Parents turn out in force for meeting on Keller proposal

by Patrick Thomas

Dressed in blue shirts emblazoned with “Don’t Move Keller,” nearly 300 parents of students at Keller Regional Gifted Center packed the elementary school’s gym, passionately demanding answers and assurances that their top-performing school would not be relocated out of Mt. Greenwood.

They learned their school was not moving anywhere immediately, but they also learned that brass from the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) are not ready to take the option of relocation off the table. But parents and community leaders were not buying it.

“This is not going to happen,” 19th Ward Ald. Ginger Rugai said to a cheering sea of blue. “Not over my dead body.”

The Jan. 28 meeting to discuss a proposal to move Keller came as a result of CPS officials looking for ways to alleviate overcrowding at Mt. Greenwood and Cassell elementary schools. By moving Keller to another part of the city—51st and Princeton streets was one option mentioned—officials would have more room for students in crowded neighborhood schools. Most parents and administrators agreed that finding an answer for the other schools was the real issue for Keller.

“This is not a meeting about Mt. Greenwood against Keller. This is a meeting about our kids,” Keller Principal LaTanya McDade said.

On the hot seat for the evening was Jose Alvarez, director of CPS Local School Council relations. Alvarez was peppered with stern questions from the start, even before he asked the crowd for questions.

“I don’t mean to be bashing you, but I don’t believe a word you are saying,” said one Keller mom. “Why are we even here?”

While Alvarez would not promise the school would stay or discuss relocation options to what he called “underutilized sites,” such as 51st and Princeton, he discussed plans to assemble a taskforce from the three schools to address the issue of overcrowding in Mt. Greenwood.

“We’re taking a step back. We want to put together working committees through Keller, Mt. Greenwood and Cassell and elected officials to come up with a bigger, comprehensive plan for the 19th Ward,” Alvarez said. “The purpose of tonight’s meeting was to reassure everyone that no decision has been made and that we are going to form working groups.”

After the last day of Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) exams on March 12, Alvarez said, committees could be formed, and in early April a time frame could be released to explore plans before August 2011, when CPS officials had initially proposed Keller be moved. Although CPS CEO Ron Huberman was not present at the meeting, Rugai said she had scheduled a meeting to speak with him on the issues on Monday, Feb. 1, after press time. Rugai urged parents to sign up for the volunteer committees to discuss future local school options.

The problem, however, has little to do with the approximately 240 gifted Keller students, two-thirds of whom live in the 19th Ward, parents said. The problem has more to do with Mt. Greenwood and Cassell. Alvarez said Mt. Greenwood Elementary School enrolled 766 students this year, but CPS officials project that enrollment will reach 780 next year and 869 by 2013. Cassell, meanwhile, is so crowded that some teachers must hold class in the hallways, Rugai said.

She said she wants to see an annex built at one of the neighborhood schools, but accomplishing that will take money and planning as to which school expands and to what extent. Rugai said adding a mobile unit or annex is likely more feasible at Cassell than it is at Mt. Greenwood School because of space constraints. Still, many issues need to be resolved if there is going to be construction or changes in boundaries. She said the 19th Ward has not received a comprehensive plan for schools since the 1970s. That is something she said she has been asking CPS officials to complete for several years. She said Keller is a crown jewel in the neighborhood that shouldn’t be relocated.

“It’s not going to move. The problem is not Keller. I tout it to people outside of the community, people who are considering moving here. We have this number-one school here in our community. The problem is the overcrowding at Mt. Greenwood School and Cassell School,” she said.

An annex could cost up to $20 million, depending on its size, but that approach to overcrowding could also be perceived as a Band-Aid approach to the issues that have plagued local schools such as Cassell, Mt. Greenwood and Sutherland in Beverly. A new school would cost substantially more, CPS officials said. Other options include providing seventh- and eighth-graders in the neighborhood access to the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, or converting Mt. Greenwood Elementary School and Cassell Elementary School to a first through fifth grade at one, and sixth through eighth grade at the other. A third option to eliminate overcrowding at public schools would be to support families with vouchers to help pay for education at neighboring Catholic schools, where many new public school students are coming from because parents cannot afford private education like they once did, parents said.

“Mt. Greenwood and Cassell School have been neglected when we have seen this trend. The economy is not getting any better any time soon. People are mass exiting from these Catholic grade schools, which were full when I was a kid, but they’re not anymore,” said Mike Hein, who has a daughter in the first grade at Keller.

State Rep. Kevin Joyce (D- 35th) said Chicago Board of Education officials should hold a meeting at Keller or pay a visit to the school before they make a drastic decision. He said residents in the 19th Ward have paid their share of tax dollars for education and have not received enough in return.

“More than 50 percent of our tax dollars have gone toward funding public schools, and for a long time probably more than 50 percent of our kids have gone to parochial schools; we’ve been taken advantage of,” Joyce said. “We’re not asking for more than our fair share.”

Keller, which requires students to test for enrollment at the school, perennially finishes in the top three schools in the state in ISAT scoring. Those numbers speak loudly, said state Sen. Ed Maloney (D- 18th).

“If we are about kids, this is the last thing we should be thinking about,” he said.

The answer is investing, not moving, said Steven Watkins, who chaired the Keller LSC for eight years.

“It would be a shame to uproot this school for what it means to the graduates and to the kids,” said Watkins, who has three children who graduated from Keller. “You make something work in this community. You have to put some money into this community.”

Some parents persisted for more answers from Alvarez, suggesting there was more to the rationale for moving than crowded schools. Alvarez disputed that assertion, but parents continued to question CPS motives. By threatening to move the school, parents said, officials were creating rivalries between parents at Mt. Greenwood, Cassell and Keller schools.

“You are pitting neighbor against neighbor. You put us up for sale. Everyone is looking at us like a piece of meat,” Heidi Zimmerman-Broad, of Beverly, told Alvarez.

Zimmerman-Broad, who has a daughter in seventh grade at Keller and a son at Christ the King Elementary School, said after the meeting that she was fighting for Keller, and it is a “labor of love” to defend it.

“We feel so strongly about it. The teachers here have devoted so much to our kids,” she said.

But many parents have children at both Mt. Greenwood and Keller. Mt. Greenwood residents Joe and Breda Lynch have four children at three separate elementary schools, including Keller and Mt. Greenwood schools. They said they like Keller because of its education, diversity, teachers, administration and location.

“You get a warm welcome whenever you come here,” Breda said.

The Lynches said the answer is building capacity, starting with adding more mobile units.

“I am torn. Keller should not be mentioned. We need to build in Mt. Greenwood,” Breda said. “Mt. Greenwood is a super school, but they need more room. Keller needs to stay here. It is not the answer.”

Sarah Johnson, of Morgan Park, has two children at Keller and a third at Lenhart Regional Gifted School, 8101 S. LaSalle St. At the end of the meeting, she presented Alvarez with a “Don’t Move Keller” shirt as well as a petition with 500 signatures. Johnson said she is cautiously optimistic the school can be saved, but much of that hinges on the other schools.

“I’m not going to say we stay unless we see improvements at Mt. Greenwood and Cassell,” Johnson said.

Christine McGovern, of Mt. Greenwood, has daughters at Keller and Mt. Greenwood and wants to volunteer for the committee. She said Keller doesn’t have to be affected by the overcrowding at neighborhood schools.

“Money needs to come to Mt. Greenwood community,” McGovern said. “That’s what people are asking for.”

This is part of the February 3, 2010 online edition of The Beverly Review.

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