Vote for your Local School Councils TODAY!

Today, the residents of Chicago can vote for their Local School Council (LSC).

Did you know that?  While we know parents at a particular school would be voting, the residents who live IN a neighborhood school's neighborhood boundaries can ALSO vote, even if you don't have a student there.

The voting is a bit confusing... most schools have 6 parents offices and 2 community offices to fill. But voters can only vote for 5 candidates. Now, they can be any combination of parents and communitiy.

For more information (such as which school you are eligible to vote in), see the Chicago Public Schools website. (Note: due to high interest, the CPS website might be down or nonresponsive. Please check again) The LSC elections map will let you know where you should vote.

Mechanics: I Ran for Local School Council and Maybe I Even Won!

The author of this article - Phil Huckleberry - discusses his experience as a candidate for his neighborhood school's LSC. He apparently won the election, but discovered at a recent meeting that the results have been challenged. That school's LSC won't meeting until next year after new elections, and the school's LSC functions would be governed instead by CPS' central office. Something pertinent Mr. Huckleberry said in his piece:

Now, this story isn't about me and my awe-inspiring 21 votes. It's not about whether or not there was some sort of problem with the election.

This is a story about bureaucracy.

I can rail against charter schools or say negative things about the mayor just like a lot of people who write words that get put on the Internet. I can talk about how great Karen Lewis is just like the next cherished Chicago journalist.

But here is the crux of the situation: Bureaucracies put bureaucracy first. And the reality is that Chicago Public Schools is a horrifically clunky bureaucracy, steeped in nonsensical inefficiencies, ultimately overseen by an unelected board who are themselves nothing more than hand-picked highly privileged bureaucrats. The system is failing its students because the system is more important than the students.

There are a lot of smart and dedicated administrators within CPS. But things are never truly going to turn around so long as everything is about CPS and not about the actual students.

I suggest you read the whole thing, and of course we hope to hear your thoughts on this.

LSC election flyer and some thoughts on education...

Monday and Tuesday are days for LSC Elections. Monday was LSC election for elementary schools and Tuesday are such days for the high schools. 

It was my intention to post the above flyer over the weekend unfortunately it seems I kept running into a snag with regards to posting it online whether through Blogger or the FB page. Anyway if you're living at least in the Roseland Heights or West Chesterfield area you may have found this in your screendoors or mailboxes. Sharon Banks-Pincham represents the community on the LSCs for both Gillespie Elementary and Harlan Community Academy.

Hopefully you were able to be informed of the LSC elections on Monday and were able to vote. Hopefully you're able to vote on Tuesday for LSC members at your local high schools.

Speaking of education, on Monday Rich Miller of the Capitol Fax ranted about the state of education in Illinois. Many of us are concerned about the state of education in Chicago especially for the K-12 set. So he starts out with comparing charter schools with the neighborhood public schools and states:

LSC Elections extended

We just want to remind everyone that the deadline for Local School Council candidate applications has been extended until March 14.

Many of our schools need members. Please consider being a part of it. If you're a CPS parent, you can still join your local school's council as a community representative.

CHICAGO – Chicago – Chicago Public Schools (CPS) today announced that it has extended its Local School Council (LSC) election candidate filing deadline from February 26 to March 14, giving parents and community members an extra two weeks to submit their nominating forms. Elections will take place on April 7 for elementary schools and April 8 for high schools during report card pick-up from 6:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.

"I strongly encourage any parent or community member who is passionate about education and helping our students reach their fullest potential to run for their Local School Council," said CPS CEO Byrd-Bennett. "Getting involved at the school level is great way to have a positive impact on your community and helps the District achieve its overall goal of ensuring 100 percent of our students are college-ready and 100 percent are college-bound."

LSC representatives serve as an important link between a school's administration, the community, CPS and students, and play a significant role in decision-making to boost student academic achievement. Elected LSC representatives will serve a two-year term, beginning at the start of School Year 2014-2015 (SY14-15). Each LSC is made up of six parents, two community members, two teachers, one non-teacher staff member and the school's principal. High School LSCs also have a student representative.

Parents and community members who are interested in running for their LSC must submit nominating forms at their respective school by March 14, 2014 at 3:00 p.m. Those eligible to run for their LSC include parents whose children attend the school, community members, and the teachers and non-teaching staff from the school.

The forms, along with additional information, can be found at www.cps.edu/lsc, in the main office of any CPS school, CPS Network Offices, and the Office of LSC Relations located at CPS' downtown headquarter. For more information, please call the Office of LSC Relations at (773) 553-1400.

