Residents Grill O'Connor on Neighborhood School Closures

New green spaces, a boathouse and beautification projects are all coming to the 40th Ward, but some are questioning the improvements when a neighborhood school is closing.

Ald. Patrick O’Connor addressed residents Monday night for a town hall meeting at Swedish Covenant Hospital’s Anderson Pavilion.

While O’Connor didn’t discuss the Chicago Public Schools closures during the meeting, residents quickly brought up the subject during a question and answer period.

In May, CPS announced it would close 49 schools in the city, including Andersonville’s Trumbull Elementary in the 40th ward. A billion-dollar budget deficit coupled with under enrollment was the reason given by CPS officials for the closures.

Residents—including some teachers—asked the alderman why money can be found for neighborhood improvements and not the schools.

“What does the city want us to do?” Ann McKenzie asked. Her daughter, attending Blaine Elementary in the fall, will be in an eighth grade class of 42 students.

O’Connor said CPS should have been closing 10 to 15 schools a year for the last decade, saying officials “kicked the problem down the road by supporting schools that were way underutilized.”

With Trumbull, three other elementary schools are within a half-mile radius of the building.

“That cluster of schools creates an overabundance of real estate…” he said. “That money could be spent in the classroom.”

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But even in the schools staying open, CPS is handing principals budgets with drastic cuts. Amundsen High School is being shorted almost $1 million, while Budlong Elementary has $800,000 less than the previous year.

Parents asked the alderman why tax increment finance money can’t be used to bridge the budget gap.

O’Connor countered that TIF funding has been used to improve the schools—$15 million to Mather High School for an addition and another $13 million to Peterson Elementary.

But typically, TIF money is dedicated to bring higher taxes into the area rather than be spent on projects that don’t attract new business, O’Connor said.

Instead, the alderman told parents to urge their state representative to pass a pension reform plan, something that would ease the CPS budget burden. 

O’Connor is hosting three more town hall meetings over the summer. The next one in Lincoln Square is 7 p.m. Aug. 5 at Amundsen High School.