The following article was selected from the Internet Edition of the Chicago Tribune. To visit the site, point your browser to http://chicagotribune.com/. ----------- Chicago Tribune Article Forwarding---------------- Article forwarded by: Cayata Dixon Return e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Article URL: http://chicagotribune.com/news/local/article/0,1051,SAV-0105180354,00.html ---Forwarded article---------------- New prep school delayed By Ray Quintanilla The Chicago Public Schools system has postponed plans to turn King High School into a college preparatory academy because too few students expressed a desire to attend, school officials said Thursday. Only 53 students formally expressed a desire to enroll at King next fall--about half as many as expected--and more must be done to change attitudes about the school's troubled past, officials acknowledged. The move also calls into question the Board of Education's decision to spend $14 million to renovate the South Side neighborhood school, rather than build a new facility for college-bound students as was done with Northside College Prep and Walter Payton College Prep. "We just have to get the word out more," said schools chief Paul Vallas. "We think ongoing construction at the school also had an impact on why kids didn't apply." School officials broke the news Thursday night to a gathering of 150 angry parents and students at the school who worried about finding another school on short notice. But school officials said all students accepted to King for the fall semester would have a slot at one of the other college prep high schools. Confirmation letters will go out within a week, parents were told, although students will not be able to select a school of their choice. Vallas said he had originally planned to enroll a freshman class in August, but the lack of applicants has postponed that decision for at least a year. Of the nine public schools for college-bound children in Chicago, King received only 136 applicants. By contrast, the school in highest demand, Lane Tech, received 2,332. Privately, schools officials were shocked that so few students were interested in attending King in light of the major financial commitment the Board of Education has made to transform the school into the academic "crown jewel of the South Side." "The school is being gutted, and is going to be top-notch," one senior official observed. "What more can you do?" But some fears linger about the school in the Kenwood neighborhood, officials said. King High School, 4445 S. Drexel Blvd., has dealt with a stubborn street-gang problem dating to the 1970s when the school first opened. Though concerns about safety and violence at the school eased in the 1990s, it since has been beset by academic failure, truancy and a rising dropout rate. In recent years, the Board of Education toyed with the idea of closing the school to send students, teachers and the public a strong message about its resolve to stem a tide of failure. But when the board launched a plan to construct two new high schools for college-bound students on the city's North Side--Walter Payton College Prep and Northside College Prep--a decision was made to transform King into a school for the South Side's college-bound children. Parents were frustrated Thursday when school officials couldn't answer many of their questions. The meeting took a nasty turn after Jeff Gray, an official in the public schools' Department of Schools and Regions, said King would be closed. Later, Gray said he misspoke, but few of the parents believed him. After being barraged with questions from furious parents, Gray abruptly left the meeting. Lakita Harold said she and fellow parents with children at King worry it will actually close. Euris Bates' 14-year-old daughter Ciera now faces having to attend another school. "I'm kind of left guessing about what options my daughter has," Bates said. "I know the school has had a bad reputation, and I was concerned about sending my daughter there. But she said it was going to be fine, so we went ahead and signed her up." ---------------------------------------------------- This is the CPS Mathematics Teacher Discussion List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
