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Skinner North Takes Old Town's Hardest CPS Budget Hit

By Ted Cox | February 7, 2017 1:28pm
 Skinner North Classical, 640 W. Scott Ave., took the biggest hit by percentage in its budget in its North Side area in cuts announced Monday by CPS.
Skinner North Classical, 640 W. Scott Ave., took the biggest hit by percentage in its budget in its North Side area in cuts announced Monday by CPS.
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LINCOLN PARK — Old Town schools took a harder hit than those in Lincoln Park when Chicago Public Schools announced its emergency midyear budget cuts Monday.

Skinner North, 640 W. Scott St., led all schools in the area with a 2.65 percent cut in its overall budget, about $97,000. It was closely followed by the $67,000 cut at Salazar, 160 W. Wendell St., which amounted to 2 percent of its budget.

LaSalle Language Academy, 1734 N. Orleans St., in the Old Town Triangle, suffered a $59,000 cut, half its discretionary budget and 1.34 percent of its overall budget. By contrast, the $42,000 cut from the budget at Jenner, 1119 N. Cleveland Ave., was an even higher 1.38 percent of its overall budget.

 Ald. Michele Smith blamed the CPS cuts on statewide budget dysfunction in Springfield.
Ald. Michele Smith blamed the CPS cuts on statewide budget dysfunction in Springfield.
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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

"We're very lucky in that we're able to survive this cut right now without any cuts in staffing or to programs," LaSalle Principal Beth Bazer said. "So we're not going to feel the impact of the cut midyear. The problem is that our operating budget for the remainder of the year is severely depleted. So the question for us is where are we going to have to prioritize purchasing?"

That, she added, is especially the case in any unforeseen expenditures that come up later this school year.

No Lincoln Park school lost 1 percent of its budget, although the $132,000 hit at Lincoln Park High School, 2001 N. Orchard Ave., was nonetheless significant and amounted to 0.84 percent of its budget. Newberry, 700 W. Willow St., lost $34,000; Mayer, 2250 N. Clifton Ave., lost $30,000; Prescott, 1632 W. Wrightwood Ave., lost $22,000; and Lincoln Elementary, 615 W. Kemper Place, lost $13,000.

CPS Chief Executive Officer Forrest Claypool blamed Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of a pension-relief bill that would have provided $215 million to Chicago schools for the $46 million in direct midyear budget cuts. Ald. Michele Smith (43rd) echoed that Tuesday, while spreading the blame to the General Assembly as well for the ongoing budget impasse.

"The budget crisis is the direct result of the failure of Springfield and the governor to put students first," Smith said. "Sadly, all our Chicago school kids are now suffering from the political fallout."

Elsewhere in the Old Town area, Franklin, 225 W. Evergreen Ave., lost $34,000, or about 1.26 percent of its overall budget, and Manierre, 1420 N. Hudson Ave., lost $50,000, 1.22 percent. Payton College Prep, 1034 N. Wells St., lost $41,000, 0.49 percent of its overall budget, and Ogden, 24 W. Walton St., lost $34,000, 0.28 percent.

According to Bazer, who took the job at LaSalle almost two years ago, the school is trying to avoid using money from the school's Friends of LaSalle parental fundraising arm for day-to-day operations, but that might not be possible if the current cuts are extended into next year's school budgets.

"With this cut, and the cuts we're expecting to come over the summer, if rumors are correct, what we may end up being in a position to do is having to rely more on our parents' organization to help us with operational costs" she said.

Bazer quickly added, "Parents should not be in a position of having to support the day-to-day operating costs of public schools."