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Capital Improvement Plan

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June 1, 1997

Capital Improvement Plan

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Mell, Burke wards near top in school repair spending

Dan Weissmann

So far, spending decisions in the Reform Board's capital improvement program have favored the wards of some powerful aldermen and middle-class constituents, according to a Catalyst analysis of school rehab spending in the program's first year.

So far, spending decisions in the Reform Board's capital improvement program have favored the wards of some powerful aldermen and middle-class constituents, according to a Catalyst analysis of school rehab spending in the program's first year.

Catalyst ranked Chicago's 50 wards by dollars spent per square foot of...

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No racial favoritism in 18th Ward

Thomas W. Murphy

I would like to respond to the article written by Dan Weissmann in Volume VIII Number 9 of Catalyst regarding school repair spending.

I resent the implication by the reporter that the white schools in the ward are the ones receiving the capital improvement money. If your reporter had done any simple research he would have found out that this was not true. Better yet he could have simply asked me, since he interviewed me, but he chose not to. Instead, he chose to misrepresent what is occurring in our ward to the readers of your publication.

The facts are as follows...

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Capital spending article

Gery J. Chico, Paul G. Vallas

We are writing in response to the misleading and factually inaccurate article regarding the Board of Education's Capital Program published in the June 1997 issue of Catalyst. Initially, we decided to disregard the piece, but a couple of people have cited it, and now we feel compelled to set the record straight.

Despite the board's efforts to implement the program even-handedly based on need, Catalyst reporter Dan Weissmann authored a piece claiming that the board's expenditure of capital dollars has been driven by politics, with supposedly "powerful aldermen" and "...

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School takes charge, wins

Lisa Lewis

Having gladly been taken to court, Van Vlissingen Elementary took its case into its own hands and wound up with more than School Board attorneys had sought on its behalf.

The Van Vlissingen main building first came to court this past November, on the heels of a case that brought a demolition order for its decrepit modular building. Suspecting lead hazards in the main building, Local School Council Chair Debi Otikor and Principal Millicent Russell had commissioned testing by the non-profit Lead Elimination Action Drive. The tests showed unacceptable levels of lead in several parts of...

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Housing court focuses on small-tickets repairs

Lisa Lewis

In Chicago, Cook County Housing Court is the last line of defense for children whose school buildings are falling apart. However, a Catalyst review of cases filed by the city against the School Board shows that most of the concerns brought to court are fire-related and relatively small-ticket items.

Further, a spot check with several schools shows that landing in court does not guarantee speedy relief.

Catalyst reviewed 115 of the 129 cases that were filed or closed during the past two years. These cases included 498 instances of city code violations....

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Board falling short with black contractors

Veronica Anderson and Dan Weissmann

At a time when affirmative action goals are increasingly under attack, the School Reform Board has set some ambitious ones: About half the money going to contractors under its $1.4 billion capital improvement program should go to minority-owned firms and another 10 percent to women-owned firms.

Arguably, such goals look impressive compared to similar public works programs around town. For instance, the City of Chicago's purchasing department has goals of 25 percent for minority firms and 5 percent for women-owned firms. So do the Chicago Park District and the Metropolitan Pier and...

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Officials won't divulge school repair plan

Dan Weissmann

Members of the Reform Board's Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee on Capital Improvements have been asking for months for detailed information about projects the board is planning. School officials have had that information for months, Catalyst has learned. But they are refusing to release it.

Newly-installed Operations Chief Tim Martin says that he considers the current plans a work-in-progress. "What I'm trying to do is develop an intelligent document for public comment," he says, adding that it would be "totally impossible" to do that in the next month or two. By next year, he...

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Catalyst's calculations

Catalyst

SPENDING DATA Spending data were drawn from reports generated by the School Board's Office of Management and Budget on $377 million in contracts let through mid-April. Catalyst excluded overcrowding relief projects like new schools and mobile units. Board officials say these reports do not reflect some work—they can't say how much—done at schools but recorded as central office spending.

NEED DATA Need data were drawn from a 1995 survey by the McClier Corporation, which catalogs more than 40,000 repairs needed in more than 500 school buildings. Although the...

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Guest Column

Chicago's economy needs continuous school reform

By: Randall Hampton

The Reform Board's new Design for High Schools bills itself as "a work in progress." Indeed, carrying out its vision will require lots of hard work, continual assessment and possibly readjustment.

The Reform Board's new Design for High Schools bills itself as "a work in progress." Indeed, carrying out its vision will require lots of hard work, continual assessment and possibly readjustment....
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