Chicago Public Schools cannot guarantee that the Chicago Board of Education will discuss or see a recent request from the 2nd and 25th wards’ leadership, seeking an expanded magnet school option for hundreds of kids in the University Village and surrounding areas, in time for the next board meeting.

Aldermen Robert Fioretti (2nd) and Danny Solis (25th) sent a letter to Ron Huberman, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, on Aug. 26 asking that the Andrew Jackson Language Academy on West Harrison Street be expanded into the old Thomas Jefferson School for the beginning of the 2011-12 school year with redrawn boundaries to match those of John M. Smyth Elementary School.

The aldermanic request came after parents decried their only choice of John M. Smyth, an under-performing school serving hundreds of students. There are not enough magnet school seats available to students living below the Eisenhower Expressway, they said.

“As we continue to engage with concerned parties, we are reviewing the timing of when we might present a proposal to the Chicago Board of Education,” said Frank Suftan, spokesperson for CPS said in a written response to questions submitted by Chicago Journal.

The joint letter was sent one month after Huberman met with Solis, Fioretti, members of the University Village Association and neighborhood parents to hear voices of dissatisfaction and discuss possible options.

CPS estimates that 1,000 children of kindergarten age through eighth grade live in the current Smyth boundary area. Suftan said about 500 go to Smyth, a designated neighborhood school open to all students living in the boundary. The other 500 are in magnet or private schools throughout the city. Those children gain access to magnet schools through a neighborhood lottery, which dedicates 30 percent of all seats in magnet school desks to neighborhood students.

Fioretti and Solis’ letter included a request that the boundary for their proposed expansion school mimic the one currently covering the 1,000 children assigned to Smyth “who are currently being underserved by neighborhood schools.”

As to whether or not parents in the two wards, whose children were unable to gain entry into magnet schools, can expect the request to be seriously considered by Huberman and CPS, Suftan can’t say.

Instead, he promised to “continue to engage with them in pursuit of a viable solution to meet their concerns.”

Contact: gskinner@chicagojournal.com