Catalyst Notebook

The eldest daughter of the famous Olympian Jesse Owens attended the final hearing Tuesday evening in an effort to save the West Pullman school named for her father from the Chicago Public Schools’ closing list, the Sun-Times reports. Jesse Owens Community Academy is one of 54 schools proposed for closing, and at least a dozen schools named for prominent African Americans on the closing list.

Re-using closed schools takes planning, community input

By: Sarah Karp

Tags: facilities, school closings

When Kansas City was faced with the prospect of three dozen empty school buildings, city officials there took the unusual step of lending the district a city planner.

In the News: CTU sets sights on ousting Emanuel

By: Cassandra West

Tags: Chicago Teachers Union, Rahm Emanuel

Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis Monday vowed to launch a “comprehensive and aggressive political action campaign” with the ultimate goal of defeating Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other local elected officials supportive of school closings. (WBEZ)

In the News: Chicago, NY, DC academic gains less rosy

By: Cassandra West

Tags: public education

The school improvement strategies highly touted by leaders such as U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and former D.C schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, have produced overwhelmingly disappointing results for the poor and minority children in Chicago, New York, and the District of Columbia, a forthcoming report written by a national group that favors a more holistic approach to improving public schooling, contends. (Education Week)

In the News: Top-performing school lands on closings list

By: Cassandra West

Tags: school closings

Calhoun North Elementary in the East Garfield Park neighborhood has logged some of the best math scores in the city, but CPS says it's significantly underenrolled and should be closed next fall in a sweeping cost-cutting effort pushed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

For the Record: Paying for school actions

By: Sarah Karp

Tags: CPS budget, school closings

To help sell their plans for a district shakeup, CPS leaders have touted a variety of school improvements. But paying for those improvements will mean taking the district deeper into debt at a time when the district is already facing substantial debt service obligations.

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