WBEZ | CPS

CPS issues pink slips to over 800 employees

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:25:00 -0500

Employees at schools being shut down or shaken up at the end of this year are being let go today, according to Chicago Public School officials.

More than 800 employees are affected, but there could be many more. The numbers released by CPS today do not include administrators and do not count layoffs in other district schools that are also facing shrinking budgets.

“We do think this is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Jackson Potter, staff coordinator for the Chicago Teachers Union.

Reports from parents, teachers and principals across the city indicate that people at closing schools are not the only ones who stand to lose their jobs. Potter said, ironically, many of the positions added last year for the longer school day are being cut.

“We’re seeing all of the additional staff from music, world language, art, are being cut, librarians being removed and eliminated from a variety of schools across the district,” Potter said. “It’s really hard to say how damaging and disruptive these austerity budgets are going to be but it’s drastic.”

However, teachers at closing schools with superior or excellent performance ratings are eligible to apply for jobs at receiving schools if there are openings. But CPS officials said they won’t know how many vacancies there will be until mid-July.

CPS officials said, on average, about 60 percent of teachers who lose their positions at one school, but reapply at others get rehired somewhere else in the system.

Becky Vevea is a WBEZ education reporter. Follow her @WBEZeducation.

In a first, Chicago math team takes top trophy in Illinois

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:59:00 -0500

After school, in a classroom with lights off and the window shades drawn, kids on the Whitney Young math team sit in pairs. Their teacher flashes a problem on the screen—a problem that stretches on and on—and fingers fly over calculator buttons.

Two students sitting near the front of the room divide the problem, one taking the first part, the other one solving the final part. They’re racing against their teammates.

There’s a three-minute limit, but these students have the answer long before the annoying buzzer goes off. What’s impressive is the problem:

It takes 23 seconds just to read out loud. By that time, some of the kids have nearly solved it.

Struggling schools are a familiar story in Chicago, but the city is also home to some of the very best public schools in Illinois. Chicago’s Whitney Young High School is a powerhouse in sports and academics. And recently, the school brought home the top trophy in the state for math.

“In preparation for contests, we usually will try to put together a practice that is 100 times harder than the actual contest would be,” said Matthew Moran, one of the team’s two coaches. “That’s getting harder and harder as they get better.”

To toughen up players, coaches don’t just forbid calculators for certain problems—they sometimes forbid pencils.

“We try to handicap the juniors and seniors by telling them they can’t use pencils or paper,” Julienne Au said.

That sort of practice is what got the team to the Illinois state math competition last month in Urbana-Champaign. The top contest features written and oral tests, team and individual exams, and relays.

Chicago public schools have won lower divisions of the state math competition. But in 33 years, they’ve never won the most competitive category. That title has gone to schools like Naperville North, New Trier, or the Illinois Math and Science Academy, which draws top math students from all over the state. This year, the team to beat was Adlai Stevenson, in Lincolnshire.

“In our heads, for me at least, I could hear them announcing, ‘Second place is Whitney Young,’” remembers Young senior Annie Chen. “I was waiting for it to happen and not happen at the same time. And then when they announced Stevenson in second place, we kind of went crazy.”

Students and coaches say they filled the room with cheers. Nobody could even hear the school’s name called in first place, they were screaming so loudly.

But it wasn’t quite over. Second-place Stevenson did what would make any math teacher proud—the team double checked the grading of all its papers, and actually found a mistake. The teams got on their buses to go back home without knowing for sure who was in first place and who was in second. Whitney Young took home the first-place trophy they’d been given, and about an hour into their ride home, they found it was theirs to keep.

It’s gotten harder in recent years to gain admission to Whitney Young, but Moran says his team members aren’t prodigies. They’ve made a steady climb from 18th place six years ago to 15th to 11th to 6th to 2nd place last year.

“In six years people don’t turn into geniuses. In six years people work really hard and learn how to learn math.”

At a pep rally last month—at a school that holds lots of pep rallies—the math team finally got theirs.

