Oppose the Surprise Attack Against the Senn Strategic Plan

Fifteen months ago, Senn students, faculty, parents and community members began a Senn Strategic Plan process. The resulting Senn Strategic Plan is intended to help build on Senn’s strengths to make it into a World-Class, First Choice school for the community. Input was sought far and wide. Over 1200 responded. One of these was Alderman Smith. She helped get funding from the Board of Education for the committee’s work, and appointed her educational staff member to the committee. In the fall of 2007, the Senn LSC approved the plan. Then in a bizarre twist, Alderman Smith suddenly began promoting a scheme of her own, in direct opposition to the Strategic Plan’s conclusion that Senn needs to remain one general community school, a diverse school to benefit everyone.

What is the aim of this surprise attack by Mary Ann Smith? It is identical to her expressed intention of three years ago– to “Close down Senn” and put four small selective and/or restrictive schools in its place. Three years ago the naval academy was all she could get, and Senn survived, despite inequities and hardships. Now, she wants it all. Never mind that the LSC voted no three years ago. Never mind that her own committee voted no two years ago. Never mind that the 48th ward overwhelmingly passed a referendum of inquiry, which both she and the Board of Education ignored. And now, again, never mind the committee’s conclusions derived from a lengthy and inclusive planning process with her involved. It just doesn’t fit with what she wants. It would seem she is convinced that what she wants, she should get. However, the opposition to this latest attack is strong and passionate.

Students, faculty, parents, and community are not taking this attack lying down. Immediately after Smith’s attack, over 125 people showed up early on a Saturday morning at the scheduled Senn Strategic Planning meeting. Another 100 attended the following meeting of December 1st. Participants strongly expressed support for the Senn Strategic Plan, and expressed outrage at the alderman’s scheme. A need for two initiatives quickly emerged: the need 1) to strengthen and gain support for the Senn Strategic Plan, and 2) to immediately take action to inform and mobilize the community in opposition to Smith’s scheme.

What actions are being planned to defend having a stronger Senn High School and beat back Mary Ann Smith’s plan to break up Senn High School? Look for announcements of an action to be coming up in the near future, perhaps as soon as next Wednesday, December 19. Join in this, and also participate in informing the community with leaflets that have been printed up. (Call 250.3335 if you need information.)

As well, look at and sign the on-line petition that has already been signed by hundreds of students, former students, faculty, and other people. See the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/SennHS/petition.html and on the SaveSenn.org web site. It says:

PETITION The most diverse high school in Chicago is under attack again by Alderman Mary Ann Smith. Four years ago, she undemocratically forced a Naval Academy inside Senn High School, despite a united school and community against the plan. http://www.substancenews.com/content/view/144/81/

The Naval academy continues occupying our school to this day. Only 5% of the Naval Academy’s students come from within our attendance area.

Now, the Alderman wants to take away the rest of our school and open 4 small schools inside of Senn. Despite outright lies by the Alderman, Senn serves 70% of students in our attendance area.

The undemocratic Alderman had an opportunity to make Senn a better school by working with the Senn Strategic Planning Committee. In fact, she had a representative on the committee. The committee was open to the public and included teachers, parents, and community members of Senn. After a year and a half of work, the committee developed a plan to improve Senn. However, the Alderman secretly developed her own plan, which plagiarized language and stole ideas from the Senn Strategic Plan.

Using her stolen ideas, she wants to kick out the type of students attending our school and replace them with “higher class” students. The Naval Academy would stay of course!

Senn is not the first school to be attacked. This is part of Mayor Daley’s Renaissance 2010 plan. Many schools, like Austin and Englewood High Schools have already been shut down. More will be threatened. Help us stop gentrification and the destruction of public education in Chicago!

Our school serves Blacks, Latin@s, Asians and immigrants from all over the world. Our school has students from over 70 countries! Alderman Smith wants to change that. WE WILL NOT LET HER!

We the undersigned are against the Alderman’s undemocratic plan to close Senn. WE SUPPORT DEMOCRATIC DECISIONS AND SUPPORT GIVING THE SENN STRATEGIC PLAN A CHANCE!

Some Comments on the Petition

Christine Godoy, Senn Local School Council Student Representative– Support the Senn’s Strategic Planning committee. Many Senn students are involved in this process to help save Senn High School from being closed so that our current and future students may have the opportunity to have a good education.

