By Ben Joravsky
Future Commons is a vocational school that was created three years ago by the central office in partnership with Chicago Commons, a social service organization. Enrollment’s limited to fewer than 300, giving teachers, parents, and students a greater say in creating core courses in English, history, and science, as well as vocational classes in graphic arts, manufacturing, architecture, and drafting. Students are linked with “mentors”–architects, writers, lawyers, and other professionals–who they get to “shadow” at work.
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The school’s a work in progress. It’s had some difficulty getting mentors and students to bond, and test scores lag below the national average. But parents rave about the staff’s dedication, and they boast of the ribbons students have won in architecture contests. “The advantage of a small school is that the teachers have a real stake–they know the kids and they really care,” says Taitt. “My son’s doing very well. He feels safe and cared for. It’s been great.”
“When I came to work for Toni four years ago the decision had already been made that they would have to take down the Oakenwald School,” says Rebecca Janowitz, Preckwinkle’s legislative aide. “Some people may have felt we wouldn’t demolish anything, but we meant it.”
In April word came: the school would be moved to Einstein. It seemed like a natural relocation to central office staffers. Einstein’s only a few blocks from Future Commons, so students wouldn’t have to adjust to a new neighborhood. Moreover, the move would be prudent, putting to new use a relatively modern building where the existing school’s enrollment was steadily falling.
Shumaker, who lives in Wells, says he was jumped outside Einstein last year. “Two cars pulled up and a bunch of guys jumped out and they surrounded me,” he says. “They didn’t say much–they just took my coat and left. I was lucky.
It’s true that there’s crime in the area, Martin acknowledges. But there’s crime everywhere; it’s an inescapable fact of life in Chicago. Martin does assure parents that every reasonable safety precaution will be taken. “We have already talked with the highest level of the police department,” he says. “They work in conjunction with us. Two police officers are assigned to every high school. Can I say that an area around every one of our high schools is drug free? I wish I could say that. But we can work to make things better. They’ve done it around King, DuSable, and Phillips high schools in different measures of success. This would not be the only school in a high-crime area–sad to say.
