By Steve Rhodes
“Whitney Young Magnet High School, Michelle Obama’s alma mater, may have to charge students $500 to attend a seventh period because of nearly $1 million in budget cuts the school is facing,” DNAinfo Chicago reports.
“Under the proposal, all students at the high-powered magnet school at 211 S. Laflin would attend six periods, but students wanting to take a seventh would have to pony up $500, according to a letter sent Wednesday to faculty and parents by Whitney Young Principal Joyce Kenner.”
And don’t forget, Chicago’s schools are now BYOTP.
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“Despite CPS’ contention that school-based budget cuts are ‘not severe,’ Raise Your Hand parent members are reporting massive cuts in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and even millions at some schools. Raise Your Hand is keeping a list of cuts and with just over 10% of schools reporting so far, there is a loss of just over $45 million.”
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Not severe?
“Ken Fitzner, first-year principal of Audubon School, knew budget cuts were coming but ‘the extent to which the cuts are happening is shocking,’ he said at Monday night’s Local School Council meeting,” DNAinfo Chicago also reports.
“When I saw these numbers, my jaw dropped,” Fitzner said as he presented Audubon’s financials for the 2013-14 school year to the 50 attendees. “These are below state foundations.”
“The net loss for the school amounts to $400,912, which would translate into four to six teaching positions being cut and class sizes rising to 37-45 students, according to Fitzner. Eliminating one of two seventh-grade teachers would result in 61 students in a single homeroom, he said.”
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“But at least we’re seeing progress on building a new stadium for DePaul,” Curtis Black writes for Newstips, in which he discusses alternatives to draconian school cuts.
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“After 119 years, school’s out forever at West Pullman Elementary,” the Tribune reports.
“None of the school’s 45 staff members has found a job elsewhere in the school system.”
Maybe they can sell peanuts at DePaul games.
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“In a grim scene being replicated all across the city, the local school council at Thomas Kelly High School will meet Thursday to approve a budget that cuts $4 million from this year’s $25 million spending,” Mark Brown writes for the Sun-Times.
“To accomplish this 18 percent reduction, the principal at Kelly has proposed eliminating 23 of the school’s 183 teaching positions.
“In addition, 10 of the Southwest Side school’s 46 staff members – secretaries, clerks, classroom aides and the like – will also lose their jobs.
“On top of that, the school will spend 50 percent less on textbooks and on supplies such as toilet paper and sidewalk salt.
“Transportation spending – which covers buses for field trips, athletics and other extracurricular activities – will be reduced 70 percent. Equipment spending – for desks, chairs, computers and such – will be slashed 87 percent.
“Lost in the continued angst over school closings, many surviving Chicago Public Schools are facing painful budget cuts that may end up eliminating more jobs and disrupting more students than did even the closings.
“These cuts coincide with introduction of a new funding formula that CPS officials say is intended to give principals the flexibility to minimize harm to the classroom.
“But many of these same principals are reporting back to their local school councils that CPS has reduced funding so much that teacher cuts and other educational impacts are unavoidable.
“While a spring budget scare is par for the course at CPS, what’s unusual here is that it isn’t the CPS central office sounding the alarm. In fact, a CPS spokesman continued Wednesday to emphasize the school budgets are only preliminary and that the final numbers will show ‘very minimal cuts.'”
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That’s either the latest in a long string of bald-faced lies coming out of CPS or there is an unconscionable game afoot.
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Meanwhile . . .
“For the second time in two years, Chicago Public Schools’ $100 million-a-year food-services operation is being probed for alleged improprieties,” Crain’s reports.
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Fact-Check: The NSA And 9/11
Obama uses the same debunked claim as Bush.
Hawks Reunited And It Feels So Good
There’s only one perfect fit, and Toews, Kane and Bickell is it.
The Futurists Are (Almost) Here
Invasion alert.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: BYOTP.
Posted on June 20, 2013