Remarks as prepared for the October 21, 2016 Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force (CEFTF) general meeting and school actions committee meeting, presented by Jennie Biggs on behalf of Raise Your Hand.

Comments on CPS Draft Guidelines for School Actions 2016-17

Raise Your Hand Calls on CPS to Stop Irresponsible School Expansions During Fiscal Crisis and Lowest Enrollment in Decades

Pending Vote for Opening 31 New Charters Likely to Have Devastating Impact on Many Chicago Public Schools

Raise Your Hand, founded by parents who mobilized in response to warnings in 2010 that class sizes might be increased to resolve budget deficits, finds itself again revisiting the classroom size problem in Chicago as CPS lists 54 schools for closure by the end of this year. These school closures reflect the CPS goal to fill classrooms with 30 students, as has been pointed out in the recent Tribune article. The new CPS utilization formula allows for as many 36 students in classrooms.

This press release was sent out today and a chart with all CPS elementary schools detailing class size info was given to the Board of Ed. Note below that RYH is setting up a class-size hotline for parents to help advocate in situatinos where classrooms are above the recommended limits of 28 for K-3 and 31 for 4-8. Also note that a parent LSC rep should now be appointed to a class size committee when a school makes a complaint about class size to CPS.