The Chicago Public Schools serves approximately 400,000 students. It is the nation's third-largest school system

The original press release is here:
http://www.cps.edu/News/Press_releases/Pages/PR1_02_24_2014.aspx

LSC Election results

The results are available for the Chicago LSC Elections.
To find your school via a map, go to -->  http://cps.edu/Pages/LSC_Map.aspx

Some results were horrendous.

Dixon had at most 12 parents voting. I'm not sure how big it is, but doing the math of 2 classrooms times 1st - 6th grade = 12. So it seems like ONLY 1 parent per classroom bothered voting, even though the election was on Report Card Pick Day (with teacher conferences).

Gillispie only had 2 parents to run (for up to 6 open slots), with 15 voting

Pirie several parents running, and but only one received 16 votes; a community member garnered 14 votes.

Neil had 24 voting.

Mcdade, despite being a Classical school (and one of the top 2% in the state) only had up to 48 vote. (This is a school I would expectr to have high parent involvement, as well as interest of neighbors).

Ruggles had at least 73 parents & community members voting

Burnside had at least 86
Harlan High had 37, including it looks like former State Rep. candidate Sandra Worthem.

Hirsch High had 27.

Deneen, being now a charter school, did not have any elections listed.



The database can be found at https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?snapid=S470929CFCw



A supplementary election is planned later this year. 
 
Disclaimer: The Sixth Ward blog writer, JP Paulus, ran for Burnside's LSC, and won as a parent representative.

Tomorrow is LSC election day for high schools...

Click image for a larger resolution

The above flyer are for community representatives Sharon Banks-Pincham and Sandra J. Wortham for the John Marshall Harlan High School Local School Council. Wortham just came off a bid for 34th district state representative and is currently serving on Harlan's LSC.

Anyway Tomorrow is election day for high school LSCs hopefully you can make some time to vote for LSC representatives at your neighborhood high school. In this case if you live in Harlan's neighborhood at least you know what room to go to to cast your ballot!

Again if you're for voting for an LSC candidate or have run for an LSC or are serving on an LSC please give us a note at blog [@] thesixthward.us

Ruggles LSC candidates...

Today is election day at CPS elementary schools. Today and Thursday are elections for Local School Councils at individual CPS schools. Thursday are election to high school LSCs.

I've been sitting on this for a while so here are some materials if you're to vote at Rugggles Elementary School located at 7831 S. Prairie Avenue. One flyer for an LSC candidate was already shown here, a flyer for Jahmal Cole author of Torch of Decency!

Knowing this is late notice, where ever your neighborhood elementary school is today please go out and cast a vote today! And leave a comment here to let us know at which school did you vote!

There's another election coming up...

And that election will be for our neighborhood schools Local School Council. Torch of Decency author Jahmal Cole has offered us a flyer for the coming election to takes place April 18 at all elementary schools and April 19 at all high schools. Again if you plan to run for an LSC let us know blog @ thesixthward . us. We want to know what you plan to do at our local schools!

Local School Councils need YOU as a candidate

Tomorrow is the NEW extended deadline for LSC elections. Thousands of slots remian open.
The map doesn't specify the need, but these include parent representatives (who can live anywhere in the city, as long as a child is a student), but also community representaives (who live within the school's immediate area. Contact the school for details). Community reps can include grandparents who do NOT have custody of a student in the school, but they need to live within the boundaries.

 In the 6th Ward, these include (according to the map):

• Deneen
• Dixon
• Ashe
• Neill
• McDade (surprisingly!)
• Gillespie
• Harlan
• Bennett
• Lenart (also a surpise)
• Westcott
• IDOC/Healy HS (8007 S. Cottage Grove)
• Harvard
• Yale
• Parker
• Banneker
• Robseson
• Kershaw
• Reed
• Hinton

You may also run in OTHER schools, such as Ruggles or Burnside, but they have at least have enough candidates to fill open slots, but a CIVIL election with more options is preferred.  These elections do NOT have to be like our recent local elections. Not at all -- but rather ways for parents to see other motivated leaders they can choose from to help their school.

Click on the map on CPS's web site  to find your local/child's school.

The process is quick and you can even download your forms ahead of time.

Elections are April 18 and 19 (for elementary and hig schools, respectively.).

Election judges are also needed. This is a temporary paid position, and you are not tied geographically.

