OLD TOWN — On Sept. 10, 2012, the Chicago Teachers Union began its strike and Jennifer Berkowitz anticipated the negative effective it could have on many students.
Berkowitz, who was working as a private educational therapist, wanted to help maintain some sort of consistency for her students. So she hired a few teachers, rented space in Old Town and opened "Jen's School."
"Super creative," she jokes about the name.
Many of her students have ADHA or anxiety disorders or have learning differences and transition periods can be difficult, especially after a long summer break.
"Two weeks into school to not be going to school anymore and not know when you are going back is really catastrophic for a lot of the students that I work with," Berkowitz said.
Paul Biasco says parents were begging for the school to open full time:
By the end of the strike, 30 students were coming to Jen's School while many of their peers were at home. When The Chicago Teacher's Union struck a deal with the city and CPS students returned to class 10 days after the strike began, parents of student's on Jen's School urged her to keep it going.
"When the strike happened [my daughter] did this strike school," said Joanne Kirk. "That gave us the first taste of what is possible in terms of this one school room."
Berkowitz took the rest of the 2012-2013 school year to prepare, leased out a small space, created a curriculum in time for the 2013-2014 school year, opening as the Metropolitan Schoolhouse, 816 W. Evergreen St. In its first year there were four students. This year there are 16 and Berkowitz is already planning an expansion for 2015-2016 to a bigger space to accommodate 30 students.
Students, who come from as far north as Rogers Park and south as the South Loop, learn on couches and are equipped with Chromebook laptops at Metropolitan. Others prefer to lounge on, or even under, a "love sack" in the miniature library space to get their work done.
"It makes it much more like a home than a school," said Alex King, an eighth-grader who transferred to the school from McPherson Elementary School.
One of the school's two high school-aged students prefers to do his math homework with his headphones on, something that would likely never fly at a traditional school. He has difficulty focusing.
"When he has his headphones on he can bust out math like nobody's business," Berkowitz said.
The philosophy of the school is a return to the one-room schoolhouse with an emphasis on individual learning strategies, according to Berkowitz, whose educational background, she said, is in European history, special education and social work.
The school is split into three "pods." Pod A for students grades first through fifth (seven students this year); Pod B for students grades sixth through eighth (seven students); and Pod C for high school-aged students (two students).
Students stick to a schedule with core classes with their pod and still use text books, but within each class each child has individualized work.
"This is a school for students who are looking for an alternate," Berkowitz said. "An alternate way of learning, an alternate way of thinking."
The school has three full-time teachers and a number of part-time instructors who come in for specific classes.
"Movement," the school's version of physical education, includes yoga, dance, martial arts or simply going for a walk around the neighborhood.
There are "mindfulness breaks" with meditation after extensive reading and writing exercises in the morning for students to recenter themselves before the next task.
There are no tests and little emphasis on grades. Instead, the school collects data on students to set a benchmark and work up from there. State and national tests are optional.
"We are a great place for those kids who are doing fine in school, but they aren't thriving," Berkowitz said. "It's those quirky kids who need a little extra or they learn a little bit differently and that's totally OK."
Joanne Kirk's seventh-grade daughter Katie is in her second year at the school.
Katie previously attended Lincoln Elementary in Lincoln Park for five years, but her parents decided they wanted a change.
"My daughter is one of those kids who is off the charts in one subject and barely holding on in another," Joanne Kirk said. "We were becoming pretty disenchanted with CPS, especially with our daughter's needs."
Joanne Kirk said she and her husband took a leap of faith and decided on the Metropolitan Schoolhouse versus other area private options.
Kirk said she also considered homeschooling, but ruled that out.
"The effect on family life has been better," she said. "After years of pickup with this kid who is like, 'I'm tired, it wasn't a great day' to picking them up and they are beaming."
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