Friday Morning News Roundup

10-year shooting victim laid to rest Chicago Defender

McCaskill, who is being held in lieu of $500000 bail, said he got the gun from a relative's home, an admission that angered Arne Duncan, CEO of CPS. ...

'We're living in a crossfire' Sun Times
They celebrated 10-year-old Arthur Jones with hands clapping and voices raised in song, a boisterous tribute to a life cut short by gun violence.

Parents say school for disabled a disgrace Chicago Tribune Chicago Public Schools officials said they were unaware of the predicament before the school year started. But they have visited the school and plan to ...

Hope Institute plans school in Chicago Springfield State Journal Register

The new school, Hope Chicago Campus, is opening after the institute’s application last spring to become part of the Chicago Public Schools Renaissance 2010 ...  

Comments

[Rod Estvan]

Johnathon Briggs’ article on Southside Occupational Academy (SOA) has several problems.

First the school is not a vocational school for students with learning disabilities as he states in his article. This school only enrolls students with cognitive disabilities, most with significant cognitive disabilities. There are also some students who have combined Autism and cognitive disabilities enrolled.

In general students are not sent to this school until they have completed two years at another CPS high school at about the age of 17. Many students enrolled at SOA do not graduate with CPS diplomas but rather age out of the school system and are granted what are called certificates of attendance. Discussion of the problems related to being denied a diploma is really the topic for a completely seperate discussion.

Second, Mr. Briggs’ allowed an unnamed CPS official state “they were unaware of the predicament before the school year started” with out challenging that statement.

It is completely impossible that CPS “officials” were unaware. In 2006, this school in fact had more students than it does now, it had 235. The design capacity of the school is well know in the school district and assuming Mr. Briggs is correct in his report that the design capacity of the site was 150 then the school district knew full well that the site was overcrowded for years.

But Mr. Briggs also seems unaware of the fact that students are placed at SOA by the CPS Office of Specialized Services (OSS). This means OSS has sent more students to this school than it can hold for several years. This school was made ADA accessible several years ago and students that had both cognitive and physical disabilities began to be placed at the school. Mr. Briggs article provides some evidence that OSS was aware of overcrowding at SOA. Dr. Renee Grant-Mitchell Chief officer of OSS is quoted as saying: “It is overcrowded. I don't think it was ever designed to be a high school.”

We at Access Living believe that Mr. Duncan and Mr. Williams are not greatly concerned about students with disabilities, especially ones with significant disabilities that cost a lot. It should be recalled that on top of being overcrowded the CPS cut staff at many special education schools two years ago. You all may recall Mr. Duncan’s famous statement that the eliminated staff, mostly special education aides, were “unnecessary.” The evidence of SOA’s overcrowding was so manifest two years ago that SOA instead of having aides cut like most special schools actually had two additional aide positions opened.

Now, Mr. Duncan and Williams gives students with disabilities and their families the new Hope School under Renaissance 2010 which as Access Living has pointed out is under funded for its proposed mission even at the design stage. One of the reasons Access Living asked the CPS Board to delay approving this school was because it had no location. SOA takes students from south of 55th street to the end of the city. The far south side of Chicago clearly has the greatest need both on the elementary and high school level for school services for students with significant disabilities.

It is my understanding that some political pressure in the form of aldermen is being brought on CPS to provide some relief for these communities on the far south side of Chicago. Building an addition to SOA may not be the best solution, in fact placing comparable or better high school programs for students with significant cognitive disabilities on the southside of Chicago would be in our opinion a better option. This program would best be part of a full scale regular vocational high school.

Rod Estvan
Access Living

[need a megaphone to teach]

So what else is new in special education at CPS? We have five special education teachers IN ONE room. We are overcrowded on the Southwest side. So we tell parents of newly identified special education students that we have a great program to address their child's disability. I find it ironic that we are teaching highly distractible students in the most disractible environment imaginable. It is a joke to try to teach while four other teachers are talking.
The southwest side has been overcrowded for 20+ years. What has CPS done for these children? What is ISBE doing?

[special education needs a visionary]

6:57 Amen!

[What about LRE]

Why should a family have to ship their child off to a school miles away? I thought we were still under a consent decree (Remember Corey H.) that states students should have access to their neighborhood schools. BTW the brains at OSS opened a teacher assistant position at my school just to close it again one month later!! Great job!

