Chicago Public League Sports Blog

CPS Thinking of Making Another All-Girl Charter School

Did you know the CPS already has an all-girls charter school? Pictured above are girls from the Young Women Leadership Charter School at 2641 South Calumet Avenue.(Gazette photo)

The CPS is thinking of making at least one more all-girls charter school.

Single gender schools are nothing new in the CPS. For the longest time, Lane Tech high school was all male before it became co-ed. A few years ago, the CPS resurrected the single gender model when it made Urban Prep. Urban Prep has since expanded to 2 more schools.

The only all girl charter school is the Young Women Leadership Charter School in the wouth side. It has only about 50 students per class. Yet there are over 300 applicants for those 50 spots. THe CPS feels there is a definite demand so that is why they are thinking of opening some kind of other all-girl school.

 

 

CPS facing record $720 million budget deficit

Interims CPS CEO Terry Mazany said that the CPS faces a $720 million dollar budget deficit. I don't know exactly where this is headed, but I do know that when a person or an organization creates such a big financial mess, some major changes are inevitably bound to happen.

Drivers Ed Cuts in the CPS!

I got this email from a CPSfan reader:

Attached is a memo I thought you would find interesting - it's not exactly sports related but, it's from Calvin Davis the head of CPS sports and I'm hoping it is not indicative of what could happen to sports going forward because of the budget cuts!?!?!  Not much notice given to a group of kids that may not have an alternative way of getting their driver's license.  Just doesn't make sense!

Department of Sports Administration and Facilities Management
50 I West 35th Street, 2nd Floor, Chicago. Illinois 60616
Calvin Davis Telephone 773/535-8040 . Fax 773/535-8097
Director

MEMORANDUM

To: Driver Education Directors
CC: Principals
From: Calvin Davis
Re: Centers Shut -Down/Budget Review
Date: May 11,2010

This memo is intended to inform all site directors that each driver education lab program will be shut down at all locations after Friday of this week. The exception to this directive will be locations where classroom instruction is being conducted. The remaining driver education budget for this fiscal year will be reviewed to detelmine \vhat site(s) will receive extended dates and hours of operation. Additionally, the employment of all student-aides will end as of this Friday also. Again, no sites are to open after this Friday until further notice. We have reviewed the expenditures over the past 6 pay periods, and "vill be sitting down with the site observers to determine next steps. A number of sites have exceeded their allocation during several pay periods. Sites "vill be notified by Tuesday as to whether or not additional hours will be allocated to their site. If further information about this memo is needed, please phone this office at: 773 535-8040.

Thank you.

Huberman Threatens to Cut ALL Non-varsity CPS Sports

At least we now know that CPS CEO Ron Huberman is a non-sports fan. In a meeting with CPS principals earlier this week, Huberman threatened to cut funding for all CPS non-varsity sports. The CPS is facing a huge budget deficit. To make up deficits, politicians usually rely on borrowing, taxing, or cutting back. Taxing and borrowing is not the smart thing to do during these economic times.

So, Huberman mentioned cutting back through:

• Increasing class sizes (to reduce the need for more teachers).
• Cut non-varsity sports.
• Union concessions.

Option #1 of increasing class sizes would put more work on teachers and may affect the quality of education. This is a viable option.

Option #2 of cutting non-varsity sports is very controversial. The CPS already cut all sophomore sports. Next would be cutting freshman, freshman-sophomore, and JV teams. This is a doomsday scenario and would be disastrous for the future of CPS sports. If this happened, I wouldn't be surprised if you say a mass exodus of sports talent go away from the CPS. This would put the CPS back into a medieval state in sports. The CPS, already below par in most sports with the exception of basketball and track, would be sent deeper in the hole.

Option #3 Union concessions has to be seriously considered. With over 10% unemployment in the state of Illinois and peoples wages being cut everywhere, the Unions in the city are getting automatic pay increases and hefty benefits every year. The CPS Unions have to renegotiate. If they do not the CPS will be forced to take drastic actions like cutting even more sports.

