,” says Lukidis. She blamed Noble Street's problems on a "miscommunication on how to activate and get all of those entitlements processed."

Well at least there's an explanation, not to keep this from happening again!

Tribune: Starting this fall, free breakfasts, lunches available for all CPS students

I can't believe according to this article, school lunches in elementary school could go for $2.45 on average. When I went to Bennett-Shedd it was .75 and went up to .85 cents. Perhaps the quality of food today is much better.

Regardless CPS has found some money to provide free meals to all students. That's certainly excellent news:

The high number of students living at the poverty level in the district qualified CPS to meet the required threshold for full reimbursement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to CPS officials.

In the past school year, lunch at a typical elementary school  for students who didn’t qualify for assistance cost an average of about $2.45. High schools charges slightly more.

The district expects to serve 72 million meals to students in the coming year, two million more than during the last school year.

“If a student eats that day, the district gets reimbursed,” said Leslie Fowler, executive director of CPS’ nutritional support services. “But if they don’t eat, then CPS doesn’t get reimbursed and there’s no cost associated with that meal. We can’t predict what they do or don’t do, but we hope we can encourage them to participate.”

In the past, the school district’s free and reduced lunch program for financially eligible students was fraught with fraud. Several CPS school officials, including principals and assistant principals, were accused by the district’s Inspector General of providing false income information on applications for the free lunch program.

Sooooo, I don't have children yet, however, as a parent I would have fought tooth & nail not to pay over $2/day to feed my child. They'd get sent to school with a lunch from home at the very least.

Still this development under which this program has been expanded one thing is for certain CPS is dominated by low-income students.

Black School Principal critical of Emanuel takes to blog, airs complaints

 Got wind of this story via the Newsalert blog:

 The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

"An outspoken elementary school principal who recently blasted the mayor’s office for silencing Chicago Public School principals in an opinion piece he wrote for the Sun-Times, is now airing comments from other school leaders on his blog.

Troy LaRaviere, principal at Blaine Elementary School in Lake View and a veteran of the U.S. Navy, called the administration’s interaction with principals “insulting,” in an opinion piece he wrote in Saturday’s Chicago Sun-Times.

“While publicly praising principals in speeches and with awards, behind the scenes this administration has disregarded principals’ knowledge and experience,” he wrote. “They have ignored and even suppressed principals’ voices in order to push City Hall’s political agenda for Chicago’s schools.”

When principals questioned the merits of Emanuel’s signature longer school day in 2012, for example, “CPS officials were then dispatched to tell the principals their opinions didn’t matter,” LaRaviere wrote."

You should read the original  opinion piece here it's pretty explosive!

Chicago Teachers Union votes to oppose Common Core Standards - Chicago Sun-Times

 

http://www.ctunet.com/

Chicago Teachers Union votes to oppose Common Core Standards - Chicago Sun-Times

I've been hearing about this Common Core for a while and most of what I heard isn't good. I think it's time for me to check out what Common Core is and why the Chicago Teacher's Union is on record opposing this.

Here's an official statement from the CTU on this development.

LSC elections & thoughts on the state of education

Monday and Tuesday are days for LSC Elections. Monday was LSC election for elementary schools and Tuesday are such days for the high schools.

It was my intention to post the above flyer over the weekend unfortunately it seems I kept running into a snag with regards to posting it online whether through Blogger or the FB page. Anyway if you're living at least in the Roseland Heights or West Chesterfield area you may have found this in your screendoors or mailboxes. Sharon Banks-Pincham represents the community on the LSCs for both Gillespie Elementary and Harlan Community Academy.

Hopefully you were able to be informed of the LSC elections on Monday and were able to vote. Hopefully you're able to vote on Tuesday for LSC members at your local high schools.

