Feb. 24, 2009 – Chicago Public Schools' plan to close, phase out and turnaround up to 16 schools next year could be stopped under legislation being considered by the Illinois General Assembly. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the list of school closures was lowered from 22 to 16 Monday by new Schools CEO Ron Huberman.

"This sudden interruption of children's education is not fair," said Rep. Cynthia Soto (D-Chicago), who introduced House Bill 363 on Jan. 30 (as reported in a previous story by Curtis Black of Community Media Workshop), after learning two schools in her West side district could be closed.

If passed by the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, the bill could face a vote in the 118-member House in two or three weeks, said Soto.

Soto said she was forced to introduce the measure after CPS officials broke an agreement they had made with her and other lawmakers in 2007.

A CPS official, however, said the Board of Education had not violated the school closing policy, giving all schools a 6-month notice that they were being considered for closure.

"We briefed Rep. Soto about the proposed school closings in late December," said José Alvarez, executive director at the CPS Office of Local School Council and Community Relations."We're reviewing bill 363 and how it may affect our policies," said Alvarez, "but we fully implemented the school closing policy."

According to Soto, the current school closing policy was drafted in spring 2007, after she received a call from CPS CEO Arne Duncan asking her to drop a school-closing moratorium bill she was working on. Duncan, who's now the U.S. Education Secretary, and Soto agreed that a panel of experts would meet on a regular basis with CPS officials before any closure decisions were made.

"I met with Duncan, and he was very courteous. We started meeting with CPS on a regular basis," said Soto. "But now they have violated the agreement by not letting us know in advance about school closings. They feel like no one should be telling them what to do."

Some of the schools being examined by CPS would be facing a phase out period without introducing new kindergarten or first grade classes. Other schools will undergo turnarounds that will change their staff and leadership. Five schools face an immediate closure this summer. Two of these, Carpenter elementary and Peabody, are in Soto's district. Peabody was one of the six recently spared from closing by Huberman Monday.

The final decision on the remaining 16 school closings is expected to be approved at the Feb. 25th Chicago Schools' Board of Education meeting.

"We have been proposed for a phase-out," said Dwayne Pitts, assistant principal at Carpenter Elementary School, 1250 W. Erie St.

If the phase-out were to be approved, Carpenter would stop opening new kindergarten and pre-K classes but would keep providing classes for its current students all throughout eighth grade.

"Technically, CPS says we have a poor student/teacher ratio," said Pitts, "but that depends on how you see the issue. Our student/ teacher is 12 to 15 students per teacher; meanwhile, CPS says a regular class should have a 31 to 1 ratio. Research has proven that smaller classes provide a better teaching environment.

"We're very frustrated," said Pitts.

Staff and faculty at Peabody Elementary met with about 70 people on Feb. 9th to discuss the proposed school closure.

"To be honest, I had a feeling the school might soon close," said Maria Reyes, Peabody's school clerk. CPS wants to close the school because it uses less than 40 percent of its space.

"The community here in West Town is rapidly changing and people are moving out," said Reyes. "The community is not involved in the school anymore because the people moving in are sending their children to other schools. Our situation started changing in 2003, when this gentrification process started."

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Jan. 28, 2009

Chicago Bucket Boys from Nick Orichuia on Vimeo.

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Dec. 17, 2008 – Costs for using valet services in downtown Chicago might soon rise under an ordinance proposed by Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) that would require parking companies to have insurance coverage of at least $1 million and prove all their drivers have a valid license.

This ordinance is long overdue," said Reilly. The issue, he said, "has only grown more frustrating and more complex Downtown as time has gone by."

The ordinance passed last week by the Committee on Traffic Control and Safety could be considered by the full City Council as early as Dec 17. If passed, businesses that seek to hire valet companies would also be required to increase by 15 percent the available parking space for valets, guaranteeing parking spaces for at least 25 percent of the business's seating capacity, a measure adopted to stop valets from leaving cars in public parking spots. The committee also decided to drop a proposal to raise the license fee for valet companies from $300 to $1,000.