For any questions about this information , call the Office of Local School Council Relations at 773-553-1400

And let the blog know by comment or at blog (at) thesixthward (dot) us

Deadline extension for local school councils

Anyone planning on running for an LSC? If you haven't filled out an application you have some more time to do so. CPS are looking for people to run. Of course there are some controversies involved with this as well.

With too few candidates signed up for local school council elections, Chicago Public Schools has extended the filing deadline two weeks.

The district announced Wednesday that it will delay until March 23 the deadline for applicants to declare candidacy, thus allowing CPS more time to recruit parents and community members to run for two-year terms in April. CPS says that so far, only 2,060 people have signed up to seek 6,800 seats.

Created by the Illinois General Assembly in 1988, local school councils have the power to decide how school funds are allocated and also can hire and fire principals. But from the beginning, former Mayor Richard Daley fought against their school-based authority, saying district officials needed to have the ultimate power. A former Board of Education president acknowledged in 2007 that it was one of his administration's main goals to eliminate the locally elected councils.

After this year's 17 school closings and turnarounds were announced, members of nine local school councils filed a lawsuit last month saying schools have removed local school councils from certain communities, in essence disproportionately taking away community and parent input from minority, low-income neighborhoods.

More from the Sun-Times:

LSCs — composed of elected parents, teachers and community members — have the power to hire and fire principals and oversee school budgets. However, reform groups contend LSCs are becoming increasingly marginalized by the CPS academic probation process and the creation of new schools without LSCs.

A letter Tuesday from 27 school reform organizations accused Chicago Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard of a “personal lack of forceful visible leadership’’ in encouraging LSC candidacy. It asked him to assume “personal responsibility” for successful LSC recruitment and demanded a deadline extension.

In his news release a day later announcing the extension, Brizard was quoted as saying that serving on an LSC is “the most important role a parent or community member can have in supporting their schools and students.’’ CPS officials said they had planned the extension before the letter arrived.

You can always drop by your neighborhood school to pick up an application or you can visit the LSC page at the CPS official website. At Harlan's LSC last Thursday one of the administrators there was handing out LSC applications to anyone in attendance at the meeting. They offered a different deadline than the previous one, but surely there is an extension of that in light of this news!

School council in Lakeview debates longer school day

This almost related to what was discussed at yesterday's Bennett-Shedd LSC meeting. It wasn't on the agenda really, but the issue of a longer school day came up. It doesn't appear that any LSC member made a stand on that issue.

The principal didn't take a stand either other than to raise her concerns such as safety. One could say soon the schools will not only serve breakfast and lunch but they may serve dinner. Therefore if the school day ends later what's going to happen when the student is out by themselves at night and no one is able to pick them up from school. Something to consider.

Here's the Tribune article:

Although teachers at Agassiz Elementary School in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood have already said they oppose a longer school day, the local school council held an emergency meeting on Wednesday night to discuss the issue with parents.

Like similar discussions at other schools, the debate at Agassiz was wide-ranging. Some parents supported the longer day, arguing that it helps teachers and parents. Others said Mayor Rahm Emanuel's offer of incentives is merely a political effort to break the strength of the Chicago Teachers Union.

“I want you to think about it,” Ingrid Kromer, a member of the local school council, told teachers at the school. “It's one school year of making a sacrifice. It's taking a little risk so we can have some extra money.”

The school’s teachers have informally rejected working a longer day. But they have yet to hold a formal vote on the issue.

Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools chief Jean-Claude Brizard have promised $150,000 in discretionary money for schools ready to start a longer day this month and a $1,250 bonus for each of those teachers. Schools ready to start in January would gain $75,000, and their teachers each would receive an $800 bonus.

But some parents at Agassiz said the school should reject the money. They were willing to raise the necessary funds.

“This just seems like CPS is trying to put money out there to turn people against each other,” said Julie Rakay, parent of a kindergartner and an incoming pre-schooler. “I'd rather send my kids to a school that stands with its union. My kids’ well-being is directly related to their teachers' well-being.”

Some felt any effort to add 90 minutes this month was too rushed. Others asked for a compromise, such as a longer school day in January.

So far, teachers at seven schools across the city have voted for the additional instruction time for students.

The Bennett-Shedd LSC meeting discussed making a transfer of funds to make a 25% match to a grant provided by T-Mobile for after school programs. They could easily make that money through the extra discretionary funds if they went to a longer school day if not now perhaps next year in time for the 3rd marking period.

This year it's only optional but it looks like Mayor Emanuel and CPS will make it mandatory next year. What do you think about a 90 minute school day? Will it be beneficial or do you think it doesn't matter how much time a student spends in school each day?

