Gay Muslim filmmaker Parvez Sharma visited Nicholas Senn High School and showed his film, Jihad for Love. In this picture, Senn LSC member, student Umme Rubab, listens to a student’s comment. Over 70 IB, GSA and other Senn students attended, along with some community members, teachers and others. We loved the talk and film; Sharma is funny and generous—he stayed after the screening for over an hour to answer every question students asked, and gave us all a tutorial in Islamic precepts. He also invited students to continue the dialogue about Islamophobia and homophobia at the film’s blog.
Another great event at a school that everyone should know about.
Showing posts with label Senn High School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Senn High School. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Politicians, Free Speech, and Generosity
After months of invitations from the Senn Strategic Planning Committee, Alderwoman Mary Ann Smith finally came to Senn High School to talk about the school’s future. The meeting was “brokered” by State Rep. Harry Osterman. Unfortunately, of the nine members of Senn’s Strategic Planning Committee, including three amazing Senn students, Christine, Bagi, and Umme, who rearranged their lives to be able to attend the Friday meeting at 3:00 PM, only four were allowed into the meeting room. The rest, including all three students, were sent to the hallway, where we waited for nearly two hours.
At the close of the meeting, we were invited in, at the insistence of Linda England, Senn’s LSC Chair, to introduce ourselves to David Pickens (CPS), Nancy Myerson and Mary Ann Smith (Alderwoman’s office), and others. Bagi took the opportunity to express his “sadness” about being excluded and Smith’s plan to close Senn as a general admission school. He came here a year ago (his mother country is Mongolia), he said, and “thought America believes in freedom of speech.” Smith jumped in to explain her view that, “Whether truth or lies, it’s all free speech.” Although only loosely related to what Bagi was expressing, that actually explains a lot about Smith, who dissembles rather frequently—she’s a just good public servant, upholding and enacting our Constitutional rights, even when truth-challenged.
In a very little nutshell, the word at meeting’s end was that Smith’s office will commit to providing funding for an “educational consultant” which Senn doesn’t need (it has highly qualified teachers, administrators, and Strategic Planning Committee members, including several with advanced education and content area degrees). And we will all work together to craft a plan we “can all sign off on” by January 2009. It seems, for new, that Senn will stay one school, open to all, with a wide range “differentiated learning opportunities” inside the building, including International Baccalaureate, AVID, and more.
Now if only the school could get someone to provide funds for lost positions and needed equipment—how about a few LCD projectors (Smith’s office promised some more than a year ago, but they never showed up); reviving the band (the instruments are gathering dust in a closet, waiting for the instructor position to be funded); service learning (which may be cut this year, though the program was award-winning); a Freshman counselor; equipment for the one up-to-date science lab, and even another science lab? Isn’t that what all students deserve?
I have a proposal: The parents of Northside Prep and Walter Payton students, who raise funds by assessing fees from families, holding auctions, and asking for contributions for their own children—maybe they could share, and send a little of that money over to Senn and the many other Chicago schools with largely low income, English-as-a-Second-Language, immigrant student and family populations. I’d like Bagi to know that America might tolerate lies, but we also support generosity.
At the close of the meeting, we were invited in, at the insistence of Linda England, Senn’s LSC Chair, to introduce ourselves to David Pickens (CPS), Nancy Myerson and Mary Ann Smith (Alderwoman’s office), and others. Bagi took the opportunity to express his “sadness” about being excluded and Smith’s plan to close Senn as a general admission school. He came here a year ago (his mother country is Mongolia), he said, and “thought America believes in freedom of speech.” Smith jumped in to explain her view that, “Whether truth or lies, it’s all free speech.” Although only loosely related to what Bagi was expressing, that actually explains a lot about Smith, who dissembles rather frequently—she’s a just good public servant, upholding and enacting our Constitutional rights, even when truth-challenged.