Speaking of education, on Monday Rich Miller of the Capitol Fax ranted about the state of education in Illinois. Many of us are concerned about the state of education in Chicago especially for the K-12 set. So he starts out with a piece comparing charter schools with the neighborhood public schools and states:

Obviously, there’s very little difference here, which will cause some to scream “Then why do we need charter schools at all?”

I make no apologies for disliking the industrial education model. I prefer choice. I think people ought to have choices.

And, like with neighborhood schools, not all charter schools are meh. Some are quite good. Sometimes, experiments fail. We shouldn’t be afraid to experiment. What’s needed is an overall improvement in all schools.

 And then more food for thought. Miller opines about CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett stated aim of ensuring 100% of graduating CPS students to be college-ready or college-bound:

First of all, that’s just not true or else lots, lots more would be done to improve the schools. Secondly, this over-emphasis on taking tests (with the resultant uproar over what are likely quite meaningless results) and driving kids to attend college is philosophically wrong-headed, whether in Chicago or the suburbs or Downstate.

* Don’t get me wrong here. I do not think kids should be discouraged from attending college, but why saddle a student with tens of thousands of dollars of debt just for the sake of having a so-so degree from a so-so university?

Why not foster the development of more high schools, charter or otherwise, that focus on tech/trade careers? Do you know how much operating engineers make?

* When a system’s entire focus is “100 percent college-bound” you’re not giving students nearly enough choices. Period.
...
Teach them to be good citizens. Teach them how to comprehend language and to do math. But give them choices in how to get there.

What direction do you think education policy should go?

It's that time of year...getting into a high school

Wow! The drive to get into a high school is still strong or at least not find themselves in a neighborhood school that doesn't often promise to deliver academically. Years ago in the 8th grade I failed to get into a decent high school because my parents strongly believed it was better for me safety wise to attend a neighborhood school.

Although the difference between then and now is that well the high school I attended all four years - GO FALCONS - is doing much better now than it had been when I attended. That's not to say there still aren't issues but from what I can tell current leadership there is doing some good there.

Of course in the 21st century I've learned competition is strong to get into CPS' selective enrollment schools such as Walter Payton, Jones, and North Side College Preps. Those schools are listed in this DNA Info article as the most difficult to get into.

All the same what's written in that article is a portrait of what it takes to get into the city's top performing high schools. In addition we see what's offered at many high schools throughout CPS. Programs have been expanded even at those "dreaded" neighborhood high schools.

You know this is truly an expanded universe as the top school back when I was in the 8th grade was Whitney Young Magnet. That school was intimidating because it was for the smart kids and it wasn't for me. I only wish I had been willing to compete back then! Well that was then.

Concerned Citizens of Chatham - Novel Idea: Let's Give Charters To Parochial Schools

 

Since I've already stated that education would still be a focus on this blog, here's a piece to read. Worlee Glover also writes for my other blog - The Sixth Ward. In addition he also maintains his own blog - Concerned Citizens of Chatham.

He mainly opines about the recent approval of 7 new charters schools. Then additionally offers his idea to offer charter school status to parochial schools.

The parochial or catholic school system has operated in the city of Chicago for more than a 100 years. It has been the only option in some communities and was the only alternative for some families who had poor performing Chicago Public Schools. Over the last several years with some Chicago Public Schools offering high performing schools such as Young, Payton, Jones, Brooks, etc it has made some catholic high schools pay model obsolete. Also, when Mr. Tim King, who attended the all boys school Mendel Catholic and was later the principal at the all boys school Hales Franciscan, opened Urban Prep it basically doomed the all boys school pay model.

The remaining schools high schools such as Leo, Mt. Carmel, Hales Franciscan and Gordon Tech , etc and the host of elementary schools should be offered the option to become charter schools. It makes sense because most of these schools out perform Chicago Public Schools and operate schools in areas where CPS has closed schools and in some cases could take over buildings that have been left vacant by the last round of school closures.

