The idea of shifting South Loop School’s upper grades to empty classrooms in the National Teachers Academy building has touched a nerve among some parents at NTA.

Audrey Johnson, a member of the parent advisory council at NTA, said she wasn’t opposed to hosting students from South Loop. But she’s worried that creating two schools in the same building will unduly divide the two school communities.

“We want them to come on in and fit in with us,” Johnson said Tuesday afternoon outside of NTA as parents picked up their children. “Let’s make this one big happy family. Don’t judge us on the low-income and the high-income.”

A resident of what remains of the nearby Harold Ickes public housing development, Johnson sends four of her children to the National Teachers Academy, 55 W. Cermak. If South Loop’s sixth through eighth grades are shifted, equal access to resources is paramount, Johnson said, and the transition must be a win-win for both institutions.

“What they have, whatever curriculum they have, whatever academic programs they have, bring it in and help us,” she said. “If we’re down and they’re higher than us, help support us and bring us up.”

To Juanita Fite, another member of the National Teachers Academy parent advisory council, however, creating separate schools with distinct entrances and programs reeked of “segregation.”

“The word is ugly. I hate to use it,” Fite said.

“Two separate schools — the idea of two separate schools in an established environment, in an established building, with established good kids, and good families, and darn good teachers, and principals — that’s an insult,” Fite said.

Chicago Public Schools planning and demographics director Jimm Dispensa first floated moving South Loop’s sixth through eighth grades to NTA during a South Loop local school council meeting Dec. 9.

South Loop is reaching its enrollment capacity, he said then, while the teachers academy has lost population in tandem with the emptying of the Ickes Homes and the subsequent demolition of all but three of the Ickes buildings.

CPS told Chicago Journal in December there are 90 schools involved in shared-space arrangements across the city.

But in Fite’s view, the potential space sharing at NTA would place additional pressure on families with deep ties to the neighborhood.

“You’re already running most of the families that have been established in Bronzeville and in this area, you’ve already run us out,” she said. “What else are you trying to do? Now, you get rid of our kids, so then you finish off the rest of us.”

The idea of moving the upper grades has provoked a range of supporters and detractors at South Loop.

On Dec. 15, the South Loop council unanimously passed a nonbinding resolution in support of moving its upper grades to NTA starting this fall. The council then voted Dec. 21 to amend that resolution, listing as their first priority delaying a move of the upper-grades until the 2011-12 school year.

CPS has made no official decision yet.

Other parents of students at National Teachers Academy interviewed Tuesday also expressed a variety of opinions about the idea of South Loop’s upper grades moving in.

After being told the contours of the discussion so far by a reporter, Sharon Pilcher, the parent of a kindergartener, said, “You might as well utilize classrooms that are empty. I think that’s fine.”

Amanda Johnson, who heard about the potential South Loop move via a flyer distributed by NTA, was more skeptical.

Johnson, a former Ickes resident, now lives on the Far South Side. But she still enrolls her children in the teachers academy.

“I don’t know how the kids are going to react,” she said.

Johnson wants to maintain access to the teachers academy for her children: “If we have to struggle to have our kids here, we will.”

Teachers academy parents are expecting a full brief on the space-sharing idea Jan. 7, at a meeting sponsored by the school’s parent council.

Leaders of the teachers academy community say CPS hasn’t reached out to them yet.

At the Dec. 21 South Loop council meeting, NTA principal Amy Rome testified that she first heard of the space-sharing idea when called by a newspaper reporter.

Dispensa attended two of the meetings at South Loop in December, while Jennifer Cheatham, a CPS administrator for the area including South Loop and NTA, attended all three.

Audrey Johnson, the parent leader, criticized how CPS handled this matter.

“I think they’re very disrespectful toward our families, for not letting us know what’s going on,” Johnson said. “We’re getting the last end of what’s going on. They’re not giving us the chance to let them know who we are, what we’re about, what our school is about.”

In an e-mailed statement, CPS wrote,”As we move forward in this process, we will engage all appropriate stakeholders.”

