Among the stroller-pushing, middle-class moms who hang out on playgrounds in the gentrifying neighborhoods of Chicago, discussion regularly returns to one question: Move to the suburbs or pay private tuition when junior reaches school age?
Recently, some of these parents have been choosing an option many abandoned long ago: Send their children to the neighborhood school–which in many cases has begun to better its test scores and can boast another valuable commodity, diversity.
Good, these parents say, but we can do even better. So at schools around the city, parents are working with community activists to spruce up buildings and, in some cases, donating computers, desks and other supplies and equipment.
At Nettelhorst Elementary in East Lakeview, a group of parents has arranged for a professional artist to transform a dreary corridor into a colorful island paradise with dolphins, tortoises and palm trees. Across the main office, a freshly painted sitting area is furnished with $8,000 worth of stylish Ethan Allen furniture.
Such efforts remain the exception in the district, despite officials’ attempts to lure middle-class families to neighborhood schools with tuition-based preschool and magnet programs. And some critics say the focus should not be on perks to appeal to select pockets of middle class–whether it is magnet schools, or a smattering of high-profile neighborhood schools–but to improve schools across the board.
Nettelhorst has many of the problems shared by city schools. With about 400 pupils, it is operating below capacity. It is designed to serve children from the surrounding area, yet most of its pupils are bused from overcrowded schools. And standardized test scores are low, with about 40 percent of pupils meeting or exceeding national norms in math and reading.
But neighbors Jacqueline Edelberg and Nicole Wagner said they saw the potential in Nettelhorst from their first visit in August to the 110-year-old brick school at 3252 N. Broadway.
“It had that sharpened-pencil, booky kind of smell that you don’t see much anymore,” said Edelberg, a former philosophy professor who is now a full-time mom and part-time artist. “We were really amazed by the potential of the place–enormous 20-foot windows, tall ceilings. There are very good bones in this building.”
Since that first visit Edelberg and Wagner have helped found the Nettelhorst Parents Co-op. They have spent many hours at Nettelhorst, working with the school engineer and other volunteers–even though their children are still too young to attend.
Local businesses have poured more than $100,000 into the school’s infrastructure and curriculum. What it took, according to Edelberg, was simply asking for help.
“An entire team focused on infrastructure improvements,” she said. “The whole inside has been improved, top to bottom. We wanted people to gasp and say, `Oh my God, this is a public school!'”
The entrance to the school is wallpapered with donated Rand McNally world maps. About 100 globes hang from the ceiling in the main hallway. Last year’s dazzling Christmas display from Max Mara on Michigan Avenue now lights up the entrance to a new community kitchen for parents and the tuition-based preschool downstairs.
Library makeover
The library features IKEA furniture and professionally painted walls depicting a rising sun, moon and puffy white clouds. Pupils can hang out and read in a real sailboat or a bathtub if they are behaving.
“This place was a mess. It was hideous,” said school librarian Diane Green, surveying her new surroundings. “These women did a phenomenal job. The kids are happy to be here. It’s a very big motivator.”
Nettelhorst principal Susan Kurland is grateful to the parents for their hard work and positive influence. She recognizes that many families see enrolling their children in public schools as a gamble.
“Nobody wants to sacrifice their child; they don’t want their child to be an experiment,” she said. “But the other part of that is people have to be willing to commit.”
Besides, she said, the ingredients for success–committed teachers and strong academic programs–are in place at Nettelhorst.
“Why shouldn’t your elementary school in your neighborhood be a fabulous place to send your kids?” Kurland said.
Lincoln Park mom Natalie Frank was one of those parents who had a negative impression of the public schools. Two of her sons attended private schools, and it was only a fluke she missed the application deadline for her younger boy.
Frank decided to try the local school, Alcott Elementary, 2625 N. Orchard St. What money she might have spent on tuition, she figured she could spend there.
This year she bought a copier for her son’s 1st-grade classroom. Last year, she and her husband, a real estate developer, bought a computer. Another parent bought new desks two years in a row for her daughter’s class and a large white writing board.
“There are some parents there that so badly want this to work,” Frank said. “There is something nice about the idea of a public education.”
It wasn’t too long ago that parents on the Northwest Side would not have considered the public schools in the neighborhood as an option for their kids.
Now, public schools in that area are quite popular and among the best in the city. At Sauganash Elementary, 6040 N. Kilpatrick Ave., only one pupil does not come from the neighborhood, according to Principal Christine Munns. Ten years ago, 60 percent of the pupils were bused in.
Competitive balance
The school has competition from Queen of All Saints, a Catholic school two blocks away. It also competes with public magnet and gifted schools where, some parents say, enrollment is the equivalent of winning the state lottery. For the last two years, the school has had its own marketing and public relations committee.
“It takes an effort,” Munns said. “It doesn’t just happen. It’s a concerted effort to attract students in your neighborhood.”
At South Loop Elementary School, 1212 S. Plymouth Ct., that effort is just getting under way. Many children are bused to the school from public housing to the south, but only a fraction of the children from the upscale Dearborn Park II development are enrolled there.
Attracting attention
Some parents are beginning to consider the school, said Lauren Rhone, president of the South Loop Education Alliance, a group of parents and community members who got together last year to raise test scores and improve the school.
“We pay too much in taxes in order not to take advantage of our neighborhood school,” Rhone said.
One parent who lives in the Hilliard Homes said she is glad the school is beginning to attract the middle class but is wary of their commitment. She suspects many parents will pull their children out as they get older.
“My concern is that they are integrating the preschool and the kindergarten but not the upper grades,” said Sheila Garrett, a former local school council member.
Attracting the middle class into the school system is fine, said Andrew Wade, director of the Chicago School Leadership Cooperative, a school reform group, but only as long as all communities have access to high-quality education.
He warns the effort to lure the middle class into staying could result in further segregation. For example, in some gentrified areas, the local school could lose much of its diversity if only neighborhood children enroll. “It’s going to require a real commitment to equity,” Wade said.
Last year, Adele Pasquini moved from the suburbs to Roscoe Village, a North Side neighborhood where million-dollar homes are going up.
Her children had been attending private school, but she wanted them to be in a diverse setting and receive a good education. One private school she visited seemed too impersonal–almost like a college campus.
Then she spent a few hours at Audubon Elementary, 3500 N. Hoyne Ave.
“It felt very warm,” she said, standing outside the school’s science lab. “The teachers stopped and talked to me. I would like to see this become a community again and in order for that to happen the school needs to embrace the community.”
And although the standardized test scores are not high, she said, “I knew this was a school on the way up.” Pasquini is now a member of the local school council.
Chicago commitment
Living in the city is critical to Kathy Argentar, a parent of two preschoolers involved at Audubon and Jahn Elementary, 3149 N. Wolcott Ave., in Roscoe Village. She plans to send her two children to Audubon although she could afford private school.
Recently, the local business community has gotten involved and donations and supplies are starting to come into both schools. Argentar delivers the items each month.
“I like knowing all my neighbors, the diversity,” she said as daughters Camille and Amy pranced around the small, sunny library at Audubon. “While education is critical to me, I figure I am just part of the solution. You just can’t wait for someone to take care of the problem for you.”
