“There’s no actual urgency to decide on this today, from my perspective. ... I just don’t feel it’s ready, I feel that voting for these items will compromise our credibility and our integrity as a board,” said CPS Board member Elizabeth Todd-Breland.
While the plans were approved, some board members felt the project was being rushed and questioned the need for the school and how it would be financed.
The votes Wednesday do not finalize building plans for the new school, but rather allow CPS to spend more than $10 million on land at 23rd Street and South Wabash Avenue, which would be given to the Chicago Housing Authority in exchange for a 95-year lease on property at 24th and State streets, where the school would actually be built.
The district said that according to its current 4th-to-7th grade enrollment trends, the Near South neighborhoods of Bridgeport, Chinatown and the South Loop will soon see a rapid increase in the number of high school age students. Some community activists have said there’s been a need for a community high school in that area for decades.“Let’s be clear: We should not be causing harm, and the way this project is currently structured, it will cause real harm to real school communities that already have been hammered by years of inadequacy,” Chicago Teachers Union Recording Secretary Christel Williams-Hayes said Wednesday.
CPS did hold a subsequent town hall meeting to discuss the proposal this month, but concerns remain about the level of public engagement. She also decried the district’s public engagement, saying that instead of “open, public meetings and true dialogue,” CPS has instead relied on “manufactured consent at meetings staged by CPS with hand-picked stakeholders.”called on the district’s inspector general