Lily Sarmiento– I was against the naval academy being put into Senn High School. I will fight as many times as needed to save the school that gave me the opportunity to become who I am today.

Wendy Boatman, Counselor– Support Senn! Save the high school! Fight Alderman Smith!

Ashley Lepse– I am a graduate of Senn High School. I was in the IB program, which has done an excellent job at preparing me for college. I now attend Illinois State University. Senn’s diversity has given me a huge advantage over many people from rich suburban schools.

Erwin Maldonado– SAVE SENN AND LETS DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. DONT LET THEM TAKE OUR FUTURE!!!

Restrict Military Recruiters in the Schools

A grouping of people opposed to the militarization of the Chicago Public Schools has convinced the Board of Education to put on its agenda proposed guidelines to restrict military recruiters in the schools. Right now in many schools the military recruiters come and go as they want everywhere and anywhere in the school. They may go into classrooms and hallways to find students and talk them into signing up for the military. They do this because they have a quota to meet. The military is having deep trouble recruiting during these years in which the U.S. illegally and unjustly invades countries like Iraq or threatens Iran. They promise the students anything, if only they will sign up, often lying about money for college, not being in combat, gaining citizenship if they are undocumented immigrants, etc. There was an open meeting at the Board of Education on this topic Monday, December 10. The final resolution is scheduled for the next Board of Education full meeting, Wednesday, December 19. The aim is to at least restrict military recruiters to a table, to have them not actively solicit students, to have them not give out valuable items, and to register to enter a school a day or so in advance.

An Open Letter to the Cadets at Rickover Naval Academy (excerpts) By one of the regular distributors of Anchors Away

Cadets: …It’s safe to assume that we all love our country and want the best for it, both for ourselves and for future generations of Americans… Our differences–not with you cadets, but with the people responsible for establishing Rickover Academy at Senn — are by now well-known to you… It is clear to see (and also to understand why) the Navy is providing you with an education that serves to channel many of you into the military.

That wouldn’t be so objectionable if our country was fighting off a threat to our security and freedoms. But those of us in Save Senn, along with the majority of Americans and a great number of widely-respected political and military figures (including many generals and active duty personnel) believe that the war on Iraq is counter-productive and serves wealthy corporate interests at the expense of most Americans…. … keep in mind that critical thinking can be tricky, especially when an issue seems clear—because things aren’t always as they appear at first glance. … Critical thinking is far superior to blind trust in leaders… It simply requires you to evaluate for yourself…assertions so that you can decide for yourself whether or not you buy into it.

In wars today, as well as wars in the past, many young soldiers have committed terrible atrocities. Do you think they were all evil people, or was it that many were taught, trained, and intimidated into allowing others to think for them, to follow wrongful orders, to act in inhumane ways… Had they critically evaluated their leaders—by watching what their leaders were doing instead of simply listening to what they were saying—they might have been effective at amassing the numbers and strength to replace their poor leadership before things got out of control. …Unquestioning faith in leaders is an unacceptable substitute for true patriotism. We at Save Senn can only ask that you ask yourselves these questions:

1. Do I know why our armed forces invaded Iraq in the first place? If no weapons of mass destruction were ever found, and indeed our leaders later admitted that they were wrong, how could those same leaders tell us earlier that they had proof of their existence? And what were the consequences of Americans believing what they were saying without demanding reasonable proof?
2. If Iraq had nothing at all to do with 9-11, why do so many people here still want to connect the two? Who stands to gain by keeping Americans misinformed?
3. Can I “follow the money”—that is, draw a connection between who is pushing a certain agenda and their possible reason for doing so? For example, are the huge profits earned by oil companies being spent to influence the information being provided to us by political leaders and the media (many of whom have significant ties to that corporate wealth)? Does that fact that many in the Bush Administration have ties to corporations growing wealthy on this war indicate anything to me (the Bush family to the oil industry, Cheney to Haliburton, Condaleezza Rice to Chevron, etc…)?
4. If our soldiers are really fighting for democracy in Iraq, how does the benchmark that requires Iraq to turn over most of its oil to American and British oil companies support that mission?…

This entry was posted on December 14th, 2007 and is filed under News and Updates.