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Fixed schools fail

Several closing; others -- including Phillips, Marshall -- to get overhaul

BY ROSALIND ROSSI
Education Reporter

Storied Phillips High -- where Nat "King" Cole once walked the halls -- and basketball powerhouse Marshall High School are among 14 Chicago public schools expected to face massive shakeups, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

Fewer than 4 percent of students at both schools passed their state exams last year, putting both Phillips and Marshall on the radar for a "turnaround" in which schools are re-staffed but kids stay in place.

Both predominately black schools have faced major overhauls in the past, with little academic success.

A third high school is facing a total shutdown, sources say. Officials contend the South Side building housing Las Casas Occupational High doesn't meet the needs of the 82 special education students it serves. Officials want to send those students to Montefiore, a public school for truants and troubled students; Banner Linc Alternative School and various private schools.

The shakeup plan under discussion Monday called for the closure of Las Casas and three other schools, whose children would be sent elsewhere. Four others would consolidate with other schools; one would stop accepting new kids and phase out over time, and five would experience staffing "turnarounds." However, the plan was still being tweaked late Monday, when four small high schools in one building were spared from turnaround.

Schools CEO Ron Huberman is expected to announce the list of school closures and other shakeups today, but he does so after proposing a new "Student Bill of Rights" intended to ease the transition for kids switching to new schools.

For the first time, kids in schools closed for either academic reasons or for lack of enrollment have been promised they will be sent to higher-performing schools. Some receiving schools will get longer school days and some transferred kids will get summer school classes to guard against academic loss.

Facing closure along with Las Casas as of Monday were two schools nagged by poor performance: Curtis Elementary, whose students would be split among Pullman and Haley; and Guggenheim, with its kids to be offered seats at Hinton, Altgeld and in some cases, based on student addresses, two magnet schools with empty seats -- Nicholson and Burnside Scholastic.

Headed for closure because of low enrollment is Prescott, which officials contend serves fewer than 200 kids in a building designed for 600. Agassiz and Burley would absorb its kids.

Schneider would stop accepting new kids next school year and gradually phase out.

McCorkel, Paderewski, Marconi and Mollison have been tapped for consolidation into other schools. McCorkel kids will be sent to Beethoven, which has received kids from failed schools in the past -- a practice critics say can drag down the performance of receiver schools.

Facing a "turnaround" by the not-for-profit Academy for Urban School Leadership are Phillips High and three elementary schools: Ruggles, Gillespie and Deneen. Marshall's turnaround would be coordinated by CPS officials.

Marshall, home to the winningest basketball coach in state history -- girls coach Dorothy Gaters -- has been through its share of fixes. In 2000, it was "re-engineered." By 2006, Lane Tech Principal Keith Foley -- whom CPS officials touted as a "superstar" -- was sent in as a principal mentor. At the time, 15 percent of kids were passing state tests. The pass rate has since plunged to 3.9 percent.