[class on a cart at Steinmetz]

"It's heartbreaking to see our teachers travel from room to room carrying their educational tools on a cart," said James Tucker, whose niece attends the school at 7342 S. Hoyne Ave. "Some call it 'class on a cart.' Parents, teachers and students call it a disgrace."

My teachers have been doing 'class on a cart' for years at Steinmetz Academic Center. Most teachers teach in several different rooms during the day. The teachers drag their classroom in suitcases up and down the halls. It is really funny seeing them try to get those big cases up and down the stairs. We don't have elevators. Lots of them forget the things they need to teach the lessons though. I don't know why they don't have their own classrooms, but they don't.

[duh]

They do that because (a) it's a high school and many high schools organize schedules in this fashion, and (b) it's one of the more overcrowded high schools from what I've heard.

My elementary school has almost all of our "Preps" on a cart. We still have a functional gym and library --but I'm not sure for how much longer -- they soon may have to have classes in there too. We do have room for portables and we don't have any yet-- so I guess that maybe our next step.

[Mold in the portables]

Watch out for the portables especially the mold issue. Someone (CTU) needs to take a poll on teacher, student illnesses in these portables-check ventilation and the amount of children and staff who have an unusual amount of sinus infections etc.

[Retiree job fair]

So now CPS is calling back retired special education teachers. There is even a job fair! This is a wonderful idea. Instead of having a series of subs for the entire school year at least special education students will benefit from an experienced certified special education teacher. These teachers make $208.00 a day-no holidays or inservice days. ISBE kicks in $9,000 a year towards the salary and everyone is happy.

Why then, would OSS allow any of these rooms to become overloaded and in violation of ISBE caseload guidelines. ISBE guidelines state that in self-contained classrooms with more than one disability a caseload can reach ten not 12, 13, or 14. OSS needs to check their computers and remedy these situations.

Are these retired teachers going to get paid to attend report card pick-up to meet with the parents? Will they get paid to do the report cards (two types of report cards are issued to special education students) on November 2, 2007? Are they going to be given an access code for IMPACT?

This great idea will fizzle if these retired special education teachers are mistreated. After all, they do not have to stay which would be detrimental to the students.

[George Schmidt]

"Johnathon [sic] Briggs’ article on Southside Occupational Academy (SOA) has several problems..."

Briggs at least covered two of the big issues brought to the Board last Wednesday. The special ed story was bottled up on the 19th floor until the South Side Occupational speakers were called, but when the wheel chairs were rolled in it was obviously important.

Briggs also mentioned Marilyn Stewart's remarks She told CPS that CTU had filed 700 payroll grievances and gave some other shocking information.

Briggs also missed a couple of potentially big stories, but time, deadlines, and space are limited. Considering that the Sun-Times didn't even bother to cover the meeting, how critical should anyone be? More than a dozen major issues came up during public participation that CPS was covering up. More than once, Rufus Williams asked, "Why didn't I know about this?"

The public participation agenda was stacked with charter school advocates and others promoting "Renaissance 2010" entities -- many of which have no track record; at least 49 out of the 88 speakers signed up were supporting charters and other "Renaissance 2010" thingies. They squeezed out major public issues. When I arrived, a large number of people (including the Austin "Freedom Riders") were leaving -- angrily -- before the meeting even began. They said that the charter school crowd had packed the agenda.

Rufus Williams continued public participation after the time had passed, but a number of the speakers had to leave before getting called. Why? The charter and "Renaissance" supporters were brought to the front of the lines by "New Schools". Then the order of the list was scrambled. Rico Gutstein (UIC), for example, was supposed to be #27 but wasn't called until after more than 60 others had spoken. By then he was gone.

Most of the public was squeezed out, but some important issues got through the static. Major stories include overcrowding at Peck Elementary School, the underhanded colonization of Parker Elementary, and a the ongoing debate over the military programs and schools.

Every October, Board meetings are taken up with charter marketing, orchestrated by the staff of "New Schools." As usual, on October 24, 2007, the charter school speakers -- many wearing tee shirts proclaiming themselves -- filled seats across the 5th floor meeting room. "New Schools" people make sure the tee shirts are in camera range (in seats often marked "Reserve". Meanwhile, the South Side Occupational, Parker, and Peck parents and children were herded up to the 19th floor "holding rooms." Out of sight, out of mind?

At least they broke through the orchestrations, and the Tribune was quick enough to get two major stories that almost nobody else noticed that day.

[Retired not dead]

When is the retiree job fair?