BLACK OFFICIALS ORGANIZE TO PROTECT W. SIDE SCHOOLS AMID ENGLE WOOD CLOSURES
The West Side Black Elected Officials took notice when Chicago Public Schools decided to close and consolidate four high schools in Englewood, and they’re organizing to make sure that West Side schools don’t see the same fate.
Ald. Emma Mitts ( 37th) and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D- Ill., announced Monday a major summit scheduled for Feb. 24 at Malcolm X College, where elected officials and the community will discuss solutions for improving the quality of education for West Side students.
The summit was organized in response to talk of elementary school closings on the West Side, Mitts said, and the announcement comes as community organizers are outraged at the Englewood closures.
“That’s why we are doing the summit: the potential talk of school closings, the uproar that came from that talk in the community. That is to say we no longer want someone to give us a plan; we want to give you the plan of what we want in the community,” she said. “Rather than someone trying to tell us from the top down, wewant to go bottom up.”
The alderman said she became concerned when she saw kids from Englewood showing up at City Hall.
“They came in protest of the school closure, and I asked them where they were from, and I found out they were from Englewood,” Mitts said. “I feel very bad when the community don’t have a voice.”
CPS announced Monday it has decided to phase out three of the schools more gradually than planned.