MOUNT GREENWOOD — The ever-present threat to move the Keller Regional Gifted Center has resurfaced and drew concerns Tuesday from parents, teachers and others at the school at 3020 W. 108th St. in Mount Greenwood.
Ald. Matt O'Shea (19th) again laid out his plan to reorganize public elementary schools in the 19th Ward at Keller's Local School Council meeting. The 3 p.m. meeting filled the school's modest gym.
O'Shea said his plan includes merging Kellogg and Sutherland elementary schools in Beverly. The combined school would be on Sutherland's campus at 10015 S. Leavitt St. The shakeup is motivated by declining enrollment from students living within the boundaries of both schools, he said.
Keller would take over Kellogg's buildings at 9241 S. Leavitt St. in Beverly. The proposed move would then allow the overcrowded Mount Greenwood Elementary School to take over Keller's campus just 3½ blocks away.
"I would want to make this as smooth of a transition as possible," O'Shea said.
Delena Little, principal at Keller, questioned whether the move to Kellogg offered any significant advantage to her students. Her school draws students from throughout the city and has 239 students, according to the Chicago Public Schools' website.
O'Shea said Keller officially has space for just 210 students with 10 classrooms. Its efficiency range is between 168-252 students. This compares to 15 classrooms at Kellogg, which has space for 330 students and an efficiency range of 264-396 students, he said.
O'Shea added that plans for the space gained by the move would be up to the LSC. He has previously suggested that the additional capacity might bring a kindergarten to Keller or expand the special education program.
Lauren Skerrett, a Keller LSC member, said she was concerned Keller would move to an older building without wheelchair accessibility or an elevator. She also pointed to O'Shea's initial email describing the plan and questioned his notion that, "the disruption to [Keller's] student population would be minimal."
LCS Chairman Chad Syverson said the cost of moving the school is thus far unknown and that's what worries those involved. These costs not only include the physical changes that would need to be made to accommodate Keller but also the cost related to the overall upheaval of the school.
"That is the big concern at the moment," said Syverson, adding that the school and community fit would be changed with any sort of move along with countless other unmeasurables.
There's also some concern about the cost of the move as it relates to the other schools involved. This mainly speaks to Kellogg, which would essentially be closed with the proposed merger that would be phased in over as many as three years, Syverson said.
Indeed, the racial impact of the plan was also brought up. Kellogg's student population is 83 percent black, and it would be replaced by Keller, which has a student population that is 34 percent black and 30 percent white, CPS data shows.
Other concerns on the minds of parents gathered in the hallway after the meeting focused on the potential for long-term fallout of plan that relies on current school population trends. Should those trends shift and the combined Kellogg-Sutherland school becomes a more popular option, what would happen to Keller?
Parents worried that under such a scenario the gifted school — which could be relocated anywhere throughout the city — would be moved again. And perhaps that move would be to a an undesirable part of the city.
Indeed, such an effort was ultimately defeated in 2010. O'Shea said last week he's unaware of any such plans to move Keller other than the one he has proposed. But he did say Tuesday that he expects CPS to continue to close schools to better align with overall enrollment declines citywide.
This will result in more empty schools and perhaps an renewed effort to move Keller outside of the 19th Ward — a scenario he vowed to fight.
"I am proud to say we have the Keller Regional Gifted Center in our community," O'Shea said.
Syverson reiterated that because Keller is a regional gifted school with students coming from throughout the city it is always a candidate to move to a different building. This creates the looming concern that a move is always just beyond the horizon.
"Of course that is always in the back of people's minds," he said.
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