Bateman, Patrick Henry Leaders Tout Resourcefulness of Neighborhood Schools

IRVING PARK — With so much news in 2013 focused on Chicago Public Schools' budget cuts and school closings, the principals of Bateman and Patrick Henry elementary schools came to the December meeting of The Residents of Irving Park aiming to move the conversation about the city's neighborhood schools in a different direction.

Resourcefulness was a key theme as Pat Baccellieri of Bateman and Patrick Henry's Januario Gutierrez touted their schools' arts and honors programs.

"I've been able to allocate my budget in a very creative way," said Gutierrez, now in his fourth year at Patrick Henry, 4250 N. St. Louis Ave., which serves students in preschool through sixth grade.

Having inherited a school that, unbeknownst to him, was about to be placed on probation — "Oh my God, what did I get myself into?" — Gutierrez initially focused on raising the level of instruction. He has since hired an art teacher and a reading specialist and introduced an accelerated program for grades four through six in which qualifying students are taught material a year above their grade level.

The school now boasts a Level 1 "excellent" performance rating, and Gutierrez is lobbying to add seventh and eighth grades rather than send upper-level students to Marshall Middle School.

"It'll be a tight squeeze, but I would rather give students the opportunity," Gutierrez said.

Baccellieri, in his second year at Bateman, 4220 N. Richmond Ave., has emphasized the need to prepare the school's sixth- through eighth-graders for high school.

Toward that end, 400 lockers were installed at Bateman to familiarize students with working locks and combinations and moving between classes.

"That alone can lose kids in high school if they're not prepared," he said.

A big believer in the importance of the arts — "It helps left-brained students succeed and right-brained students stretch" — Baccellieri has added visual arts and drama on top of Bateman's existing music programs. Circus arts will debut in 2014.

Baccellieri also instituted honors classes, which students need to reapply for every year, even after being accepted.

"Not very many schools in the city are building the model that we have," he said.

The challenge for both principals is spreading word about their schools' successes outside the walls of Bateman and Patrick Henry.

"Sometimes news to the community doesn't happen as quickly as you'd like," Gutierrez said. "I've committed myself to take the school from Point B to Point C. What is Point C? To have community members see us as a viable option."