“We’ve been coming to pep rallies for a lot of years wishing that it was us on the stage winning the state championship,” Moran told students. “So thanks to the band and to the cheerleaders… and to everybody who made this happen.”

That’s right, the band and the cheerleaders came out for the math team. The head of the state math competition says in addition to a tough curriculum and dedicated coaches, winning math teams often do something less tangible—they manage to make math cool, like football or basketball. Something kids would want to stay after school for.

Student journalist Aaron Atchison contributed to this report.

Linda Lutton is a WBEZ education reporter. Follow her @WBEZeducation

Harper High School kids meet the president: 'My whole body just got weak'

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 18:00:00 -0500

A bus full of students and staff from Harper High School returned to Chicago Friday morning from a visit to the White House. They were invited by First Lady Michelle Obama and got to meet the President as well.

The First Lady took an interest in the students after This American Life aired episodes about how the school has been dealing with gun violence in the Englewood neighborhood. Mrs. Obama met with them in Chicago in April, then invited the students to her house.

Many of the students who went on the trip were featured in WBEZ’s This American Life episodes:

Deonte, the student who has avoided street violence by staying inside the house all the time;

Antoryio, who has been shot at so often he has a strategy--he drops to the ground;

Thomas, who’s seen multiple friends and family members shot and killed, including Harper student Shakaki Asphy, who was gunned down a year ago this month.

Ten Harper High staff members were also along on the 15-hour coach bus ride to D.C.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel stopped by the South Side school Friday morning, joining in on the national attention being paid to Harper kids.

Meeting the president was the highlight of the trip, one boy told Emanuel.

“As soon as he said, ‘Hey, Harper!’ my whole body just got weak!” he recounted.

The students said they were given a “deluxe tour,” introduced to everybody, from secret service agents to the White House chef. In addition to meeting with the president for 45 minutes privately, they got a shout out from him at an event with the Baltimore Ravens football team.

Harper Principal Leonetta Sanders says she appreciates that the First Lady has turned more of her attention to the issue of urban gun violence in recent months, and has made an effort to get to know Harper students.

“She wanted to really just have a deep conversation with them, one-on-one, and just really hear their stories. But also, at the same time, to encourage students to keep going,” Sanders said.

Many kids came home on a first-name basis with the president and First Lady, referring simply to “Barack” and “Michelle.”

Junior Sandelio Wright, who’s been shot at on his walk to school, said he was moved by the whole trip, especially a night visit to the Lincoln Memorial.

“I was standing at the exact same spot where Martin Luther King did his speech, seeing the view that he saw. And it was gorgeous. It was reflecting off the water. And just knowing that he was standing right there talking to a million people. It was beautiful. I got a picture in my phone.”

The Harper students also visited Howard University, where they met a student from their neighborhood who’s now a Rhodes scholar working on her PhD.

The trip was paid for through donations collected by Chuck Smith, a Chicago attorney at the Skadden law firm. Smith had heard This American Life’s reporting on Harper and was asked by Mayor Emanuel to raise money for the trip.

Principal Sanders, who has an unshakably positive outlook, hopes things like this trip--and the attention to her school--might slowly change the violence that has sent her to funeral after funeral for slain teenagers.

“That’s why we took a variety of students,” said Sanders. “We took Gates Scholars, but at the same time we took some challenged students, who are in gangs and who are not on the right path. And what we hope to do is that we change those students to go another direction.”

Sanders’ broader hope is that by changing students, they can change the neighborhood where those students are growing up.

Linda Lutton is an education reporter at WBEZ. Follow her @WBEZeducation

Chicago principals get more flexibility, likely less money in budget

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 07:57:00 -0500

Principals across the city may have to figure out how to do more with less money from the district next school year.

Chicago Public Schools is in the process of briefing principals on how much money they’ll have to work with as the district continues the switch to a more rigorous curriculum and implements full-day kindergarten across the city.

