Sarah Karp, Deputy Editor at Catalyst Chicago, will be joining us as our guest speaker in Chicago.
From “School closing list paired down” by Sarah Karp
“The communities that stand to be hardest hit are the same neighborhoods that have experienced a lot of closings previously. Englewood has 19 schools still on the list, Grand Boulevard has 15 and the Far South Side and West Humboldt Park each have 14. Byrd-Bennett said she now will be looking for the parents, school staff and community members to explain to her why the remaining schools are in the predicament they are in—underutilized and low-achieving. She would like to hear about issues of school leadership, teacher turnover and professional development.”
Questions for Consideration
What effect will school closings have on students who will be required to enroll in another school? What are possible alternatives to the CPS budget crisis or are there justifiable reasons for closing down some schools? How can we better support public education in our city?
Want to learn more?
- Chicago Public Schools to announce closings
- Why Isn’t Closing 129 Chicago Public Schools National News?
- As CPS mulls school closings, study finds city already has plenty of vacant school buildings
- Chicago school closings being investigated
- CPS School Closing List Release Of Preliminary List Roils West, South Side Communities
Sarah Karp joined the staff in 2006 after writing for five years for Catalyst’s sister publication, The Chicago Reporter, where she covered children and family issues.
Before that, Karp was project director at Youth Communication, which publishesNew Expression, a newspaper written by and for teenagers. She also has reported for the Daily Southtown and the Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune. She received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her beats are high schools, special education, elementary school core instruction, desegregation, health and social services and children of the incarcerated.
Free and open to the public. For more information please call 312.422.5580.
If you need a sign interpreter or require other arrangements to fully participate, please call 312.422.5580. For parking locations near the facility, please visit ChicagoParkingMap.com.