We will know shortly, where the Unions stand. In the fall of 2010, if your sport gets cut. You can blame the Unions for not taking a pay cut.

Monica by a Pinkie

Monica Pinkus (sr) of Northside Prep wins the CPSfan.com, female player of the year.

Final votes are in. Monica Pinkus, senior from Northside Prep has been awarded the female Player of the Year Award.

Here are just some comments from fans:

"MONICA!!!!!"

"Pinkus is ranked nationally and her time of 1:05.62 in the 100 Breaststroke would have won several state titles in the past 30 years. Her time also just missed qualifying for junior nationals."

"It's all about breaking barriers.Swimming is king in the North Shore (Lake Forest, Highland Park, Evanston, New Trier, etc), Northwest suburbs (Barrington, Stevenson, etc), and posh western suburbs (Hinsdales, Napervilles, etc).When someone form out of those areas even get close to a state medal, it is news.

In the case of Pinkus, she medaled in one even t and came close to another.She did something (medal), that only one other girl in the whole history of girls swimming has done form the CPS has done. For that alone she deserves some credit."

"7th place at state is pretty badass in my opinion for a cps athlete in whatever the sport may be."

Monica Pinkus all the way!!! She is one of the most committed, free spirited, and inspiring athletes I've ever come across. She definitely deserves this title! - Pink fan

....you cannot deny the intensity of the sport or the accomplishments of Ms. Pinkus. For a CPS athlete, it is extremely hard to qualify for state PRELIMINARIES in swimming, something Ms. Pinkus has done two years in a row. Not only did she qualify for preliminaries twice, she participated in the FINALS and swam the fourth fastest time in the state, but due to the IHSA rules, received 7th. This is a huge accomplishment for a CPS athlete, and it really put CPS on the radar for IHSA women's swimming.- BE NICE

In addition to her 7th place finish (and 4th fastest time) at the state meet this year, she placed 13th last year. Monica also won the city championship in the 100 breast for the past 3 years, placing second her freshman year to a senior teammate. She has won the city championship in the 50 freestyle multiple times, and has been part of numerous championship and record setting relays in CPS swimming. - seriously

Monica Pinkus became only the second CPS girls to medal in the girls state swimming meet.

New One Vote Per IP Address Poll - CPS Male Athlete of the Year

I did it for the girls, I may as well do it for the boys. Here is a new CPSfan.com male athlete of the year poll. One vote per IP address.

Just so people don't make me appear biased. I have changed it so that the winner of the male and female athlete of the year will be based on the winner of these polls. So I am letting you, the CPS fan decide.

Warning pick carefully. Only one vote per IP address:

Update....

This is the final version of the poll, I screwed up in the settings of the previous poll. (I don't deserve a solid B+ grade.) This poll has been tested and verified to count only one voter per IP address.

CPSfan.com male athlete of the year nominations

Laken Tomlinson (sr) of Lane Tech - all state football player, city discus champ is one nominee for player of the year.

To qualify as the CPSfan.com athlete of the year, you must be an athlete of more than one sport and perform exceptionally well in at least one of the sports. He must be a current student and not have graduated in 2009.  Below are some nominations for male athlete of the year. At the end of the year I will announce the winner for athlete of the year. If you would like to nominate an athlete, please email me at Publisher@lanetechfan.com, or write a comment at the end of this post.

Some potential nominations for athlete of the year:

Ameen Solebo (sr) Mather - football, wrestling, track
Rashaan Fox, Mather - football, baseball, track
Louis Pasat-Trinca (sr), Lane Tech - football, track
Laken Tomlinson (sr) Lane Tech- football, wrestling, track
Kulayfi Haji (sr) Lane Tech - cross country, track
Cuit Pineda (sr) Northside Prep - cross country, track
Taushaun Johnson (jr) Harlan - football, track
Welton Crayton (jr), Harlan - football, track
Brandon Pressley (jr), Harlan - football, track
Daron Brown (sr) Morgan Park - football, track
Christopher Dalton (jr) Morgan Park - football, track
Juwane Pipkins (jr) Robeson - football, track
Terry Baggett (jr) Whitney Young - football, basketball
Matt Otero (sr) Whitney Young - cross country, baseball
Mike Shewchuck (jr)Taft - football, baseball

I know I am missing some more, please comment to nominate an athlete.

