Zapata Elementary in Little Village is so crammed with students that offices have been turned into classrooms. Storage closets double as workspace for the reading and computer teacher. And 100 5th-graders sit in trailers on what used to be the school’s basketball court.
Now, Zapata officials fear another enrollment surge.
The West Side school is about 1 1/2 blocks away from Good Shepherd Catholic, one of 23 schools slated for closure at the end of the school year. Zapata–built for 650 students but accommodating 830–would have a tough time absorbing even one of the 200 students from Good Shepherd.
“I’m very nervous about what will happen next year,” said Zapata Principal Christina Gonzalez. “… Already, I cannot serve the needs of the children I have, and I just don’t see how we can fit even one more.”
Gonzalez is not the only principal nervous about the closings. At least seven Catholic schools targeted for closure are in Chicago communities with severely overcrowded schools. Two are so crammed that neighborhood children are bused to public schools.
Of the seven, five are in communities that are predominantly Hispanic, the fastest-growing ethnic bloc in the city school system. Many Hispanic communities, particularly those on the West, Northwest and Southwest Sides, are struggling with overflowing classrooms.
Peter Cunningham, spokesman for the school district, said the system would “happily welcome” displaced students, but officials are concerned about how the closings would affect specific schools.
“There are a lot of questions right now, and we are looking over all our options,” Cunningham said.
A number of Chicago principals on the Southwest Side anxiously awaited the Catholic schools closing list, because they have the highest concentration of overcrowded schools. Many of these schools near Midway Airport turn away neighborhood children and bus them to distant schools. Some have been forced into year-round schedules, which replace long summer vacations with shorter breaks staggered throughout the year.
Pasteur Elementary Principal James Gilliat expects that his overcrowded building in the West Elsdon neighborhood may see some children from St. Camillus Catholic School, which is slated to close. Pasteur sends its 7th and 8th graders to a satellite campus in a leased Catholic school and buses another 200 neighborhood children to other city schools.
Chicago Public Schools will pay the Archdiocese of Chicago $4 million in rent this year for classrooms in 21 closed Catholic schools.
“I have two different reactions,” Gilliat said. “One is that we may be getting more kids, which will only exacerbate our problems. But the other is that this means there might be an empty [Catholic] building nearby that the system could rent to help relieve overcrowding for us or others.”
Gilliat is interested in leasing space at St. Camillus to avoid a year-round schedule. On Wednesday, the Chicago Board of Education approved a year-round schedule for Pasteur to help return some bused students to the neighborhood.
Archdiocese officials said Thursday that they are open to leasing space at the schools scheduled to close.
That’s good news to Gonzalez, who would like to lease space at Good Shepherd.
“It could be a blessing in disguise,” she said.