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Another 'elite' proposal to destroy a successful working class public school... More than 150 people from Pulaski school march miles to protest attack on school's integrity, teacher and principal professionalism

Danielle Ciesielski - August 29, 2009

Supporters of Pulaski Fine Arts Academy were amazed as they marched down Milwaukee Avenue from Pulaski (2230 W. McLean) in Bucktown (near the intersection of Western and Armitage) to the August 26, 2009 Chicago Board of Education Meeting.

More than 150 parents, children, teachers, and their supporters joined in a three mile march from the Northwest Side Pulaski Fine Arts elementary school to the Chicago Board of Education on August 26, 2009 to protest a plan before the Board to replace the current school with an "International Baccalaureate (IB)" school. The Pulaski group picketed the Board headquarters, then joined a press conference held by CORE and GEM before going upstairs to the Board meeting, where they spoke against the plan. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt. The marchers were chanting “2-4-6-8 We don't want to segregate!” "Why are we still chanting this in 2009?" we wondered to each other as we marched. Over 150 parents, students, teachers, and community supporters arrived an hour before the Board meeting in a long contingent dotted with members of the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE). The elementary students carried signs that said, “I love Pulaski” “Pulaski is Awesome” and, for those who were a little younger, “I want to go to Pulaski!” Teachers and parents carried signs that said, “Mayor Daley, please stop segregating CPS!” “One Pulaski United,” and “Pulaski IB for all!” The march formed a loop outside of 125 S. Clark that ran the whole block and grew as people waiting for the Board meeting joined the march.

This incredible show of support was the result of the work of the tight Pulaski family organizing against a racist attack from an organization calling itself the "Bucktown Community Organization" (BCO). This was the third time they testified to CPS, their first chance to speak to the Board. There was a hearing on Friday, August 21, where the Pulaski family brought three busses of supporters to fight against Pulaski being broken into two racially and economically segregated schools to accommodate the gentrifying Bucktown neighborhood.

Above, Pulaski Principal Leonor Karl (grey suit at microphone) speaks to the members of the Chicago Board of Education at the Board's August 26, 2009 meeting. Ms. Karl spoke in opposition to the 'Bucktown Community Organization' proposal to replace the existing Pulaski school with Chicago's first "IB" elementary school. Although Ms. Karl was surrounded by the school's teachers and some parents when she spoke, more than 50 parents and children were kept away from the Board chambers in the "holding room" ten floors above. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.The proposal for Pulaski sounds harmless at first glance. The new (white, 'middle class') residents of the gentrifying Bucktown neighborhood are proposing an International Baccalaureate (IB) program at Pulaski, so their students can receive a free quality education within walking distance of their homes.

Teachers and staff at Pulaski embrace the idea of being trained to teach IB curriculum. This is not enough for the BCO. They refuse to amend their proposal and stand adamantly behind their demand to phase out the current Pulaski staff and students, open a second IB school year by year in the Pulaski building for the incoming students that wouldn't be accessible to the current Pulaski students. This will require replacing all teachers and staff with a new staff that will be “hand-picked” to teach BCO's children – many of whom are several years from attending school, in the womb, or still twinkling in their parents' eyes.

Fritchey, Waguespack join in 'Bucktown' teacher bashing

The August 21 hearing was attended by Illinois State Representative John A. Fritchey (11th Legislative District) and 32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack. Waguespack attempted to set the tone by asking both sides to “not let race divide us” and to trust in CPS to implement the IB properly. This is a laughable suggestion, according to a number of the teachers who were present, considering CPS’s consistent labeling of their segregated black schools as “failing” and the recent history of CPS's closing successful schools in and near Waguespack's own ward through "phase out," "consolidation" and other schemes. Besides, the tone of the meeting had been set before the meeting by Waguespak's allies from the BCO. During the hearing, Waguespack was clearly on the side of the "Bucktown Community Organization."

He concluded by asking everyone to stand together for the best education for ALL students, but, he said, if the proposed IB program isn't implemented, (white, 'middle class') Bucktown parents will leave the community rather than work to improve schools for the rest of the community members. Waguespack raised the idea that although Pulaski's ISAT scores are among the top third in the city, they are still too low — and that only a segregated phase out of Pulaski could raise scores.

The BCO representatives, the architects of the segregated two-school model, came and spoke with what sounded like scripted comments, echoing the racist arguments used by Ogden Elementary School to force their way into Carpenter Elementary School a mile away from Pulaski earlier this year [several reports on the Carpenter fight can be found by a search here at substancenews.net]. BCO said they had surveyed 500 Bucktown families who responded in favor of the IB proposal, though they didn't mention if the survey explained the phase out of the current Pulaski family. They cited Drummond and Burr (both elementary schools on the north side) as model schools in their area that were not close enough, though many current Pulaski students travel further from their neighborhoods to receive the quality education that Pulaski offers.