CPS is fundamentally changing how schools receive money. Rather than allocating specific positions and earmarked pots of money, the district will give principals a specific amount of money per student to spend as they see fit.

More than 40 district schools and the city’s 104 charter schools have been funded this way for several years. But the rates were set at roughly $6,000 per student for elementary schools and $7,000 per student for high schools.

CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll said the per pupil rates for next year will be $4,429 per student in kindergarten through third grade, $4,140 per student in 4th through 8th grade, and $5,029 per student in high school.

Carroll did not immediately know if charter schools, which have long complained about being funded inequitably, will be getting the same amounts as district-run schools. The new rates are significantly lower than charters’ previous per pupil rates of $6,070 per elementary student and $7,587 per high school student.

“We need to treat every school equitably in this process,” Carroll said in an e-mail Wednesday night when asked about the decrease in the per pupil amounts.

Magnet and selective school programs will continue to get some additional teachers and administrative positions funded by CPS to continue running the specialty programs they offer. There are also additional pots of money that come from state and federal sources for special programs like early childhood education and children in poverty. It’s unclear how that money will be distributed to schools.

A breakdown comparison is below.

FY14 rates
K-3 = $4,429
4-8 = $4,140
HS = $5,029

FY13 rates (for schools funded on a per-pupil basis)
Charter schools
$6,070/ES student
$7,587/HS student

Per pupil pilot schools
$6,969/student (0-300)
$5,845/student (301-450)
$5,077/student (451-900)
$4,531/student (>900)

Performance schools
$6,126/ES student
$7,658/HS student

Source: Chicago Public Schools FY13 Budget – Appendix B, School-Based Budgeting

Becky Vevea is a WBEZ education reporter. Follow her @WBEZeducation.

One day before deadline, only half of students at closing schools enroll in new schools

Fri, 31 May 2013 05:00:00 -0500

For the past week—ever since the school board took its final vote to close 50 Chicago schools—the district has been trying to get parents from closing schools to say where they’ll send their children next year.

But getting parents to register for new schools has been a tough sell in many corners of the city.

****

knocking sound
LUTTON: Hello?

That is me. I’m at a district administrative building on the Far South Side, at what is supposed to be a school enrollment fair.

LUTTON: Hello? Hello? I’m up by the front!

Forty-seven elementary schools are permanently closing their doors in just a few weeks. Parents at those schools can come here to pick out a new school.

LUTTON: I was looking for this, here.
MAN: Right, but nobody’s here. There haven’t been any parents.
LUTTON: Nobody?
MAN: No.

The district passed out about 600 flyers announcing this enrollment fair. Still, turnout was zero.

Jerryelyn Jones, a retired principal who’s now helping CPS manage the closings, says it’s not as bad as it seems.

JONES: We’ve been having fairs at the schools. Our goal is to make sure every single student is accounted for.

That’s around 12,000 students. All need to be situated in new schools. The district started its registration campaign less than 24 hours after the board voted to close the schools.

If it seems like the district is in a big rush… it is. Officials need to know where students are going so they can redirect money and teachers there, before budgets are drawn up.

But as of Thursday, only about half the kids at closing schools had enrolled anywhere else. I asked Jones if parents know that CPS set today as the enrollment deadline.

JONES: We sent flyers not only from the network but from the schools as well, and the marquees at all the schools have that date. And the robo calls have been going out to the homes. And the letter from Barbara Byrd Bennett also went out. So that message is clear, precise, concise. So they know, yes.

They know… and if you hang around closing schools, talk to parents, it’s obvious many of them are sending their own message right back to the school district. I met parent Antoine Dobine walking across the playground at West Pullman Elementary this week. He admits some parents are complacent, but he says there’s a fundamental reason many haven’t registered for new schools.

DOBINE: They got the hope in the back of their mind that our school is not gonna close.

When I talked to Dobine, he hadn’t registered his children. He was waiting. On purpose.

