After eight days of keeping their children out of class in protest of a plan to bus their children to another school, a group of parents from the Daley School Wednesday night indicated they might be willing to end their strike.
Gathered at a vacant lot at 50th Street and Hermitage Avenue, where they have been teaching the 100 or so pupils since Sept. 12, the parents said they would be willing to send their children to the Washington School if city and district officials provided them written notification of where a permanent school would be built and the exact day it would open.
“We are not against busing, but they have to put it in writing that says you will have a school by this date,” said parent Gloria Lopez, a local school council member.
Aurelia Hernandez, who was among the protesters, added: “Once we see that in writing, busing will be fine. We know we have to give something to get something. We will bus while they build the school. Hopefully, a year from now we will see a school being built and we will all know this was worth it.”
The apparent concession came after a week of frustrated efforts by the Daley principal, Supt. Argie Johnson’s representatives and Mayor Richard Daley’s office to end the strike.
After the protesters refused his compromise plan calling for parents to board buses with the pupils as an additional security measure, Deputy Mayor for Education Leonard Dominguez declared: “Some of these are irrational fears. There is a lot of fear mongering going on.”
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Responding to parents’ complaints early this year about hazardous materials, a leaky roof and faulty water fountains at Daley, the school board agreed to close the building at 5017 S. Hermitage Ave. School officials decided to bus the pupils 26 blocks to the vacant Washington School, 838 W. Marquette Rd., until 1995 when a new school at 46th Street and Wolcott Avenue will be built.
“The department of facilities made a decision that we would be housed at Washington School, and there is no way around it,” Ruby Wallace, president of the Daley local school council said Wednesday after it voted to retain the controversial busing plan.
“Washington School is bigger, better and cleaner than Daley,” she added. “It is good for the children. They will be in nice surroundings, as opposed to being around lead and asbestos.”
But after that decision earlier Wednesday, the parents, who asserted that Washington School and the bus rides were unsafe, decided to raise the stakes: They agreed to continue the protest and they vowed to start a hunger strike.
“We want a school, and until we get one we will be on a hunger strike,” said Alice Romero, whose two sons are enrolled at Daley.
“I wish it hadn’t come this far, but we have no choice.”
The parents demanded that the school temporarily house the children in a building much closer to the Daley neighborhood. And they rejected the proposed new school site, which is seven blocks from Daley, pushing a plan to build it on the vacant lot at 50th Street and Hermitage Avenue.
School board members, who had been losing patience with the parents, said Wednesday night that they were encouraged by the possibility that the strike would end.
They agreed to help meet the parents’ latest demands-provided they quickly end the protest.
“As chairman of the (school board’s) facilities committee, I would be more than delighted to contact the Public Buildings Commission to get the letter that they’re entitled to,” said school board member Charles Curtis.
“I would also be willing to suggest that maybe two schools be built-one closer” to Daley, he said. “But I’m not going to do anything until they put those kids back in school.”