City has ordered gas turned off at parent sit-in for library.

[madfloridian]

Here is the breaking news from Chicago.

Gas cut off -- field house sit-in in Pilsen continues

The gas has been cut off at an elementary school field house in Pilsen where dozens of parents have been staging a sit-in for nearly three weeks in hopes of convincing Chicago Public Schools to remake the building into a library. Araceli Gonzalez, a parent who has joined dozens of others in protest at the Whittier Elementary School field house, said three workers arrived at about 8:15 a.m. in a Peoples Gas truck to dig a hole on the sidewalk. A few minutes later, Gonzalez said parents heard a noise coming from the pipes and smelled gas. Then everything went quiet, Gonzalez said, and the crew left.

"We are going to continue being here," said Gonzalez, who has a 10-year-old daughter at Whittier Elementary School, 1900 W. 23rd St. "They are not going to intimidate us."

Peoples Gas said CPS ordered the gas to be turned off so that the field house could be demolished.

Gonzalez and other parents have camped inside the field house for 20 days to keep CPS officials from leveling the building. Instead, they want CPS to use the money it has allocated for the demolition -- about $500,000 -- to fix the building. CPS officials, however, say the field house has become too dangerous to inhabit and must come down to expand the play area with synthetic field grass.

The parents feel repairs can be made much more cheaply than demolition.

I just wrote about this 16th day of the parent sit in in Chicago. They have turned a field house at the school into a library for their children. Since Chicago seems proud that 160 schools don't have libraries they don't seem to appreciate the sit-in.

Here are some pictures and more about the activist parents.


Putting finishing touches on the library


Children race to open the new library.

Surrounded by pots of food and refrigerators filled with milk and pop, Pilsen parents vowed Friday to remain entrenched through the winter in a field house that officials want demolished but parents want converted to a library-parent center.

"We're here, and we're going to stay here until we get the library the way we want it,'' Pilsen resident Evelin Santos said of the Whittier School field house that officials call a safety hazard.

..."The battle entered its 16th day Friday, as dozens of parents and residents refused to vacate the building at 1900 W. 23rd St., known as "La Casita'' -- frustrating a Chicago Public Schools plan to raze it and put down artificial turf. Chicago Teachers Union officials on Friday dropped off more than 500 books to the makeshift library, decorated with handmade curtains and donated bookshelves, that parents opened in La Casita this week.

..."Parents want to continue those services, and add a badly needed library for kids and adults, Santos said. However, CPS spokeswoman Monique Bond said more than 160 CPS schools don't have libraries.

[Lorien]

1. K & R. nt

[madfloridian]

9. Thanks.

It's stunning how badly they want that field to be covered with turf, and how anxious they are to tear down the field house.

[Panaconda]

2. K&R n/t

[G_j]

3. K&R

[leftstreet]

4. K&R

[maryf]

5. K&R

Libraries and librarians are on the chopping block with teachers, nurses, schools, and medical facilities...solidarity with these people!

[madfloridian]

6. Amen to that.

:hi:

[maryf]

12. Sadly many libraries have the word "public" in front of them...

and, as we keep seeing, that word or concept seems to be a call for attack on it like public schools, public health care, apparently fire departments even, no profit in it...

[Canuckistanian]

7. CPS cowards

They can't even send someone to negociate. So they try and intimidate.

Nice.

[madfloridian]

8. I think you are right. There is a culture of intimidation in many districts now.

I think more than there used to be.

[madfloridian]

10. More on the topic from the Library Journal. Sadly we know who will win.

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/home/886933-312/chicago_parents_kids_stage_sit-in.html.csp

"With shouts of "We want a library!" ringing out in the largely Hispanic neighborhood on the lower west side of Chicago, as many as 30 parents and children have defied local police since September 15, occupying the building and spending their time creating signs and saying the rosary.

The protesters hope the Chicago Public Schools district (CPS) will reverse its decision to raze the building to make way for more greenery and build a soccer field.

But that's not going to happen, says Monique Bond, a spokeswoman for CPS, explaining that the Department of Buildings has cited the structure with a number of safety violations and that there "were always plans to level" it because it's unstable.

