Top Chicago high school works to raise more money

Sept. 2, 2008 - Parents of students attending Jones Prep hope a newly formed fund-raising group will raise more money for the South Loop high school.

"It's pathetic to sell hot dogs and candy and expect that to be our fund raising," Joyce Weiner, the mother of a Jones Prep junior, said at a recent local school council meeting.

In response to what she says is outdated fund raising, Weiner announced the inception of Friends of Jones.

Weiner insists Jones Prep's fund-raising tactics underachieve what should be expected of a selective enrollment school; Jones Prep is one of seven such high schools in the Chicago Public Schools district.

"We need to go after corporations and foundations," Weiner told the local school council, which unanimously approved making Friends of Jones the school's primary fund-raising organization.

It couldn't come at a better time, said Chris Inserra, a parent of a Jones Prep sophomore and a member of the Targeted Recruitment and Support Program. Inserra said a new recruiting initiative to increase the already high minority population of 70.8 percent is in "desperate need of funding."

The initiative aims to increase high school awareness among 7th-graders in each of the four CPS district areas during "community meetings" to be held throughout the month of September.

Until now, fund raising for Jones Prep came from parent-teacher groups acting independently and focusing their support for specific sports and recruitment programs. Friends of Jones will incorporate these smaller fund-raising groups, said Weiner, and will differ from them by focusing only on "bringing money in."

Weiner declined to say exactly how much money the organization plans to raise this year.

At the Aug. 18th local school council meeting, its new principal, Joseph Powers, was introduced. Powers replaced Donald Fraynd, who was promoted within CPS to head a new high school achievement program.

Powers, in his third week as principal, announced the launching of a new School Improvement Plan designed to improve students' critical-thinking skills.  Details were not discussed, but Powers hopes the new plan will tailor classroom instruction to help students achieve higher scores on the ACT college-entrance exam.

The only contentious point in the hour-long meeting came when the board members raised questions about Jones Prep's new property. Last year, the city relocated Pacific Gardens Mission from its longtime location at 646 S. State and offered the property to Jones Prep.

An initial plan, Powers said, called for the former Mission property to be used as an annex to the existing school building at the corner of State and Harrison streets. However Jamie Pellar, a council member, said there are plans to erect a building on the new site and to tear down the existing building.

The eight council members retreated to sidebar conversations until Powers declared: "We simply do not know at this point."  The development plans for the new site have not been released and will first need the approval of the Chicago City Council.

Pellar and Powers said they were both "confused about the city's vagueness" about the plans but hope they will have an active voice in the planning.