Terry Baggett (jr), Whitney Young - starting QB, guard for #1 state ranked basketball team. Could be a DI prospect for both sports.(max preps photo)

Mike Shewchuck (jr) Taft - starting QB for state qualifying football team, star catcher for city semi-final Taft team.

Assault on Achievement

Now that race has been eliminated as a selection factor to get into a CPS selective enrollment school, CPS officials want to use socio-economic factors as a major factor for admission. According to a Sun-Times article, the 5 factors that will be put on a December 16 proposal will be:

median family income, average adult education level, single-parent households, owner-occupied homes and homes in which a language other than English is spoken.

The article goes further and states that:

At selective-enrollment elementary and high schools, half of all seats would go to the highest-scoring students citywide. The remaining half would be equally divided among the four economic tiers, in rank order of scores within each tier, as long as such students met minimum cutoff scores.

I'll sum up what the article states. Half of the students will be admitted based solely on high test scores. After that you will get "extra credit or bonus points" for certain items out of the students control.

• Income - the poorer your family the more likely you will get in.
• Average adult education - if your household has too many college educated people, that will be a strike against you. But if your parents are high school drop outs, that gives you extra credit.
• Owner-occupied homes - If your parents own your home, that's bad. If they rent, or better yet on some kind of government assisted housing, that's good.
• Homes in which language other than English is spoken - You better hope that English is not the main language in your household.
• Single-parent household - You will get extra-credit if your parents are split up and you live in a single parent household.

Can anyone see something wrong with this new proposed admissions process?

If your parents did everything right: stayed married, worked hard in their life to earn an above average income, educated themselves with college degrees, and home, then YOU will get penalized.

To me, this is a clear assault on achievement.

Lane Tech Grad and political blogger Esther Cepeda calls this an "economic tier scheme" and that

"All parents want to believe that if they work hard, they can get a decent education for their kids. City parents know it’s a gamble between a bad or so-so school; short of leaving town, all Chicago parents just want an equal chance at some of the better schools regardless of their income or race.

The CPS School Board – which was appointed to represent all parents, not just the financially neediest ones – must ensure they get their fair shot."

Related

Are CPS teachers becoming too radical?
Admissions Overhaul
Principal Pick
What message are we sending?
Race Based Selective Enrollment on The Way Out

CPS tinkering with more year-round schools

The number of year round CPS schools are expected to rise even more in 2010-11. Chicago Agriculture Science is one CPS high school that may switch to the year round model.

Ag School principal wants year-round classes

In other news, the CPS will open a new charter school. Noble Street- Englewood campus for grades 9-12 will open in 2011 or 2012 in the old Reed elementary school.

Introducing....Ford Powerhouse Charter School

What was once an old run-down Sears powerplant, is now a new CPS charter school called the Ford Powerhouse Charter School (tribune photo).

A new CPS charter school has opened up in the North Lawndale neighborhood in the west side. The new school called Ford Powerhouse Charter School, opened up it's doors this year to 250 9th and 10th graders. 10th and 11th graders will be added soon.

The school was once a run down Sears powerplant. It was over 100 years old and ran well at the once vibrant community. But after Sears left in 1973 for the Sears Tower, the mammoth building was left in disarray. It recently housed birds and rodents.

But thanks to a $41 million dollar overhaul, the school has been transformed.

The school will have basketball team, play a varsity schedule and participate in the CPS Public League Green Division - with teams like Little Village, Westinghouse, Marine Military, and Chicago Math and Science Academy. Ford could eventually have other sports teams like track and cross country, but don't expect it to be a POWERHOUSE soon.