"Based on a structural report conducted by the engineering firm Perry & Associates, the field house has "substantial structural and architectural defects." Bond says the district lacks money for a renovation, which would cost three times as much as the $354,000 demolition, which is already in the budget. However, parents have commissioned their own report with the engineering firm Ingenii LLC, which says that "with the exception of the roof, the structure is in good condition and suitable for continued use."


The city will win, of course. They have to do so. They can't let a bunch of parents outmaneuver them, can they?

[Greyhound]

11. K&R.

[madfloridian]

13. They want that bldg gone to make room for a soccer field for private school.

http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2010/10/huberman-tries-to-freeze-out-pilsen.html

"Chicago school boss Ron Huberman has ordered the heat turned off inside Whittier School field house in an attempt to freeze neighborhood parents out of a building they've been occupying for nearly a month, round the clock to prevent demolition. The gas shutoff left the field house without heat or hot water, just as night temperatures were due to fall to the 40s.

CPS wants to raze the structure, which it calls unsafe, and put in a soccer field to be used by a nearby private school, Cristo Rey. Parents want it converted to a library and parent center. Whittier is one of 160 Chicago elementary schools without a library."

That deserves a post by itself it is so arrogant.

[blondeatlast]

35. I wish you could have HEARD my response upon reading that. Words

on a message board don't do my reaction justice.

Those parents and kids must prevail and if I can help, I will.

[blondeatlast]

36. I wish you could have HEARD my response upon reading that. Words

on a message board don't do my reaction justice.

Those parents and kids must prevail and if I can help, I will.

[madfloridian]

14. Neighborhood library was closed last year.

"Whittier Elementary and playground

The neighborhood’s branch of the Chicago Public Library system has been closed for renovations since June.

The occupation is in some respects the first open expression of long-simmering working class resistance to relentless attacks on the public education system in Chicago. The Democratic administrations in city hall, the state capitol and the White House have all pursued an agenda of privatizing, downsizing and cost-cutting. Top government officials who have come out of the Chicago Democratic Party machine—Education Secretary Arne Duncan and President Obama among them—view the “transformation” of the city’s schools as a major front in the assault on public education nationwide.

The economic crisis has served as a pretext to slash spending on public education. Since 2008, dozens of the city’s public schools have been shuttered. This represents an acceleration of a long-standing process. Over the past 8 years, more than 10 percent of Chicago schools have been shut down.

Since June of this year, 2,000 teachers and staff have been laid off. Schools serving the poor areas of the city, including Pilsen, are increasingly being subjected to punitive performance-based funding schemes. Schools that lack basic resources and have student populations with higher needs, such as bilingualism, perform more poorly on standardized tests. Lower scores are then used to justify mass layoffs, further withholding of funds, and the selloff of schools to for-profit charter operations."

Thanks to the WSWS for taking time to do some real research on this.

[madfloridian]

15. "These people laugh at you because they are in a position of power"

"Gonzalez and the other moms said they grew tired of promises. With every passing week, anger turned into indignation. On Sept. 15 they decided they had had enough.

"You feel helpless," Gonzalez said. "These people laugh at you because they are in a position of power and they think that gives them the right to laugh at people."

Before taking over the field house, the women didn't know one another's full names. They never considered themselves activists. But they are at the center of a small movement that has inspired other parents to show up at the field house with fresh coffee and warm meals.

In the mornings, a dozen moms stay at the field house while their children are at school. Their watch is relieved when another set of moms takes over after school. All keep a watchful eye for demolition crews as their children sit nearby to do homework. As many as 30 women occupy the faded structure. Some balance work and children with their field house duties. Others help out after their husbands leave for work. At nights, after the children are put to bed and the phones have stopped ringing, a handful of moms enjoy the warm breeze outside the one-story building. Half a dozen college students, husbands and activists keep them company, making sure they eat and take breaks."

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-09-25/news/ct-met-whittier-moms-20100925_1_field-house-cps-moms

[maryf]

18. Organizing!!

more power to these women, thanks for this article too!

[madfloridian]

19. I am glad to see parents stand up for what they need.

I hope teachers will start standing up more as well.

[maryf]

20. Me too, we need to form a new union!

Or start to put the leaders feet to the fire...

