School Daze

Updates on issues impacting our schools from a North Lawndale perspective. Published by Valerie F. Leonard

In this Issue:
Vera G. Davis, First Book to Bring Books to Low Income Communities. CPS Releases Draft Criteria Guiding Future School Decisions for Community Input New Physical Education Policy to Be Voted on at Next Board meeting Important upcoming meetings and programs

Vera G. Davis, Wife of Congressman Danny K. Davis, Works With First Book, Schools and Community Groups to Bring Books to Low Income Communities
I thank Mrs. Vera Davis, wife of Congressman Danny K. Davis, for inviting me to attend a meeting sponsored by First Book, a social enterprise that helps to distribute books to low-income communities, with a goal of eliminating illiteracy. She asked me to share a link to the website so that you may have additional information about the initiative. http://www.firstbook.org/ Mrs. Davis has a mission of ensuring that 400,000 books are distributed here in the City of Chicago. We can create a winwin situation by helping her get the books into the hands of our children, while stocking our local school libraries, and our children, while stocking our local school libraries, and ensuring that mothers of ensuring that of pre-school-aged children get pre-school-aged children get books tomothers prepare their children for kindergarten. If you books to their children for kindergarten. live, work, or know residents of prepare the Austin, East/West Garfield and/or North Lawndale communities, and would like to work as part of a large network to bring in truck loads of books for distribution to individual schools, please let me know. If you prefer to work within your individual schools or groups, that is an option as well. Regardless of how you prefer to work, I ask that you go to the link and sign up for the distribution. If you would like to work as part of a larger group to impact entire communities, please let me know. Mrs. Davis will be convening a meeting with schools, churches, parents and community groups that are interested in working together to make this happen. Ideally, this will entail having our educators and community leaders select book titles and quantities for their libraries. They can choose from books that have been donated by publishers, or choose to get books at very deep discounts (50%-90%). The donated books will be sent for the cost of shipment, while the deeply discounted books will be sent for the cost of the books plus shipping. Once we know who would like to partner, the number of books to order and costs, we will work with schools, businesses and other funders to see if we can get them to underwrite the costs for shipping books. It is more cost effective to have truckloads of books sent at a time, although it will take longer time to coordinate the mass distribution. At any rate, if you are interested, let me know as soon as possible, so we can get moving. Valerie F. Leonard 773-521-3137; Consulting@Valeriefleonard.com
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Regardless of how you prefer to work, I ask that you go to the link and sign up for the distribution. "

School Daze is published by Valerie F. Leonard. Valerie is a consultant to nonprofit organizations and is very active in North Lawndale. .

October 7, 2013 Volume 1, Issue 2 School Daze Consulting@Valeriefleonard.com

CPS Releases Draft Criteria Guiding Future School Decisions for Community Input
I thank Lionel Smith and Adrienne Garner of CPS, for sharing these guidelines. The draft guidelines uphold the Mayor and CPSs commitment to a five-year moratorium beginning in fall 2013 for facility closures due to academics or underutilization. CHICAGO Chicago Public Schools (CPS) today released the Districts state-mandated, draft guidelines for evaluating any change to a school such as addressing colocations or re-assigning boundary changes to expand access to a high-quality education for all students. CPS will seek feedback from the community on how to strengthen these guidelines and provide supportive learning environments tailored to the specific needs of every child in every neighborhood. These guidelines are part of an ongoing conversation with the community on how every child can have access to a classroom with a challenging, personalized curriculum, clean, safe facilities, and an overall supportive school environment that helps them grow and thrive, said CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett. Any decisions made will include the voices of our most important stakeholders the community through an inclusive, open and transparent manner, and they will have the opportunity to incorporate their feedback. On top of language for co-locations and reassigning attendance boundaries, the draft guidelines also include specific criteria for school closures. The Mayor and CPS also reaffirm their commitment to a five-year moratorium beginning in fall 2013 for facility closures due to academics or underutilization. State law requires the CPS CEO to publish draft guidelines by October 1 and host a 21-day community feedback process. During this process, CPS will seek and incorporate community feedback from key stakeholders, including parents, Local School Councils, Community Action Councils and other community groups, using multiple modes of communication to engage communities throughout Chicago. CPS will engage communities via a citywide tele-town hall, soliciting feedback via email and a survey online at www.cps.edu. After the feedback period ends, CPS will review and incorporate suggestions from stakeholders as needed. If there are significant changes to the draft guidelines, CPS will release an updated draft and begin another 21-day period to solicit additional feedback, before releasing final guidelines on or before Dec. 1. Copies of the draft guidelines are available at www.cps.edu/guidelines. Comments can be submitted via email to CEOguidelines@cps.edu, via fax to (773) 553-5345, or by mail to: Chicago Public Schools, 125 S. Clark Street, 5th Floor, Chicago, IL 60603, Attn: CEO's Office re: Draft Guidelines. Public comments must be received by Oct. 21 at 5:00 PM. "These
Photo Credit: In These Times

