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Rico Gutstein, teacher and activist for Teachers for Social Justice, spoke to the press and called upon CPS to release the literacy scores and demographic data about the more than 160 public schools in Chicago that do not have their own libraries.

“We will analyze for ourselves the historic patterns of disinvestment and selective investment in Chicago schools and neighborhoods,” Gutstein said to a cheering crowd of Whittier supporters who had assembled outside of CPS

headquarters.“[CPS’s] lack of providing sufficient resources to low-

income communities of color like Whittier, then dismantling, privatizing and taking over their schools when they fail to meet the standards is like tying someone’s legs together for a race, and then penalizing them when they lose,” Gutstein said.

Whittier

Whittier’s La Casita: More Than a Library

“Huberman, Huberman, can’t you see? All we want is a library!” chanted 25 community activists and mothers outside of CPS headquarters

on Oct. 18. The protestors had taken part in a month-long sit-in to prevent CPS from demolishing a 100 year-old field house turned grassroots library located in the parking lot of Whittier Elementary in Chicago’s low-income Pilsen neigh-borhood.

Left: Evelyn Santos on-post at the Whittier Field House on day 27 of the 24 hour sit-in and occupation. Above: A kaleidoscope of colored T-shirts made by community activists on display outside the Whittier Field House, “Whittier Defends Your Politics,” they read.

Photos by Zach Kremian

Photos & Story by Zach Kremian

“We will analyze for ourselves the historic patterns of disinvestment and selective investment in Chicago schools and neighborhoods,”—Rico Gutstein, Teachers for Social Justice

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How a Disadvantaged Community Fights for Their Children’s Future

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“I’m going to be with these moms as long as they’re going to be there, and they’re not leaving,” said Farmer, a Cau-casian attorney from the North Side who has joined the sit-in at La Casita on an almost nightly basis.

The occupation movement on the ground is made of mostly immigrant mothers of the elementary students at Whittier. With local and national sup-port, they embarked upon themselves the process of turning the long-held community center into a library—a re-source Whittier has never had. In four weeks, La Casita accumulated more than 1,200 books.

La Casita—or the little house—is not just a DIY library created in a schoool never fortunate to have one. It has served as a central point for the parents of the community to learn, interact, and work together to improve their lives, and subsequently their children’s. In addition to a library, La Casita serves as a center for a myriad of community-led workshops and pro-grams for parents and students, Santos said.

The mothers at La Casita have learned to sew, to speak better English, have created yoga classes, and now read donated books with their children, Santos said. This movement to save the community center from demolishment and into a library is bringing the com-munity closer together, and is apart of larger message not traditionaly learned in Chicago’s public schools, Santos said.

“The movement is teaching the children to speak up for themselves,” said Santos, “and giving the parents a victory to be proud of.”

The sit-in for the community center and the creation of this library are just recent developments in a series of struggles by the community of Pilsen to stand up and provide funda-mental educational needs for their chil-dren, Santos said.

After receiving $1.4 million in TIF appropriations, Whittier elemen-tary was able to make renovations to improve the basic structure of its main

building. Then CPS’ plans to raze La Casita using $356,000 of public money—without the inclusion of a

new library and community center—motivated the parents to organize and occupy the building beginning Sept. 15.

CPS planned to demolish the building for an Astroturf soccer field to be shared with nearby schools, Santos said. Even after organizers gathered more than 900 signatures in a petition to stop the demolishing of the field house, CPS had still not taken it off the table.

“This was something that the parents had to do as last resort,” Santos said.

Competing with other schools and dealing with CPS bureaucracy has been a problem, parents say. They have pointed to the Renaissance 2010 policy—which seeks to privatize failing schools—as a destructive force

against those schools that are already facing lack of

resources and support.

Whittier

Like of the other more than 160 schools without libraries, Whittier Elementary has faced the realities of inadequate funding since the school was created.

“The parents have been fighting for seven years,” said Evelyn Santos, 23, a mother, student and organizer in the Pilsen community.

“There was only one set of bath-rooms; the children were eating in a basement that was full of asbestos and lead; sewage was coming up from the ground; they had no warming kitchen, and were eating cold sandwiches for lunch,” said Santos.

At height of tension, police taped off a perimeter around the field house, and started making plans to remove the mothers. After Whittier students and com-munity members joined in the occupation, CPS and the police chose to refrain from the eviction. Then on Oct. 4, CPS turned off the gas-heat to the field house, claim-ing the building was structurally unsafe and a liability. Following local and national outcry, the Chicago City Council responded, and ordered CPS to immediately restore the heat.

After 43 days of the 24/7 sit-in, La Casita and CPS have reached a compro-mise. Following CPS CEO Ron Huber-man’s affirmation, CPS will

lease the building to the mothers for $1 a year once they incorporate as a nonprofit. The mothers and activists will continue to work with the School Board to make sure La Casita is safe, and Whittier is equipped with a library.

The creation of the library is another moment in a history of struggle for the Pilsen community to provide a com-parable education for their kids said Santos. Now amidst a local and national spotlight, the sit in at the field house has drawn solidarity in that struggle for education equality from parents, stu-dents and activists outside of the Pilsen community.

Local School Council member Mathew Farmer said his two daugh-ters have attended four different public schools on the North Side, all of which had libraries. He spoke at the press conference about CPS’s lower standards for low-income neighborhoods, and the correlating lack of resources for the schools that need them most.

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Murals and signs adorn the more than 100-year old walls of the field house

The movement is teaching the chil-dren to speak up for themselves...

—Evelyn Santos

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There was only one set of bathrooms; the children were eating in a basement that was full of asbestos and lead; sew-age was coming up from the ground; they had no warming kitchen, and were eating cold sandwiches for lunch.

-Evelyn Santos

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“Photos: The Whittier Field House, and the makeshift library created thorugh donations from across the nation.

The Little HouseLa Casita

Parents, students and activists volunteer for the 24/7 sit in.

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But it isn’t just bureaucracy and the lack of money in the community. TIF monies and other public funds are given to private interests in development plans rather than going to public schools, Santos said.

“Instead of helping the children we give money to Target,” Santos said, recalling how $5.3 million in TIF funds were paid to Target to build a store in Mckinley Park, less than two miles from Whittier Elementary.

“We love Target, but we already have one in Archer Heights,” Santos said. “Public money for public schools.”

The environment being created from the bottom-up at Whittier is fundamental to building a quality education, Santos said. Dual-language teachers, steadfast involvement by the community and parents, and more resources are the main factors that make a great school, she said.

Like many schools in low-income communities, Whittier spends more money on keeping up with health and safety concerns for an old building than on improving the quality and make up of the education. Kids get asbestos instead of books.

“We have everything else in place, all we need is the resources,” Santos said.

CPS declined to provide any detailed comments about education

inequality in communities similar to Pilsen, and only said an agreement between CPS and the parents had already been reached.

Whit-tier

Chants of protest can be heard from inside CPS as Mothers demand to speak to CPS CEO Ron Huberman

We have everything else in place, all we need is the resources.

—Evelyn Santos“ “Mothers, students and allies gather outside of CPS demanding the field house be saved, anda library created.