DOBINE: I don’t like the way they were so gung ho and, ‘Register your child now! Register your child now!’ Register my child? You just closed the school! You ain’t gonna let us mourn? Can’t we mourn? I mean, this is a big loss.

Dobine gestures up toward the huge school, where three generations of his family have attended. Like the district, he’s also worried about tracking every student. In past closings, CPS has not been able to explain where all kids end up. Dobine says gang lines make it impossible for some kids to go to their designated receiving school.

DOBINE: You think the high school dropout rate was high? Give it about three or four years and see what the grammar school rate will be. They’re gonna drop out.

Dobine says some people simply cannot believe the schools are closing. They might not believe it until they see the doors padlocked shut, he says.

You don't have to look hard for folks in this camp. On a porch across the street from Kohn Elementary—also closing— Tammy Brown doesn’t care that the board voted last week. It’s not over until it’s over, she says. And parents shouldn't register, she adds.

BROWN: No, they should not do that. They should stay at their school. Say ‘No! Don’t close our school.’ Protest. If they protest out here and get enough people to sign, I guarantee they’ll keep that school open. It’s never too late.

Many parents are finding it hard to shift gears, from fighting for their school to remain open to enrolling their children somewhere else. At Parkman Elementary, parents like Jalainea Leslie say they do not want to attend the receiving school CPS has named. And they say a week is not enough time to find a better option---a higher performing school, on a safe route. A school that can accommodate a whole family.

LESLIE: Why should we rush into something that we’re not sure about in the first place? I’m gonna find the best school, like they suggested us to do, and that’s what I’m gonna do.

At one closing school, as of yesterday, just five out of 200 kids had registered for school next year.

But a handful of schools had nearly all their students register. At Louis Armstrong on the West Side, 83 percent of students had enrolled in new schools as of yesterday. Part of the reason? The principal there, Demetrius Juanita Bunch, held a raffle for a 22-inch flat-screen color TV. Only parents who registered their kids in another school could participate.

BUNCH: We wanted to make sure that every parent realized the importance of having their child ready and prepared the first day.

In some ways, getting kids to register for new schools is the district’s first test; it’s just a taste of what might be ahead as it closes 50 schools. Yesterday, a group of South Side parents put a larger face on the registration push-back evident at some neighborhoods. They showed up at a high performing school on the North Side, A.N. Pritzker.

They said they wanted to register their children at that school.

Here’s community organizer Jitu Brown:

JITU: We want our children to have stable schools in their own neighborhoods. If you’re not, then guess who’s coming to dinner. 'Cause we’re coming up north. And we’re gonna enroll our children in these top ten schools. And you’re gonna treat them as good as you treat these white babies up north. And the problem is not those white babies up north—they’re not the problem. They deserve a world-class education. But so do our babies, so do our babies.

Parents were told there’s a waiting list hundreds of students long at Pritzker —and CPS says kids from closing schools won’t be given any special priority. They had the same opportunity as everyone else to apply to top schools, the district says.

Cassandra Parks, who has two children at Morgan Elementary, says she is not planning to enroll her kids anywhere.

PARKS: Right now I’m just gonna wait, and they’re not gonna go to the first day of school. They’re gonna stay at home. Maye they’ll hear us then, if we keep our kids at home. Since we’re not being heard too much now.

Chicago Public Schools says it will continue to call and send letters to parents like Parks. The district will keep enrolling students over the summer, and into September if necessary.