Among the problems aldermen cited before unanimously approving the measure: the lack of parking spaces for residents and citizen complaints about valets' behavior.

"Citizens call my office saying there is no parking space in their neighborhood," said Ald. Manuel Flores (1st).

Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) said he received complaints from citizens who witnessed valets eating and smoking in their cars.

"I've personally called a few restaurants where I heard valets eat, smoke and keep warm in customers' cars," said Fioretti, who said he does not like giving his car keys to valets.

No valet company representative was present at the committee meeting and not many appeared to know about the ordinance.

"Usually, they would send us a letter, but I didn't get any notice this time," said Bob Gariti, owner of Regional Valet Service, a parking management company based in Chicago.

Doing business in Chicago, Gariti said he's already insured for $1 million because many Downtown businesses require valet companies to have such a policy.

For some valet companies, such as Michael Munao's Five Star Valet, the ordinance is a good measure to get rid of unlawful competition.

"It's phenomenal," said Munao, owner of Five Star Valet, at 2142 W. Concord Lane in Addison. "It will get the riff-raff out of the valet industry."

Munao has an insurance policy covering his business up to $3 million, which allows him "to sleep at night," he said. "If God forbid something really bad happens, do you think it is only going to cost $1 million?"

Still, insurance costs can be high in the valet business, and owners warn higher insurance costs could translate into higher valet parking costs.

"I pay about $17,000 a year for my insurance," said Jean Pierre Petit, owner of Valet Parking Experts Inc., a five-year-old Miami-based valet company that also does business in Mexico, where Petit says insurance costs less than half what it does here.

"We won't be able to stay in business without raising costs," said Steve Espinoza, owner of Premier Valet Chicago Inc. "Some valet rates will be higher, but restaurants don't want companies to raise their prices."

But restaurants and local businesses might not have a choice, as the limited number of parking spaces Downtown could force clients to rely on valet services anyway.

"The ordinance will not have much of an effect because there are no other options for parking around here," said Kate Naylor, manager at the restaurant Tavern on Rush at 1031 N. Rush St.

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Oct. 29, 2008 – Twelve new schools will open in Chicago next year, including the district's first all-boys school, a fine arts academy and a charter school sponsored by the Chicago Bulls.

"These schools will continue to expand on the notion that not every child learns the same way," Chicago School Board President Rufus Williams said last Wednesday.

The new schools are part of Renaissance 2010 and will mostly be college preparatory academies.

"We are still in the early stages of the project," said Doug Elmer, Midwest regional manager for Talent Development High Schools, a program designed by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore to help schools throughout the country prepare their students for college.

"We plan on having up to 600 students," Elmer said of the Chicago Talent Development High School, which will open in 2009 in West Garfield Park.

Another college prep school will open close by. The Garfield Park Preparatory Academy will start with one class per grade from kindergarten to 3rd grade, adding a class every year up to 8th grade.

"We want students to be fully prepared for high school," said Denise Ross, who will be the school's principal."To do so, we will be implementing four different programs in the school."

The most important of the programs, said Ross, will be the introduction of an accelerated independent learner model developed by Columbia University. In its mission statement, the so-called Double Diversity model is described as being particularly focused on enabling "young people historically underrepresented" to complete their studies and successfully start college.

"The school will also provide a family and social support network", said James Campbell, associate vice president of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, which will operate the school.

The South Shore Fine Arts Academy will also open next year on the city's South Side. It will mainly be a neighborhood school, leaving only 30 percent of positions open to students citywide.

"It is our desire as a community to have this type of school," said Tara Shelton, principal of South Loop Elementary School, which will work closely with the new academy.

The Noble Street Charter School, which will be financially supported by the Chicago Bulls, still needs a location. The contributed amount by the basketball team is also to be determined.

