'20th day rule' could destroy Track E high schools.... Students, teachers and parents lead protest against teacher cuts from Robeson High School to the Chicago Board of Education
Approximately 50 students and 10 teachers came with a handful of parents to participate in a CTU rally, “Don’t Burst our Students’ Dreams,” before the Chicago Board of Education meeting. While well planned, Robeson Student Ahsaki Cusick explained, “the rally didn’t get cracking ‘til the Robeson kids got there.” Other observers confirmed that the Robeson contingent gave added life to an already spirited rally.
Robeson High School students protesting the elimination of their teachers joined the Chicago Teachers Union balloon-filled picket line in front of the Chicago Board of Education on August 25, 2010. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.Robeson teacher Jeremy Peters led a mini-“Teach-In” on the bus to make sure all the students were up to speed on what we were protesting and what was at stake. As soon as they walked off the bus, they came into a rally chanting, “Save our Children! Save our Schools! Save our Teachers!” The rally was held across the street from CPS headquarters, which are at 125 S. Clark St., because the CPS side of the street is partially obstructed with scaffolding.
Teachers at the school reported to me that the kids came back completely energized.
“They were geeked,” Tyhimbe Young reported. Rally participant Judy Faria said, “I could see the students’ sincerity in doing what they could to save their teachers jobs. They wanted to help; they wanted to save their teachers’ jobs. I was proud of them. They wanted to be heard. Some took leadership and led chants, and some backed up the chants. They were united in their cause.”
Lindsey Williston, who participated in the rally, said that student Jasmine Wiley explained to her on the way home, “This is great, it’s just like it was when they did protests like they did for the civil rights movement.”
Dovonna Daniel, who stayed after the rally for the Board meeting with her mother, felt extremely proud. “It shows that we care. We got up and did something.”
Robeson student Sarah Vance (at microphone, wearing large earrings) speaks to the Chicago Board of Education in opposition to the elimination of Robeson teachers while her fellow students and teachers look on. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.The mobilization came after Robeson High School Principal Gerald Morrow met with the area and was told that, in preparation for the upcoming Track E 20th day, all Robeson classes should be leveled and filled with respect to seniority in the school as soon as possible to avoid last minute disruptions to our classes. This would, in effect, leave up to 15 teachers with empty classes for 2 or more weeks, at which time the teachers without students would be released. Word spread across the school like wildfire, through the staff and student body. As the students started petitions and wrote letters to Ron Huberman, teachers began to organize and meet with Chicago Teachers Union delegate Danielle Ciesielski (this reporter). In response to the concerns from the staff, I called the Union office who, the next Monday, sent Financial Secretary Kristine Mayle, Track E specialist Karl Hubert, and field representative Marsha Allen to lead a brainstorming meeting at the school. After venting on the issues, we decided that we needed our voice to be heard at the Board meeting as a dissenting opinion to the disruption of our students’ lives. Though a number of messages came from the meeting, our message could only be consolidated as we began to work.
Teachers at Robeson, two days before the Board meeting, moved in to organizing mode. The CTU offered to provide busses to the Board meeting, at which point teachers Jen Rehak, Ashley MacCullum, and Lindsey Williston created permission forms and an itinerary to pass out to the students. Rehak also sought out volunteer teachers in the building to cover classes for the teachers who would be attending a protest and the Board meeting. Singlehandedly, she organized coverage for the classes to avoid the chaos of having 10-15 substitute teachers in the building. Another teacher, Jeremy Peters, worked on buy in, asking teachers to pass out informational fliers to their students and then met students in the locker room after school to pass out permission forms. Peters also dealt with the bus company in the morning to make sure everything would run smoothly.
Aisha Weaver worked on creating the message. Her relationships with the students helped her find in a matter of minutes several students who wanted to speak on the issue of disrupting Robeson. In the end, we had three students working on speeches and talking points. Brianna Lockett was a designated speaker for the media during the rally. A dedicated AP student, Lockett would be directly impacted by cuts that would hit programs such as Advanced Placement first. Lockett argued against the idea that Robeson should suffer disproportionately because of an economic recession. More specifically, she said, the Board has “no reason to cut teachers. They’re cutting teachers cause there aren’t enough students, but the teachers are doing their jobs, they’re doing what they’re supposed to do. Why cut teachers cause [The Board isn’t] doing their job?”
Students Ahsaki Cusick and Sarah Vance prepared to speak directly to the Board, focusing on the contradiction between funding a $1 million Culture of Calm program and then creating a “Culture of Chaos” by displacing teachers for a month, who would inevitably need to be rehired as Robeson’s enrollment jumps, which it has done every year through September and October. Praising the new culture inside the building, both implored the Board to wait until the 20th day of regular track school before deciding whom to displace at Robeson. Williston and Susan Geuder helped the students proofread their speeches and focus on their messages. Cusick also worked with Weaver in creating signs and messages for the rally. The two, along with art teacher Karin Konz, stayed in the building until at least 5:00 p.m. hammering out slogans before Cusick took the signs home to make them look good. Watching this student/teacher collaboration for the good of students was an amazing sight that I hope inspires many more teachers in the building.
Robeson math teacher Danielle Ciesielski (above, center) took part in the August 25, 2010 protests. Left to right above, Norine Gutekanst, Danielle Ciesielski, and Carol Caref. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt. Leah Kohl took on the job of research. She consulted our Culture of Calm coordinator Cherie Russ-Chester to get the results of house visits by Robeson staff and she looked as much as she could into enrollment data in the past years to create the solid basis for our teachers’ request to the Board. Based on her research, she wrote a speech to present to the Board to wrap up Robeson’s presentation to the Board. Our request, as you can see from Kohl’s speech, is to let the Board count our enrollment on September 7th, as they are required to do by state school code, but to hold off on actually displacing teachers until the 20th day of regular track school. Counting our student body on the 20th day fulfills the legal requirement the Board needs to match our staffing to our student enrollment, but we ask that they consider our enrollment on the 20th day of regular track school before they choose to make displacements.
The morning of the Board meeting, Cusick, Vance, and Lockett met Kohl and this reporter at 6:00 am to arrive in time to get in line to sign up to speak. Kohl and I called the guardians of the speakers to confirm permission to attend and speak at the Board meeting and we were off. Back at the school, the teachers who had put so much work into creating this event spent most of their time in the morning calling the homes of students to confirm permission. The home calls stopped once the two busses provided by the CTU were full, many students having to be turned around to stay back at the school. After the rally, our speakers stayed after for the Board meeting. Their speeches are included. Cusick felt she made a difference, saying, “It seemed like they were actually listening, like they were going to do something about it.”
Teachers in the building were amazed at our students’ energy when they came back, but teachers at the rally were truly inspired. Weaver said, “The thing that sticks with me was how passionate the kids were about saving their teachers. I just really hope it made a difference; I hope our efforts impacted something. It feels empowering to do something about it, and get the support of the kids and the community.”
Peters said, “It’s a learning experience for the kids to learn how to exercise their civil rights. They can really get a lot out of it in that regard. They have a lot of angst because of the transition and the confusion, this gave them a constructive outlet to move forward with their energy.”
By: sarah vance
missing our teachers
we miss ya'll miss C and miss Khol we wish ya'll was still here why did you all have to leave? so we really wasted our time by going down to the board trying to keep ya'll here "wait until we make a trip back down there we are going to let them have it" wish yall the best of luck