Reminder: Greater Chatham Alliance meeting this Saturday

Saturday, October 15
11:00 a.m. - 1 p.m.
St. James Lutheran Church
8000 S. Michigan

Agenda items include (from the GCA e-mail):

Milburn Alternative School at St. Clotilde
Many of  you are aware about the Alternative school at St. Clotilde. Well, our guest speaker on Saturday is the Chicago Public School's Deputy-Chief of  Alternative Schools. We are sure you have lots of questions to ask her. See Alderman Sawyer's letter if you need more details on the school situation.


Proposed Mega Pawn Shop For 87th St.
Now we have another issue regarding a company called EZCORP Inc., a publicly traded company located in Austin,  Texas.

They want to redevelop the former Chatham Pancake  House, at 700 E. 87th St., into a mega-size pawnshop  called EZPAWN. And GCA wants to hear what you think about that?


The Black Caucus' (Chicago Aldermen) Proposed Ward Remapping for the 6th Ward
The Black Caucus' proposed ward remapping is currently in draft stage. But we do know this: the Caucus is recommending that 6th Ward communities--south of 87th street--like Chesterfield, West Chesterfield and Roseland Heights, plus Chicago State University, be placed in Alderman Beale's 9th Ward community.So we ask is this really about being more equitable in ward redistricting in Chicago? Or is this more about diluting the 6th Ward's strength as a group of communities.

For more information, email: gcahonor@sbcglobal.net  or call 773.635.6500 for more info

An additional note, just came in yesterday:

In addition to Jennifer D. Vidis, Deputy-Chief of Alternative Schools from the Chicago Public
Schools, attending our meeting, we have been notified today that Calista Winford, the principal of the Milburn Alternative School at St. Clotilde will also be in attendance.

As always, we want to conduct our meeting in a structured, serious manner. So we will ask the audience to submit written questions.
GCA knows that our audience won't hold punches and will ask the serious questions.

We encourage that!
However, if you would like to bring your question(s) for early submission, please print them out.

Please let us know what you hear at the meeting (if you attend), or what questions/solutions you have...

An Open Letter to the Community about St. Clotilde School

St. Clotilde Catholic Church at 8430 S. Calumet has recently caused a community stir by housing an altnertive school that started this year, without the community knowing about it.

Here is the link from Aldereman Sawyer's office: An Open Letter to the Community about St. Clotilde School

And the letter...

Dear Community,


In recent weeks there has been legitimate concern in the community about a new school that has moved into St. Clotilde on the 8400 Block of South Calumet. I have reached out to the church, school and community leaders to do an investigation into this project, and I am writing this letter to provide you with some information about how this school came to our community.


For those who are unfamiliar, it is the Richard Milbourn School, an “Alternative Safe” educational facility that accepts students from the 6-12th grades. An Alternative Safe school is a school for students who have been expelled from their primary school, but have not yet exhausted their options for returning to their home school. This facility keeps these students anywhere between 45 days and 2 years. The school had approximately 35 students when I met with the Administrator on September 12th, and can potentially house as many as 115 students. The middle school aged students are bused to and from the school and the high school age students must take public transportation to get to the school. Security officials are posted at the bus stops in the morning and afternoon, escorting students to and from school. The Administrator understands the concerns of the neighborhood, and the school administration seems well meaning in their attempts to mitigate issues in the community.


My concern, however, is in the process that was used to bring the school into the area. This school was placed in this building by the administration of St. Clotilde and the Chicago Public Schools without any consultation with the neighbors or with my office. This is disrespectful to the community and shows a complete lack of regard for the legitimate concerns of a neighborhood to opening this school in a residential neighborhood. This is not an attempt to demonize children who have made a mistake; however, there are legitimate questions about filling what was traditionally an elementary school with high school aged students. There are legitimate concerns about having teenagers take public transportation to a school that is multiple blocks from most sources of public transportation. The process that was used in installing this school ignored all of those legitimate concerns in the neighborhood.


I hope that this is not indicative of the level of cooperation we can expect from the Emanuel and Brizard administrations. I want to be partners in improving both our schools and our children, but that requires collaboration with teachers, parents, government and the community. I am asking my Chatham neighbors to keep an eye out on this school and let us know if they are being good neighbors. I would also encourage those who want to assist the school in their goal of placing these students on the right path to visit the school and offer your assistance. They have pledged to maintain an open door policy and work with the community, and I intend to hold them to that vow. The city had a poor process for placing the school in our neighborhood, but we will not allow the school to remain in our neighborhood if it actually results in problems in our community, and for that, you are my eyes and ears.


Sincerely,


The Honorable Roderick T. Sawyer
Alderman, 6th Ward

The school has been turned over at least twice (St. Clotilde had their own school. When i moved ito the neighborhood a couple of years ago, there was New Way Christian School, which since folded). As I have walked by the church several times, I have noted just how empty and inactive it is, though having a block to work with (including a huge parking lot). I can see how desperate the church may be to have some income to maintain the property. What was the church like in its "glory days", and what happened to the people who enlivened it then?