In a very little nutshell, the word at meeting’s end was that Smith’s office will commit to providing funding for an “educational consultant” which Senn doesn’t need (it has highly qualified teachers, administrators, and Strategic Planning Committee members, including several with advanced education and content area degrees). And we will all work together to craft a plan we “can all sign off on” by January 2009. It seems, for new, that Senn will stay one school, open to all, with a wide range “differentiated learning opportunities” inside the building, including International Baccalaureate, AVID, and more.
Now if only the school could get someone to provide funds for lost positions and needed equipment—how about a few LCD projectors (Smith’s office promised some more than a year ago, but they never showed up); reviving the band (the instruments are gathering dust in a closet, waiting for the instructor position to be funded); service learning (which may be cut this year, though the program was award-winning); a Freshman counselor; equipment for the one up-to-date science lab, and even another science lab? Isn’t that what all students deserve?
I have a proposal: The parents of Northside Prep and Walter Payton students, who raise funds by assessing fees from families, holding auctions, and asking for contributions for their own children—maybe they could share, and send a little of that money over to Senn and the many other Chicago schools with largely low income, English-as-a-Second-Language, immigrant student and family populations. I’d like Bagi to know that America might tolerate lies, but we also support generosity.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Undocumented Dreams
A guest editorial by Christina Gómez, Erica Meiners, and the 8 Project
Chicago, Illinois
José, a charismatic 18 year old, wrote his personal essay for his college application about crossing the border and avoiding la migra. His classmates, a wiry seventeen year old, Ana, made a YouTube video before the 2006 immigration marches that documents the violence she endured while crossing the border and Jorge, with a level gaze, calmly states that since he and his mother pay taxes, why shouldn’t he have equal access to higher education?
In a nation where the landscape of K-12 education is increasingly dominated by privatization, militarization and the proliferation of tightly competitive selective enrollment “boutique” schools, a vibrant open Chicago enrollment high school like Senn High School is almost a dying breed. José, Ana, and Jorge are a few of the approximately 42 out of the 210 graduates of the Senn class of 2008 that are undocumented. And this number, as Alicia states with her eyes set on a future as a nurse, does not include the ones that dropped out to work in 11th or 10th grade, convinced that a high school diploma offered no real routes to a future.
Despite skyrocketing tuition costs at “wealth hoarding” elite private (and public) colleges and universities, 2008 was a record setting year for college applications because of the demographic bulge (an increase in number of 18-year olds), the ease of on-line applications, and, in the face of an economic downturn, the awareness of the sheer necessity of college for future living-wage job opportunities. Yet, invisible in the mainstream media reports that celebrate “hard-working” high school students and their paths to elite post-secondary institutions are the estimated 65,000 undocumented students graduating from high school across the U.S. this June. Like José, Ana, Alicia, Jorge and the many other undocumented students we have talked too, they are all too aware of the pathways awaiting them in the U.S.A. – physically demanding low-wage work or acquisition (and deportation) by one of our nation’s well endowed public entities: the Orwellian-titled Department of Homeland Security.
Yet, with supportive teachers, counselors, families, and peers, they are resisting these state sanctioned deadening futures. They are working to become some of only 7,000 – 13,000 undocumented immigrants enrolled in colleges across the country. In Chicago, available research suggests that approximately 20,000 undocumented high school students live in our city, and approximately 6.1 percent of all undocumented students are enrolled in a post-secondary institution. Even if accepted at other public or private four-year institutions, most of those undocumented at Senn will attend the overflowing public community colleges in Chicago, because they are not eligible to receive any federal or state financial aid. Although Illinois (as well as nine other states including Texas, California, Utah, Washington, New York, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, and Nebraska) is a supportive state in terms of access to post-secondary education - undocumented students pay in-state tuition as long as they meet the required admission criteria by the institution of higher education they applied to as stated by Illinois House Bill 60. With the price-tag for 2007-2008 undergraduate in-state tuition at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) topping $15,036 for the 2007-2008 school year, many students, including those ineligible for most financial aid, simply cannot afford higher education.
