www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-sennnov23,0,6768557.story

chicagotribune.com Students fear Senn split Some worry alderman’s plan could force them out By Stephanie Banchero

Tribune staff reporter

November 23, 2007

Students at Senn High School have long prided themselves on being the city’s most diverse and inclusive student body. A sort of global village, the Edgewater school boasts teenagers from 70 countries who speak 30 languages.

But now, students and teachers at the Far North Side campus say the school’s diversity is threatened.

A proposal championed by Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th) would break the sprawling campus into four small distinct schools, including a selective program that would take only the highest-scoring teenagers.

Senn students fear the plan would replace their multicultural school community with white, middle-class students who are moving into the rapidly gentrifying Edgewater community.

“They want to make it a school that we can’t get in to, a school where everyone looks the same,” said Asad Khan, a 17-year-old senior born in the United Arab Emirates.

“I’m angry because I feel like they don’t care about us,” added Jennifer Garcia, 14, a freshman born in Mexico. “I think diversity is a good thing, and I think they should want schools to be diverse.”

Garcia, Khan and a group of Senn students have organized to fight the alderman’s proposal. They plan to meet weekly and hope to get an audience with Smith.

“We have ideas to make our school better, too, and they should listen to us,” said Luci Salinas, a 17-year-old senior leading the charge.

The current student body hails from across the globe, with roots from Afghanistan to Nepal to Nigeria to Croatia. About one-third were born outside the United States, and two-thirds speak a language other than English at home.

Nearly 95 percent come from low-income homes and about 40 percent of students either enroll late or leave early.

“We have a vibrant community at this school, but we also have students that face great academic challenges,” Principal Richard Norman said.

Only 14 percent of Senn students passed the state Prairie State Achievement Exam, compared with a district average of about 30 percent. The average ACT score is 16.3 out of 32, also below the district average. And only about half the freshman are on track to graduate on time, according to district data.

Currently, Senn houses four academic programs: The general enrollment Senn; Rickover Naval Academy; an International Baccalaureate program; and a quasi-junior high school for 8th graders who have been held back so many times, they already turned 16 and are too old to stay in an elementary school.

A year ago, Senn officials launched a strategic planning initiative to further revamp the school. The committee completed its first draft last month. The 37-page proposal addressed diversity, safety and community involvement. But it had few specifics about improving academic achievement.

A few weeks later, Smith came out with a different, far more dramatic proposal.

That plan, which was presented to Chicago Public Schools officials earlier this month, calls for breaking Senn into four distinct schools within Senn’s walls.

The Rickover Naval Academy, already located in Senn, would remain. The other schools would be the selective enrollment program, a vocational education program focused on theater and technical arts, and a college-prep language arts academy.

Nancy Meyerson, Smith’s education aide, said the alderman’s proposal meshes with the school-created plan, which calls for developing more fine arts and international studies.

Meyerson pointed out that Senn’s enrollment has steadily declined, and that only 35 percent of students who live in the schools’ boundaries actually attend it. (Because Chicago allows students to apply to any high school, on average, a Chicago high school attracts about 45 percent of children in its attendance area.)

“There is a group of neighbors out there who are not sending their children to Senn, and we think we have an idea that will attract all the neighbors,” said Meyerson, who was a member of the school’s strategic planning committee. “This is a plan of inclusion, not exclusion. In many ways, I think the school would become more diverse.”

Chicago school officials said they have been briefed on the alderman’s plan, but said there are no immediate plans in the works to overhaul Senn.

But Senn students argue that if the alderman is unhappy with the academic performance of the school, she should pump more money into it. They complain about chipped paint on the walls, lackluster biology and chemistry labs, and a shortage of textbooks.

“If they want this school to be better, than give us the things we need to be successful,” said Ibrahim Sablaban, an 18-year-old senior enrolled in the IB program. “Don’t make us do without and then turn around and blame us.”

sbanchero@tribune.com

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

Winning a Victory Is Possible

 Some students and others have wondered why the Save Senn Coalition continues to publish Anchors Away and continues to call for moving Rickover Naval Academy out of the Senn High School Building. It’s a done deal, some say. We say that continuing  the struggle is the path to a possible victory, and a needed victory since Senn High School needs its full space to be able to provide the highest quality education it can. Persistence is the way victories are sometimes won. And, in the meanwhile, people get better organized for the many other struggles that lie ahead. Here are some recent examples in which continuing struggle has led to some victories. Some may seem to be small victories, but a victory is a victory and can open the way for an even more victories for the people and democracy, for peace and justice. 

