O'Shea Holds Community Meeting Monday to Discuss School Merger Plan

CHICAGO, IL -- Ald. Matt O’Shea hosted a document shredding event over the weekend, and,given the reaction to his proposed plan to reconfigure and merge the 19th Ward’s public elementary schools, there are some parents who probably wished he’d shredded his plan.

O’Shea has scheduled a community meeting for 5:30 p.m. Monday at the Beverly Arts Center, 2407 W. 111th St. The alderman plans to lay out his comprehensive school plan which he claims will “ultimately improve our local elementary schools.”

• RELATED: O'Shea Lays Out Proposal to Move and Consolidate 19th Ward Public Schools

Under O’Shea’s proposal -- Sen Bill Cunningham (18th District) is also said to have been a co-architect -- Mt. Greenwood Elementary School would split into two campuses, with seventh and eighth graders moving into the building currently being used by the Keller Regional Gifted Center. Keller would take over the Kellogg school building, and Kellogg would consolidate with Sutherland.

The alderman claims that “shifting enrollment” and “sharp and consistent gains” causing overcrowding at some neighborhood schools have caused him to “re-examine the landscape” of the local public elementary schools. O’Shea also blamed out-of-district residents unlawfully registering their children at Beverly and Mt. Greenwood public schools.

• RELATED: O'Shea, Sutherland Announce Public Meetings to Discuss Changes in Neighborhood Schools

At a fiery special local school council meeting at Sutherland Elementary School on Friday evening, LSC chair, Laurie Defavere told a packed gymnasium which also included Kellogg parents, that she learned of the alderman’s proposal in August when she and other LSC members went to discuss TIF money.

“I personally was unhappy with the plan and didn’t see where it would benefit any our students,” Delfavere said. “Sutherland is utilizing their space.”

Other LSC members called the alderman’s proposal an “insult.” The LSCs for all four schools are encouraging community members to wear their respective school’s colors.