Ultimately, the master plan is to have a master education system administered through CPS and since we are almost halfway there why not finally put "children first" and provide proven, stable environments operated by proven operators versus having operators with questionable backgrounds come out of no where and payoff politicians to get taxpayers money,waste it and not serve our young people.

This makes sense I suppose, but this was said knowing that many are opposed to charter schools. Probably many are opposed to charter schools because of the organizations who got the charter and their ties to certain politicians.

For example, amongst those seven charters approved is a Concept Charter school to be located at 8522 S Lafayette has ties to Rev. Charles Jenkins who is the pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church owns the property where the school will be located. He also has ties to the Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel. The property Rev. Jenkins owns is referred to as The Legacy Project click the link for more information.

All the same I recognize that this idea could truly raise eyebrows amongst those who support public education. Besides Mayor Emanuel may be a proponent of charter schools, however, there are plenty of opponents of charters as well.

What are your thoughts?

EVENT: Invitation to share input on Harlan High School

Disclosure I'm an alum of Harlan Community Academy and we've talked about this school a lot in the past. I've even attended some LSC meetings in the past and this update is a bit shocking, but then we want to consider the academic status of all of our local schools. It's hard to believe that Harlan has been on probation for 18 years though! I hope that Mrs. Banks-Pincham who wrote the information below and sent it to the community doesn't mind if I share her e-mail address at least.

INVITATION TO SHARE INPUT ON HARLAN COMMUNITY ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL

"Harlan's Probationary Status"
Meeting January 22, 2014, at 5:30 PM
Office of Representative Elgie Sims
8658 S. Cottage Grove, Suite 404
(On the Cottage Grove side of the strip mall at 87th Street).
Make a commitment to bring Harlan out of this dilemma
Join Us!!!

Hello Everyone,

In an effort to place all of the surrounding community on the same page, you are invited to attend a meeting at the office of Representative Elgie Sims on Wednesday, January 22, 2014 at 5:30 PM, 8658 S. Cottage Grove, Suite 404. (On the Cottage Grove side of the strip mall at 87th Street).

There is great concern about the academic status of Harlan, having been on probationary status by CPS standards for eighteen (18) years. This has an enormous effect on our community's property values. There has been an "Interim Principal" at Harlan for the last eight (8) years. Harlan and the community deserve for our neighborhood school to have a regular, contract principal supported by CPS.

Because of Harlan's probationary status, the elected Local School Council only serves in an advisory capacity and has no authority over things that effect the school.

It is obvious that for 18 years Chicago Public Schools has not shown the commitment to bring Harlan out of this dilemma.

Other invitees to this meeting will be the administration for Harlan; Network Chief LaTonya McDade and Principal Reginald Evans. Aldermen who serve the catchment area (Wards 6, 9 and 21) within Harlan's boundaries are also invited.

Please RSVP as soon as possible by e-mail or phone. We look forward to your input.

Sincerely,

Sharon Banks-Pincham
LSC Community Representative
Member, 34th Legislative District Education Committee
sherry8750 @ yahoo.com

Tribune: Chicago schools to stay open during cold snap

UPDATE 1/5/2013 5:40 PM According a report by the Chicago Sun-Times media wire the Chicago Public Schools has cancelled classes on Monday. Please continue reading this post for the CPS Hotline at the end.

UPDATE 12:25 AM Forgot to post a link. My apologies!

What you see above I have on my ABC7 app for my mobile device. The temps you see for Monday & Tuesday are expected to get that low and CPS made the following advisory according to the Chicago Tribune:

Chicago Public Schools are leaving it up to parents to decide whether their children should go to school when wind chills drop to 50 degrees below zero or colder next week. Meanwhile, some suburban school districts expect to decide Sunday whether to stay open.

All Chicago Board of Education schools are scheduled to be open Monday and Tuesday, when highs are barely expected to reach zero degrees, according to a release from CPS.

"While all District schools are slated to be open on Monday, I strongly encourage parents to use their own discretion in deciding whether to send their children to school," schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett said in the release. "We will be working throughout the weekend to ensure that our buildings and school officiails are ready to receive students on Monday."

