A plethora of teachers, parents and students attempted to counter Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) claim that Thomas Chalmers Specialty Elementary is “chronically underperforming” Thursday night at the school’s final public hearing.
Attributed
to “low performance” and “insufficient progress”, a proposal by CPS has
suggested replacing Chalmers’ entire staff with the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL), a school turnaround contractor, by next year.
But
since school Principal Kent Nolen was hired in 2010, Chalmers has
seen significant growth, according to Thursday’s speakers. If the West Side school were permitted to continue on its current course, presenters said
it would surely close achievement gaps.
“We pray that this
hearing officer holds the current faculty, staff and administration
accountable for the work they’ve accomplished, not penalizing them for
work under the former administration,” said W. T. Harris, a parent of
one Chalmers student, member of the local school council (LSC) and one of approximately 75 attendees.
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Bank of America (BOA) serves as a destabilizing force in Chicago’s blighted
communities, according to approximately 50 protesters who took their
message to a downtown branch on Tuesday.
Yesterday’s public hearing for the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) proposal to close 
Quanzina Haynes plans to pull her children from the Chicago Public
Schools (CPS) district if the Chicago Board of Education votes in favor
of closing their school, 
