AustinTalks (http://austintalks.org/tag/cps/)
There are nearly 700 open seats on 267 local school councils across the city; five schools in Austin are still looking for members to serve. See the list AustinTalks has compiled of members currently serving on LSCs in Austin.
Principal Aquabah Gonney-Buckner was able to secure $10,000 in funding for her school, the Leslie Lewis School of Excellence. Teachers at the Austin school are learning about the history of race and race relations to prepare themselves for the difficult conversations they say students are ready to have.
Elementary school LSC elections are Nov. 18, and high school LSC elections are Nov. 19. In-person polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Local school councils — made up of parents, students and community members that can make school budget and principal hiring decisions — were once seen as a bastion of school-level democracy, according to Block Club Chicago.
About 50 people came together last week to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Million Man March and to call for new economic drivers for the Austin community. The Million Man March, which the Washington Post called “the largest civil rights demonstration in U.S. history,” was held in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 16, 1995.
VOYCE – a youth organizing collaborative led by students of color from six community groups – says the school resource officer (SRO) program criminalizes Black students. Instead, the youth want CPS to invest in a trauma-informed public health approach to safety. The board of education is expected to vote Aug. 26th on the issue.
About 50 people gathered at La Follette Park Friday before marching to Chicago Board of Education member Dwayne Truss’ residence. They were protesting the contract between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department, and calling on Truss to vote against the contract at CPS’ Aug. 26th meeting.
High school juniors and seniors at Austin College and Career Academy – as well as the district’s dozens of other high schools – will be learning exclusively at home. The school is still deciding whether to keep its two school resource officers. Two other Austin high schools – Michele Clark Academic Prep Magnet High School and Frederick Douglass Academy High School – have already voted unanimously to keep their officers.
James Nnabuihe graduated as valedictorian last month from Austin College & Career Academy. He will be the third sibling to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he plans to study math.
CPS will resume meal distribution Tuesday at more than 300 school sites – including about a dozen in Austin – after a temporary one-day suspension. No grab-and-go meal sites were open on Monday due to transportation and safety challenges that were anticipate for staff that hand out the meals. CTA buses and trains were shut down Sunday night and didn’t resume operating until Monday because of weekend looting across the city that followed peaceful protests over the police killing in Minnesota of George Floyd.
All but four Chicago Public Schools in Austin could see an increase in their budgets for the 20-21 school year. The Chicago Board of Education still needs to approved the school district’s $2.8 billion budget; that’s expected to happen sometime this summer.