This issue is vital for all who believe in an education for all students. Our school is predominantly immigrant (from over 70 countries!! Both undocumented and not) and African American. Therefore, is also vital for those who believe in immigrant rights. [37% African American. 39% Latin@. 13% Asian]

It is vital for those who fight against gentrification. It is vital for those who believe in fighting against union busting. It is vital for those who believe in fighting against privation. Renaissance 2010, Mayor Daley's plan to open 100 new schools does these 3 things exactly.

Please show solidarity in 2 small ways

1) Sign the online petition and send this to all your friends! Let the whole world know that Senn High School fights! (The petition is pasted below, but you must go to the link to sign) Please post positive remarks. If you notice, the first 200 or so are Senn students and ex-students.

www.petitiononline.com/SennHS/petition.html

2) CALL THE SCHOOL BOARD!! They hate phone calls. Please call and let them know that democratic input is vital before any decisions are made. FLOOD THEM WITH CALLS!!!!

773.553.1600

Petition:

The most diverse high school in Chicago is under attack again by Alderman Mary Ann Smith. Four years ago, she undemocratically forced a Naval Academy inside Senn High School, despite a united school and community against the plan. www.substancenews.com/content/view/144/81/

The Naval academy continues occupying our school to this day. Only 5% of the Naval Academy's students come from within our attendance area.

Now, the Alderman wants to take away the rest of our school and open 4 small schools inside of Senn. Despite outright lies by the Alderman, Senn serves 70% of students in our attendance area.

The undemocratic Alderman had an opportunity to make Senn a better school by working with the Senn Strategic Planning Committee, the committe created to make Senn better. In fact, she had a representative on the committee. The committee was open to the public and included teachers, parents, and community members of Senn. After a year and a half of work, the committee developed a plan to improve Senn. However, the Alderman secretly developed her own plan, which plagiarized language and stole ideas from the Senn Strategic Plan.

Using her stolen ideas, she wants to kick out the type of students attending our school and replace them with "higher class" students. The naval Academy would stay of course!

Senn is not the first school to be attacked. This is part of Mayor Daley's Renaissance 2010 plan. Many schools, like Austin and Englewood High Schools have already been shut down. More will be threatened. Help us stop gentrification and the destruction of public education in Chicago!

Our school serves blacks, latin@s, asians and immigrants from all over the world.

Our school has students from over 70 countries!

Alderman Smith wants to change that.

WE WILL NOT LET HER!

We the undersigned are against the Alderman's undemocratic plan to close Senn.

WE SUPPORT DEMOCRATIC DECISIONS AND SUPPORT GIVING THE SENN STRATEGIC PLAN A CHANCE!



Additional info:

The LSC (Local School Council), along with the Senn community, developed a Strategic Plan. This plan is open and democratic. Mary Ann Smith participated in this plan. She usurped language from Senn's Strategic Plan, and unilaterally and secretly developed another plan. Mary Ann Smith stole our language and ideas while she was secretly planning to stab us in the back. She chose to not work with the community. The Senn Strategic Plan includes:



* Building a school with high academic standards and bringing in more innovative programs

* Developing a culture of respect that promotes a positive learning environment

* Delivering a safe campus environment by enforcing rules that will increase the safety of all students and reduce gang violence, while providing positive activities and opportunities for all students

* Increasing the involvement of parents, businesses, institutions, neighbors, alumni and concerned individuals at Senn, and

* Educating internal stakeholders (faculty, staff, students and parents) about Senn's programs, services and facilities

This is an ongoing plan where student, teacher, and community input is encouraged.



Alderman Smith's plan is being recommended to CPS by her. Mary Ann Smith lies and chooses her words carefully. She says that only 35% of students in the area choose to go to Senn. However, 70% of Senn students come from our attendance area. She says "no current students would be displaced." However, 3 of the new schools would effectively be selective enrollment schools. Therefore, Senn will not serve OUR community students under her plan. Her plan has undemocratically and unilaterally called for:



* Senn to stop enrolling Freshmen as of fall 2008

* Reopening the building with 4 small schools, which would include Rickover Naval Academy staying.

* 3/4 of the schools would be magnet or performance schools.

This plan circumvented Senn's LSC and all community input. It would radically change the current student body. Her goal is to open new schools in the Senn building with her idea of the "right kind of student".



This is the same plan we defeated in February '04 when Mary Ann Smith began the Senn Tomorrow Committee. We beat this plan once.

WE CAN BEAT IT AGAIN!!!



What You Can Do:

Write letters to ALL Aldermen affected. Not Just Mary Ann Smith.

Tactic - Getting other Aldermen to also challenge Mary Ann Smith. Senn students get displaced and they have to go to other - many already overcrowded – schools. These other schools will be drastically affected, as research by a DePaul professor with community activists has shown. www.uic.edu/educ/ceje/papers.html



· Receiving schools lack necessary resources, staff, and have had inadequate preparation for an influx of new students.

· Teachers reported an influx of new students negatively affected academic work of all students at receiving schools.

· Transfer of students across gang lines and into unfamiliar neighborhoods contributed to increased discipline problems, violence, and concerns about safety.



Support the LSC *** Support the Strategic Plan *** Support Senn High School

Closing Senn High School could affect the following high schools: Sullivan (49th Ward), Lake View (47th Ward), Amundsen (47 th Ward), Mather (40th Ward).

Following is the contact information for all of the Alderman whose wards are within Senn's attendance area.



46th Ward

Alderman Helen Schiller

4544 N. Broadway

Chicago, IL 60640

Phone: 773-878-4646

Fax: 773-878-4920

Ward46 (at) cityofchicago.org




47th Ward

Alderman Gene Schulter

4237 N. Lincoln Ave.

Chicago, IL 60618

Phone: 773-348-8400

Ward47 (at) cityofchicago.org


48th Ward

Alderman Mary Ann Smith

4544 N. Broadway

Chicago, IL 60640

Phone: 773-784-5277

Fax: 773-784-5033

info (at) masmith48.org

49th Ward

Alderman Joe Moore

7356 N. Greenview Ave.

Chicago, IL 60626

Phone: 773-338-5796

jmoore (at) cityofchicago.org


50th Ward

Alderman Bernard L. Stone

6199 N. Lincoln Ave.

Chicago, Il 60659

Phone: 773-764-5050

bstone (at) cityofchicago.org


40th Ward

Alderman Patrick J. O'Connor

5850 N. Lincoln Ave.

Chicago, IL 60659

Phone: 773-769-1140

Ward40 (at) cityofchicago.org