An Update on the Whittier Occupation
Architecture and Urbanism, Education, Features, Pilsen, Politics & Labor No Comments »On October 28th, forty three days after parents at Whittier Elementary School in Pilsen began a sit-in to prevent the destruction of the school’s fieldhouse, CPS delivered a letter signed by CEO Ron Huberman that formalized agreements made eight days earlier. The field-house will be leased to the Parent Committee for $1 a year as soon as the group officially incorporates as a nonprofit, and a library will be built for Whittier students. The Whittier Parent Committee officially ended the sit-in that same day, but some questions remain. The parents’ group issued the following statements qualifying their victory:
1) The location of the library has NOT been determined or agreed upon by the Whittier Parent Committee. The parents DID NOT agree to the library being built inside of the Whittier school as the letter from CPS states.
2) We also want to note that the Whittier Parent Committee DID NOT agree to be responsible for all the repairs or other maintenance issues mentioned in the letter. During this meeting we made it clear that as the leasing agent, it is CPS’s responsibility to ensure that the building is up to fire codes and safe for the children.
3) We want to make it clear that we are ONLY ending the sit-in portion of the struggle. The Whittier Parent Committee remains in control of the fieldhouse and the programming that is currently taking place in the fieldhouse. We ARE NOT abandoning the fieldhouse nor are we ending our fight for the library. The negotiations will continue!
In the meantime, Huberman has announced that he will be stepping down as head of CPS on November 29th, his resignation apparently hurried along by Mayor Daley, the Sun-Times reports. The Sun-Times’ sources suggest that Huberman’s replacement will likely be Terry Mazany, a former public school administrator and current CEO of the Chicago Community Trust with a much stronger background in public education.
ALSO:a slight correction. In the original text of this article I wrote that proving all of the Parent Committee’s allegations “would require a thorough investigation into TIF funding records, something no major media outlet has attempted.” While it’s true that thorough database reporting is lacking, there have been some important stories on the issue. Ben Joravsky’s pieces for the Chicago Reader are worth reading.
Read the original CW feature on the Whittier occupation here.
