South Loop School’s sixth through eighth grades are likely to be moved into empty classrooms in the National Teachers Academy building starting the next school year.

With a growing enrollment, South Loop is expected to run out of room in its two current facilities, the main structure at 1212 S. Plymouth and branch at 1915 S. Federal. NTA, located at 55 W. Cermak, is less than half full.

The move has not been made official, and the precise details surrounding South Loop School’s presence in NTA remain largely undefined for now.

Should Chicago Public Schools ratify such a shift, the decision would mark a sea change for South Loop, creating a three-building school spread over the Near South Side.

The potential move is being pitched as South Loop School in a new facility, a mini-campus of sorts in NTA. Current upper-grade South Loop teachers would move to NTA under the proposal, and the school would remain under the administration of Principal Tara Shelton. No attendance boundary changes are being contemplated. Shelton and NTA Principal Amy Rome would draw up a memorandum of understanding about how the facility would be used by each school.

A number of South Loop parents, anxious about moving their teenagers into a new and unknown school environment, were expressed dismay about the NTA plan at local school council meetings held over the past week.

Some even said they were contemplating finding a different school for their children and criticized CPS for what they saw as an abrupt announcement.

Longtime parents who enrolled their kids into South Loop before its current academic culture and standing were developed were particularly unhappy about having their families and kids serve as educational “pioneers” once again.

“How are you going to transition them over to NTA, a strange place, when these kids were developed the South Loop way? Parents made this the South Loop way. That’s why we feel very betrayed,” a woman said Tuesday during a local school council meeting.

Kathy Smith, whose seventh-grader enrolled in South Loop in kindergarten, said she would work hard to make a transition to NTA work.

But she wasn’t looking forward to what it would mean for her seventh-grader, who is comfortable with South Loop’s main building and with its staff.

“They’re going to go through that in high school,” Smith said of moving to a new school. “Why should they have to go through that in eighth grade too?”

Other parents, many of whom enroll children in South Loop’s lower grades, argued in favor the move.

“We’re at a tipping point, and there’s a ton of demand. Bigger solutions like utilizing the NTA space or whatever are a smart way to go, because it’s not going to stop,” said Stephanie Wrath, a parent of two. “I think there’s a lot of interest in this school, and it’s only going to grow.”

Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman is likely to decide on his recommendation by early January 2010, according to Jimm Dispensa, the CPS Director of Demographics and Planning, with a Board of Education vote possible that month or in February.

In the 2003-04 school year, South Loop enrolled 371 students, 83 of whom lived within the school’s neighborhood attendance boundary, Dispensa told parents last week. The remainder enrolled through the school’s regional gifted center, a lottery program that drew students from across the Chicago.

This year school, according to CPS, 640 students enrolled in South Loop, with 306 enrolling from within attendance boundary.

The increase in students coming from within South Loop’s neighborhood boundary — a growth rate Dispensa characterized as extraordinary — has been attributed to everything from the school’s steady academic progress to parents pulling their kids from private schools due to the recession.

For years, South Loop School admitted two kindergarten classes annually, one made up of neighborhood students, the other drawing families from across the city through the gifted center.

But the neighborhood lower-grade classes swelled, increasing from one to two, in addition to the one gifted class, while the upper grades still are only graduating two classes a year. That’s put space at a premium for South Loop.

Dispensa said moving students to NTA would free up South Loop’s main and branch buildings, and allowing the upper grade students use of NTA’s facilities, like labs and a swimming pool. NTA was built in 2002.

The South Loop School Local School Council voted 9-0 Tuesday night to back moving the upper grades to NTA.

That resolution, the official text of which was not available by Chicago Journal’s deadline Wednesday, will recommend CPS go ahead with the move of the sixth through eighth grades to NTA starting in 2010-11.

In addition, the resolution calls on CPS to create a new ninth grade class in NTA starting next year, eventually leading to a full high school populated by South Loop eighth graders and others drawn citywide through the selective enrollment process, and for transportation and parent involvement in the transition.

A pre-K through 12th-grade school for the South Loop is being discussed, Dispensa said.

The resolution will ask that the high school be modeled after South Loop’s pairing of a gifted program and neighborhood component. A full complement of staff and resources — from band and sports to security during dismissal — will be included in the resolution as well.

NTA’s enrollment has dropped as the Harold Ickes Homes, a public housing development east and south of NTA, declined in population and were demolished this year, save three buildings.

