To Win Chicago School Board District 10B, Know Its History
Board Rule spoke with residents of Chicago's 10b school board district to find out what they want from a school board member.
Editor’s Note: Three candidates are vying for the Chicago school board seat in District 10B: Connie Anderson, Patrick C. Watson, and Rosita Chatonda. We’ll have more to say about their positions, backers, and campaign finances next week. This week, Board Rule wants you to hear from some voters in 10B.
By Jewél Jackson
On the Far South Side, Rachel Williams wonders what changes the upcoming elected school board will bring to youth in her neighborhood and beyond.
Williams graduated from John Hope College Preparatory High School, a Chicago Public School in Englewood that was forced to close in 2020 due to low enrollment. She questions whether candidates and school leaders truly understand the impacts that school closures and disinvestment have had on youth across the Far South Side.
“My philosophy for education is — the stronger the school, the stronger the community, and if the school is failing, so is the community as well,” said Williams.
District 10b includes the following neighborhoods: Avalon Park, Burnside, Calumet Heights, Chatham, East Side, Hegewisch, Pullman, Riverdale, South Chicago and South Deering.
Over 20,000 students are enrolled in the district, which includes 13 high schools and 43 elementary schools, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The largest share of households in District 10b, 30%, earn an annual income of $25,000 to $59,999, while the second largest share, 29%, earn below $25,000, according to data collected by the To & Through Project, part of the University of Chicago's Kersten Institute for Urban Education.
The To & Through data show that 85% of students who enrolled in high school in 2021 graduated, but only 59% of those graduates enrolled in college. The area's population is predominantly Black (64%), followed by Latine (27%) and White (6%).
Williams works with youth who live on the Far South and West sides and asks why some CPS schools only have one or no school counselor, especially in areas with high gun violence.
The closure of her high school also makes her think about the 50 CPS schools that were shut down in 2013. 13 of those schools were located across the South Side, with six in the Far South Side, according to WBEZ.
To combat a looming $1 billion deficit and declining enrollment, then-mayor Rahm Emmanuel and CPS then-CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett approved the decision to shut down 50 CPS schools; a majority being South and West Side neighborhood schools. The decision displaced over 13,000 students, who had to travel to new neighborhoods and schools.
Williams recalled how the list of schools under threat of closure in the 2012-13 school year started in the hundreds and shrank to 50. “My high school was originally on that list ... and we saw the disinvestment.”
A 2023 WBEZ analysis found that students and communities continued to feel the impact of the closures a decade later. Their analysis also found that the closures disproportionately affected Black students; 89% of the students from closed schools were Black in a system where only 41% of students were Black. Less than 10% of students from closed schools were Latine, and fewer than 1% of those students were white.
Voters Also Want "Fresh Blood" and More Partnerships
Grandfather Antoine Dobine remembers the results of 2013: “A lot of people moved away.” Those departures came on top of decades of families leaving the neighborhood as manufacturing jobs disappeared. “You got houses right now sitting in my community that've been abandoned for the past 25 years.”
The Chicago native says he has been running a youth basketball camp on the far South Side for the past 24 years, and is aware of the upcoming elections.
“I kind of like that process,” he said. He especially favors board members serving elected terms rather than serving indefinitely at the pleasure of a mayor. “Bring in some fresh blood.”
Williams agrees. Like Dobine, she hopes that the elected school leaders in 10b understand the area’s histories and realities, which shape the experiences of students.
“To educate the child, we need to deal with the whole child and that means wraparound services,” said Williams. She would like to see both an increase in mental health resources and vacant buildings and schools put to use.
Dobine agrees and would also like to see an increase in nonprofit organizations partnering up with schools to provide after-school programming.
“If you aren’t doing right, we’ll get you out,” Dobine said about future elected leaders. “You still have kids being born. Somebody has to help our next generation.”
Events
Thursday, October 22: Chicago Board of Education Meeting, 10:30 a.m, 42 W. Madison. Same-day observer registration opens in the lobby at 10:15 a.m. Noteworthy agenda items: voting on a resolution to advance universal preK starting at age 3, opening public comment on the school district's policies related to student fees, search & seizure and more; vote to ratify the tentative agreement with lunchroom workers, and appoint a number of chief officers.
Friday, October 23: Southside Candidate Forum, sponsored by the Parent Engagement Institute Chicago Coalition and partners, 10 a.m.-noon, Oakdale Covenant Church, 9440 S. Vincennes Ave.
Monday, October 26: Public Schools are a Public Good: Southside Candidate Forum, sponsored by Chicago Black Voter Project, Hyde Park Herald, and South Side Weekly, 5:30-8 p.m., Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Register here.
Monday, October 26: School Board 101 Webinar, sponsored by Teach Plus Illinois, the Academy for Local Leadership and the To & Through Project, 5:30 p.m. Virtual. Register here.
Thursday, November 12: Pathways to Possibility: The State of Higher Education Summit, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Malcolm X College, 1900 W. Jackson Blvd. Register here.
Wednesday, November 18: IFT Springfield Lobby Day, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Pasfield House, 525 S Pasfield St., Springfield, IL. Register here.
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