Supporters of one of the most unique public schools in Chicago, Montefiore, held a press conference on February 18, 2010, at the school, to outline their growing concern that Chicago Schools Chief Executive Officer Ron Huberman and his administrative staff are continuing a sabotage of the school leading to what a growing number suspect will be a CPS attempt to give the building away to one of Chicago's charter schools.
The Montefiore special school, at 1310 S. Ashland Ave., has been in operation for 80 years, serving some of the most challenging students in Chicago. For its entire history, Montefiore's specialty has been students who are facing extreme emotional and behavioral challenges. The school, which has been recognized for the better part of a century, has found itself struggling for its very existence under a regime at both City Hall and the Chicago Board of Education that has been trying to privatize as many public services as possible, even though privatization is more costly and much less effective than well organized professional public services.
Speaker after speaker at the press conference listed the reasons why the community now believes that top officials at the Chicago Board of Education are deliberately undermining the school so that its building can be vacated. In the eyes of some at the school, former Chief Executive Officer Arne Duncan had already promised the unique facility to a west side charter school, and that the current policies of CEO Ron Huberman, who succeeded Duncan after Duncan became U.S. Secretary of Education in January 2009, are simply a continuation of those policies.
I suspect these kids will be eventually dumped into regular schools.
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