The proposed Chicago Public Schools budget includes $70 million earmarked for a new neighborhood high school to serve the Chinatown area, which was welcome news for community organizers.
Chinatown residents have been working for a neighborhood high school for more than 20 years, said Grace Chan McKibben of the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community.
“We’re very encouraged,” Chan McKibben said. “Very exciting to hear this. We’ve been working with CPS for quite some time.”
Although nine elementary schools serve the Chinatown, Armour Square, and Bridgeport neighborhoods, Chan McKibben said those same communities have no CPS high school.
“There is definitely a need for a high school that students don’t have to test into,” she said. “Not every student is able to test into selective enrollment.”
She said one thing the new school would need is immigrant services.
“There [are] several elementary schools that have bilingual Chinese/English classes,” Chan McKibben said. “Only Kelly High School has bilingual English/Chinese classes, and that is a little bit outside of the neighborhood.”
Chan McKibben hoped a new school could be up and running in the next two – three years.
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The Illinois state legislature had already provided $50 million for a new Chinatown-area high school. The Chicago Public Schools’ proposed budget included an additional $70 million to make it a reality.
“There’s still some work to be done,” Chan McKibben said. “There’s still the location. What exactly is going to be the curriculum, what exactly will be the services … English/Chinese bilingual [and] English/Spanish are two of the things that families are looking for.”
Chan McKibben said Chinatown high schoolers face some of the highest commute times, if not the highest commute time, to schools in the city.
“CPS’s own studies have indicated, before Englewood High School was opened … students from Englewood had the highest commute time to high school,” Chan McKibben said, “And students from Chinatown had the second-highest commute time to high school.”
Chan McKibben said a number of locations are being discussed, including possibly rehabbing an older building near Cermak Road and Canal Street, as well as places along 18th Street.
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