Whittier Elementary School sit-in enters Day 6

[Hannah Bell]

The six-day standoff between Chicago Public Schools officials and protesters demanding a library for a Pilsen elementary school showed no signs of ending Monday, with both sides indicating they were ready for a drawn-out fight.

Parents, children and activists have occupied a field house at Whittier Elementary School around the clock since Wednesday. CPS says the building is unsafe and must be demolished because there is no money for renovations, but protesters insist it could be converted into a library for less than the cost of demolition.

The two sides have not spoken since Friday, when more than 100 parents, students and teachers prevented CPS officials and police from carrying out their threats to remove the protesters and arrest them.

"We're going to stay here as long as it takes," said parent Araceli Gonzalez, whose daughter, Daniela, 10, is a Whittier student. "We've got inflatable mattresses, bathrooms, food and support from the community -- everything we need. Our children deserve a library."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/2730580,CST-NWS-whittier21.article


Parents occupy Chicago school

As one mother, whose children have attended Whittier for the past eight years, said: "This is not private property. This is our property--we pay taxes, we pay for this. It's not about what they want to do with it--it's about what we want to do with it. Imagine our kids not having a library."

CPS says it will spend $354,000 to demolish the field house building. Whittier parents hired their own engineer, who estimated that the building could be salvaged for a fraction of that cost. According to Gema Gaete, an activist and Pilsen resident, the call from parents is to "repolish, not demolish."

THE WHITTIER occupation is a struggle of a predominantly working class immigrant community against cuts being instituted by the Chicago School Board and City Hall. But there are larger issues that have echoes across Chicago and nationally.

The Whittier Parents Committee has been organizing for years for school expansion, to be funded by Chicago's Tax Increment Financing (TIF) program--a complicated system under which a portion of property tax revenues in specified districts is collected in special accounts, under Mayor Daley's control, supposedly to be used for development projects that might not otherwise be carried out.

The size of Daley's TIF coffers is estimated at $1 billion, but how those funds get used is often hidden--leading critics to suspect that the money gets diverted to wealthier sections of the city, for projects the mayor approves of.

The years of pressure paid off when nearly $1.5 million in TIF funds were earmarked for renovation at Whittier. But cynically, CPS set aside nearly a quarter of this money for the destruction of the field house, which has served Pilsen for years as a gathering place for community projects.

Parents say they want to be part of the decision-making process...THE OUTPOURING of solidarity for the occupiers has been overwhelming. In the first week, hundreds of people brought food and money, helped with fixing up the building, and rallied in support of the Whittier parents.

Members of the Caucus for Rank and File Educators (CORE) in the Chicago Teachers Union, Teachers for Social Justice, the Moratorium on Deportations Campaign (MDC), the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign, ChicagoOtra, the International Socialist Organization and many others have all signed onto a statement of support and are circulating an online petition.

http://socialistworker.org/2010/09/21/parents-occupy-chicago-school

[Starry Messenger]

1. k & r

BIG ups to Chicago protesters.