Why is King Arts completely escaping all scrutiny in this? I simply don't understand how that wasn't the school targeted for closure when it had worse building deficiency needs than BR did. It's weird that it never even seems to be mentioned in the last few years.
Why is King Arts completely escaping all scrutiny in this? I simply don't understand how that wasn't the school targeted for closure when it had worse building deficiency needs than BR did. It's weird that it never even seems to be mentioned in the last few years.
The thing that's also kind of crazy about the lack of discussion of King Arts is that the entire neighborhood around there is bussed to Lincolnwood and it is only two blocks from the fifth ward.
If "walkability" is the goal, you could imagine a scenario where you get rid of its magnet status and redistrict so the kids bussed to Lincolnwood walk to King. You also make a few adjustments on the West end of the Dewey map so all of the kids who live south of Emerson go to either Dewey or the neighborhood King school. All of those addresses are less than a mile from either King or Dewey.
You do that and you eliminate bussing to Willard and Lincolnwood.
All of the addresss north of Emerson continue to go to Kingsley, which is less than a mile from the furthermost point in the existing boundaries. Are kids south of McCormick actually bussed to Kingsley currently?
Yes, except King Lab is in the 2nd Ward, so I am sure you'll see the Make The Fifth Ward Great Again people oppose the idea.
I must give the new school advocates some credit for framing the debate around City of Evanston Wards. You hear people repeat the falsehood that "The Fifth Ward is the only ward that doesn't have a school." (There is no school in the First Ward and nobody talks about that).
Of course the reality is that the ward boundaries are arbitrary, can change every decade after the Census, and have nothing to do with the school district.
It would have saved the taxpayers lots of money if the City of Evanston had just moved the 5th Ward boundaries--which end right now at Green Bay and McCormick-- a few hundred feet across Green Bay to include the Prairie/Lincoln/McCormick/Green Bay block. It wouldn't have added any population to the Fifth Ward, but the MTFWGA crowd would get two Fifth Ward schools overnight!
My kids have to go to a different ward to go to school and it means absolutely nothing.
ItтАЩs also very close to the fifth ward. I donтАЩt know if itтАЩs тАЬwalkableтАЭ for all of the fifth ward but I also donтАЩt understand the focus on тАЬwalkabilityтАЭ when most kids are not walking to school alone in 2024.
According to State law, the district must offer free transport to any student living more than 1.5 miles from school or if they have to endure hazardous traffic.
Most of the Lincolnwood bussing district is less than 1.5 miles from the school. Perhaps McCormick is considered hazardous so that is why they are providing bus service.
There are no objective measure of hazard in the school code. It gets determined by the district.
Making King Arts a neighborhood school and expanding DeweyтАЩs boundaries a couple of blocks west would do wonders for walkability. You are way below the 1.5 mi threshold and there are no serious traffic roads that canтАЩt be dealt with by a crossing guard.
DidnтАЩt I hear the city is doing something at the bridge on Emerson at Beck Park like a pedestrian overpass as part of the major improvements of the park? It could be that once that is in place, it removes Emerson as a safety hazard barrier for kids in that part of the ward so the district wonтАЩt have to bus them. Because as of now, anyone on the other side of Emerson would face that as a walkable barrier. Saves money on bussing and voila- school pays for itself! ItтАЩs called math, people! Quite seriously, the debacle of the new school aside, a pedestrian overpass there would be very welcome for bikers and runners and kids trying to get north to the skate park. IтАЩm hoping it is true- being able to get kids safely to school is just a bonus.
IтАЩm a 5th ward resident on Wesley, I live 2 blocks from Dewey but my kids are bussed into orrington. I have always wanted my kids to go to Dewey but Sarita told me it wasnтАЩt equitable. A walk to the new 5th ward school across Emerson feels extremely difficult in comparison to Dewey.
I think King is left out of consideration for closure or change to local school because that is where they redirect kids to that have proved to have significant behavioral issues (I assume they have additional teaching resources there for this). Someone tell me if they know this not to be the case here. Or I was told (but canтАЩt quite believe) it is because it has the King name attached, etc.
The SAP committee did mention KA. Not specifically that it should be closed but that magnet schools are the most under utilized buildings in the district and they further speculated that adding a fifth ward school may reduce KA enrollment even further and would perhaps negate the need for a magnet school in that location. See the SAP Data Day meeting notes from Jan 15, 2022 here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dZg0ZWHR-tSikxBJiBG6re_HquRGgnmICMh73G0OZaM/edit
I think I saw it proposed somewhere before, but would KA have the capacity to absorb Bessie families in a "school-within-a-school" capacity, or just convert it a dual-purpose magnet school? With some enrollment trickling from KA to the new school based on assigned mapping, would that open up sufficient capacity for that?
