Nearly 100 angry parents from six Southwest Side public elementary schools asked the Chicago Board of Education on Wednesday to build new schools or pay for their expansion because “overcrowding has reached a crisis point.”
In recent months, more than two dozen schools have pleaded for help from the board to alleviate crowding.
“It’s getting desperate,” said Roy Shalabi, a local school council member from Stevenson Elementary School, 8100 S. Kostner Ave. “You can’t expect test scores to go up when children are not being treated fairly.”
Shalabi was joined by representatives of five other elementary schools: Whitney, 2815 S. Komensky Ave.; Hurley, 3849 W. 69th Pl.; Pasteur, 5825 S. Kostner Ave.; Carroll/Rosenwald, 2929 W. 83rd St.; and Morrill, 6011 S. Rockwell St.
Some school representatives told the board they have children attending classes in hallways, gyms and even in a closet. Some have 40 children in a single classroom.
One parent from Morrill told the board that children are attending class in a teachers’ lounge and in a room that once was a gymnasium shower. Morrill Principal Patricia Costello said she has 1,217 children in a school that was built for 900.
School board President Gery Chico told the group there isn’t enough money in the board’s $3 billion capital plan to accommodate all of their needs.
Some schools are going to have to wait until more funding becomes available, he added.
“Hey, we are on the same side as you,” Chico said. “The fact is, there isn’t enough money to go around.”
Earlier in the day, Mayor Richard Daley joined schools chief Paul Vallas and other officials to call on the state and federal government to send them additional dollars to ease crowding at schools and to make repairs at others.
“Too many of our classrooms are still overcrowded,” Daley said at a news conference at Byrd Elementary School, 363 W. Hill St. “Too many buildings are still in a state of disrepair. And too many children must study in substandard environments.”
Daley said Byrd was one of 38 schools in the city that needs to be replaced because it is falling apart. The schools also need 37 major additions and renovation of 50 science labs and 100 gyms.
Vallas said the schools could get at least another $1 billion in bonding power if the General Assembly would dedicate 20 percent of all new revenue to fund teachers’ pensions statewide.
Doing so would increase funding for Chicago teachers’ pensions, thus enabling the school board to divert money it now uses for pensions toward expanding its bonding powers.