catalyst-chicago.org

On a crisp mid-October morning, 18 students from Hamline Elementary grab their coats and walk to Chavez Elementary four blocks away. An unremarkable event in most neighborhoods, perhaps, but in Back of the Yards the idea of walking from one school to another would not even have been considered just a few years ago.

Four to five gangs dominate the area, and violence was so prevalent back then that youngsters could easily become targets of random gunfire if they dared to venture beyond the landmarks separating gang turfs.

It was a first for both the city and the Chicago Archdiocese when Francis Cardinal George and Mayor Richard Daley joined forces last July to raise money for CPS' Second Chance Alternative High School.

"They may be at odds about other stuff," says the Rev. Bruce Wellems from Holy Cross/Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. "But they have been together on this one."

Local school councils have not figured prominently in the efforts of schools chief Paul Vallas to improve Chicago's public schools. He's clashed openly with a number, mainly over principal selection, and routinely belittles LSC advocacy groups.

At the January 1999 School Board meeting, he said, "Tonight, we've heard about quite a few principals that have been doing a good job, but then they are fired [by their LSCs]. We're going to take a look at that."