Number/percent of students at closing schools registered at other CPS schools for fall 2013, as of May 30, 11am

School Name	Network	Student Population	Registered	Percent Registered ˆ	Type*
STOCKTON	ES Network - Ravenswood-Ridge	295	294	99.66	Closing Staying
SEXTON	ES Network - Burnham Park	308	301	97.73	Closing Staying
OWENS	ES Network - Lake Calumet	252	246	97.62	Closing
STEWART	ES Network - Ravenswood-Ridge	196	173	88.27	Closing
PEABODY	ES Network - Fulton	211	186	88.15	Closing
EMMET	ES Network - Austin-North Lawndale	316	271	85.76	Closing
ARMSTRONG, L	ES Network - Austin-North Lawndale	92	76	82.61	Closing
WILIAMS MIDDLE	ES Network - Burnham Park	80	62	77.5	Closing Staying
WILLIAMS ES	ES Network - Burnham Park	212	153	72.17	Closing Staying
TRUMBULL	ES Network - Ravenswood-Ridge	206	148	71.84	Closing
KEY	ES Network - Austin-North Lawndale	283	203	71.73	Closing
PERSHING MIDDLE	ES Network - Burnham Park	175	125	71.43	Closing Staying
FERMI	ES Network - Burnham Park	190	130	68.42	Closing
LAFAYETTE	ES Network - Fulton	303	199	65.68	Closing
HERBERT	ES Network - Fulton	201	127	63.18	Closing Staying
VON HUMBOLDT	ES Network - Fulton	265	162	61.13	Closing
HENSON	ES Network - Austin-North Lawndale	196	107	54.59	Closing
POPE	ES Network - Austin-North Lawndale	143	71	49.65	Closing
RYERSON	ES Network - Garfield-Humboldt	326	161	49.39	Closing Staying
WEST PULLMAN	ES Network - Lake Calumet	235	105	44.68	Closing
WOODS	ES Network - Englewood-Gresham	274	114	41.61	Closing
KOHN	ES Network - Rock Island	327	130	39.76	Closing
DUMAS TECH ACAD	ES Network - Burnham Park	241	93	38.59	Closing Staying
LAWRENCE	ES Network - Lake Calumet	319	123	38.56	Closing Staying
MAY	ES Network - Austin-North Lawndale	386	145	37.56	Closing Staying
BANNEKER	ES Network - Englewood-Gresham	261	90	34.48	Closing Staying
ALTGELD	ES Network - Englewood-Gresham	336	114	33.93	Closing Staying
MARCONI	ES Network - Garfield-Humboldt	177	59	33.33	Closing
SONGHAI	ES Network - Lake Calumet	258	85	32.95	Closing
DELANO	ES Network - Garfield-Humboldt	260	81	31.15	Closing Staying
MAYO	ES Network - Burnham Park	326	98	30.06	Closing Staying
PADEREWSKI	ES Network - Pilsen-Little Village	150	41	27.33	Closing
GARFIELD PARK	ES Network - Garfield-Humboldt	133	35	26.32	Closing
YALE	ES Network - Skyway	157	41	26.11	Closing
ROSS	ES Network - Burnham Park	272	65	23.9	Closing
MORGAN	ES Network - Englewood-Gresham	157	32	20.38	Closing
OVERTON	ES Network - Burnham Park	286	50	17.48	Closing
GOLDBLATT	ES Network - Garfield-Humboldt	212	36	16.98	Closing
CALHOUN	ES Network - Garfield-Humboldt	236	40	16.95	Closing
BETHUNE	Network - AUSL	318	53	16.67	Closing
GOODLOW	ES Network - Englewood-Gresham	287	46	16.03	Closing Staying
DUPREY	ES Network - Fulton	92	14	15.22	Closing
BONTEMPS	ES Network - Englewood-Gresham	239	23	9.62	Closing
PARKMAN	ES Network - Pershing	153	12	7.84	Closing
KING	ES Network - Fulton	204	5	2.45	Closing

	TOTALS	10,546	4,925

Placed Centrally:
Buckingham & Near North	95
Preschool (3-Year-Olds)	660
Special Education Cluster Programs	487

Source: Chicago Public Schools

*"Closing Staying"refers to a situation in which the school will be closed (ie. all staff dismissed, school name retired) and the designated receiving school will relocate to the closed school's building. (For instance, Stockton closes. Courtenay, the receiving school, will relocate to the Stockton building).

