catalyst-chicago.org

In January 2012, CPS officials and visiting dignitaries from Target Corp. swarmed into Cardenas Elementary in Little Village – one of eight schools that became part of the Children’s Literacy Initiative through an Investing in Innovation grant awarded in 2010.

With the program set to expand to three more schools with funding from Target, classrooms were on display. One visitor, Stephen Zrike Jr., chief of schools for the Pilsen-Little Village Elementary Network, noted the impact of the initiative. He called the amount of reading and writing being done by Cardenas students “unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

Even though CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett has pledged that no charter schools will go into school buildings vacated this year, the concern over the possibility has been raised so much in some quarters that it has risen to the level of a conspiracy theory.

Even as they released the updated list of under-utilized schools, CPS officials stressed that simply having empty space will not be the death knell for schools.

Some 330 schools are considered under-utilized by CPS, which calculates its rate based on a figure of 30 students per classroom plus ancillary rooms for art, library and special education students. District leaders refuse to say how many schools will be on the chopping block.