The increasingly prohibitive fees for higher education, even when the consequences of under-education are much more costly, is just one of many public policies that disproportionately hurts communities of color and poor people। Immigration, and criminal justice policies, frequently senselessly punitive, do nothing to make our communities “safer” and bear no relationship to the daily lives of those most impacted। The undocumented students at Senn High School know this. José can’t get a driver’s license but the limitations of public transit in Chicago and the exigencies of his employment, make driving without a license a reality. (Currently only eight states allow undocumented immigrants to receive their drivers’ licenses or permits.) Ana can’t get legal employment, but needs to support her mother and siblings, therefore she works in a restaurant that doesn’t ask any questions. Jorge also works at a restaurant. Every weekday he arrives at work 4PM and leaves after midnight. Most youth that we talk to to, work on a fake social security number or under the table in dehumanizing and often dangerous contexts in jobs that sustain our cities and economy. No fancy non-profit internships or skill and network building “summer jobs” for these youth. A day without an undocumented Mexican youth in Chicago, to riff on the title of Sergio Arau’s 2004 mockumentary, would shut down many a restaurant.
With the looming presence of the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids (like the April 24, 2007 raid in the predominantly Mexican Little Village neighborhood in Chicago), fear for oneself and for family, is a constant. Without legal routes to employment, their lives are, like increasing number of residents in the United States, criminalized. At over two million in prisons and jails and counting, the U.S. is the global savant on incarceration. The U.S. government currently has more than 300 publicly and privately run jails, “detention centers,” where the undocumented are held, some for years, until decisions are reached on deportation; about 30,000 people are awaiting trial or deportation. With the Sentencing Project estimates of approximately 5.3 million people disenfranchised in 2007 due to felony convictions, and the Pew Hispanic Center documenting upwards of 10 million undocumented adults, this expanding disenfranchisement of millions, signals the resurgence of Juan and Jim Crow.
As immigrants ourselves, we count ourselves honored to have the opportunity to work and learn alongside many of these students and their families. Their belief in higher education and tenacity is impressive and their contributions in classrooms, as in our communities, are invaluable. Without legislation like the DREAM ACT (the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act), a bill that would have granted legal status to these students, the future of many of our students and their families, looks bleak. We deeply question the de facto economic and racial draft implicit in the DREAM Act, and we challenge the narrowness of the population selected to “benefit” from a complicated potential access to legalization, because “hard work” or “innocence” should never be used to justify the allocation of rights. Yet, along with many across the nation, we mourned last October when the bill failed to pass in the Senate by a vote of 52 to 44. The dreams of many students were crushed across this country. In 2009, there will be approximately 2.9 million high school graduates, and more undocumented youth, seeking futures with their families and loved ones, in the U.S.A.
The silence of presidential candidates on meaningful and systemic immigration reform grows more deafening. We know our nation can do better. We must.
Chicago, Illinois
José, a charismatic 18 year old, wrote his personal essay for his college application about crossing the border and avoiding la migra. His classmates, a wiry seventeen year old, Ana, made a YouTube video before the 2006 immigration marches that documents the violence she endured while crossing the border and Jorge, with a level gaze, calmly states that since he and his mother pay taxes, why shouldn’t he have equal access to higher education?
In a nation where the landscape of K-12 education is increasingly dominated by privatization, militarization and the proliferation of tightly competitive selective enrollment “boutique” schools, a vibrant open Chicago enrollment high school like Senn High School is almost a dying breed. José, Ana, and Jorge are a few of the approximately 42 out of the 210 graduates of the Senn class of 2008 that are undocumented. And this number, as Alicia states with her eyes set on a future as a nurse, does not include the ones that dropped out to work in 11th or 10th grade, convinced that a high school diploma offered no real routes to a future.
Despite skyrocketing tuition costs at “wealth hoarding” elite private (and public) colleges and universities, 2008 was a record setting year for college applications because of the demographic bulge (an increase in number of 18-year olds), the ease of on-line applications, and, in the face of an economic downturn, the awareness of the sheer necessity of college for future living-wage job opportunities. Yet, invisible in the mainstream media reports that celebrate “hard-working” high school students and their paths to elite post-secondary institutions are the estimated 65,000 undocumented students graduating from high school across the U.S. this June. Like José, Ana, Alicia, Jorge and the many other undocumented students we have talked too, they are all too aware of the pathways awaiting them in the U.S.A. – physically demanding low-wage work or acquisition (and deportation) by one of our nation’s well endowed public entities: the Orwellian-titled Department of Homeland Security.