Three organizations that will coordinate efforts to improve struggling schools also won approval at Wednesday's board meeting.

The Academy for Urban School Leadership, the Chicago Alliance for School Excellence and Chicago RISE will start taking over failing schools in February, when the Board of Education is set to decide which schools need more attention.

"The next step is to identify those schools that need our help," said Simon Hess, chief executive officer at Chicago RISE. "We basically look at introducing new academic models, increasing community resources and hiring a new set of educators," said Hess.

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Oct. 21, 2008 – When Steve Miller moved to Chicago eight years ago, he never thought of getting directly involved with the Republican Party. The only time he participated in an event for the GOP was at age 10, when his mother took him and his sister to see Ronald Reagan at the 1980 GOP National Convention in Detroit, his hometown.

Then, in early spring 2008, he received a call from a friend asking him if he was interested in running for the U.S. House of Representatives under the Republican Party's flag. Miller accepted.

And then he was left to do the job on his own.

"I am so fed up with this party," said Miller, who is running for Congress in Illinois' 7th district against incumbent Democrat Danny K. Davis.

 Local GOP organizations such as the Chicago and Cook County Republican Parties set aside ambitions of winning local Congressional elections a long time ago. Yet the GOP keeps filling the otherwise empty ballot spots for Congress knowing it will not support its own candidates.

"All I really asked for were volunteers to help me with my campaign," said Miller, who acknowledged that no one from the party had promised him any kind of financial or campaign support.

Like Miller, many local Republican candidates have little or no previous political experience. Miller has run his campaign on his own and said he has raised roughly $2,000. Davis, who first won the 7th district in 1996, has raised $310,000, according to the Federal Election Commission.

"The Republican Party doesn't exist in Chicago, it abandoned the city a long time ago," said Paul Green, Arthur Rubloff Professor of Policy Studies at Roosevelt University. "It has no money, no organization. The names of Republican candidates appear on ballots just for pride." 

In many cases the candidates whose names will be on the Nov. 4 ballots have been called by friends involved with the GOP. Miller was asked to run for the Republican Party by Thomas Swiss, Republican committeeman for the 27^th ward.

"I explicitly told Steve that no support would come from the party," said Swiss, who has known Miller for five years.

Swiss said there are "many non competitive races in Chicago," and that the State Republican Party "sits down and decides on a map of who is deserving of their support." But Swiss also said the Republicans "have a plan," and will start focusing on winning the next gubernatorial race in 2010.

Miller is not the only Republican candidate in Chicago going it alone.

"I haven't had any support from State Republicans," said Michael B. Younan, who is currently running for the first time for Illinois' 9th District, which includes Chicago's North Side neighborhoods, Evanston, Skokie and Des Plaines. "But this is what I expected from these guys."

Younan has been able to raise about $50,000 on his own, which will be mostly invested in TV time and bus advertisements.

Younan feels confident he will steal many votes from his incumbent Democratic opponent Jan Schakowsky. She has kept her seat for the past ten years and has raised more than $1.1 million just this year, according to the Federal Election Commission. Younan criticizes the Republican Party for not investing in a district that could someday turn out to be favorable for GOP candidates.

"They end up kicking themselves in the butt," he said.

Republican candidates in southern Chicago districts have also complained about the Party's lack of support.

"I'm disappointed in the party," said Tonia Members, wife and campaign manager for 1st District candidate Antoine Members. "To me they seem satisfied with the crumbs left from the Democrats," she said. Antoine Members has been able to raise $53,000 on his own.

One of the few African-American representatives at this year's Republican Party Convention held in St. Paul, Members received negative press coverage in two separate articles by Chicago Sun-Times' columnist Michael Sneed after complaining about his party's lack of support. On Sept. 4, Sneed reported Members saying he was not getting any funding promises and would think about leaving the Republican Party after he returned from the convention.

