Is your neighborhood school sub-par? Feel your only option is to move? Then you need to make the changes to get your school back on track.
“Nobody says, ‘I can fix my neighborhood school,'” says Jacqueline Edelberg, co-author of “How to Walk to School: Blueprint for a Neighborhood School Renaissance”. “Most people think that public education is so messed up that there isn’t anything they can do to possibly fix it, but that’s not true.”
Edelberg, who lives in East Lakeview, knows what she’s talking about. She and some other parents helped transform her neighborhood school into one of the best public schools in Chicago by getting involved.
” Lakeview fell on some hard times in the ’60s and while the neighborhood has bounced back, the school was still struggling,” Edelberg said. “Single people loved living there, but when it came time to have kids, people would flock to the suburbs for better schools. I didn’t want to move, but Nettelhorst wasn’t an ideal place for education at the time.”
And trying to get her kids into a magnet school was even more daunting. “It’s statistically easier to get a high school senior into Harvard than it is to get your preschooler into [the magnet school] Hawthorne,” she said.
When Edelberg met the Nettelhorst staff, the principal went for the hard sell.
“She said, ‘What would it take to get you to enroll your children in my school?’ They really wanted us to be part of their community,” Edelberg explains.
So Edelberg got some other moms together and made a five-page ‘wish list’. And to their surprise, the principal agreed. “She looked at us and said, ‘it’s gonna be a busy year!’ “
Now, Nettelhorst is an award-winning public school with impressive test scores and overwhelming community support.
“There’s a lot of brain power sitting around the sand box. We all utilized our skills and pitched in. Everyone has something to add,” Edelberg said.
The student body is diverse, with 32 different languages being spoken among its 730 students. And eight years after Edelberg and her group of neighborhood moms marched in with their list of demands, Nettelhorst has become one of the top 10 community schools in Illinois, winning the coveted Dimon Distinguished Community School award.
“I believe schools can be rebranded and repositioned to a wary public as easily as breakfast cereal,” Edelberg says.
Here are Edelberg’s tips on how to make your school work for you.
–Gather up some friends, walk into your neighborhood public school, and ask the principal what you can do to help. There is no limit to what you should ask for. Dream big.
–Team up with your Chamber of Commerce to host all events at your school. From farmers markets to dance or art classes, create a destination for all things in the neighborhood.
–Paint goes a long way. There is not an inch of Nettelhorst that has not been touched by a neighborhood artist.
. I promise it will knock your socks off.
–Talk with your principal about volunteering in the classrooms. Principal Susan Kurland gave parents access to review curriculum and volunteer. Parental presence dramatically changed the teaching climate.
–Remember your school belongs to you. Create a dialogue on a regular basis with the parents in your neighborhood and get involved. Nothing happens by sitting around and hoping for the best.
For more information on Edelberg’s journey, visit howtowalktoschool.com.
Catch Jenniffer Weigel’s TribU segments Tuesdays on WGN TV Morning News, and weekdays throughout the day on CLTV.