Yet, with supportive teachers, counselors, families, and peers, they are resisting these state sanctioned deadening futures. They are working to become some of only 7,000 – 13,000 undocumented immigrants enrolled in colleges across the country. In Chicago, available research suggests that approximately 20,000 undocumented high school students live in our city, and approximately 6.1 percent of all undocumented students are enrolled in a post-secondary institution. Even if accepted at other public or private four-year institutions, most of those undocumented at Senn will attend the overflowing public community colleges in Chicago, because they are not eligible to receive any federal or state financial aid. Although Illinois (as well as nine other states including Texas, California, Utah, Washington, New York, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, and Nebraska) is a supportive state in terms of access to post-secondary education - undocumented students pay in-state tuition as long as they meet the required admission criteria by the institution of higher education they applied to as stated by Illinois House Bill 60. With the price-tag for 2007-2008 undergraduate in-state tuition at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) topping $15,036 for the 2007-2008 school year, many students, including those ineligible for most financial aid, simply cannot afford higher education.
The increasingly prohibitive fees for higher education, even when the consequences of under-education are much more costly, is just one of many public policies that disproportionately hurts communities of color and poor people। Immigration, and criminal justice policies, frequently senselessly punitive, do nothing to make our communities “safer” and bear no relationship to the daily lives of those most impacted। The undocumented students at Senn High School know this. José can’t get a driver’s license but the limitations of public transit in Chicago and the exigencies of his employment, make driving without a license a reality. (Currently only eight states allow undocumented immigrants to receive their drivers’ licenses or permits.) Ana can’t get legal employment, but needs to support her mother and siblings, therefore she works in a restaurant that doesn’t ask any questions. Jorge also works at a restaurant. Every weekday he arrives at work 4PM and leaves after midnight. Most youth that we talk to to, work on a fake social security number or under the table in dehumanizing and often dangerous contexts in jobs that sustain our cities and economy. No fancy non-profit internships or skill and network building “summer jobs” for these youth. A day without an undocumented Mexican youth in Chicago, to riff on the title of Sergio Arau’s 2004 mockumentary, would shut down many a restaurant.
With the looming presence of the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids (like the April 24, 2007 raid in the predominantly Mexican Little Village neighborhood in Chicago), fear for oneself and for family, is a constant. Without legal routes to employment, their lives are, like increasing number of residents in the United States, criminalized. At over two million in prisons and jails and counting, the U.S. is the global savant on incarceration. The U.S. government currently has more than 300 publicly and privately run jails, “detention centers,” where the undocumented are held, some for years, until decisions are reached on deportation; about 30,000 people are awaiting trial or deportation. With the Sentencing Project estimates of approximately 5.3 million people disenfranchised in 2007 due to felony convictions, and the Pew Hispanic Center documenting upwards of 10 million undocumented adults, this expanding disenfranchisement of millions, signals the resurgence of Juan and Jim Crow.
As immigrants ourselves, we count ourselves honored to have the opportunity to work and learn alongside many of these students and their families. Their belief in higher education and tenacity is impressive and their contributions in classrooms, as in our communities, are invaluable. Without legislation like the DREAM ACT (the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act), a bill that would have granted legal status to these students, the future of many of our students and their families, looks bleak. We deeply question the de facto economic and racial draft implicit in the DREAM Act, and we challenge the narrowness of the population selected to “benefit” from a complicated potential access to legalization, because “hard work” or “innocence” should never be used to justify the allocation of rights. Yet, along with many across the nation, we mourned last October when the bill failed to pass in the Senate by a vote of 52 to 44. The dreams of many students were crushed across this country. In 2009, there will be approximately 2.9 million high school graduates, and more undocumented youth, seeking futures with their families and loved ones, in the U.S.A.
