catalyst-chicago.org

John Waters had only been a student teacher at Manierre Elementary for a couple of weeks when he began to worry the school might close.

Waters recalls that a CPS official came to a staff meeting at the start of the school year and warned of potential school closings in the community, especially if test scores didn’t go up. About half of the students at Manierre met state achievement standards last year, far fewer than the district average. (At press time, the district had not yet released a list of schools slated for closure, and it was not clear whether any would close.)

Quishun Elrod’s 3rd-grade class is starting a discussion about things that are scary, based on a short story they’ve read. Michael apparently wants to say something, but instead of raising his hand, he mutters under his breath and gets up and down several times. To protect Michael’s privacy, Catalyst Chicago is not using his real name.

Another boy, David, is called on first. He says, “I am afraid of snakes because I think one day they are going to bite me and I am going to die.”

As a sophomore at Kenwood Academy, Ka’la Shepard faced a storm of adverse circumstances. She was pregnant, her mother had lost her job as a medical technician and their home was in foreclosure.

School faded in importance. “I found myself trying to help my mom by making money, doing things I shouldn’t have been doing,” Ka’La says, careful to avoid specifics about what she did.