Congrats to Jackie Robinson West #JRW

I want to offer a belated congratulations to the Morgan Park based Jackie Robinson West Little League team. They made it all the way to the Little League World Series and unfortunately lost to a team from South Korea on Sunday for the Little League baseball world title.

Unfortunately I never had the chance to truly watch them play but it's great to know this group of young men have already tasted success in their young sports careers. Here's hoping they will continue to have success not only on the baseball diamond but also in their lives away from sports.

Every young man or woman either playing youth sports or even playing in high school, college or professional can always have the ability to become a champion if they work extremely hard. That also goes for life whether in school or in a career as well.

Chicago was truly behind this team and this morning there is a parade for them.

BTW, Worlee over at The Sixth Ward shared his own thoughts on not only JRW, but also the state of Little League baseball on the south side. We need to provide outlets such as this for our youth to keep them out of trouble and team them skills that would help them not only in sports but in life.

DNA Info: Movie Theater Will Give Away Free Tickets For Donated School Supplies

Photo via UTD Discount Activities

And again sorry for the short notice on this, but if you're going to the Studio Movie Grill theater in Chatham @210 W. 87th St. perhaps you can bring some school supplies as well:

An annual event at Studio Movie Grill-Chatham will give away movie tickets for a donated school supply worth $5 or more.

Tickets can be used to see any movie but must be used the same day, said Lynne McQuaker, a spokeswoman for Studio Movie Grill. High school and college students must show a valid ID to receive their student tickets and no adult tickets will be distributed.

The third annual Back-To-School Supply Drive runs from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday at the South Side theater, 210 W. 87th St.

Also for additional reading over at The Sixth Ward on Thursday, the expected changes to the Chatham 14 are running behind!

9th Ward Back to School parade, picnic, & health fair

I apologize for this short notice. This event is expected to occur tomorrow afternoon and is worth noting here.

Further information is below:

• Alderman Anthony A. Beale's 15th Annual Back-to-School Parade, Picnic and Health Fair
  Join Alderman Anthony Beale for his 15th Annual Back-to-School Event Saturday, August 16, 2014
  
  Parade Kick-off: 11:00 a.m.
  Roseland Little League
  12483 South Michigan Ave.
  Picnic Immediately Following in Palmer Park
  201 E. 111th Street
  
  Alderman/Committeeman Anthony A. Beale
  34 East 112th Place
  Chicago, Illinois 60628
  773.785.1100

Flyer is below

HuffPost - 'This Is Are Story': Chicago Public Schools Are Failing

WOW, we see more public school bashing here.

"This Is Are Story" - this article states this is a theme for the senior class at Robeson High School. See something wrong with this short statement. Yeah one glaring one we should all know especially since a conjugated verb is substituted for a similar sounding determiner pronoun.

Either way this story is about the CPS and the statistics regarding our school system that doesn't make it look very good:

• Four out of 10 CPS freshmen don't graduate.
• 91 percent of CPS graduates must take remedial courses in college because they do not know how to do basic math and other schoolwork.
• Only 26 percent of CPS high school students are college-ready, according to results from ACT subject-matter tests.

After you completely read this is public education more of a holding cell and should it be used more as a launching pad?

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.

Sun-Times: CPS announces more than 1,000 staff layoffs

This is certainly an interesting if not a shocking development:

Before releasing its budget recommendations for the 2014-15 school year or enrollment projections, Chicago Public Schools announced staff layoffs on Thursday for 550 teachers and 600 other school staffers.

Added to the 147 staffers (including 76 teachers) who already got pink slips at three schools confirmed for a turnaround, 625 teachers and 671 other school employees are now looking for work.

CPS began notifying approximately 1,150 employees on Thursday that their schools would not retain them in the fall due to falling projected enrollment. That’s about half the number who got pink-slipped last year in the wake of a historic number of school closings, and district officials said on Thursday they believed that like last year, about 60 percent would be rehired at other CPS schools.

“The staffing changes are driven by declining student enrollment at each of the affected schools,” said schools chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett. Since the district doles out a set amount of money per child enrolled, fewer students lead to budget cuts, she said. The 550 teachers, she said, represent the lowest number of annual teacher layoffs in the past five years. And some help has been available for schools who have asked for it, she said.

The Chicago Teachers Union said the layoffs also mark the fourth time in the past five years in which more than 1,000 CPS employees lost their jobs in the summer. All of the teachers and at least 250 of the other staffers are CTU members.

2014 Children Summer Series at Studio Movie Grill

Click image to go to SMG page

A few years ago under the ownership of ICE Theaters, the Chatham 14 on 87th Street had a film series called "KidsRule Summer". Well things change and under new ownership - this time Studio Movie Grill - the Chatham 14 now has "Children's Summer Series". Although it had started as of late May 2014 it will continue through August

9th Ward community meeting NEXT TUESDAY

UPDATE JUNE 18, 2014 @ 3:21 PM: I erroneously wrote in the title that the community meeting was on Tuesday night which was June 17th. My apologies for the confusion, I had been alerted to this mistake via e-mail to The Sixth Ward where this was also posted. The rest of the post is correct as the meeting is on June 24th, which is next Tuesday!

For those of you who reside in the 9th Ward tonight is Ald. Beale's monthly community meeting. It was posted to our FB page and is worth sharing here on the blog as well:

• 9th Ward Alderman Anthony A. Beale and City Department Representatives present a 9th Ward Community Meeting
  
  Tuesday, June 24, 2014
  6:30 - 7:30 p.m.
  
  Pullman Presbyterian Church
  550 East 103rd Street
  Chicago, Illinois 60628
  
  For More Information: Please Call the 9th Ward Office at 773.785.1100
  Thanks to Rev. Eddie L. Knox, Jr. and Pullman Presbyterian Church for their community support!