CTU, parents file lawsuit against school closures

Wed, 29 May 2013 14:35:00 -0500

The Chicago Teachers Union filed a third lawsuit to stop schools from being closed this year.

The most recent suit, filed Wednesday morning, seeks to permanently halt the planned closure of ten schools included in the 50 approved by the Board of Education last week. It's the largest round of school closings in American history.

For those ten grammar schools—Buckingham, Calhoun North, Delano, King, Mayo, Morgan, Overton, Stewart, Stockton, and Williams—former judges ruled that CPS was not complying with its own guidelines for shutting down schools.

But the school board approved the closings anyway, a move the lawsuit alleges violates state law. That law requires CPS to create guidelines for school closings and then requires independent hearing officers to evaluate whether district officials followed them.

“You’re the ones that wrote your own procedures and rules. You’re the ones that wrote the guidelines,” said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey. “And now you’ve broken every single one of your own rules and the procedures that you agreed to and you’re not even following the recommendations of those retired judges.”

Sharkey said the district broke the law and should be held accountable.

Robert Bloch, CTU general counsel, said the judges’ rulings should be the final word. He pointed to where the law says if CPS did not follow the guidelines, “the proposed school action shall not be approved by the Board during the school year in which the school action was proposed.”

CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll issued a statement that said “union leadership remains committed to a status quo that is failing too many children trapped in underutilized, under-resourced schools.”

The lawsuit names 10 parents as well. LaKecha Green is one of them. She has three children, two who attend King Elementary and one who is still too young for school.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Green fought back tears describing how far her children will have to walk to receiving school Jensen.

“You have to have a very cold heart to say they’re doing this so they’ll have a better education, but if you can’t get to the education, what good is it?” Green said.

CPS has said it will provide busing to Jensen for current King students, but Green is still concerned.

Retired Cook County Circuit Court Judge Bernetta Bush did rule that the transition plan for King students did not “adequately address academic and safety concerns” and did not comply with the districts closure guidelines. District officials revised King’s transition plan after Bush’s ruling and before the Board vote.

After the hearing officers’ reports came out, CPS’s law department immediately posted responses to the district website. At the time, Carroll said the former judges were overstepping their role “by opining or creating or adding their own opinion.”

It’s not clear what role or significance the district’s responses and revisions will play in court.

Just before the Board of Education’s vote last week, the union filed a pair of lawsuits in federal court alleging that the proposed closings violate the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Illinois Civil Rights Act.

Becky Vevea is a WBEZ education reporter. Follow her @WBEZeducation.

CTU complaint to halt 10 of 50 school closings

Embattled UNO charter school leader steps aside, stops short of resigning

Tue, 28 May 2013 17:57:00 -0500

The leader of one of Chicago’s largest charter school networks issued a mea culpa Tuesday and announced he is stepping away from some decision-making positions, but stopped short of resigning his $250,000-a-year position.

Juan Rangel, CEO of the United Neighborhood Organization, commonly known as UNO, stood in the multipurpose room of a new UNO charter school on the Southwest Side and said this:

“I have failed. Failed to exercise proper oversight. Failed to hold UNO to the highest operational standards. Failed to manage UNO in a way that kept pace with its growth, and failed to ensure proper checks and balances in our procurement process. For these failures, I am sorry, and I take full responsibility.”

With UNO under state investigation for giving construction contracts to insiders, Rangel announced he is stepping down from the board of the charter school network and also from the board of UNO, the community organization.

But saying he still has much to contribute, Rangel will remain CEO of UNO, which includes the day-to-day management of the schools. He insisted that an overhauled board with new, independent members will keep him accountable. UNO named Martin Cabrera, Jr., founder and CEO of Cabrera Capital Markets, as the new chairman of the community organization’s board. It did not name anyone to head its charter school network board. Both boards will have UNO charter school parents on them.

Rangel says UNO will stick to tougher ethics and procurement rules, and the new board will have expanded oversight. He said UNO will implement every recommendation made by a retired federal judge the group hired to review its governance and ethics policies.

