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September 18, 2010 – related to members at GCA September general meeting

Dear GCA members and Chatham neighbors:

I normally try to remain impartial when making my comments but today I am going to make
an exception because what I am passionate about and the meetings I have attended in the last
month collided. I attended two meetings about different aspects of educational factors that are
impacting our community. These factors impact all of the issues you stated were important on
the survey: safety and security, residential stability and improvement, youth issues, business
development and even traffic congestion and flow.
I attended a meeting sponsored by State Rep. Connie Howard and State Senator Donnie
Trotter to discuss specific efforts at preventing violence. House bill HB5400 sponsored by Rep.
Howard, proposes amending the school code to provide violence prevention and conflict resolution
education in every school district. The research indicates that children who attend schools where
they do not feel safe have difficulty performing well. Many of our children do not know how to
interact with peers or adults in a socially and emotionally appropriate way. These children are
not learning the rules for navigating through society in their home. Someone bumps into them
and they are ready to take offense and fight. It is imperative that these children learn: how to
resolve conflicts, make requests, apologize, empathize, be patient, delay gratification and
become compassionate human beings. The house bill is a strategy to work on that in school.
I also attended a meeting sponsored by Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force
http://www.isbe.net/CEF/ that was established by the Public Act 96-0803 to insure that decisions
made by CPS regarding school facilities will be based on educationally sound and financially
responsible principles. It is very important that voices from Chatham attend those meetings. I
have a list of the school performance results for the schools in Chatham and frankly it is appalling.
7 out of 8 schools are on probation, schools met or exceeded state standards from a low of 47%
to a high of 73%, out of a possible 42 points schools in Chatham received a low of 3 points to a
high of 24 points. How many of you would be willing to move into the Chatham community with this
type of school performance?
Our neighborhood schools are not preparing our students to compete in a global world!
This directly impacts: our property values, the type of folks who are interested in moving into
Chatham, the type of businesses who might be interested in moving into our community, an
educated or trained, tax paying workforce and whether our community will have an undereducated
populace that is only capable of being involved in criminal activity.

773.635.6500 8223 S. Wabash, Chicago, IL 60619 gcahonor@sbcglobal.net

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We can focus on one acute (maybe chronic) issue like security and ignore the chronic problem
of a community that does not have one public school in this community that can provide an
adequate, let alone an exceptional education. Do we want a community that is safe but dumb
or do we choose a community that is safe and educated?

Two (2) additional Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force public hearings:
Call to confirm location, and time at Rep. Cynthia Sotos (773) 252-0402
Sept. 25, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm; Garfield Park Field House (100 N. Central Park Ave.)
Sept. 28, 4:00 – 7:00 pm; Diabetes Improvement Center (2753 W. Division St.)
Sincerely,

Madelyn James
Greater Chatham Alliance President