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Daley Hails $1 Billion for Schools: City to Fund $600 Million of Ambitious Building Program

Posted on: Friday, 16 June 2006, 09:01 CDT

By Tracy Dell'Angela, Chicago Tribune

Jun. 16--Chicago Mayor Richard Daley on Thursday rolled out an ambitious plan to spend nearly $1 billion on 24 new schools, projects that will add thousands more seats for children in the city's most crowded neighborhoods.

Funding for the six-year project, which includes nine new high schools, 15 new elementary schools and the renovation of three high schools, would come from about $600 million in city money and $350 million from the Chicago Public Schools system.

The project represents an unprecedented partnership between the city and the school district, driven by the reality that the system can no longer address its construction needs without significant help from the state or city.

City funds would be drawn from special tax districts set up to foster economic development--a move skeptics fear could hurt other projects.

But Daley argued that new schools help the whole city.

"We're giving back to taxpayers something real and meaningful, something they can see and touch and feel and know that their dollars are being invested carefully and appropriately for the children of our city," Daley said. "I'm not going to wait for Washington, D.C. I'm not going to wait for Springfield. Why in America do we always have to wait for another election?"

Lee Elementary School Principal Marjorie Joy has waited most of her career to see such an investment. Her school, near Midway Airport, has grown to 1,150 pupils from 300 in a decade.

Just weeks before she retires, Joy learned a new school will be built to ease congestion at Lee and at a neighboring school, Pasteur Elementary.

The overcrowding forced the two schools to operate year-round in three-month shifts, which created problems for educators and families. Still squeezed for space, the school uses 40 mobile classrooms and rents space in nearby vacant Catholic schools.

"I'm delighted to hear they are finally paying attention to our area. It's long overdue," Joy said. "I'm concerned about where the new school will be. But at least it's a start."

Construction on five new schools and the three high-school renovations is expected to begin in the next three years, followed by work on the remaining schools. Each new elementary school is expected to cost about $30 million, with $65 million budgeted for each new high school.

Renovations at Austin, Collins and Mather High Schools will cost about $30 million each. Austin and Collins are being closed under the district's school reform plan, which means the new "Renaissance" schools that will reopen in those buildings will reap the benefits of the work.

The dilapidated buildings that house Skinner Elementary and Westinghouse High Schools will be replaced. A West Elsdon elementary school, at 55th Street and St. Louis Avenue, will be the first new school built to ease congestion on the Southwest Side.

Two crumbling South Side elementary schools, Miles Davis and Hughes, also will be razed and rebuilt in the next three years. The district already had purchased land and designed the new buildings, but the projects were frozen as other projects moved ahead.

Skeptics say the proposal may look like a windfall for the school system, but the city's generosity will not come without controversy.

The city's redevelopment money will be drawn from at least 40 of the city's tax increment financing districts. Such districts are created to spur economic development in blighted areas by capturing new growth in property taxes and setting those dollars aside for special projects--everything from job training and street improvements to developer incentives. The city now has about 140 of these TIF districts.

The city will borrow funds for most of these school projects and repay it as money flows into the tax districts over the next 15 to 20 years.

However, critics said it is risky to assume the tax districts will grow and produce more revenue for the city.

"TIFs are not a bottomless well, and people need to understand the tradeoffs the mayor and his staff are making," said Jacqueline Leavy, executive director of the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group, an advocacy organization that has been critical of how the city has controlled these dollars.

"It's a King Solomon's choice: Do you want the jobs and businesses, or do you want the new schools? It's hard for me to imagine how the city is going to support all this spending. We also have to worry about everyone else who didn't win this lottery."

In 2004, about $329 million poured into city tax districts.

In the past decade, the school district has spent more than $4 billion on school construction projects--for 40 new buildings and hundreds of expansion and renovation projects. Chicago relied on Springfield to cover about $625 million over those years, but state construction money dried up last year.

Schools chief Arne Duncan said the new money is crucial in creating new seats in high-need areas, particularly in fast-growing Latino neighborhoods on the Southwest and Northwest Sides. In some communities, new schools are overcrowded as soon as they open.

Overall, the "Modern Schools" project will add as many as 9,000 seats in elementary schools and 7,000 in high schools. More than 40 percent of the new elementary spots will open up on the Southwest Side, which stretches from the Bridgeport neighborhood south to Ashburn and west to Midway Airport.

"We can never dream big dreams like this without the city's support," Duncan said.

Leavy said her group will be following the process as it unfolds in the coming years, pushing neighborhood groups to ask tough questions about the payoffs of these new schools.

"This is popular because politicians love to cut ribbons and pose with those silver shovels," Leavy said. "But building a quality school involves so much more than brick and mortar."

- - -

Daley's $1 billion school overhaul

Mayor Richard Daley announced a plan Thursday to build 24 new schools and renovate three others during the next six years.

SCHOOLS AND LOCATIONS

KEY: Indicates renovation / Replaces existing school

(city map illustrated)

1. Boone/Clinton:

West Ridge

2. Mather High:

(Renovation) West Ridge

3. Area 19 High:

Irving Park

4. Northwest Area

Elementary: Portage Park

5. Avondale/Irving Park Elementary:

Avondale

6. Belmont Cragin Area High:

Belmont Cragin

7. Ogden Elementary:

(Replacement) Loop

8. Westinghouse High:

(Replacement) Humboldt Park

9. Austin High:

(Renovation) Austin

10. Lakeshore East Elementary:

Loop

11. Skinner Elementary:

(Replacement) Near West Side

12. Chicago Ag. West High:

East Garfield Park

13. Collins High:

(Renovation) North Lawndale

14. Kelly/Curie Area High:

Gage Park

15. Brighton Park I Area Elementary:

Brighton Park

16. Brighton Park II Area Elementary:

New City

17. Back of the Yards Area High:

Back of the Yards

18. Southwest Area Elementary:

West Elsdon

19. Miles Davis Elementary:

(Replacement) Englewood

20. Lee/Pasteur Area Elementary:

West Lawn

21. Southwest Area High:

Chicago Lawn/Ashburn

22. Bouchet Elementary:

(Replacement) South Shore

23. South Shore High:

(Replacement) South Shore

24. Powell Elementary:

(Replacement) South Shore

25. Southeast Area High:

South Chicago

26. South Side Area High:

Washington Heights

27. Langston Hughes/Davis Elementary:

(Replacement) Roseland

Source: Chicago Public Schools

Chicago Tribune

- See microfilm for complete graphic.

- - -

Easing overcrowding

During the six-year project, the nearly $1 billion will fund:

9

new high schools

3

high school revamps

15

new elementary schools

tdell'angela@tribune.com

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, Chicago Tribune

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Chicago Tribune

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