Rangel has led the UNO charter school network since its first school opened 15 years ago. He said checks and balances didn’t keep pace with UNO’s rapid expansion. The charter network now educates 6,500 CPS students at 13 campuses and is slated to open two additional schools this fall. Rangel said the group had gone from a $2 million-a-year operation to one with a $100 million budget. Most of the group’s income comes from Chicago Public Schools’ payments to UNO to educate students in its schools.

Rangel is also resigning from the city’s Public Building Commission, which oversees public construction projects, including schools. Rangel was named to the commission by Mayor Rahm Emanuel after he won election.

Both Emanuel and former Mayor Richard M. Daley have been big supporters of UNO charter schools. Rangel co-chaired Emanuel’s mayoral election campaign.

Rangel spoke in a multipurpose room at the recently constructed UNO Soccer Academy Elementary charter school. The Chicago Sun-Times first reported that the school’s floor-to-ceiling windows and sleek metal exterior were put in thanks to a $4.4 million contract given to the brother of an UNO director at the time, Miguel d’Escoto. Another brother had a contract to manage construction.

“The questions that have been raised are legitimate and they are reasonable,” Rangel told reporters before making his apology. “For UNO to get into business relationships with family members is simply not appropriate. It smacks of nepotism. Such practices have no place at an organization like UNO.”

Across from the elementary school, UNO’s Soccer Academy High School sits half finished, with construction halted. The state froze UNO’s’ grant money as it investigates spending.

Rangel said today UNO is immediately relinquishing control over construction of the school and will hire the nonprofit Illinois Facilities Fund to complete the project. Rangel says unless the state money is flowing again by June 1, UNO won’t be able to open the school in the fall. It says 600 students in grades 6-9 are already enrolled.

Outside, parent Margarita Portales looked over at the unfinished high school her son is supposed to attend in August.

“I hope it’s finished soon, honestly, because we need this school,” said Portales in Spanish. Her older daughter travels to Lane Tech on the North Side every day. “We have to travel far to get to high school. It’s not fair. We need schools nearby that are strong academically so our children can continue and get to college.”

A spokeswoman from Illinois’ Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity says the state is reviewing the governance shake-ups announced by UNO.

New UNO (community organization) board members and their affiliations:

Martin Cabrera, Jr. (chairman), Founder and CEO, Cabrera Capital Markets
Joseph de Lopez, former Winnetka police superintendent and VP of Voorhees Associates
Pastor Freddy Santiago, Iglesia Rebano Church
Prof. Peter Skerry, Boston College and Brookings Institution
Rodolfo Benitez, UNO charter school parent
Mariana Chavez, UNO charter school parent

New UNO Charter School Network board members and their affiliations:

Vincent Allocco, El Valor
Fr. Chris Devron, Christ the King school
Richard Rodriguez, Lend Lease and former CTA president
Gilbert Munoz, Chicago Fire
Silverio Nodal, UNO charter school parent
Jenni Jimenez, UNO charter school parent

Linda Lutton is an education reporter at WBEZ. Follow her @WBEZeducation

Afternoon Shift: Immigration as women's issue, Urlacher's retirement and insurance for vets

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:45:00 -0500

Is immigration a women's issue? Maria Pesqueira of advocacy group Mujeres Latinas en Acción says it is. Niala looks at why 1.3 veterans are uninsured. Finally, a national look at the Chicago public school closings.

View the story "Afternoon Shift: Immigration as women's issue, Urlacher's retirement and insurance for vets" on Storify

Morning Shift: The votes are in, schools are closing. So what's next?

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:24:00 -0500

The Chicago Teachers Union and others will weigh in on the CPS School Board's decision to close the vast majority of schools on their list. Plus musicians that have moved on, and more, on The Morning Shift.

Morning Shift: What food stamps buy

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:48:00 -0500

There may be changes on the way for how SNAP food assistance works. Plus conversations about spying on fish and closing Chicago schools.