This is What Wrong With LSC's- Everybody's Out of Control at Arthur Ashe Elementary

This past weekend I received an invitation to join a Facebook group "Chatham Connection". I accepted the invitation and immediately got involved in the discussion. I received a message from a gentleman named Joe Lake who considers himself a community activist. He doesn't live in Chatham so I questioned his motives and the fact that he submitted an article about the situation at Arthur Ashe Elementary to a nothside newspaper only with having a conversation with one side of the situation. Secondly, he wants to convince me that 85th Ingleside is in Chatham. I, as well as, most Chatham residents consider that Avalon Park which is a part of the 8th ward. We split hairs about this but the major issue is the situation going on at Arthur Ashe Elementary School.

THE FOLLOWING VIDEOS ARE GRAPHIC AND MAY BE UNSUITABLE FOR YOUNGER VIEWERS

The content of the videos is disgusting and vulgar on all levels. The fighting by the kids, the parents and adults watching, idiots videotaping and the administration's lack of response. The videos' were uploaded by the school's former LSC president Ron Mitchell. I questioned his motive because he constantly speaks about a dispute another former LSC member has with the principal. The dispute with the principal  has resulted in Mr Mitchell and a Mrs. Walker being barred from entering the building. I also questioned the motives when I asked the following questions:

1. Was CPS central office security personnel contacted?
2. Was CPD contacted?
3. Did anyone attend the local CAPS meeting?
4. Was the CPS district officer contacted?
5. Was Alderman Michelle Harris contacted?
6. Were any CPS board members contacted?
7. Did they go to the monthly CPS board meeting and make the problem known?
8. Was the Inspector General Office contacted ?

The answer to 1-8 was "Duh" and the answer to 9 was I'm going to do it. My take is this is what wrong with LSC's individuals get on the board and declare it their turf and let their ego's get away from them. When someone bruise their ego's they can't accept it. I feel if the "kids" were the primary concern here 1-9 would have been done before they would have placed them on YouTube and had this guy write the article

Children fighting at South Side elementary school; principal accused of child endangerment

What is your take on this?

Events coming up here in the 6th ward...

I have only four to share, but if you know of any worth noting on the blog feel free to let us know. Write a comment, e-mail the blog, tweet us, or post it on our FB page!

Harlan Community Academy's LSC will meet this Thursday, June 16 at 6:30 PM. It will be located in Harlan's Social Room and the school is located at 9652 S. Michigan Avenue.

Greater Chatham Alliance will have their monthly meeting on June 18th between 11 AM to 12:30 PM at St. James Lutheran Church at 8000 S. Michigan Ave with special guest speaker, Stephanie Patterson, Associate Director of the non-profit, "Connections for Abused Women and their Children". Patterson's agency provides services for victims of domestic violence.

Also there is Real Men Cook event at Chicago State University at 9501 S. King Drive on June 19th. Details of this even have already been posted onto the blog! :P

Roseland Heights Community Association (RHCA) will have their last monthly meeting for the summer on June 28th at the Temple of Glory located on 311 E. 95th Street starting at 7 PM. Thereafter meetings will resume for the RHCA on September 27, October 25, and November 22.

Also here are some beat meetings coming up for some of the beats within the 6th ward. This was also posted onto the blog earlier.


Once again if there are any meetings that we should know about please let us know. Write a comment, e-mail us, tweet, or post on our FB page. Thanks!

Bennett-Shedd LSC: Principal selection and other issues...

Bennett Elementary School

I like to talk about about what goes on at Harlan's LSC, but I rarely talk about Bennett-Shedd's LSC here. It's not like there's much going on to report at Harlan anyway. Although it's great to hear them trumpet some of there accomplishments at Harlan as far as the students go.

Basically the main thing going on at Bennett-Shedd is that they're just now starting their search for a principal. The process might have started at either the April and certainly the May LSC meeting when they wanted to draft a statement to announce their opening at the elementary school.

If you haven't been particularly familiar with Bennett-Shedd, the original principal was Barbara Ellis who passed away in January of this year. In honor of her legacy Bennett School's library was named the Dr. Barbara J. Ellis Media Center. On the next Monday after the May 2011 LSC meeting there were some events scheduled to commemorate the dedication of the library which was under renovation.

In any event, there should be a posting out there for the Principal vacancy for Bennett-Shedd Elementary School. It should be noted that that the assistant principal, Roberta Fields, announced at the May LSC meeting that she planned to apply for that position . She could be an interesting choice and provide a certain amount of continuity.

