Melissa McLamb's Blog
Orr High Turnaround. and personal update. / Feb 28, 05:05 PM
i just sat down after organizing a smorgasborg of things all over the place in this art room.
the disorderliness of this room feels too much like my insides.
things were wild today.
and have been lately…the students, the administration everyone is distracted and upset. most teachers are disgusted.
Orr High School has been chosen to undergo a turnaround project. The CPS board voted 5-0 yesterday on the go ahead despite the arguments of the public.
this turnaround means that all the teachers will be fired, although they can reapply for a position at the school they are not guaranteed a job.
it’s a big mess.
students are upset because they don’t want their teachers to leave. some teachers have been here for over 15 years and even more so they care deeply about the students here…they have invested in this community and built relationships with the families of the students. it takes time to get to know a person and people. the teachers to be coming into the school are supposedly ‘inexperienced but educated’. the school will be an urban teacher training academy. i don’t really understand it all that well. and there has been little to no communication between the current administration and those coming to take over. it’s frustrating to have such instability forced upon students who so desperately need the relationships developed at school to remain a constant…kids need us to ‘keep showing up’ for them. and i will argue that we need it for ourselves…because we have much to learn from the ones that we seek to educate. but the ‘us’ here is being ripped away from the students. the ‘us’ that tells them regardless of their G.P.A, troubles from which they come, and any and all negative voices in their lives : “You are important. You are significant. You are made for greatness. You are beautiful. You have greatness within you. You are irreplaceable. What you think and how you feel matters. You are capable. You CAN.”
It is possible that teachers coming in to the school within the next school year can care a great deal about these students. But they do not know them. and they can’t expect to right off the bat.
it’s happening now. the turnaround is already in motion. it’s sad and especially sad considering the voice that has been stripped from the people of this community. although public hearings have been held…a response to their voices was never even considered it seems.
and also you should know that Mayor Daley went to this highschool. and this is a big project for him before he leaves office. and also he elects and chooses those who sit on the board today. would the board even consider going against the demands of the mayor?
this isn’t right.
but hey, think for yourselves.
through the media:
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http://abclocal.go.com/wls/storysection=news/local&id=5911719
(STREAM THE NEWS CLIPS* near the announcing of the turnaround)
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http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx
audioID=18978 (spur gentrification)
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www.ausl-chicago.org (the takeover school)
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=5911719
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=79697
http://www.chicagodefender.com/view.php?I=427
http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/769630,CST-NWS-Gates31.article (the money)
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=5912570 (breakdown of schools)
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=79685 (save our schools)
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on me and how i’ve been:
A couple of weeks after coming back to Chicago from my visit to NC, a good friend of mine, Joseph Batts, shot himself and died.
i had just come home from AWANA that wednesday night and i got the phone call. i didn’t know what to do. i couldn’t do anything. i didn’t believe it. i couldn’t. ‘it’s not real. it’s not real!.’ over and over. ‘it can’t be real’. but it was. it is.
Ashley held me while i cried and rocked back and forth. the sadness just fell like a dark blanket.
I went back to be with his family and mourn.
the shock. the pain. the unanswerable questions. the wailing of his mom…
tragic.
the mourning didn’t end when i returned to Chicago.
i woke up nights in a hot sweat, my face all wet. the emptiness that comes with grieving, with this grieving is one that i can’t explain.
at times i have felt that i am living in two irreconcilable worlds. one is the mission year experience and the other, this great loss and everything else. but i know they all are one. it’s just been difficult to live through and not feel so terribly split.
i didn’t send out a february newsletter.
i don’t know why.
i do know that we need each other.
we desperately need each other.
do we ever really have the ‘right’ things to say and do for each other?
that doesn’t matter.
we just need to be together.
and when everything is NOT okay,
we get through knowing that we have one another.
you’re with me.
i’m with you.
shared weakness. shared powerlessness. shared hurt. shared brokenness. our oneness is made real to us. it’s all we can truly do -is be.
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