Contact: mmaidenberg@chicagojournal.com

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By SLoopMom from South Loop
Posted: 01/11/2010 1:19 PM

I found them in Local Student Council meeting minutes. Try calling the S.Loop school and ask for a copy of the minutes. They used to be online but I can't seem to find the correct link to them.

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By AJC from Chicago
Posted: 01/10/2010 5:29 PM

I was looking on the South Loop school report card from ISBE and didn't see a breakdown of gifted students vs. neighborhood students. Is there a link to this information? I am interested in seeing the data.

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By SLoopMom from South Loop
Posted: 01/09/2010 9:56 PM

If you take away gifted testing 100% and look at neighborhood and magnet testing results 80% you get S. Loop\'s school average of 89%. Not my numbers...do the research.

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By Can't figure out from South Loop
Posted: 01/09/2010 8:51 PM

I have always wondered what the kids at South Loop who are not in the "gifted" program feel like knowing there is a group of students considered "gifted" in the same school? If South Loop really had a "South Loop Way", they would consider all the children gifted and have the same program for all the students. NTA's principal and parents are correct in their demands and critiques of this process.

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By Hey AJC from S. Loop
Posted: 01/09/2010 8:00 PM

For example in third grade where non gifted outnumber gifted more than 2-1 reading and math scores were 94 and 96% in 2009. For 6th grade where the ratios were close to 50-50 they were 88 and 85%. If you took out the gifted entirely S. Loop would be above 85%, the category that would drop is the % in exceeds. What is the difference? Not resources but instead more involved parents, higher attendance, better admin and higher expectations. NTA has very few students that exceed the stds

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By Hey AJC from S Loop
Posted: 01/09/2010 7:55 PM

Sorry but you are wrong to conclude that the gifted is responsible for the increase in the scores as stated. I know you don't get a gifted versus neighborhood breakdown in the report cards, but if you did you would find that the neighborhood classes have caught the gifted in the years where attendance has gone up.

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By JS from SL
Posted: 01/09/2010 1:31 PM

South Loop mom, out of curiousity, what is it that South Loop has that NTA does not have or is not doing that makes the South Loop program so great? I am curious what you think the "it factor" is.

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By AJC from Chicago
Posted: 01/09/2010 1:20 PM

SLoopMom - South Loop's test scores are so high because 1/3 of the students are in a selective enrollment gifted program. Let's take away the gifted students' test scores and then we can fairly compare the 2 school's scores.

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By SLoopMom from South Loop
Posted: 01/08/2010 4:36 PM

Current S. Loop parents are not going to want to combine programs when NTA's test scores are below 60% and S. Loop test scores are close to 90%. Maybe schools should work on integrating what's working at S. Loop into NTA. It may be wonderful school, as Ebony put, but test scores are not so wonderful.

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By Anonymous from Uptown
Posted: 01/08/2010 9:57 AM

Oh, Jeff, Had you attended the school council meeting when the South Loop proposal was read, you would know that it is not Micah who is making this a race/segregation issue.

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By Ebony from Hyde Park
Posted: 01/08/2010 7:19 AM

I live in Hyde Park I travel 5 miles every morning to bring my kids to NTA. NTA is a wonderful school for any kid to attend. We welcome the S.L student into our school what we don't like is the things S.L is asking for. We just want all the kids to learn together. Why make them feel like they are better then our kids NTA students want the same as S.L students and that's an Education.

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By Jeff from Chicago
Posted: 01/07/2010 11:40 PM

Ok Micah we get it- you're a good writer. The bottom line here is South Loop is overcrowded and NTA has lots of space. Thanks for making it all about race and forgetting about the kids of all backgrounds who need more space to learn and go to school.

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By Lilnora Foster from South Loop
Posted: 01/07/2010 2:53 PM

CPS had this set up from the start. South Loop was not interested in their children attending NTA as long as the Harold Ickes Homes existed, but now that they are gone, you want to come in and demand separate provisions. What are you telling my children and your children? Man up, Mr. Dispensa---the answer is demographics. Expand NTA's boundararies and shorten South Loop's boundararies with equal resources to both schools. When will you show up at our meetings? NTA should stay NTA!