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CPS Safe Passage Marks Five-Year Anniversary With $10 Million Expansion

By Ted Cox | August 28, 2014 7:30am | Updated on August 28, 2014 12:09pm
 Mayor Rahm Emanuel jokes with Safe Passage workers at Thursday's back-to-school rally.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel jokes with Safe Passage workers at Thursday's back-to-school rally.
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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

CITY HALL — Chicago Public Schools' Safe Passage program marks its five-year anniversary this fall with continued expansion, enhanced Thursday by $10 million in new state funding announced by Gov. Pat Quinn.

Coming off last school year — after 50 school closings led the program to be doubled in size and scope — the city had plans to contribute another $1 million in city money, adding another 100 community watchers this fall for a total of 1,300 people on the street to monitor students as they go to and from more than 100 schools.

With the increased state funding, the total cost of Safe Passage for the 2014-2015 school year will rise to $28.3 million, with hiring expected to exceed 1,900 workers.

 CPS' Jadine Chou rallies Safe Passage workers.
CPS' Jadine Chou rallies Safe Passage workers.
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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

"Based on the success of last year, the mayor wanted to invest another $1 million in the program," said Jadine Chou, chief safety and security officer for CPS.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel cheered the governor's additional gift Thursday at a rally for more than 1,200 Safe Passage workers at the Plumbers Hall in the West Loop.

"It is more than the money," Emanuel added. "It is the mission we set for our children."

Emanuel said the number of students covered under Safe Passage routes had grown from 32,000 to 75,000.

Last year's school closings had many neighborhood groups predicting chaos and calamity, with critics saying they were "unjust and dangerous," as some students would be crossing gang boundaries to get to new schools. Despite the dire predictions, major trouble never materialized.

"You can safely say that we made it through the year without having a single incident where a student was seriously injured along a Safe Passage route during the hours that our Safe Passage workers were out there," Chou said. "People were actually out there through the entire polar vortex. They hung in there."

The program doubled from 600 to 1,200 workers last year and the combination of new city and state money will allow for the hiring of 700 more. The city had planned to add 13 schools, making 106 of its 665 schools covered by Safe Passage routes, but the state funding will allow it to add 27 more. The program began with 35 schools in 2009.

CPS administers the program through requests for proposals from community groups that do the hiring of community watchers, who according to workers last spring are typically paid $10 an hour.

"It is so important to hire community organizations that are very familiar and already entrenched in the communities where these schools reside," Chou said. "They're more equipped to recruit community-based people to work in their program.

"The whole point of the program is to build a sense of community, to make sure that we're bonding people together," Chou added. "And what better way to do that than by hiring organizations that have a base say in the area?"

Chou said Safe Passage workers receive training in building relationships, recognizing and anticipating conflicts and de-escalation.

"We expect you to be that nosy neighbor, looking at everything and reporting everything," she said. "That's what we want."

Some $500,000 of the new state funding will go to Safe Haven, a program in which faith-based organizations provide a place for students between school and home at the end of the day.

The 13 new schools include those that are welcoming students from new closings, as well as schools that accepted students from closings last year, even though they weren't designated as "welcoming schools."

They are:

  • Ames Marine Leadership Academy
  • Chi Arts High School
  • Crown Community Academy of Fine Arts
  • Frazier Prep (to share a building with Theodore Herzl Elementary School)
  • Bret Harte Elementary School
  • Kelvyn Park High School
  • Anna R. Langford Community Academy
  • Lawndale Elementary Community Academy
  • Roswell B. Mason Elementary School
  • Sharon Christa McAuliffe Elementary School
  • Ralph H. Metcalfe Elementary Community Academy
  • Urban Prep (to share a building with James R. Doolittle Jr. Elementary School)
  • William Penn Elementary School (to share a building with KIPP Charter)
  • William H. Ray Elementary School

The 27 to be added with state funds are:

  • Thomas A. Hendricks Community Academy
  • Edward Jenner Academy of the Arts
  • Parkside Community Academy
  • Carter G. Woodson School
  • Emmett Louis Till Math & Science Academy
  • Arthur A. Libby Elementary School
  • Claremont Academy Elementary School
  • Clara Barton Elementary School
  • Ray Graham Training Center High School
  • Southside Occupational Academy High School
  • Alcott College Prep
  • Northside Learning Center High School
  • Uplift Community High School
  • Air Force Academy High School
  • Chicago Military Academy High School
  • Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy
  • Spencer Elementary Technology Academy
  • Lindblom Math & Science Academy
  • John H. Hamline Elementary School
  • Cesar Chavez Multicultural Academic Center Elementary School
  • Eric Solorio Academy High School
  • Irene C. Hernandez Middle School
  • Sandoval Elementary School
  • John Spry Elementary School
  • Telpochalli Elementary School
  • Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy
  • Spry Community Links High School

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