The silence of presidential candidates on meaningful and systemic immigration reform grows more deafening. We know our nation can do better. We must.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
A Vigil for One School’s Survival
It’s nearly beyond belief, that a community would have to beg its local public official to keep its neighborhood high school alive. It’s shocking that she—Alderwoman Mary Ann Smith—can hold up the plans for school improvement that over 2,000 local folks have weighed in on, and that others, including teachers, parents, administrators, and residents, have been meeting nearly weekly (after work, and on Saturdays) to research, consult, brainstorm, develop, and write. So much labor, good will, energy, and hope held hostage by…what exactly?
So here’s how it’s playing out: Senn’s Strategic Planning Committee has developed a plan to strengthen the community school over a five-year period. But Alderwoman Smith wants to close Senn down and install in its place several selective small high schools; this news reached Senn via a leaked document after a year’s work on the strategic plan, with one of Smith’s aides in weekly attendance. Then Senn was turned down for some grant renewals—the word was that they didn’t want to fund a school with an “uncertain future.” Senn’s principal heard from a colleague that Board of Education documents related to Senn were red-flagged—take no action. Chicago Public Schools says it can’t promise to work with the Senn Strategic Planning Committee to improve the school unless Senn is working with Smith, but Smith won’t set a date to meet.
The Organization of the Northeast (ONE) tried to move the issue by making Senn’s future the center of its yearly convention on June 2. Smith was invited but didn’t show. So we took the meeting to her home, and asked her to support Senn. But really, it’s maddening—why should a public school have to plead for survival? Especially, why should it have to get permission to exist from one local official? Except, of course, that’s not what’s really going on—Daley has his plans and Duncan (CPS CEO), Smith, and the unelected Board of Education simply do his bidding. Smith does it by refusing to answer her door, as you see here.
ONE should take the next vigil to Daley’s doorstep.
So here’s how it’s playing out: Senn’s Strategic Planning Committee has developed a plan to strengthen the community school over a five-year period. But Alderwoman Smith wants to close Senn down and install in its place several selective small high schools; this news reached Senn via a leaked document after a year’s work on the strategic plan, with one of Smith’s aides in weekly attendance. Then Senn was turned down for some grant renewals—the word was that they didn’t want to fund a school with an “uncertain future.” Senn’s principal heard from a colleague that Board of Education documents related to Senn were red-flagged—take no action. Chicago Public Schools says it can’t promise to work with the Senn Strategic Planning Committee to improve the school unless Senn is working with Smith, but Smith won’t set a date to meet.
The Organization of the Northeast (ONE) tried to move the issue by making Senn’s future the center of its yearly convention on June 2. Smith was invited but didn’t show. So we took the meeting to her home, and asked her to support Senn. But really, it’s maddening—why should a public school have to plead for survival? Especially, why should it have to get permission to exist from one local official? Except, of course, that’s not what’s really going on—Daley has his plans and Duncan (CPS CEO), Smith, and the unelected Board of Education simply do his bidding. Smith does it by refusing to answer her door, as you see here.
ONE should take the next vigil to Daley’s doorstep.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
A Public School Give-away—Bids Accepted Now!
Alderwoman Mary Ann Smith (48th ward) was the main show at a recent Edgewater block club meeting. I “crashed” the meeting after seeing flyers posted in the neighborhood that said Smith would be talking about “her plans for Senn High School.” I’m on Senn’s Local School Council (a Community rep). Since Senn’s Strategic Planning Committee has been asking to meet with Smith for months about a “plan for Senn” someone leaked from her office to Senn’s principal (she just refuses), I figured I better find out what she had to say.
After telling the room (about 40 people, including at least 5 reps from her office) about great things she’s responsible for, Smith announced big news—in June work will start on a 2 million dollar re-do of Senn’s auditorium, to accommodate an in-house theater company. The idea was brought to Smith by an Uptown theater, she said, which brought her a curriculum for Senn (why didn’t they come to the school?), something to help prepare students for jobs (because there are so many jobs looking for theater people!).