[madfloridian]

25. Here is an inspiring article about it.

Sit-In Stymies Chicago School's Plan to Demolish a Run-Down Community Hub

"They think we are going to get tired of this," she said Tuesday night, explaining her morning dashes home to prepare her children for school and herself for her job at a bank. "They're giving me more strength."

Ms. Gonzalez, 46 years old, is among dozens of parents at Whittier Dual Language School who have been holding an around-the-clock sit-in for more than two weeks to prevent the city school district from tearing down the roughly finished one-story building, which has served as a community center and after-school activity hub for decades.

School-district officials say the building, in a poor Latino neighborhood southwest of the Loop, is unsafe and would be too expensive to bring up to current building codes. "It's not even a building. It's a structure," said Monique Bond, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Public Schools. "It would need to be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up."

There is no money for that, she said.

In a series of meetings since last November, the district and the parents failed to reach agreement. Ms. Bond said the cost of tearing down the building and replacing it with an acceptable library could be $5 million to $20 million. Parents say the $356,000 already allocated would go a long way toward upgrading the building because they can call on free labor from workers in the neighborhood. Finally, with a looming school-district deadline for boarding up the building, parents decided to take it over on Sept. 15."

[Starry Messenger]

16. k & r

[Eyerish]

17. K&R

[madfloridian]

21. Couple of interesting comments on this after Huff Post article.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/05/pilsen-sitin-cps-turns-of_n_750950.html

" 2 hours ago (3:04 PM)

"I believe CPS wants to lease the land to the nearby Jesuit school as a playing field with Whittier students also, ostensibly, having access to it. The parents question whether $350,000 to demolish the fieldhouse to suit the purposes of a private school is a good use of funds when teachers are being laid off and the school is overcrowded.
rabbity: I believe CPS wants to lease the land to the
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/rabbity/pilsen-sitin-cps-turns-of_n_750950_62733831.html
Permalink | Share it

And the reply to that comment:

" 2 hours ago (3:23 PM

" Well, now that makes more sense, maybe money is behind the whole issue. A private school versus a more poorly funded, of mostly Latino students. Obviously the parents of this school are very involved. I give them kudos for doing what they are doing. Wow, that seems like a lot of money to demolish a field house. More to this than meets the eye me thinks.

Permalink | Share"

Indeed it does seem like a lot to demolish a field house.

[progressoid]

22. Maybe they should turn it into a charter school instead.

Then Arnie would be there for the ribbon cutting.

[madfloridian]

24. I'm wondering if the parochial school getting the soccer field....

is a charter. Could be, many parochial schools in FL became charters to survive financially.

http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2010/10/huberman-tries-to-freeze-out-pilsen.html

[madfloridian]

23. Rahm did not listen to these Pilsen parents and kids on his listening tour.

"The blunt talk during one part of Emanuel's visit to a bustling street in the mostly Hispanic Pilsen neighborhood was that he wasn't listening enough.

There, a group of parents protesting the planned demolition of a park field house briefly surrounded Emanuel's car. They said he'd promised to talk with them on the sidewalk, but instead, after entering a restaurant to shake hands with patrons, he quickly headed to his car without stopping.

Michelle Palencia, whose 6-year-old son attends a school that uses the field house as a library, said the group confronted Emanuel because no one else is listening.

"He said, 'I promise,'" Palencia said. "That's all we've been hearing is promises."

Palencia said Emanuel did say he would call her – and she will be waiting."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/05/rahm-emanuel-snubs-pilsen_n_750983.html

[madfloridian]

26. What one of the parents wishes for her children:

http://louisianajusticeinstitute.blogspot.com/2010/09/chicago-parents-hold-sit-in-to-protest.html

"We’re fighting for a library. It’s as simple as that. A library. And we reached this point that we need to do a sit-in to get it.

.."I hope that my kids, as they grow older, they get involved in struggles like this. If they hear that there’s something going on, and their support is needed to just to sit there, or go sign a paper, or whatever is needed, they will do it.

They will learn from what were going through here, because they’ve been part of the sit-in too. Theyr’re struggling here, they come here some nights and stay for a while. They go home to go to sleep late, because if it’s the night that I’m going to stay here, they want to stay as late as they can because I’m going to stay the night.

