AustinTalks (http://austintalks.org/tag/schools/)
Take part in a discussion at 6 p.m. May 23 about the resource officers in Chicago Public Schools. Representatives from the Office of the Inspector General will also be discussing the gang database. Dinner will be served at the free event, which will be held at Sankofa Culture Center at 5852 W. Chicago Ave.
Longtime resident Dwayne Truss hopes CPS CEO Janice Jackson will ensure West Side students get the same opportunities for IB, STEM and other programs more commonly found in other parts of the city.
Officials results from last month’s two-day election won’t be available until June, CPS officials say.
Participants discussed at this week’s meeting about how to get more local teens to attend Austin high schools rather than leave the neighborhood.
Randel Josserand, the chief of schools in the Austin and Belmont Cragin neighborhoods, will talk at 10 a.m. Jan. 14, followed at 11 a.m. by Brenetta Howell Barrett, who will discuss the lessons she learned from the civil rights movement.
The Chicago Board of Education voted this week to renew Plato Learning Academy’s contract for two years, giving the Austin school more time to improve its rating. Specific conditions for the contract renewal will be finalized with Plato’s operator early next year, officials say.
But 28th Ward Ald. Jason Ervin upset some West Siders when he said at a recent community meeting that it’s up to CPS to determine whether to accept one of two bids that have been submitted for the William King Elementary building. One bid is for single-family homes and the other for “school use.”
CPS is still trying to attract developers to re-purpose buildings shut in 2013.
29th Ward Ald. Chris Taliaferro is hosting the meeting at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 6 at Austin Town Hall.
It’s one of 13 events CPS is holding before classes begin next week. The Aug. 30th event takes place at Prosser from 2 to 5 p.m.