BCO attacks professionalism and integrity of teachers, principal

The BCO created a propaganda "FAQ" document that listed Pulaski’s ISAT scores — and then directly accused them of falsifying these scores. They shamelessly emphasized that they wanted a “quality” neighborhood school to the faces of the current teachers and staff of Pulaski and that this quality school could only be successful if they fired the staff to “hand pick” their IB staff.

They used the language the CBOE uses to defend turnarounds, meaning they have judged — against all evidence — that Pulaski is a "failing" school.

An arrogant sense of entitlement demanding private public schools for the affluent

Echoing talking points that have been heard across Chicago, the BCO speakers concluded that if the IB program was not brought to Pulaski, they would be forced to send their students to non-CPS schools — or leave the city all together.

On a realistic note, one BCO speaker admitted that for the first IB class, it would be difficult for his students to have 1st year teachers every year of their career and if the schools are segregated, the resentful community that will develop in the building will be unhealthy for the students — and that even if Pulaski was IB, his sending his students there was still a firm maybe. Bucktown’s attacks are furthering devastating idea — without real evidence, but clearly a firm belief — that there are “bad” teachers who can’t be maintained in the classroom, then they go on to the point of repeating the lie that all Pulaski teachers fit this mold.

Pulaski teachers, parents, students, and principal reply to libels and slanders

Part of the media spin that the Chicago Board of Education does on a regular basis is to exclude the public from the public meetings of the Board. This is done by "reserving" a large number of seats in the Board of Education's fifth floor chambers prior to each meeting, thereby excluding parents and teachers such as those from Pulaski from the meeting itself and forcing them to wait in a "holding room" (which on August 26, 2009, was on the 15th floor, ten floor above the Board meeting). On August 26, 2009, the Board of Education placed 59 seats in the "Reserved" category — out of a total of 153 seats in the room. The photo above was taken two hours before the Board meeting began, and while it was being taken Board security locked the room. Most of the "Reserved" seats on Board meeting days are occupied by CPS bureaucrats in mid-level jobs, who are arrayed in the center of the room so that the TV cameras filming the meeting only focus on their smiling faces while the speakers speak from a podium. The Board employees who fill the seats meant for the public are carefully arrayed by race and gender to present the world — via the televised version of the meeting — with smiling supporters of the Board's actions. Each of the seats above with white tags was marked "reserved" with the name of a CPS executive on it. Meanwhile, control of the elevators in the building by Board Security makes it impossible for most people (such as the large group from Pulaski) to get to the fifth floor meeting room in time for speakers on the issues of importance to them. Substance photo and caption by George N. Schmidt.The Pulaski community demanded recognition for their hard work. The principal, Leonor Karl, said that the school stakeholders had been left out of the discussions about how to renovate Pulaski. Teachers and others describe the BCO as an exclusive organization not open to the community's traditional residents. Like similar organizations at other schools, the BCO has not invited teachers and current parents to its meetings or planning sessions. Although the BCO has a Web site that seems to provide openness, the tone of BCO comments indicated a different program.

At first puzzled, then angry, teachers explained their position: Pulaski staff supports an IB program in their school — but they want to teach it to their students, they told Substance. The want to create IB without firing and segregating the IB students from the Fine Arts students, and they have tried to invite the rest of the Bucktown community to join them.

The Pulaski staff listed accolade after accolade that reflects back on their school, including the board’s favorite measure, ISAT scores, that went from 43 to 75.

Pulaski parent Elizabeth Lopez was the first to thwart Fritchey’s request by acknowledging that this IB segregation was racist, which emboldened many speakers after her to call the attack by its name.

Analicia Ramos reminded us that the "two school model" will divide the haves and have-nots and that “dividing schools is social regression.”

Kayla Hernandez, a current DePaul student and Pulaski alumna, reminded everyone that pushing current Pulaski students out of the building would not only tear apart the Pulaski family, but it would tear apart blood families and force younger siblings into already overcrowded schools that they are able to alleviate somewhat by attending Pulaski.

Fourth grade teacher Melissa Padilla argued that a true IB program demands diversity — not the majority white, ‘middle class’ population that would fill in the IB Pulaski school — in its mission.

Community member Liz Parote said that almost half of the incoming kindergarten class is from Bucktown, but that the percentage that aren’t fight to get into Pulaski — which is why it’s offensive for the residents to continually slam the successes of the school.