Little things like that are making them stronger. The nights that I’m there are making them stronger."

[heliarc]

47. Inspiring thoughtful words.

Thanks for posting.

[MilesColtrane]

27. Trying to freeze them out?

Good god, they're treating them like union members.

[Ken Burch]

28. And remember, folks...if Rahm becomes Chicago's mayor, he'd not ONLY stop the gas

He'd probably tear gas the fieldhouse. Rahm doesn't give a shit about people who are fighting for their kids like this.

[cornermouse]

29. That floored me when they said Chicago schools don't have

in-house libraries for the kids. It seems the school administration doesn't think trying to encourage children to read should be a priority in Chicago. Why else would they teach them to read and then not give them anything to read?

[Dash87]

30. What kind of a school doesn't have a library?

This is the kind of thing that happens when we spend money on bombs to kill people instead of money on our own children. :(

♥

[Myrina]

31. "Kids don't need books, they all need to be up-and-coming sports stars"

They don't need to know how to read to play in the NFL, c'mon America! Get with it!! :puke:

[feslen]

32. books? who cares? *sarcasm*

hope they save this library

[madfloridian]

33. Wow, Huberman "worried" about their safety. Betcha he will force them out.

http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=44827

"The protest at an elementary school field house in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood is entering its third week. A group of parents and supporters have camped out at the Whittier elementary school field house to prevent Chicago Public Schools from tearing it down. Schools chief Ron Huberman says the situation at Whittier is an accident waiting to happen.

HUBERMAN: Keep in mind my background was head of emergency management. I know an unsafe situation when I see one. That is a small building. That building has no carbon-monoxide detector. That building has no fire-suppression system. It's now full of books and it's full of kids. That makes us very, very nervous.

Huberman says the district will conduct a third building inspection once the protesters leave the building."

[blondeatlast]

34. SWEET! What a day-brightener! nt

[blondeatlast]

37. Any ideas how we can help the parents and kids? If I could, I'd sit with them,

but I can certainly contribute funds for food, blankets, etc.

[itsrobert]

38. Library? They are obsolete by the internet.

:sarcasm:

[madfloridian]

39. Head of schools..from street cop to emer. mgt, to transit, to school head.

No wonder he seems to have little understanding of education. He was never an educator.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7709004

" Huberman rose from a street cop and went on to run the Office of Emergency Management and Communication for the city. After Mayor Daley appointed him to that post, he then appointed Huberman to head of the Chicago Transit Authority, and then it was on to the top job at CPS in 2009.

"Everyone who is watching the current political dynamics change realizes that there are going to be changes that occur," Huberman said. "No one can promise anything into the future, right? What I can tell you is that all of the issues that are on the forefront of the Chicago public school system is what I'm working hardest on."

[kath]

42. Wow. Unreal - real freakin' qualified for the job, eh?

Jeebus H. Christ on a trailer hitch.

[blondeatlast]

40. k nt

[kath]

41. 160 DISTRICT SCHOOLS HAVE NO LIBRARY?!?!!

Shameful, absofuckinlutely shameful.

[defendandprotect]

43. K&R ---

[HuckleB]

44. On a side note: What is up with the synthetic field grass crap.

That is expensive, and it's going to need to be replaced, and it might lead to more injuries than good old grass. (Yeah, I know it costs money to maintain grass, too, but I've been looking at the numbers on projects in my area, and the synthetic costs don't seem to pan out.)

[madfloridian]

45. Not sure. I know it will be used by a parochial school next to Whittier.

Which concerns me....turning over public property to private religious schools.

[HuckleB]

46. That does not seem right.

[Luciferous]

48. Good for them. Every school should have a library!

[madfloridian]

49. Big win for the sit-in parents. "Cutoff called 'cruel'; Council orders repair study"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9273456

Yay for the city council..

Boo to the school board and Huberman.

[bluestatecowboys]

50. Whittier Sit-In (from HuffPo 10/7/10)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-farmer/waiting-for-libraryman_b_749659.html

[LWolf]

51. A kick and cheers for parents supporting school libraries.

:applause: :applause: