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.

Tribune: End of winter? We have records to break, more snow to shovel

Here's some info posted last month on resources during this latest cold snap! It seems this winter weather isn't going away anytime soon although thankfully the worst was over last month. This winter seemed to have broken some records. From the Tribune:

The worst of winter should be over by the end of February. That would be Friday, when it will still be miserably cold. Then we'll get more snow, maybe a lot of it.

Temperatures are expected to drop below zero overnight Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night as we again get hit with cold air "in abundance," in the words of WGN-TV meteorologist Tom Skilling.

That's in keeping with a winter that has already delivered 22 days of lows below zero, Skilling noted. The 129-year-old record is 25 days below zero, a record that's clearly in danger.

Skilling says temperatures will average about 22 degrees below normal for the next five days, 20 degrees below normal for the five days after that, and 13 degrees below normal for the five days after that – which gets us into the middle of March.

This has been the third coldest winter in 143 years of recorded Chicago weather history, Skilling said, with about 7 days in 10 since November producing below-normal temperatures. Meteorological winter ends with February, marking the close of what is usually the coldest three months.

AND....we can expect more snow to come this way by the weekend. Although hopefully not the amount of snow we had through the month of January and February.

ALSO, for a brief time I took the weather widget down and now it's back up top in the sidebar. When I checked before writing this post it registered at only 8 degrees that's at about 12 PM on Wednesday.

EVENT: SMG Chatham 14 to host an Oscar viewing party

Photo of Chatham 14 by Wendell Hutson

 Of course this event coming soon to the Chatham 14 will benefit a charity via DNA Info:

A charity serving children with disabilities will benefit this year from an Oscar-viewing party being held for the first time at the Chatham 14 Theaters.

The party will raise money for the nonprofit Variety the Children’s Charity of Illinois. The private organization partnered this year with Studio Movie Grill, which owns the Chatham 14 Theaters, for the event.

The viewing party starts at 6 p.m. March 2 at the South Side theater, 210 W. 87th St. Tickets are $40 per person or $70 for couples.

The 86th annual Academy Awards will be shown on one movie screen and 150 seats are available, said Venisha White-Johnson, director of operations and community relations for the theater.

"You will feel like you are at the Oscars with the red carpet treatment you will get. And who knows, there may be a few celebrities on hand, too," Johnson-White said.

Tickets must be bought online by Feb. 25.

AP: Multiple groups vie for Obama's Presidential Library

President Barack Obama

The AP has a story about the many groups here in Chicago who are vying for their particular insitutions or neighborhoods to become home of the President's future library. Those sites include Bronzeville, Chicago State University, University of Chicago, Pullman, and even that former US Steel site on the southeast lakefront. In the case of Chicago State and Pullman:

There are also two potential bids on the Far South Side, one led by Chicago State University and the other by a group promoting the historic Pullman neighborhood. It was in those areas that Obama established his earliest roots in the city as a community organizer in the mid-1980s, setting up job training programs and defending the rights of public housing tenants.
...
The Far South Side is a longshot given its distance from downtown, lack of transportation options and the gang violence that persists there.

And presidential libraries aren't guaranteed to lift the local economy.

So far the main competitors are:

The main point of tension is between the University of Chicago, where Obama spent 12 years as a constitutional law professor until his 2004 election to the U.S. Senate, and a group advocating for Bronzeville, the city's historic center of black culture, business and politics.

"They think that they can get whatever they want," Bronzeville organizer Harold Lucas said of the university. "If you compare the cranes in the sky and that opulent growth of this university to the surrounding, predominantly African-American community, it's a travesty. It's a clear tale of two cities."

Lucas and other critics of the university's bid say the school has been secretly working its White House connections at the expense of a plan that would benefit more of the city and honor the black community's role in electing the nation's first black president.

For its part, the university says it wants to work with neighbors on a plan to build the library off-campus in a part of the South Side where it can spur development. A university spokesman declined to comment beyond the school's previous statements. 

We already know that Mayor Emanuel wants to submit only a unified bid for Obama's Presidential Library so the various groups need to come up with a good bid. And bear in mind one point of this article, "presidential libraries aren't guaranteed to life the local economy". That being said the library could easily either go to Hawaii where Presient Obama was born or to New York so time will only tell if Chicago will eventually succeed in its bid.

WBEZ: Committee releases CPS school repurposing plan

What to do when schools are closed and they just sit vacant? It appears now is the time to figure that out:

The public bidding process for closed Chicago Public Schools buildings will start this spring.

 A committee appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel has released a report advising the district on what to do with its dozens of shuttered buildings. There are 43 empty school buildings because of last year’s sweeping round of closures. The report didn’t come up with a plan for each school. Instead it set parameters for the district to repurpose the buildings.

The committee says possible building uses include churches, urban farms, housing and community centers.

“One of the key pieces here is community involvement in an active role. Many proposals will be encouraged to really get the community behind their proposal before actually making the proposal,” said committee chair Wilbur Milhouse, who owns an engineering and construction company.

Many of the buildings are in troubled neighborhoods that have high foreclosure rates and vacant land. Milhouse said some schools will be easier to sell than others but all the sales will go into one fund. The money would help facilitate finding purchasers for those properties.

A south side neighborhood - Englewood - is certainly interested in this topic. An neighborhood organization - R.A.G.E. - has even written a "white-paper" on the subject. If you have a vacant school building in your neighborhood, what would you re-purpose that building for?

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?

School is back in session on Wednesday and weather updates

This is starting to feel like a ritual. We just did that the first full-week in January and just like at that time classes resume on Wednesday. The extended forecast still has cold temps through rest of the week but only in the teens and unfortunately more snow is expected.

Remember spring is just around the corner!

CPS schools will remain closed on Tuesday

Schools remain closed on Tuesday. You can recieve further updates via either CPS' FB page or CPS' Twitter account. In addition, you can call the 773.553.1000 for any further updates from CPS via recorded message.

As always there is an Accuweather widget at the top of the sidebar for your convenience. Feel free to use it to check out current conditions or visit the Accuweather website for weather forecasts.

Now just for the sake of talking some CPS closures news, I would like to share this Sun-Times article which discusses not only city Alderman who are unhappy with CPS plans to close schools in light of the weather emergency. They also discuss how people around the city are coping with the cold weather.

How are you coping with the cold weather so far?

Also 9th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale cancelled the community meeting that was scheduled for Tuesday night. Also Ald. Beale sent out an e-mail on warming centers througout the city. As always call 311 for information on warming centers!

Finally the Tribune has news on alternative programming for children while schools are closed during this "polar vortex".

The YMCA of Metro Chicago is providing “School’s Out Day’’ activities at five Chicago facilities today and Tuesday, according to spokeswoman Michelle Damico.

Kids will be doing interactive crafts, active physical group games, skits and drama and other fun activities from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the following locations:

McCormick Tribune: 1834 North Lawndale Ave.

High Ridge: 2424 W. Touhy Ave.

South Side: 6330 S. Stony Island Ave.

South Chicago: 3039 East 91st St.

Rauner Family: 2700 S. Western Ave.

Check back for updates.

CPS schools are closed on Monday

The notice above was posted to the CPS FB page today. CPS schools will be closed on Monday due to the expected weather for tomorrow. Schools had been closed on January 6th & 7th due to the extreme cold weather.

If you seek any further updates you can use the number above 773.553.1000 or call CPS hotline at 773.553.3100. You can also follow CPS on FB and on Twitter to seek further updates!