Why is King Arts completely escaping all scrutiny in this? I simply don't understand how that wasn't the school targeted for closure when it had worse building deficiency needs than BR did. It's weird that it never even seems to be mentioned in the last few years.
I assume the SAP committees basically decided it wasn't on the table - for reasons we'll never know because it was a closed committee!!
The thing that's also kind of crazy about the lack of discussion of King Arts is that the entire neighborhood around there is bussed to Lincolnwood and it is only two blocks from the fifth ward.
If "walkability" is the goal, you could imagine a scenario where you get rid of its magnet status and redistrict so the kids bussed to Lincolnwood walk to King. You also make a few adjustments on the West end of the Dewey map so all of the kids who live south of Emerson go to either Dewey or the neighborhood King school. All of those addresses are less than a mile from either King or Dewey.
You do that and you eliminate bussing to Willard and Lincolnwood.
All of the addresss north of Emerson continue to go to Kingsley, which is less than a mile from the furthermost point in the existing boundaries. Are kids south of McCormick actually bussed to Kingsley currently?
Yes ... move the boundaries a little and voila, you have a Fifth Ward school (King Lab). And you've saved $40 million.
Yes, except King Lab is in the 2nd Ward, so I am sure you'll see the Make The Fifth Ward Great Again people oppose the idea.
I must give the new school advocates some credit for framing the debate around City of Evanston Wards. You hear people repeat the falsehood that "The Fifth Ward is the only ward that doesn't have a school." (There is no school in the First Ward and nobody talks about that).
Of course the reality is that the ward boundaries are arbitrary, can change every decade after the Census, and have nothing to do with the school district.
It would have saved the taxpayers lots of money if the City of Evanston had just moved the 5th Ward boundaries--which end right now at Green Bay and McCormick-- a few hundred feet across Green Bay to include the Prairie/Lincoln/McCormick/Green Bay block. It wouldn't have added any population to the Fifth Ward, but the MTFWGA crowd would get two Fifth Ward schools overnight!
My kids have to go to a different ward to go to school and it means absolutely nothing.
ItтАЩs also very close to the fifth ward. I donтАЩt know if itтАЩs тАЬwalkableтАЭ for all of the fifth ward but I also donтАЩt understand the focus on тАЬwalkabilityтАЭ when most kids are not walking to school alone in 2024.
According to State law, the district must offer free transport to any student living more than 1.5 miles from school or if they have to endure hazardous traffic.
Most of the Lincolnwood bussing district is less than 1.5 miles from the school. Perhaps McCormick is considered hazardous so that is why they are providing bus service.
There are no objective measure of hazard in the school code. It gets determined by the district.
Making King Arts a neighborhood school and expanding DeweyтАЩs boundaries a couple of blocks west would do wonders for walkability. You are way below the 1.5 mi threshold and there are no serious traffic roads that canтАЩt be dealt with by a crossing guard.
DidnтАЩt I hear the city is doing something at the bridge on Emerson at Beck Park like a pedestrian overpass as part of the major improvements of the park? It could be that once that is in place, it removes Emerson as a safety hazard barrier for kids in that part of the ward so the district wonтАЩt have to bus them. Because as of now, anyone on the other side of Emerson would face that as a walkable barrier. Saves money on bussing and voila- school pays for itself! ItтАЩs called math, people! Quite seriously, the debacle of the new school aside, a pedestrian overpass there would be very welcome for bikers and runners and kids trying to get north to the skate park. IтАЩm hoping it is true- being able to get kids safely to school is just a bonus.
Would be nice to have a crossing there and a pedestrian bridge over the canal
IтАЩm a 5th ward resident on Wesley, I live 2 blocks from Dewey but my kids are bussed into orrington. I have always wanted my kids to go to Dewey but Sarita told me it wasnтАЩt equitable. A walk to the new 5th ward school across Emerson feels extremely difficult in comparison to Dewey.
I think King is left out of consideration for closure or change to local school because that is where they redirect kids to that have proved to have significant behavioral issues (I assume they have additional teaching resources there for this). Someone tell me if they know this not to be the case here. Or I was told (but canтАЩt quite believe) it is because it has the King name attached, etc.
The SAP committee did mention KA. Not specifically that it should be closed but that magnet schools are the most under utilized buildings in the district and they further speculated that adding a fifth ward school may reduce KA enrollment even further and would perhaps negate the need for a magnet school in that location. See the SAP Data Day meeting notes from Jan 15, 2022 here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dZg0ZWHR-tSikxBJiBG6re_HquRGgnmICMh73G0OZaM/edit
I think I saw it proposed somewhere before, but would KA have the capacity to absorb Bessie families in a "school-within-a-school" capacity, or just convert it a dual-purpose magnet school? With some enrollment trickling from KA to the new school based on assigned mapping, would that open up sufficient capacity for that?
Thanks, that's interesting. King arts gets mentioned a bunch and BR not at all in the initial doc