Then the bomb dropped—in September 2009, Smith said, four new schools will open in Senn’s building, forming a “four-part school”—one, the current military school, one a theater arts school, the third a language and diplomacy school, and the fourth a college prep school.
Smith and State Rep. Harry Osterman are working together on this plan, “showing leadership,” she said. "Children attending Senn now won't be thrown out, though they may choose to leave.” And, “There will be no tests to get in,” she assured us, except, oh, “there will be a test for the college prep school,” she responded to a question. And “a contract may be required” of students and parents. Other than those things, the new schools will be open to all (who manage to figure out how to apply, get the contracts signed, score well on the tests).
Senn, in contrast, is open to all students in its attendance boundaries.
A member of the audience asked another clarifying question. The question addressed Smith's description of Senn, with enrollment of around 1,200, as underenrolled and her assertions that the community wanted to send their children to a good local high school (not Senn, with all those low income, non-English speaking, immigrant students), so more spaces were needed, and that all of Senn's current students could stay at Senn.
“How many students will attend each of the four high schools?” Smith said 400. The audience member pointed out that one of the four schools would be selective, so its 400 wouldn't be part of the count. That left 1,200 spaces for the current Senn students (all 1,200 of them), and all the other people who would want to go to the school—not an increase, in other words.
Smith began to look very angry, and back-tracked. “The building can accommodate 3,000, so we’ll divide that number by the number of schools.” Things blew up then.
Smith pointed her finger at the audience member, shaking it, and raised
her voice. "I know you,” she said, “You’re with Senn, and I won't talk to you. I’m through talking to you people." Smith continued ranting. The room burst into applause several times. I asked why she was yelling at a community member who asked a question. Nobody else said anything. The meeting went on and then ended. The berated audience member burst into tears. “Why was she yelling at me?”
Smith’s tactics—self-praise, unstable "facts," and yelling down opposing views seems to be the common and unpleasant ruse of her office. I've seen two of her aides use the same methods in other meetings. Even worse is Smith’s direct giveaway of Senn High School to outside entities—a military that needs recruits, a theater that needs space. Indirectly, Smith has “given” Senn up to real estate developers that need a local high status school to boost property values.
Can someone please run against Smith next time?
After telling the room (about 40 people, including at least 5 reps from her office) about great things she’s responsible for, Smith announced big news—in June work will start on a 2 million dollar re-do of Senn’s auditorium, to accommodate an in-house theater company. The idea was brought to Smith by an Uptown theater, she said, which brought her a curriculum for Senn (why didn’t they come to the school?), something to help prepare students for jobs (because there are so many jobs looking for theater people!).
Then the bomb dropped—in September 2009, Smith said, four new schools will open in Senn’s building, forming a “four-part school”—one, the current military school, one a theater arts school, the third a language and diplomacy school, and the fourth a college prep school.
Smith and State Rep. Harry Osterman are working together on this plan, “showing leadership,” she said. "Children attending Senn now won't be thrown out, though they may choose to leave.” And, “There will be no tests to get in,” she assured us, except, oh, “there will be a test for the college prep school,” she responded to a question. And “a contract may be required” of students and parents. Other than those things, the new schools will be open to all (who manage to figure out how to apply, get the contracts signed, score well on the tests).
Senn, in contrast, is open to all students in its attendance boundaries.
A member of the audience asked another clarifying question. The question addressed Smith's description of Senn, with enrollment of around 1,200, as underenrolled and her assertions that the community wanted to send their children to a good local high school (not Senn, with all those low income, non-English speaking, immigrant students), so more spaces were needed, and that all of Senn's current students could stay at Senn.
“How many students will attend each of the four high schools?” Smith said 400. The audience member pointed out that one of the four schools would be selective, so its 400 wouldn't be part of the count. That left 1,200 spaces for the current Senn students (all 1,200 of them), and all the other people who would want to go to the school—not an increase, in other words.
Smith began to look very angry, and back-tracked. “The building can accommodate 3,000, so we’ll divide that number by the number of schools.” Things blew up then.