Dissatisfaction with hearing leads to proposed march

In spite of the empassioned testimony, the hearing left the Pulaski family dissatisfied, which led to the long march to the Board meeting. CORE members had a chance to speak to several march participants, including a young, white Bucktown resident who had not heard of BCO’s survey and who adamantly disagreed with the proposal and was excited to send her daughter to Pulaski kindergarten.

Teachers organized these struggles in the spirit of Holmes, Peabody, Carpenter and other schools during the school closings, phase outs, consolidations and turnaround this winter and spring.

The arrival of the march at the Board's Loop headquarters drew television news attention at the time the march arrived at CPS headquarters, but the plan for Pulaski to speak to the Board was almost thwarted by the manner in which the Board conducted the August 26 meeting.

What had happened? Due to a large number of speakers at the Board meeting, the Pulaski speakers’ statements almost didn’t make it into the record. Board president Michael Scott has limited the public participation portion of the meeting to two hours, and he was ready to cut off public participation before anyone from Pulaski got to speak.

At the last minute, Scott allowed two speakers against the IB proposal to speak and one in support.

Pulaski parent Virgin Francois and Principal Lenore Karl spoke, echoing the statements of the hearing. Christina Nelson spoke in the same prepared BCO style that had been used at the hearing with overtly racist tones and a demand for two schools, to fire the current staff, and create a school catered to their demands rather than a school open to the majority of our Chicago community.

More than 33 IB programs in Chicago's public schools — and none has ever fired existing teachers and principal

Chicago Board of Education member Norman Bobbins admitted that he was entirely uninformed on the situation and asked for clarification more than once. As Nelson spoke, Bobins naively asked (to supportive applause) why not just implement the IB program into the school as it currently stands? Bobins did not ask CPS staff to describe the existing IB programs across the city, however. The IB program has been in Chicago public schools since the 1980s, when it was begun inside Lincoln Park High School. For more than a generation, the Lincoln Park IB program has had such success that it is one of the reasons why Lincoln Park is recognized far beyond Chicago as a fine high school. On more than one occasion, Lincoln Park has made the controversial Washington Post-Newsweek listing of America's "best" high schools, to a large part because the listing heavily weighs Advanced Placement and IB success in its rating system. Since beginning at Lincoln Park, IB has been expanded to more than 30 CPS elementary and high schools. Never once has a community demanded that IB replace the current school — until "Bucktown Community Organization" came up with the Pulaski plan this year.

At the August 26 Board of Education meeting, Christina Nelson, who said she was representing the "Bucktown Community Organization" (BCO) spoke in favor of the plan to eliminate the current teachers and principal at Pulaski and replace them with IB teachers hand picked by -- whom? BCO claimed to have surveyed "500 people" without providing any details of the survey to the Board of Education or others. Echoing the talking points of other groups promoting gentrification at the expense of traditional public schools in the community, Nelson spoke of "standards" as a way of eliminating the less affluent. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.What was interesting to several observers during the exchange between Bobins and BCO's Nelson was that Board President Michael Scott did not ask any member of the Board's staff to clarify how many IB programs there are currently in operation — and point out the simple fact that all of them are currently operating within existing schools, and that they were begun utilizing the talents of the staffs at existing schools.

It was not for lack of immediate available information. Seated in one of the 59 seats in the general public section of the Board chambers throughout the meeting was Abygail Joseph, whose title is "Director of Academic Enhancement" for CPS. Joseph knows precisely the current state of IB in Chicago's public schools, although recent upheavals in CPS staff may have dimmed institutional memory regarding the history. After marching more than three miles from Pulaski to the Board of Education headquarters at 125 S. Clark St., most of the teachers, parents, and and children of Pulaski were ordered by CPS security to go to the "holding room" on the 15th floor, taken by express elevator to a location ten floor above the actual CPS meeting. When the agenda finally got to the Pulaski speakers, most of those who had been confined to the "holding room" were unable to get down to the fifth floor in time for the two speakers who were allowed to present the case for Pulaski and against the BCO proposal to terminate Pulaski and replace it with an IB school. Substance caption and photo by George N. Schmidt.

But Joseph made no effort to clarify anything during the meeting. When asked by Substance to comment on the current state of IB, she said, "You have to direct that question to Monique Bond." Bond, the current Chief Communications Officer, has apparently required all of the CPS executive staff to refuse to provide information to the press, choosing instead to go through the narrow funnel of the large CPS "Office of Communications." As several CBOE members seemed uninformed on the issues, now is the time to ramp up the Pulaski fight back, concluded many of those from Pulaski and their supporters. Teachers, students, and community members will continue to organize support for Pulaski in this next month before the will reportedly decide their fate. 

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