guidelines are part of an ongoing conversation with the community on how every child can have access to a classroom with a challenging, personalized curriculum, clean, safe facilities, and an overall supportive school environment that helps them grow and thrive...
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New Physical Education Policy to Be Voted on at October Board Meeting

I thank Raise Your Hand Illinois for providing the following update. CPS Board to vote on New Physical Education (PE) Policy at October Board Meeting RYH was invited to a policy briefing this week given by CPS Office of Student Health and Wellness and hosted by Healthy Schools Campaign. About 90 people from different communitybased organizations, some PE teachers and vendors were in attendance.
Photo Credit: DNAInfo.com

Currently, CPS is not in compliance with Illinois School Code 105 ILCS 5/27 -6 which requires that students receive daily PE in both elementary and high school.

CPS has maintained a state waiver for 11th and 12th graders since 1997. This will expire in June 2014. CPS has not applied for a waiver for elementary schools but as we know, most of our students only get PE 1x a week, which CPS acknowledged at this meeting. CPS says that most high school students receive only two semesters of PE during their high school career. There is much research to show that regular PE improves student learning, concentration, behavior, health outcomes. Heres what we learned about the Proposed Policy:
October 7, 2013 Volume 1, Issue 2 School Daze Consulting@Valeriefleonard.com

For Elementary Schools: Implementation to being in 3 years (SY 2016/2017) with an Action Plan due from schools next summer that meets the criteria of the policy. The policy suggests 30 minutes of daily PE or the equivalent of 150 minutes per week not including recess. Note, there are some schools piloting this currently. For High School: requires daily PE starting next school year (SY 2014/2015). Suggests that high schools schedule all students in grades 9-12 in a daily PE or health course in the same time increments as other core courses. Note: students in certain programs such as JROTC, IB, CTE (Career Related Certificate Programs), and Early College programs that lead to Associates degree will be able to apply for a waiver for daily PE. Our Thoughts: Daily PE is good policy if implemented correctly and if funds are provided to support it. The majority of students in CPS had no recess and inadequate PE for decades and this is a step in the right direction but will require funds and facilities adjustments in some cases. CPS says 40% of students in the district are overweight or obese. Past policies certainly didnt help this statistic. Right now, there is no discussion of funds to go along with this policy. CPS did recently win a $2.25 million grant from the US Department of Education, which is great, but that will not cover the cost of providing daily PE to every student in 3 years time. As parents, we know the dire funding situation in our schools and we must push to get funding for this so it is not an unfunded mandate that will lead to the reduction of other important courses or programs, or even less money for supplies and substitute teachers, etc. Email us your thoughts on this policy: info@ilraiseyourhand.org. We will communicate with Healthy Schools Campaign about it. October 8th Parents can join Healthy Schools Campaign for a citywide physical education breakfast forum. To learn more or register to attend contact ggomez@healthyschoolscampaign.org. - See more at: http://www.ilraiseyourhand.org/content/new-physical-education-policy-be-voted-october-boardmeeting#sthash.6t2d5xa6.dpuf
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Neighborhood Schools Fair