1. Reading, Writing, and Recruiting? The Save Senn Coalition and others in the city have pointed out that military academies in the Chicago Public Schools are a hidden way for the U.S. government to recruit young people for illegal and unpopular wars, such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The government over the years has had so much trouble recruiting young people for the military, that it has resorted to setting up military academies. As the Chicago Board of Education’s web site has pointed out, this has led to a recruitment rate of 40%, which is very high. The Board of Education isn’t dealing with the fact that allowing military recruiting within its programs is illegal– General Eric K. Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, testified under oath to the House Armed Services Committee, in reporting on the JROTC program “…we don’t recruit them [students]; as you know, we’re not permitted to do that…” (February 10, 2000). The victory so far here is that, as a result of the efforts of the Save Senn Coalition and others, a much bigger debate on the issue of military academies in the schools has taken place this past month. It has come up in the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times and even been reported on by National Public Radio and the New York Times. When a new Marine Academy in the Chicago Public Schools was dedicated on October 15th, the Chicago Tribune recognized the issues involved with a big headline on top of the page 1: “Reading, writing, recruiting? Debate rages as city’s newest facility is dedicated.” Many people wrote to the editor to express their views. For example, Professors Erica R. Meiners and Therese Quinn wrote, “As faculty members who prepare educators to teach in Chicago’s schools, we know that Chicago’s students hope for skills and opportunities. Instead…the city’s administration is directing them to the armed forces…These Department of Defense (DOD) run schools enroll predominately low-income families of color… .We call for an immediate moratorium on the establishment of any DOD run military public schools in Chicago.”

2. Opt-Out Forms–Many people opposed to militarization of the Chicago Public Schools have urged the Board of Education to make opt-out forms easily available to students and parents to stop military recruiters from calling students at home. The Board of Education agreed two years ago, though it has not followed through well in making the forms easy to understand and readily available. However, for Report Card Day, The Tribune and Sun-Times reported that the Board of Education had agreed to have them for parents and students. So, this is another victory, though initial investigation shows that the opt-out forms were not available as easily as needed. If you did not get an opt-out at school, please request one.

3. Restrict the Movement of Military Recruiters–Those opposed to militarization of the Chicago Public Schools have also raised the issue of military recruiters freely roaming throughout the schools, harassing students, taking them out for hard-sell talks and getting them to sign forms. As a result of this issue being raised, the Board of Education is supposedly going to restrict the movement of military recruiters in the schools and insist that they follow the same guidelines as business or college or counter-military recruiters.

Senn Strategic Plan Calls for “Reclaiming Space”

The Senn Strategic Five-Year Plan has now been approved by the Local School Council (LSC) and many others. To be carried out, there will need to be an expansion of Senn H.S., and reclaiming of space taken by Rickover Naval Academy. The Senn Strategic Plan statement makes clear it is a vision of the future for Senn, building on Senn’s strengths, with the aim of transferring that vision into an actionable plan. The Plan proposes developing programs such as International Studies and fine arts, etc. To accomplish this, the plan states the need to “Identify/Reclaim space for these innovative programs,” with the LSC, alderman, and CPS listed as parties responsible for this. The work for identifying or reclaiming space is to begin before the end of December and be completed by May 2009. The Strategic Planning Partners who helped develop this plan include: Senn LSC, Senn Faculty, American Society for Training and Development, Alternatives Inc., Cardinal Point Learning, Deloitte Consulting, Ebenezer Lutheran Church, Edgewater Community Council, Executive Service Corps, Friends of Senn, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Alderman Patrick O’Connor, Organization of the NorthEast, State Representative Harry Osterman, Alderman Mary Ann Smith, Voices of Students. If everyone holds firm to the plan to make an improved and exciting future for Senn H.S., it follows that Rickover Naval Academy will have to leave the building.

What Is the Board of Education So Worried About? “From: Communications [of Chicago Public Schools], October 5, 2007, To all CPS personnel, Pleased be advised that the high school area formally known as the “Military Area Office” will now be called ‘Area 26.’ The Area 26 high schools are: Carver Military Academy, Chicago Military Academy, Marine Academy, Phoenix Military Academy, Rickover Naval Academy.”

Support the Anti-War Struggle and Struggle for Freedom of Speech at Morton H.S.

 On All Saint’s Day, November 1, a large number of students at Morton High School in Berwyn, Illinois staged a peaceful, non-violent protest against the U.S. war in Iraq and against the regular presence of military recruiters for that war in their cafeteria. The school administration, instead of praising the students for their  concern about the political and moral issues of our day, decided to punish them with suspensions and the threat of expulsion and harassment,   violating their right to free speech and  to assemble peacefully in the open  space of the cafeteria and nearby, especially since they were not   interfering with other students or classes. 
In response to the administration’s decision to punish the students, people from all over the country wrote in to support the students, including 5,000 on an on-line petition. Many, including from Senn H.S., attended and spoke out at the Board of Education meeting on November 7th.  The protest gained coverage far and wide, including in the New York Times. Even the Sun-Times took an editorial stand in support of the students and their right to protest, and against the arbitrary law and order stand of the school administration (“Unfair penalty for students who spoke up,” Sun-Times, 11/8/07).
Students at Senn would do well to extend as much support as they can to their fellow students who stood up against the illegal and unjust war, and think about what forms of protest they can to take up. As we said in the opening article, a victory in ending the U.S. war in Iraq, and preventing an illegal and unjust attack on Iran is possible. In case you don’t know, if there is an attack on Iran by the U.S. government or by its proxy Israel, there will be an emergency protest downtown at Federal Plaza   5 p.m. that day, and   5 p.m . the next day. 

There are problems with the e-mail program listed for SaveSenn.org To contact us either write to SaveSenn, P.O. Box 60365, Chicago, IL 60626 or, better yet, call 773.250.3225

Look under Information for presentations to the Board of Education.

Look under Flyers for current and past issues of Anchors Away, the monthly newsletter of the Save Senn Coalition. The currently missing 2007 issues will be posted soon, probably by the end of September.