The school’s 2003 state report card listed 603 students. Dispensa said last week NTA currently enrolls around 424 students in a building that could hold up to 900, and possibly up to 1,000.

Rome, the principal at NTA, said many Ickes families who’ve left the Near South Side continue to send their children to her school.

“It still very much feels like a community school,” she said.

Rome said if South Loop School’s upper grades move into her building, her main interest would be preserving her students’ right to stay at NTA and have a stable education through eighth grade.

Contact: mmaidenberg@chicagojournal.com

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By Anon from DB II
Posted: 12/21/2009 2:38 PM

Missy, what article from today? Moving three years classrooms overfrom S. Loop is around 150 students. That leaves 350 excess capacity at NTA next year. The NTA elementary is projected to decline next year. So there will be no dislocation for next year, nor in the next 5 years unless NTA's population explodes which is unlikely. Could there come a time when the school is overcrowded, sure, but then a new school would be the only answer. Are you saying the gansta move is 6 years in the making?

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By Missy from Englewood
Posted: 12/21/2009 12:02 PM

@Anon from DBII-after reading today's article, do you still think there is an assumption being made re: the current students @NTA? You should get YOUR facts straight. There are more than 400 students and with the demolition of the Ickes-the enrollment would drop-wouldn't it? Furthermore, the same amount that is causing SL's overpopulation is the same amount that don't live in their attendance area. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the grand scheme. Now who's really gansta?

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By John from South Loop
Posted: 12/20/2009 10:12 PM

This is a great idea except shouldn't a school be within it's own attendance boundary? Surely the Ickes site will be redeveloped with new low-income housing full of kids, within the next decade. What then? Where are all those kids going to go? This is only a temporary solution at best.

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By Concerned citizen from Hyde Park
Posted: 12/20/2009 4:41 PM

It think this is a great idea. The building cost too much not to have its full capacity utilized. The only thing that concerns me is the conflicting cultures. South Loop is constantly fostering a community of academic success (Chicago's top 10 elementary schools), while NTA seems more focused on implementing "professional development" strategies and testing which only result in modest gains. These gains are still inferior when measured against the reality of state, national and global standards.

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By Matt Wos from Dearborn Park
Posted: 12/19/2009 2:43 PM

Whatever is best for the kids should be supported. Education must come first. Its an exciting prospect, with South Loop improving and Old St. Mary's School growing by the day. Could it be we could actually have something no one would ever have dreamed of when I grew up here: 2 quality community schools?

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By Anon from DBII
Posted: 12/19/2009 12:22 PM

Missy: Why do you assume the current population at NTA is effected at all? They have less than 400 students in a building that can house over 900. And their census has dropped every year and will continue to do so. Before you start labelling CPS's action "gansta" you need to learn the facts.

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By Anonymous
Posted: 12/18/2009 10:17 PM

if the same caliber of teaching along with the many extra-curricular activities can be achieved in the newer building, I would support the addition of NTA into the cluster.

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By Missy from Englewood
Posted: 12/18/2009 1:34 PM

It\'s interesting that no one has taken into consideration the students at NTA who would be displaced. Everyone is interested in the facility, the beautiful building and the like. Has anyone considered the \"gangsta move\" done on behalf of CPS and the continuous message it sends to poor people who are just as interested in education and resources for their children as the parents of South Loop. This plan should not go into effect until all parties are mitigated appropriately.

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By SL Branch parent from South Loop
Posted: 12/18/2009 0:31 AM

I attended a single school with 4 campuses (K-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-12). The excitement of "moving up" was very positive every time, and we had 4 opportunities to be the eldest grade in the building. I never felt a lack of continuity. The kids created the continuity, not the buildings.

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By Dennis Beninato from South Loop
Posted: 12/17/2009 4:45 PM

In response to Pete's comment, this plan would still call for SLES to be a K-5 elementary school.

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By Pete Szujewski from Dearborn Park II
Posted: 12/17/2009 11:55 AM

Moving the South Loop school out of the Dearborn Park and intergrating it into the NTA facility on Cermak is the best solution for the children, staff and parents of the school and neighborhood. The NTA facility is superior to everything the present South Loop school offers especially location with plenty of room for expansion in the coming years. The present school would be perfect for a neighborhood community center.

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By Solo from MotorRow
Posted: 12/17/2009 9:28 AM

Fantastic facility & idea. I hope that by having these students at NTA, the city, South Loop have great plans for the now demolished Ickes homes.