Bucktown, Wicker CPS Kids Head Back to Class, 1 Returns to Virtual Charter

BUCKTOWN — On a humid morning Tuesday, children sat with their parents in air-conditioned parked cars before filing into Bucktown schools, reporting a mixture of eagerness and nervousness on the first morning of the new academic year.

Second grader Jaymin Velez was holding his dad's hand as the duo walked into Jonathan Burr Elementary School, a neighborhood school and magnet cluster offering Japanese instruction at 1621 W. Wabansia Ave.

Velez, a Humboldt Park resident, transferred to Burr from Rowe Elementary School, a West Town Charter school at 1424 N. Cleaver St. 

"It's completely different than Rowe. No uniform here.  We just got accepted last week Thursday. We expected to go to Rowe and switched," parent Alex Velez explained. 

Another new transfer, first grader Noah Taylor spent kindergarten at a private school in UIC's Medical District but transferred so he could be closer to his older brother, a student at Pritzker School, 2009 W. Schiller St. in nearby Wicker Park, said Noah's mom, Kimberly Taylor.

"He's very excited and very nervous," said Kimberly Taylor of her youngest son, who headed to the playground where Burr's principal William Klee was greeting children. 

"Welcome back!" Klee said as returning students rushed to give him hugs.

The Bucktown school grew its enrollment from 390 last year to 415 this year, a growth Klee attributed to Burr's "culture and climate."

"It's the positive product we are producing. People are becoming more aware of our reputation," Klee said. 

Just a few blocks west of Burr, a similar excitement permeated Drummond Montessori School, 1845 W. Cortland St., where Christine Tepper, co-chair of Drummond's PTO was offering free coffee to parents.

Tepper has a second, third and fifth grader at Drummond, one of a few CPS schools that offers a Montessori curriculum where students in different grades learn in the same classroom.

Drummond, like Burr, also grew bigger, going from about 280 students last year to 310, Tepper said.

"It's great that it is growing. There is a strong school family, wonderful teachers, a new principal," Tepper said, referring to Raynell Walls, who joined Drummond last fall.

Earlier in the morning, at around 7:30 a.m., a few children and their parents were hanging out on Drummond's playground while waiting for a school bus to take them to Coonley and Bell, two elementary schools in North Center.

"I'm ready. I think we are all ready. All of the kids are ready to see their friends and get back into the groove," said Wicker Park parent Charlotte Goldberg, whose daughter will start 6th grade at Bell.

For 7th grader Jamell Richardson, going back to school means back to the computer, for a minimum of 5 hours each day in his Wicker Park home.

Headed into his fourth year at Chicago Virtual Charter School,  Richardson, 12, studies with his mother, Darlene Enlo, whom is his "Learning Coach" and augments her son's online classes.

Enlo, a waitress at Margie's Candies, had never heard of online home schooling until six years ago when a customer and her young son came into the ice cream shop "in the middle of the day," Enlo recalled.

"I asked if he had the day off from school and the woman said her son is an opera singer and does home schooling," said Enlo, who then met another home-schooled child that following week and began investigating other education options for Richardson, then a 3rd grader.

Since transferring from Pulaski School in Bucktown to the virtual charter school four years ago, Richardson, who said math is his favorite subject, has gone from being a "C" student to an "A" and "B" student, he says.

"It was hard at first, we didn't understand all this computer stuff," said Richardson, who stays social by playing on sports leagues and bikes and skateboards around the neighborhood.

The online school, which serves serves 680 students, requires a visit to the campus at 38 S. Peoria Ave. in Greektown for one half-day each week.  On Tuesday, Richardson will meet the other 18 students in his 7th grade online class In Real Life (IRL) before heading home to spend the rest of his first day of school online.

On Friday, Richardson allowed a reporter to sit on on his orientation session as he met his teacher in a pre-recorded presentation and looked at his first week of class schedule.

"I like school but I'm a little sad to go back," Richardson said.

^{Jamell Richardson, 12, starts the 7th grade at the Chicago Virtual Charter School from his Wicker Park home, with his mom, Darlene Enlo, who serves as her son's learning coach. [DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser].}