KENWOOD — Canter Middle School will remain open for one more year, Chicago Public Schools officials announced Wednesday morning.
A CPS spokesman said Wednesday morning that the school system would put off closing the school at 4959 S. Blackstone Ave.
“Canter is a good fit for many families and should remain open long term,” Joy Clendenning, a member of Hyde Park Community Area Residents Empowering Schools and the Ray Elementary School Local School Council, said via text from the Chicago Board of Education meeting, where the board was to vote Wednesday on the citywide school closing plan.
“We believe the mayor and the Board of Education should postpone any school actions until after communities have had the opportunity to make long-term plans for their neighborhood public schools," Clendenning wrote.
Canter students would have been move to Ray and Bret Harte elementary schools this fall if CPS pursued its plan to close the school.
Administrators at the school declined to comment Wednesday, thought they did say parents had not yet been informed of the one-year reprieve because it would not be official until the Board of Education’s Wednesday afternoon meeting.
Ald. Will Burns (4th), who advocated a phased closing of the school, was unavailable for comment.
Teachers, parents and community groups urged CPS to reconsider closing the school at three public meetings. An independent review of the proposal found many of the groups offered valid alternatives to shuttering Canter, but said CPS complied with the law in deciding to close it.
The news that the school will not immediately close comes as a small bright spot after seventh-grade math teacher Paul Goldsmith died last week.
Memorials line the school hallways for the 19-year-veteran teacher who also taught at Dyett High School, Kellman Elementary School and the shuttered Terrell High School.
“Terrell was located on State Street next to the Robert Taylor Housing projects, one of the toughest in the United States,” Goldsmith wrote in his website. “Needless to say, this was a very interesting school to begin a teaching career. I like to say that I learned at least as much as the children learned from me.”
The Board of Education is expected to make a final decision about Canter Middle School at its Wednesday meeting.