Smith pointed her finger at the audience member, shaking it, and raised
her voice. "I know you,” she said, “You’re with Senn, and I won't talk to you. I’m through talking to you people." Smith continued ranting. The room burst into applause several times. I asked why she was yelling at a community member who asked a question. Nobody else said anything. The meeting went on and then ended. The berated audience member burst into tears. “Why was she yelling at me?”
Smith’s tactics—self-praise, unstable "facts," and yelling down opposing views seems to be the common and unpleasant ruse of her office. I've seen two of her aides use the same methods in other meetings. Even worse is Smith’s direct giveaway of Senn High School to outside entities—a military that needs recruits, a theater that needs space. Indirectly, Smith has “given” Senn up to real estate developers that need a local high status school to boost property values.
Can someone please run against Smith next time?
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Green Schools without Green
Maybe it’s just Illinois, where aiming-for-green schools can't seem to get growing. We are at the bottom now, in school funding by the state—49 of 49 (Nevada is out—its school funding comes largely from casinos). So when Senn sets out to recast its curriculum and programs as green initiatives, who will fund the shift? Our alderwoman, Mary Ann Smith, seems set on parlaying her office’s funding into high visibility projects—an auditorium overhaul is the latest plan.
Nothing wrong with visibility—Senn is hoping its new green and global sustainability projects get some of that, too. But the school’s plans were all developed openly, with plenty of discussion, even debate. The alderwoman simply announced hers—planning by decree!
In any case, Senn’s auditorium is in great shape and doesn’t need a redo, but the rest of the school is another matter. It needs everything from science labs and plaster wall repair, to class book and lap-top sets. It lacks enough social workers. It could use funding to make up for the over $300,000 in state funding cuts this year, that resulted in the loss of eight teachers and a security person. And then some.
Public schools are all about the environment these days, and they should be. Big plans are fantastic. But to get the work done, schools also need enough green.
Nothing wrong with visibility—Senn is hoping its new green and global sustainability projects get some of that, too. But the school’s plans were all developed openly, with plenty of discussion, even debate. The alderwoman simply announced hers—planning by decree!
In any case, Senn’s auditorium is in great shape and doesn’t need a redo, but the rest of the school is another matter. It needs everything from science labs and plaster wall repair, to class book and lap-top sets. It lacks enough social workers. It could use funding to make up for the over $300,000 in state funding cuts this year, that resulted in the loss of eight teachers and a security person. And then some.
Public schools are all about the environment these days, and they should be. Big plans are fantastic. But to get the work done, schools also need enough green.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Green Global Senn
Nicholas Senn High School is launching a bold new Green Arts and Design initiative; global education and environmental sustainability concepts and projects will be implemented across subject areas. Senn’s Green and Global initiative will have three main strands—Arts and design for sustainability; green jobs and technologies; and global environmental awareness.
First—Arts and design for sustainability. Creative attention to global environmental issues is increasingly important--check out this image by Chicago artist and forager, Nance Klehm. Senn’s students, working with local and international artists and designers, will learn ways that the arts and design can pose questions about and offer solutions to the problems of our environment.
Next—Green jobs and technologies. Senn’s focus on green collar jobs will prepare interested students to enter a growing field. For example, there is a greater demand for solar panel installation, than there are installers. Students doing this work will earn a living while also helping to heal our earth.
And last—Global environmental awareness. Senn is a diverse school, with students and families from every part of the world. In other words, Senn is already global. At the same time, we know more clearly now than ever before, that the earth is one place—what we eat, drive, and wear in Chicago affects the lives of families everywhere else. Senn’s Green and Global focus will ground its celebration of diversity within an emphasis on interrelatedness and our responsibilities to each other as world citizens.
Here are a few specific proposals (the school’s Curriculum Committee will consider these and others before selecting inaugural projects):
1). Starting a corps of international Green Senn Friends to serve as advisors. Possible Friends include Wangari Maathai, Vandana Shiva, Oakland’s Ella Baker Center and Ken Dunn, founder of Chicago’s Resource Center.
2). Founding an independent International Center for Green Art and Design Education within Senn to serve as hub for green-related activities, including visual and performing arts events and exhibits, and a Green Artists and Designers in Residence program.
