CHICAGO — Steinmetz College Prep High School will get some relief from mounting budget cuts in the form of a $10,000 donation from Chance the Rapper, the entertainer said Friday.
Addressing students and media at Paul Robeson High School, the Chatham native announced the creation of the New Chance Arts and Literature Fund, which will partner with the Chicago group Ingenuity to identify and donate to CPS schools "in desperate need of an arts program," the Grammy-winning rapper said.
The rapper's nonprofit group Social Works Chicago is donating $10,000 to a new school for each $100,000 raised by outside groups, he said at the event. A $1 million donation from the Chicago Bulls brought the total to $2.2 million, sprouting a new list of 12 schools — Steinmetz among them — lined up for cash injections.
Having seen a nearly 25 percent drop in enrollment since 2012, Steinmetz, 3030 N. Mobile Ave., has weathered millions of dollars in budget cuts and staff layoffs, most recently slammed with a $150,000 mid-year cut in February.
Last year, the school was forced to lay off its only full-time librarian, according to Steinmetz senior Isaiah Roman, who spoke at a February meeting of the school's Local School Council.
"With all these budget cuts, we're going to lose our programs," Roman said. "We lose our programs, and we're going to lose more students. So we're doing as much marketing [for the school] as we can, but we can't do it without money."
