catalyst-chicago.org

If ever there was a superstar principal, it’s Angel Turner.

When Turner took over Morton Elementary School as an Academy for Urban School Leadership turnaround principal, it was one of the worst schools in the district. Now, three years later, it is in the middle of the pack: The percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards has increased by more than 30 points.

State legislative task force members Thursday night accused CPS leaders of “playing games” and being disingenuous in engaging parents and community members as they move to close and turnaround schools.

 Especially upsetting to members was the fact that throngs of people were paid and bused into community hearings last week to speak in favor of closings, and that the principal of a school slated for closing tried to force students to transfer over Christmas break.

As part of preparing a new $659 school construction and capital spending plan, officials used a new formula to determine school utilization. In the process, they determined that the district has 130,000 empty seats--a quarter of the seats available in schools throughout the city.

That figure, a result of the district’s declining enrollment, shows the extent of building under-utilization throughout CPS. Yet when deciding how to invest their capital improvement dollars, Chief Administrative Officer Tim Cawley said Thursday that officials steered away from buildings that might be shut down in the next five to 10 years.