3). Initiate an international Open Call for Proposals for the Green Re-design of Senn’s Campus and Building. The visual and written plans will be exhibited at Senn.
4). Developing Green Corp Career business and culture partners who will provide internships and resources for Senn’s innovative green programming.
5) And of course…rooftop gardens and beehives (this isn’t a new idea for CPS—there are already beekeeping programs at Marshall High, Roosevelt High and the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences.
More ideas? Send them to me at tquinn@saic.edu.
First—Arts and design for sustainability. Creative attention to global environmental issues is increasingly important--check out this image by Chicago artist and forager, Nance Klehm. Senn’s students, working with local and international artists and designers, will learn ways that the arts and design can pose questions about and offer solutions to the problems of our environment.
Next—Green jobs and technologies. Senn’s focus on green collar jobs will prepare interested students to enter a growing field. For example, there is a greater demand for solar panel installation, than there are installers. Students doing this work will earn a living while also helping to heal our earth.
And last—Global environmental awareness. Senn is a diverse school, with students and families from every part of the world. In other words, Senn is already global. At the same time, we know more clearly now than ever before, that the earth is one place—what we eat, drive, and wear in Chicago affects the lives of families everywhere else. Senn’s Green and Global focus will ground its celebration of diversity within an emphasis on interrelatedness and our responsibilities to each other as world citizens.
Here are a few specific proposals (the school’s Curriculum Committee will consider these and others before selecting inaugural projects):
1). Starting a corps of international Green Senn Friends to serve as advisors. Possible Friends include Wangari Maathai, Vandana Shiva, Oakland’s Ella Baker Center and Ken Dunn, founder of Chicago’s Resource Center.
2). Founding an independent International Center for Green Art and Design Education within Senn to serve as hub for green-related activities, including visual and performing arts events and exhibits, and a Green Artists and Designers in Residence program.
3). Initiate an international Open Call for Proposals for the Green Re-design of Senn’s Campus and Building. The visual and written plans will be exhibited at Senn.
4). Developing Green Corp Career business and culture partners who will provide internships and resources for Senn’s innovative green programming.
5) And of course…rooftop gardens and beehives (this isn’t a new idea for CPS—there are already beekeeping programs at Marshall High, Roosevelt High and the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences.
More ideas? Send them to me at tquinn@saic.edu.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
It’s Not the End of Senn High School
Fifteen members of the Senn High School Strategic Planning Committee, including students and school staff members, met with Alderwoman Mary Ann Smith last week. They talked for over an hour and a half, but Smith refused to endorse either Senn’s Plan or process, which are both impressive. To date, the Committee has surveyed, focus grouped, interviewed, brainstormed, been “expert” advised and more, to come up with a Plan that can keep Senn as a single school serving the needs of all its students. Smith, on the other hand, is promoting her own “plan” for the school, created by…who knows? All that’s clear is that Smith wants to close Senn and open in its place four small schools in the building, three with selective admission policies, meaning they won’t accept all kids in Senn’s attendance boundaries, within which 70% of its students currently live, and one voc tech school. Senn’s plan calls for keeping the school united and open to all students, with programs to serve the different needs in the building.
Arne Duncan, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, has said that Senn will take in a freshman class in Fall 2008. That’s good news, but the work to keep Senn open isn’t over.
The next Strategic planning Committee Meeting will take place on Feb. 9 at Senn, in Room 115, 9:00 AM. Everyone is invited to show up and be part of the important community work of improving public education. You’ll meet parents, students, teachers, local residents and a host of others who care about what happens in our local schools. It’s good work. Please do it.
Arne Duncan, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, has said that Senn will take in a freshman class in Fall 2008. That’s good news, but the work to keep Senn open isn’t over.
The next Strategic planning Committee Meeting will take place on Feb. 9 at Senn, in Room 115, 9:00 AM. Everyone is invited to show up and be part of the important community work of improving public education. You’ll meet parents, students, teachers, local residents and a host of others who care about what happens in our local schools. It’s good work. Please do it.
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