'...We have been asking for upgrades to our school for not 2 years but for 15 years...'Canty Elementary School still facing major overcrowding problesm
[Editor's Note: The following is the speech prepared by Stacy Babich of Canty Elementary School at the December 18, 2013 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. The prepared content of the speech was provided to Substance by the speaker.]
Good Morning.
Stacy Babich reminded the Board of Education that people from Canty Elementary School on the city's Northwest Side have been protesting the overcrowding at their school for 15 years, while the Board has favored more affluent parts of the city with expansions. She also noted that charter schools are not wanted in the Canty area, and wouldn't solve the "overcrowding problem" anyway. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.Just to quickly summarize in case there is anyone who doesn’t know who we are. We’re from Canty Elementary on the Northwest Side, and we have been asking for upgrades to our school for not two years but for 15 years.
We are currently 151% Overcrowded. We have 818 students in a school that was built for approximately. 500. Canty does not have a lunchroom or a kitchen; all of our ancillary classes are taught out of a cart; our library is being shared as a classroom now; our auditorium utilized as a lunch area; and we have playground equipment that’s old, out-dated and dangerous.
Most recently, our school has suffered the tragic lost of our Engineer. CPS does not plan to replace him to save themselves $100,00 even though they have already cut $400,000 for Canty’s budget. This has resulted in heat problems as well as other maintenance issues. Currently some parts of our building have heat and in others the air conditioner is running!
Now that we've gotten the facts out of the way, we want to say that while we appreciate the communication and visits we have received from the Board as well as other CPS employees this year in regards to our school, why are they not resulting in a decision for our school?
We’d like to know “What’s our number?"
We mean how many times do we have to attend BOE meetings as well as other community forums sharing the same speech before we get what we deserve?
It seems the focus lately is on Charter schools. Let me be clear this is not a solution to our problem. A charter school could alleviate maybe 100 or so students from each of the cluster of overcrowded schools in our neighborhood. That's it!
Canty is 300 students overcrowded and growing! So removing a few to a lottery based system will not help us! It is Canty’s turn to be given the funding for an addition as well as the other improvements we have been asking for. If there’s 18 million for #50 on the list, then there should be 18 million for #19 on the list of overcrowded schools. Thank you for your time.
