CLOSING TIME
Chicago Public Schools on Thursday announced the largest school shakeup in the nation: closing 54 schools and 61 buildings, jostling 30,000 kids and giving pink slips to more than 1,000 teachers.
Schools chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett has handled large-scale closures before but Chicago has not, and her decision includes building swaps not seen before in the city.
Despair and dismay circled through the district as word trickled out Thursday about affected schools, before CPS officially released the list at 5 p.m. Most of the targeted schools are in the city’s black and poorest communities on the West and South sides.
But the list also shocked a group of parents and teachers of five schools that had been considered safe from closing who learned Thursday in a confusing twist of events that their kids would have to travel across neighborhoods to new buildings to remain in their own schools.
This year, CPS consolidated several schools in a way that kept the name and staff of the school with the stronger track record but moved it to the better building previously occupied by the weaker school.
“This is unbelievable. You can’t swing this on us at the last minute now,” said Coree Lumas, a mother with four of her children at Wentworth, 6950 S. Sangamon, who was caught by surprise. Wentworth wasn’t listed as a school that could be closed. Now its teachers and staff will occupy Aldridge’s building, 1340 W 71st St., some three-quarters of a mile away in West Englewood. Aldridge will close.
“That’s too far to be walking especially in the winter time,” Lumas said. “Why can’t Wentworth just stay where it is?”
CPS also announced it will turn around six more schools for academic reasons and pair schools — including several charter schools — in 11 more buildings.
Facing a $1 billion deficit by summer, the district said the closings will save $560 million in capital costs, plus another $43 million in operating costs — over the next 10 years.
CPS also will spend $233 million on the 55 schools receiving new children from shuttered schools, $155 million in capital costs and another $78 million for operations.
Byrd-Bennett plans to introduce specialized programs at 19 of those schools — 13 science, technology, engineering and math; five International Baccalaureate, and one fine arts program. Ten of those programs will go to schools on the South Side, eight to the West Side and one to the Near