CORE plans to attend every closing hearing again this year. We will post stories from the hearings on this website. CORE members and Substance muckraker Jim Vail offers this excellent report on the public hearing for Guggenheim Elementary’s closing.
“Guggenheim Fighting Hard”
By Jim Vail Substancenews.net January 30, 2010
Report Reprinted by Author’s permission. For more reports from the hearings, go to Substancenews.net .
“We are not a number!” That was the cry heard loud and clear from children, parents, and teachers in the wake of a barrage of graphs, numbers and data on display at a hearing Thursday to prove why the Guggenheim school should not be closed.
Board of Education officials presented Chicago School’s chief Ron Huberman’s data assault of ISAT scores and attendance rates to shock and awe a packed crowd of 140 people who attended the hearing in support of the public school located at 71st and Morgan.
The Board began the hearing with three big guns including the chief of administration, the chief area officer and the deputy director of security to make their case why Guggenheim should be closed. A series of power point presentations and graphs going up and down and every which way were on display.
Although Huberman claims his “performance management policy” does not only focus on test scores and attendance, those were the two primary factors presented at the Guggenheim closing hearing.
But Guggenheim did not back down – instead they fired right back – in an opening battle of a war to close 14 neighborhood schools that will continue to be waged in the next few weeks before the Board of Ed votes at the next Feb. 24 public meeting.
Last year 22 schools were slated to close – but six were taken off the list after massive public protests. l.
“I came here her to talk about the things you don’t know – the numbers don’t know the school,” [Guggenheim Principal Mary] McNair said. She went on to list all the wonderful things the Guggenheim school is proud of: after school programs, literacy and math programs, wonderful teachers who come early and stay late, and partnerships with the community.
The school’s social worker said there are over 200 Guggenheim alums who keep in touch with the school that had an impact on their lives, many of whom have gone on to college and excelled. Another former teacher noted there are three National Board Certified Teachers among the current staff.
“Our children are more than numbers,” said Shirley King, a former staff member and parent of Guggenheim students. “It’s more than just academics. It’s also social. They know it’s a safe school. I don’t see how transferring these kids to other schools with their problems will solve the problem.”
The highlight of the evening was eighth grader Robert Campbell – who spoke like a little Martin Luther King – his voice calm in the beginning, yet rising in intensity and emotion, until he had to eventually be carried from the podium, tears streaming down and his little body shaking after a speech that rocked the Board chambers.
“Sir, Guggenheim is a family,” Campbell said. “And when you separate us which you are trying to do, you are breaking up this family. It is like a divorce. And we will not allow our family to be separated.”
Known as “Little Macolm,” Campbell spoke the following day at a Rainbow Push event in which he literally brought the crowd to its feet cheering madly as he bellowed out why saving their school is the civil rights issue of today. Jesse Jackson, Jr., the former U.S. presidential candidate and the country’s leading African-American civil rights leader who heads Rainbow Push, commented later that this boy is a future star.
The students in all ages and forms, continued to speak – either from the heart or a script, about why their school should not be closed. Another eighth grade student used the word obstreperous, which turned the heads of many, including the hearing officer who asked how long he had been attending the south side school.
Alton Hooker, who attended the school as well as his children, said it’s a magnificent school and a family, “definitely not a number.” Another parent who moved outside the district, said she brought her kids back because it’s such a great school.
Many parents voiced concerns that it will be unsafe for the children to have to walk more than 6 blocks to the other receiving schools. The Board presented a security plan in the beginning of the meeting to address this issue, but the parents didn’t seem convinced.
One set of data that the Board chastised Guggenheim for was the slight dip in the attendance rate from 91% to 89%, making it sound like this was a sin unforgivable. But Guggenheim assistant principal Gervaise Clay explained that when one child is sick, the parents will keep their siblings home as well.
It should have also been noted that while the Board wants to hold schools accountable for the attendance rate, the Board used to employ truancy officers whose specific jobs were to make sure kids attended class until they were all fired. According to another teacher, one of the Learn charter schools had a much lower 75% attendance rate, yet no reprimand from the Board. Although no local politicians came out to support the neighborhood school – Jesse Jackson Jr’s son Jonathan Jackson ended the night chastising everyone from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to the Board of Education members – there were two Alberto Carerro and Peggy Davis in attendance – for the Renaissance Plan that is closing public schools at a rapid pace.
“I came here as a concerned citizen and friend of Guggenheim,” Jackson said. “What these numbers don’t show are the children. A school cannot fail. Sure there are some numbers that need to come up, but the Board members have to come down and visit this school.”
On a night of many memorable one liners, Jackson called it “drive by counseling” in response to what Chief Area Officer Adriane Willis had said about providing a team of literacy coaches who tried to help the school. A Guggenheim teacher noted at the hearing that the reading specialist position was actually cut.
When asked if he would visit the school after hearing the testimony at the hearing, Board member Carerro told Substance his only real concern is communication – why didn’t this school know that it was on probation for three years.