Building engineers were to head into city schools on Sunday to turn up heat to standard classroom temperatures in preparation for children going to school Monday, according to CPS. If heating systems are malfunctioning, CPS will take students to alternate sites.

The contractors who run the CPS bus system are checking their vehicles to make certain they will be ready to arrive on-time Monday.

Parents can call CPS hotline if they have any questions: (773) 553-3100.

BTW, there is an accuweather widget on this blog if you want to keep getting updates on weather, especially updates for the weather on the days in question.

Sun-Times: Test-score gap widens between white, black students in Chicago

The report apparently not only discussed race, but also income according to those students who had free lunches.

Published Wednesday, the report shows that despite steady improvements over the last decade, Chicago still lags behind most major U.S. cities in math and reading at the fourth- and eighth-grade levels.

The gap in fourth grade math test scores between black and white students in Chicago widened to 40 points — the largest gap since the national study began in 2003, and significantly wider than the 31 point gap in the average major U.S. city.

Though the average white student was graded as “proficient” with “solid academic performance” in fourth grade math, the average black student had only “basic” understanding, or a “partial mastery” at that stage, according to the report.

The sobering statistics included a few bright spots for CPS officials, however. Despite the widening race gap, Chicago recorded the joint biggest fourth grade math bump in the nation.

WBEZ: Chicago scales back on standardized testing

CPS will eliminate 15 out of the 25 standardized test that students must take between KG and 12th grades. What tests were they taking? I think I could count on one hand the tests we had to take each year every year through 8th it was the Iowa Tests. The IGAP tests would be every year too, however, the testing would be different for example we may have to take a science and social studies one year and then the next math, reading, and writing. In 8th Grade we'd also have to take a minimum skills proficiency test.

Anyway cutting some of these exams will save money another thing I can agree on do these tests allow for learning or are teachers instructing for success on an exam. One of my teachers did that unfortunately even before the need to use standardized exams to determine achievement and learning.

Ward Room: Why Elites Don't Think Public Schools Important To City's Future

I find this article from our local NBC affiliate quite depressing. It's an opinion, but it's quite sad that we see CPS graduates as nothing more than lower level workers and that's where they'll stay!

In this city divided between a small overclass of lawyers, consultants and IT professionals, and a large underclass of cashiers, dishwashers and landscapers, the local elites see the public schools as a training ground for service jobs that require little education. Chicago’s status as a regional hub enables it to poach college graduates from surrounding states, thus allowing the city to maintain an educated class with no public investment.

Close 54 public schools and cram the dispossessed students into overcrowded classrooms? Emanuel, who is Chicago’s quintessential global citizen, knows it won’t affect Chicago’s standing as a global city. Today at 4 p.m. in the Daley Plaza, thousands of students, parents and teachers will rally to keep the schools open. Their voices won’t reach the top of the Richard J. Daley Building. 

This was published on Wednesday and I apologize for not providing more coverage of the school closings that have occurred within the past week. However you can check out the coverage over at The Sixth Ward to see what's going on.

BTW, most of these closings involve mostly underutilized schools and Bennett would've been one of them but Bennett isn't slated for closing. Although I did hear from one of the neighborhood groups that Shedd will close next year.

2 Investigators: Chicago Schools Flunk Food Inspections

If I recall correctly Bennett nor Shedd has a kitchen, but it would be nice to know which schools were inspected and flunked. Whatever the school in question that flunked inspections our students deserve better!

The Chicago Public Schools are constantly being scrutinized for improving test scores and academic standards.

But who’s watching to make sure the school’s kitchens and lunchrooms are being kept up to safety standards?

CBS 2’s Pam Zekman reports.

Since 2011, 244 of Chicago’s 681 schools failed at least one inspection, according to a review of city health department inspections by the 2 Investigators. That’s 35 percent with at least one failed inspection.