Another candidate who hasn't heard from the Republican Party is Anthony Williams, who is running for the first time as a Republican in the 2nd District. Unlike Members or Miller, Williams has past experience as a candidate for Congress with both the Libertarian and Democratic parties.

"They all work the same way," he said. "They are all short-sighted." Williams is running against incumbent Jesse L. Jackson, Jr.

The Chicago Young Republicans have been very active this year, seen campaigning for Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) presidential race on several major TV networks, but have never actively campaigned for local candidates for Congress.

"We do cover local candidates," said Jeremy Rose, political director for Chicago Young Republicans, "but this is an election year and we're focusing on the national race."

The Chicago Young Republicans' goal, said Rose, is to recruit new volunteers. Membership has risen by 50 percent in the last few months.

"It's a very American way of doing things," said Massie Ritsch, communications director at the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-profit research group that tracks the flow of money in political campaigns. "Parties are very pragmatic."

"Local parties won't see much money flowing if there isn't much chance of winning in a certain area," said Ritsch. "In the U.S., the responsibility and burden of the campaign is entirely on the candidate."

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Oct. 21, 2008 – When Steve Miller moved to Chicago eight years ago, he never thought of getting directly involved with the Republican Party. The only time he participated in an event for the GOP was at age 10, when his mother took him and his sister to see Ronald Reagan at the 1980 GOP National Convention in Detroit, his hometown.

Then, in early spring 2008, he received a call from a friend asking him if he was interested in running for the U.S. House of Representatives under the Republican Party's flag. Miller accepted.

And then he was left to do the job on his own.

"I am so fed up with this party," said Miller, who is running for Congress in Illinois' 7th district against incumbent Democrat Danny K. Davis.

Read more…

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Sept. 23, 2008 – Starting Oct. 1, four south Chicagoland towns will see police officers from Cook County's Sheriff Department patrol their streets in an effort to contain criminal activity.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners approved Wednesday an agreement between the Cook County Housing Authority and the Cook County Sheriff that calls for a two-month loan of two county police officers who will patrol low-income housing in Chicago Heights, Ford Heights, Robbins and Summit.

In all, the officers will help patrol 172 family housing units in Chicago Heights, 216 units in Ford Heights, 200 units in Robbins and 35 units in Summit, at a cost to Cook County taxpayers of $75,000.

"The Cook County Housing Authority came to us asking for help," said Sgt. Daryl A. Bernard.

The deputies will pay special attention to Ford Heights, which has recently been struggling to find adequate funds for the local police department.

"We plan on always having two officers and two cars patrolling the area, with six shifts throughout the day," said Bernard, adding that problems with Ford Heights started in 2001.

"There is no money for us to revitalize the police department," said Earl Bridges, Ford Heights' chief of police. "Right now, it's just three police officers and me."

The ideal goal, said Bridges, would be to send people to the police academy and form a team of 15 officers working three daily shifts.

"It all depends on the finances and when we get them," he said.

The Cook County Sheriff's office is prepared to prolong its stay in Ford Heights if necessary.

"This is a pilot project that, if successful, may be extended to 2010," said Deputy Sheriff Zelda Whittler.

The Cook County Sheriff's Department has helped Ford Heights in the past, which residents say helped crime go down. Whittler said Cook County deputies have been patrolling the area since May, when residents called complaining about the lack of security.

"It's much better now," said Kenneth Chinn, a volunteer at First Union Missionary Baptist Church, at 1301 Woodlawn Ave.

Chinn works to keep local children off the streets by organizing activities at the church. "Drugs are a major problem around here," he said, "and the Ford Heights police officers just weren't doing their job."

Tina Michaels, health coordinator at Medgar Evers Primary School, also thinks things have improved, but not by much.

"It's a little bit better," she said, "but everything is about the same." Michaels said it will be good to have a more regular Cook County Sheriff's presence because local criminals seem to respect the deputies more than the municipal police officers.

Ford Heights' mayor Saul L. Beck could not be reached for comment.

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