So, I've been attending these LSC meetings since October 2010 when Mrs. Ellis was still principal. Of course in the wake of her untimely passing it was noted - mainly by the LSC chairman Mr. Cartman - that Mrs. Ellis took care of a lot of things that LSC was supposed to have taken care of. Now that she's gone they have to take care of business now.

Since about February or so, the LSC meetings have been attended by a CPS representative who breaks in to give the council pointers on how to conduct their meetings. It could be on parliamentary procedures, on how the LSC needs to stay focused, taking the roll such as noting who's not physically in the room, in addition to urging LSC members to start their meetings on time. Yesterday's meeting was close to 30 minutes overdue!

It's safe to say that during the months when it was time to start a principal search, there are some things that need to be done differently. At that hopefully the sooner they start searching the sooner that Bennett-Shedd will find and offer a contract to the best candidate for Principal. This would definitely be a case of staying focused.

Another thing noted is that the CPS representative wants the LSC to be sure that they publicize the date of their next meeting on the agenda that's passed out at every meeting. They could also announce that date during the course of the meeting. While I did have a list of dates for LSC meetings during the 2010-2011 year sometimes they would change the scheduled dates. In fact there have been some specially called meetings and I would have little idea until I either see the board at either Shedd or Bennett or notice the agendas of other meetings that were missed.

Well I believe it was noted at this month's regular meeting that there will be a special meeting called and that should take place on Monday @ 4:30 PM. The LSC went into a closed session near the end of the meeting to further discuss the Principal vacancy. The main point of this meeting was to have parents give feedback on the process but only one parent showed up and she was involved with the Parent Advisory Council. In addition they wanted to create surveys for not only teachers but for parents. They also wanted to possibly offer a survey for the surrounding community as well.

There is a question that should be asked by all concerned about the Principal vacancy. What are they looking for in a new Principal? That would be my question, shall report on the answer!

FYI: Bennett School is located at 10115 S. Prairie Ave and its Shedd School branch is located at 200 E. 99th Street.

EDIT: Had to fix the address for Bennett School sorry about that!

Harlan High School LSC tomorrow night...

Well at least there is no confusion for this meeting there was a date listed on Harlan's marquee here. It also helps that well I already knew the meeting was scheduled from the time of the last meeting.

Next meeting is May 19th @ 6:30 PM. Harlan is located at 9652 S. Michigan Ave.

It should be noted that, I saw the City Council in action online today. Newly inaugurated Alderman Roderick Sawyer just so happen to have made mention of Harlan today refering to the school by its full name. Basically what he was speaking on is recognition of Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) students.

Not sure what the resolution was about as I just joined the city council already in progress. It's safe to say that they recognized a certain JROTC program within the Chicago Public School.

BTW, it was noted that some young people from this ward have secured nominations to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Congrats to those young people! And I can only hope they went to Harlan as well. :)

This is probably the rarest time you will find this...

An agenda for a Harlan LSC meeting. I've attended quite a few starting in October although I have missed a few in the past for both Bennett-Shedd Elementary & Harlan High School.

I've learned that LSCs must post an agenda somewhere outside of the school for the public to see. In fact this is what an LSC advisor from CPS HQ said to the LSC at Bennett-Shedd. Before then if you saw an agenda before you got to the meeting it was usually inside of the school. Even then the Bennett-Shedd LSC would pass an agenda out to the public who attends.

BTW, during the course of the meeting they mainly discussed the students, business of an LSC parent member who missed 5 meetings (they later voted to remove this person), a Harlan Alumna just so happened to write a $1000 check for Harlan's track & field program, in addition to the AVID program and students who were either getting scholarships or attending summer programs.

Another issue is being in compliance as far as the special needs students. There isn't much the school can do without being non-compliant. They have to send notices out to parents and the parents either refuse to meet with the school or just aren't able to meet with the school. If the parents fail to response the school is not compliant, if there aren't enough aides for the special needs students the school is out of compliance. Even worse officials from the State of Illinois will pay a visit to Harlan in the near future to see if Harlan is in compliance.

It should be noted that the Principal commended the staff for their efforts to get Harlan's special ed in compliance. Nothing very exciting to write about really just that they're working on making sure that every i is dotted and every t crossed.

BTW, there was an election for LSC student representative at Harlan Thursday. The incumbent student rep apparently is running again although before he left school for the day he hadn't said who won. In fact the Principal didn't say who won at the meeting. Primarily they campaigned by giving speeches over the intercom. At Chicago's high schools students elect a representative to the LSC in addition to the principal, 6 parent representatives, 2 teacher representatives, 2 community representatives, and finally 1 non-teaching staff member.

