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School closings

As CPS prepares to close a record number of schools, the fate of students and communities is in question.

Curtis Lawrence

April 11, 2007

More often than not, the first time social worker Rae Anne Alvarez learns that one of her elementary school students is weighted down with troubles at home is when the child is acting out at school. A classmate is hit or a teacher's lesson is sabotaged when the classroom is constantly disrupted.

Earlier this year, for instance, a 2nd-grader at Von Humboldt Elementary in West Town was making loud noises and slamming his books on the classroom floor. Later, Alvarez learned that the youngster had good reason for his anger. His father was doing time in prison.

November 13, 2006

If you spotted "Derek" walking down the street in his Austin neighborhood, you'd probably think he was a normal teenager with typical adolescent problems—homework, basketball and a little brother who sometimes gets on his nerves.

And you'd be mostly right about the 15-year-old freshman, who has a smile that outweighs his slight frame.

November 13, 2006

In summer school earlier this year, "James," a 6th-grader at Howe Elementary, was having a run of bad days. He had enrolled at Howe a couple of years earlier and had some minor discipline problems, but soon became a star student.

Then came an abrupt switch. "He was talking back and was disrespectful to teachers," says Sanya Gool, Howe's social worker for the past six years. Even though she is responsible for nearly 700 students, Gool remembers James well.

October 26, 2006

It's a place where small corner grocers serve families trying to make it on a tight income. It's also where the city's first Wal-Mart opened recently, triggering a national debate about the need for a living wage.

It's a place where patches of dirt lay before run-down apartment buildings. It's also a place where one can find block after block of neatly trimmed lawns. It's a place where street corners give way to a bustling drug trade. It's also where the most active block clubs and community groups are found.

October 26, 2006

Rev. Lewis Flowers walks down the echoing hallways of Austin High School with such authority that one could be forgiven for mistaking him for a principal.

November 02, 2005

Shiva Singh Khalsa and his wife, Shabad Kaur Khalsa, went through more than a dozen schools before they found the perfect fit for their son, Amar Dev.

The Khalsas are Sikhs and Amar, 6, wears his long hair tied in a ball and practices a vegetarian diet. They finally decided on Passages Charter, an elementary school founded to serve a diverse immigrant student population.

"My wife looked at 13 schools—the best schools in the city—and nothing held a candle to Passages," Khalsa says.

November 02, 2005

Brennemann Elementary recorded a couple of troubling trends in the three years between 2002 through 2005. Total enrollment fell by 28 percent and a smaller share of its students were living in the Uptown school's attendance boundaries.

Other neighborhood schools in the community were noticing similar shifts in enrollment. Arai, which will close next year, and McCutcheon were losing students, too.

November 02, 2005

It's a Tuesday afternoon, and a group of 8th-graders loosely file into John Yolich's social studies class at Uplift Community School.

"Let's get comfortable," Yolich tells the kids draped in loose-fitting T-shirts who slowly break away from private conversations and find their seats.

November 02, 2005

To understand the identity crisis in Uptown, walk down the 900 block of West Wilson Avenue, just off of Lake Shore Drive. Just past Clarendon Avenue stands Uplift Community School, one of the first to open under Chicago Public Schools' Renaissance 2010 initiative. A sign in front reads "Arai," the name of the middle school in the same building that is being phased out this year.

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