There will be a neighborhood school fair at Clemente High School on Saturday, November 16, 2013, from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. The Neighborhood School Fair will let prospective parents know that neighborhood schools are a good choice for their children and help parents already at neighborhood schools strengthen their schools. We want to highlight the many wonderful programs and involved families at neighborhood schools across the city and bring together parents and students for a meet and greet that reaches across neighborhood boundaries. Get Tickets here Please register for participation as an individual here: http://bit.ly/14qUnxY Please register your school or organization here: http://bit.ly/14qTTbb For more information, email allcityschools@gmail.com or call 872-444-6880.

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October 7, 2013 Volume 1, Issue 2 School Daze Consulting@Valeriefleonard.com

Austin-North Lawndale Network's 6th Annual LSC Meet and Greet

There will be a meet and greet and information session for LSC leaders from the Austin-North Lawndale Network on Thursday, November 7, 2013. Please note the flyer below for additional details.

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October 7, 2013 Volume 1, Issue 2 School Daze Consulting@Valeriefleonard.com

Education Town Hall Meeting Series

A coalition of West Side community groups, including the Carey Tercentenary AME Church, Lawndale Alliance, Blocks Together and West Siders Against All School Closings, will be hosting a series of education town hall meetings for parents and community stakeholders. The topics include a broad range of issues of concern, including school programs, finance and policy and advocacy. All are invited. For further information, contact Valerie F. Leonard at 773-521-

3137 or Dwayne Truss at

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773-879-5216.

Featuring snapshots of the condition of West Side Schools

EDUCATION TOWN HALL MEETING SERIES

Carey Tercentenary AME Church 1448 South Homan Avenue
Sponsors: Blocks Together, Carey Tercentenary AME Church, Lawndale Alliance, West Siders Against All School Closings

We will cover:
Legislative role in education Impact of 2013 school closings School actions/closings guidelines for 2014 School budgets and TIFs School performance and new ranking system Public safety and schools Pre-kindergarten standards and funding Parental empowerment School and community resources Your issues Next steps

Meeting Schedule:
Monday, November 18, 2013, 6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. School Programs: Early childhood programs; school performance; graduation/dropout rates; Safe Passage; juvenile delinquency; community resources; school libraries; your issues. Saturday, November 23, 2013, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Finance: School funding; CPS budget; school budgets; impact of school closings; TIFs; your issues. Monday, November 25, 2013 6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. Policy and Advocacy: Role of legislators; school action/closing guidelines; new school ranking system; school standards; elected school board; your issues; wrap-up/next steps
Meetings will include presentations, surveys, breakout sessions and open mic. Elected officials have been invited, and meeting notes and survey results will be shared with them and CPS. For further information, contact Valerie F. Leonard at 773-521-3137 or Dwayne Truss at 773-879-5216.

Come be informed and empowered

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Congressman Danny K. Davis Youth Town Hall Meeting

Congressman Danny K. Davis will be hosting a youth town hall meeting on October 15, 2013. Please note the details on the flyer below.

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October 7, 2013 Volume 1, Issue 2 School Daze Consulting@Valeriefleonard.com

Sankofa Safe Child Initiative

Building Up Our Brothers
Presents

A male mentoring program which offers Support groups that will address the needs and issues of men in our community. Some of the Topics that will be addressed are:
Personal Reflections Anger Management Domestic Violence Violence Prevention Positive Guidance/Effective Parenting Healthy Living (Physical, Spiritual and Mental)

Sankofa House 4041 W. Roosevelt Chicago, IL 60624 Cost: Free Every Wednesday at 3:00pm
For more information or if youre interested in Volunteering please contact Ed Bickham at Sankofa House: 773-542-9900

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October 7, 2013 Volume 1, Issue 2 School Daze Consulting@Valeriefleonard.com