On the agenda, it's noted that the next meeting will be held on May 19.

OK some confusion...

Well another way to show that Harlan is an AVID National Demonstration School. Something that was mentioned at the March LSC meeting there.

The other thing is that an LSC meeting is advertised. Of course on the Harlan website the meeting is scheduled to take place on April 21st next week. So the marquee doesn't say exactly is the meeting tomorrow roughly the same time as Ald. Lyle's last monthly meeting as 6th Ward Alderman or is it next Thursday. Some more detail might help.

Hmm, I think a phone call is in order tomorrow. And if you to visit the school located at 9652 S. Michigan Ave for the LSC meeting perhaps you can place a call to 773.535.5400 and inquire as to whether or not the meeting will be held tomorrow.

So is it true about Harlan students going to the White House...

Starting with this young man featured in a report from CBS News on the day of President Obama's inauguration. They never mentioned what high school Mr. Stephen Gordon was from, however, they did show Harlan's corridors and thus I could tell where that footage was filmed.

It was noted at the January Harlan LSC meeting that I believe this individual was the first to visit the White House. Another student paid a visit in 2010. Yet another it was mentioned another student will have an opportunity to introduce 1st Lady Michell Obama at the White House this year.

Harlan Principal Reginald Evans said it himself at the meeting as he wondered whether anyone at CPS HQ downtown will recognize that "something is happening here".

Very sad Bennett-Shedd LSC meeting January 12th...

I think there's some interest in this. If you've been following the FB page, Barbara Ellis was the Principal at Bennett-Shedd Elementary School. Sadly she passed away on Monday. This is a personal story as she was my 3rd Grade teacher before she eventually was promoted to Principal. I would like to post more thoughts later but only for publication on the day of her funeral services (provided in a link at the end of this post). Cross-posted from Shedd Public School.

I wrote in my notebook twice about people getting emotional :'(, it was a really sad meeting under the circumstances. I was actually looking forward to seeing Mrs. Ellis again, but I had no idea December was going to be it. Some of the staff said that she was actually on vacation and she even came in at some point before she passed on.

There was some business discusses such as new computers and the new copier at Shedd School that was agreed on the previous month. This was the first time I didn't speak at the meeting. It was easier to do being the only one there as I was in both October & December, but there were more people there. Not sure how many parents but none spoke or identified themselves as such. One man said he was president of the No Child Left Behind program at Bennett.

In public participation the ones who participated was a 5th Grade teacher at Shedd and the President of NCLB who discussed ways to reach out to the community. An issue I am concerned about, but on this occasion I chose to hold my fire at that time. Actually I wanted to tell Mrs. Ellis about this blog, and sadly I waited too long.

Any event the meeting was called to order at 3:55 PM and I left when the LSC went into closed session at 4:42 PM. Here's the acutal agenda.

Bennett Shedd LSC Agenda

The previous post has info on funeral services.al services.

LSC meetings this month

Since I have successfully attended three LSC meetings (two each for Bennett/Shedd Elementary and one for Harlan High School) before 2010 came to a close. I'm going to go for both this month as the schools have returned to session in the new year.

To clarify, yes Bennett School (located @ 10115 South Prairie Avenue)  isn't in the 6th Ward. It's just south of the Calumet (Bishop Ford) Expressway in the 9th Ward. However, Shedd School (located @ 200 E. 99th Street) which is located in the 6th Ward is connected with Bennett School as it is considered a branch. Thus the Bennett LSC is also over Shedd School. Their meeting is scheduled on January 12, 2011 @ 3:30 PM. Check out this LSC meeting dates for Bennett/Shedd.

Harlan's LSC (located @ 9652 S. Michigan Ave.) will meet on January 20, 2011 @ 6:30 PM. You can check out dates for Harlan's events through their official website.

I sincerely hope that I won't be the only member of the public to attend either meeting as had happened at both Harlan's and Bennett's past meetings. It is my belief the community should know what's going on at their neighborhood schools as in some way what goes on or doesn't go on will affect us in someway in the future.

Also, in recent months a community representative at Ruggles School @ 7831 S. Prairie Ave has reached out to the blog. Hopefully in future the community could pay a visit to LSC meeting there as well. I expect to post a notice for future meetings there, but the Ruggles LSC usually meets on the last Thursday of every month.