Chicago closing 129 elementary schools

[JODYE]

Re: Chicago closing 129 elementary schools

In the Chicago district I think there are around 480ish.

This would be about 30% of the elementary schools in the district.

[Redacted01]

Re: Chicago closing 129 elementary schools

Even where I'm from, they closed three feeder schools in the County that were all K-8. It's happening in a lot of places, just on a smaller scale.

The school I went to was K-12 and has made expansions and remodels to the elementary, middle, and high school along with new baseball fiels and a new gym that's standalone (the previous gym was connection to the school)..

They should be able to handle the extra kids from the feeder schools. When they get to 8th grade, they have to go to another school anyways.

Getting a degree for education is risky these days, unless you know someone or know exactly what you're doing. They are dropping teachers left and right, even some who have been teaching for years.. very unfortunate.

Good lord, one school just for K-12? I had that in private school when there were maybe 1000 students total, but that would have been insane where I went to high school. My HS had 1700 students at one point before they split into 4 schools over several years and they got down to about 1000 recently, which is more manageable.. We had an elementary school for K-1, another elementary school for 2-3, an intermediate school for 5-6, and then a normal middle school and high school. My town grew in population something like 10x over in 20 years and the county population nearly tripled in the same period, so they finally started building more schools when I moved there.

[gerg1234]

Re: Chicago closing 129 elementary schools

http://www.illinoispolicy.org/blog/b...cleSource=5040

This is likely a large part. I wonder if Chicago found a loophole in the contract with unions. They can't lay teachers off but they can shut down schools...

*I'm just speculating*

Also lol @ 40% dropout rate. That's not a problem with teachers. That's a problem with the culture within Chicago.

This is a HUGE reason why schools are closing here. The amount they are paying RETIRED teachers in the system in Oregon is unbelievable. They make more being retired than they did teaching.

The administrators keep giving themselves raises...yet in order to fix the school system they keep screaming for more money. I bet I know where that money would go...in the pockets of the Teachers Union & school admins. It's the way Oregon works.

The kids are the ones that get hurt.

[Graphik]

Re: Chicago closing 129 elementary schools

Whats sad is that with the recent outbreak of violence in the city, this will do nothing but create a worse scenario for kids traversing the city and parents to scramble to find new schools in districts they otherwise avoided for obvious reasons.

It kills me that whats basically being admitted is that money is much more important than education. IMO, you cant generate money in the future with poorly educated kids so this is going backwards if you ask me. Unfortunately, all city officials and politicians care about is how they can save money now! They've been taxing any and everything they can. They presented a bill that will add a .25 cent tax to gym shoes...I just paid 15 dollars in tolls just to drive and pick up my daughter from a different county...liqour tax just went up...ciggarette tax keeps going up...the parking meters are rediculously overpriced....maaannn, I gotta get out of this city.

[JODYE]

Re: Chicago closing 129 elementary schools

Whats sad is that with the recent outbreak of violence in the city, this will do nothing but create a worse scenario for kids traversing the city and parents to scramble to find new schools in districts they otherwise avoided for obvious reasons.

It kills me that whats basically being admitted is that money is much more important than education. IMO, you cant generate money in the future with poorly educated kids so this is going backwards if you ask me. Unfortunately, all city officials and politicians care about is how they can save money now! They've been taxing any and everything they can. They presented a bill that will add a .25 cent tax to gym shoes...I just paid 15 dollars in tolls just to drive and pick up my daughter from a different county...liqour tax just went up...ciggarette tax keeps going up...the parking meters are rediculously overpriced....maaannn, I gotta get out of this city.

Honestly, you can thank Blagojevich for almost all that, but won't dive into it because of TOS.

Another reason, I won't be living here very much longer.

[Graphik]

Re: Chicago closing 129 elementary schools

Honestly, you can thank Blagojevich for almost all that, but won't dive into it because of TOS.

Another reason, I won't be living here very much longer.

It started before Blago. Our last Gov was on the same bull apparently.

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: Chicago closing 129 elementary schools

There has also been an exodus from the Midwest due to the change in job market. The decline in population paired with the dropout rate could be the main factors.

In NC officers roam streets and find kids who are skipping school. They are then taken to school. I am guessing schools get funding based on the school attendance population.

The school gets a certain amount of state/fed dollars per student enrolled. The kid has to stick around for the first 3-4 months of the school year for the school to get that money. That's why the bad apples get chance after chance early in the school year.

[kingkilla56]

Re: Chicago closing 129 elementary schools

129 schools is a crazy number. I couldnt imagine that happening here. Usually when schools close, they just reopen a few months later in NY (or at least in Brooklyn).

[luv_mist]

That's a big reason why I left Chicago. They have their priorities backward. Has been this way for countless years since I've been growing up. Big differences in the county which seriously needs to be cleaned up.

[bichettehappens]

Re: Chicago closing 129 elementary schools

Even where I'm from, they closed three feeder schools in the County that were all K-8. It's happening in a lot of places, just on a smaller scale.

The school I went to was K-12 and has made expansions and remodels to the elementary, middle, and high school along with new baseball fiels and a new gym that's standalone (the previous gym was connection to the school)..

They should be able to handle the extra kids from the feeder schools. When they get to 8th grade, they have to go to another school anyways.

Getting a degree for education is risky these days, unless you know someone or know exactly what you're doing. They are dropping teachers left and right, even some who have been teaching for years.. very unfortunate.

Interesting. I know 3 relatively new teachers personally, all of which have gotten new jobs this starting with the current school year, 2 elementary, 1 8th grade. Perhaps things are different in Arizona or, like someone else said, these jobs may have come at the expense of older teachers being let go. Who knows.

This story is crazy though, and sad.

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: Chicago closing 129 elementary schools

Interesting. I know 3 relatively new teachers personally, all of which have gotten new jobs this starting with the current school year, 2 elementary, 1 8th grade. Perhaps things are different in Arizona or, like someone else said, these jobs may have come at the expense of older teachers being let go. Who knows.

This story is crazy though, and sad.

In SC, the working "retired" teachers have been pushed out. They were getting paid twice basically. I'm teaching chemistry now because they were going to cut the teacher's pay in half--she decided to retire.

A lot cheaper to hire new teachers (with the loss of teaching experience and classroom management skills)

[Hooe]

Re: Chicago closing 129 elementary schools

Displacing all those kids to new schools is going to be a logistics nightmare. Audacious is the only word that really comes to mind for me.

[daflyboys]

Re: Chicago closing 129 elementary schools

Interesting. I know 3 relatively new teachers personally, all of which have gotten new jobs this starting with the current school year, 2 elementary, 1 8th grade. Perhaps things are different in Arizona or, like someone else said, these jobs may have come at the expense of older teachers being let go. Who knows.

This story is crazy though, and sad.

Perhaps???

[bichettehappens]

Re: Chicago closing 129 elementary schools

Perhaps???

lol that was a dumb statement/word choice on my part.