The Anton Dvorak Elementary School had the worst record. Since 2011, Dvorak has failed city health inspections six times for reasons such as no hot water in bathroom sinks, food kept at unsafe temperatures and more than 200 rodent droppings found in food service areas.

I'm glad that CPS has someone working on the problem. The next step is to talk about nutrition, of course!

[Leslie Fowler, executive director of Nutritional Support Services for CPS] says she will improve school lunches system-wide by making sure proper procedures are followed, implementing changes that will prevent future lapses and increasing oversight.

Her message to staff: “Don’t let me find out that a student is harmed at your hands. This is unacceptable. Not on my watch.”

All of the schools in this report eventually passed inspections, including most recently Hirsh, where the kitchen is now open and the staff replaced.

You know, I don't like to post reports like these. Not to associate stories like these to my old elementary school. This is just my way of keeping an eye using my various news sources to keep an eye on the school system as a whole. I would prefer to post more positive stories although there are certainly some negative stories to go around!

Hat-tip District 299 blog!

Brizard: Chicago schools need radical change

Jean-Claude Brizard

Jean-Claude Brizard wrote this editorial recently. Brizard had been the former CPS Chief Executive Office for 17 months before he had resigned earlier this month. He made some good points here:

I believe that with bold change, we can create a system that provides the competitive, world-class education that our students deserve.

In 2011, fewer than 24 percent of Chicago Public Schools graduates were prepared to attend a four-year college, and only 1 in 7 African-American students tested college-ready. While we made tremendous progress in less than two years, resulting in some historic gains, transformational change will require a radical redefinition of the district.

The bureaucracy of CPS, like most urban districts, has great inertia toward the comfortable. The fact is the public school district is an outdated model that is not flexible or responsive enough to serve the needs of all students. We must abandon the notion that a central administration can do it all and instead flip the pyramid, entrusting and empowering our principals and teachers to create great schools.

In order to break up the bureaucracy that often paralyzes, confuses or distracts schools, the central office must shift from a top-down division that dictates quality and practice for schools to a team that acknowledges that quality and effective practices lie within our schools. Central office's primary role must be to set high standards, and then codify and disseminate effective practices found within schools.

He is right to say, "Education is the great equalizer". I couldn't agree more!

Hat-tip District 299 blog!

NBC Chicago: CPS Outlines Plan to Pay for New Teacher Contract

Courtesy of Education Nation:

The plan released on Friday doesn't include classroom cuts. Instead, savings and revenue identified to fund the first year of the contract, according to the district, include:

• Operations: Reduce lunchroom costs and general fund subsidy ($11 million); Achieve additional procurement savings ($10 million) 
• Administration: Delay or cancel filling vacant, non-teaching positions ($8 million); Additional administrative reductions, targeting savings from printer consolidation, limiting equipment purchases, subscriptions and professional memberships ($4 million)
• Financial: Capitalize interest on FY12 bond sale ($13 million); Sell surplus properties ($15 million); Debt restructuring ($42 million).

The contract includes a new evaluation system and an agreement that some teachers can keep their jobs if schools close. It also includes an agreement on implementing a longer school day.

Salary increases amount to $103 million of the first year of the contract.

Public School Bans Homemade Lunches

[VIDEO] This video is out of Chicago's Little Village Academy where the principal wants to protect her students from unhealthy food choices. Doing so means preventing children from bringing to school their own lunch and forcing them to eat whatever is in the school's cafeteria. Even though as reported in this video from FOX News, the students may well not like the food and choose to throw it in the trash.

At least it's not CPS policy to do so and that the Principal made the call on this. I would be highly upset about this especially if I know to give my child a healthy sandwich, a juice, or even a piece of fruit. Who is this person to say that I as a parent (not a parent yet, personally) don't know how to make healthy food choices?

UPDATED 6:00 PM District 299 has other related links to this story.