Board of Ed Gets an Earful from Northside Parents

Angry parents and students gave the Chicago Public Schools more than they bargained for at a raucous public hearing on public school closings.  Billed as an opportunity for parents and the community to speak on their concerns and for CPS to listen, the CPS team's proposed agenda began with an hour long 'infomercial.' Participants refused to go along with that approach, and the CPS reps lost control of the meeting.

NA4J member Mia Norris was one of the hundreds of members of NA4J and other Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) partners speaking out at the meeting.

Whose Schools?    Our Schools!

Whose Community?  Our Community!

 


Stockton and Stewart Elementary Schools, both in Uptown, and Gale and Field Elementary Schools, in Rogers Park, are four of potentially up to 135 elementary schools that may be closed by CPS. The Board of Education is using faulty building utilization figures to execute a plan to close massive numbers of schools, disrupting children’s lives and destabilizing communities—and studies show it will save a minimum amount of money!

CPS is holding neighborhood hearings on school closings before releasing its official public list of school closings. CPS Chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett will be in attendance.

Join NA4J members and our coalition partners at this Monday's CPS Hearing:

CPS Public Hearing
Monday, January 28th
7:00 to 9:00pm
Truman College
1145 W. Wilson

NA4J is calling for a moratorium on school closings and for an elected representative school board (the current seven-member board is appointed by the mayor). Along with our partners at CODE (Communities Organized for Democracy in Education), we are circulating a petition for an elected school board.

Join us in spending a few hours of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend fighting for our communities, our students and our schools. NA4J is partnering with CTU members, parents, students, and other community organizations across Chicago to SAVE OUR SCHOOLS!

Join us for a day of Community Outreach
Saturday, January 19th
11:00am to 1:00pm
Meet at Stockton Elementary in Uptown
4420 N. Beacon (just north of Montrose)

The Mayor and Board of Education have closed or taken over dozens of schools every year, targeting Black and Latino neighborhoods. These closings take resources that our students deserve, destabilize our neighborhoods, and increase racial inequity at CPS.

The Board of Education is now planning to close dozens more schools, taking even more from the communities that have lost the most. They plan to close schools in part to pay for corporate handouts and more privatized “charter schools” controlled by the Mayor’s supporters—taking our community’s schools, jobs, and VOICE.

NA4J is part of GEM (Grassroots Education Movement). Our partner organizations include the Albany Park Neighborhood Council, Blocks Together, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, the Chicago Teachers Union, and other members.

Email us at info@actionforjustice.org and let us know if you'll be there on Saturday. See you there!

January 12 General Meeting

Kick off a New Year of working together

to fight injustice and strengthen our communities

with the

NA4J Membership Meeting

Saturday, January 12

10:00 A.M.

1020 W. Bryn Mawr

light refreshments served

Focus topic: the fight for public education

·      How can we organize to develop a united community vision for the education our children deserve from K-12+?

·      How can we fight for that vision within the framework of community schools?

·      What is our role in the city-wide campaigns against school closings and for an elected school board?

For more information call Northside Action for Justice at 773-728-2588 or email info@actionforjustice.org