CPS cuts cause concerns at Montefiore 

By Patrick Butler 

The official line of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is that Montefiore, the public schools’ citywide facility for troubled boys at 1310 S. Ashland Ave., is not on anyone’s hit list. Yet actions speak louder than words to Principal Mary Ann Pollett and Local School Council (LSC) Chair Blanche Ivey, who said the school’s teaching staff has been slashed systematically from 38 to 17 over the past 12 years.

“All the things that used to make Montefiore special are gone,” Pollett said.  “We’ve not only lost the teachers, including two PE [physical education] teachers, two to three instructors for the learning disabled, and our math and reading tutors. We don’t have a single voc-ed [vocational education] program left.”

Pollett, who this month marks her 35th year at Montefiore, 15 of them as principal, continued, “Now they want us to cut six more teachers and seven aides in June.  I don’t know who’s going to run things in July and August,” as Montefiore has always been a year-round school, she said.

Right now, Pollett said, only 76 ten- and 15-year-olds have been referred to Montefiore at a time of the year when there should be about 120.

At the same time, however, the CPS Office of Specialized Services is looking for both nonprofit and for-profit vendors to open and run six private therapeutic day schools for the type of boys served at Montefiore, she said.

“If they can open six private therapeutic schools, it seems like the kids are out there,” said Ivey, a parent representative on the LSC whose son has been at Montefiore since he was a third-grader reading at a first-grade level. “Now he’s a seventh-grader reading at sixth-grade level,” so he’s catching up,’ Ivey said.

“We’re in the center of the city, and we get kids bused in from all over,” Ivey continued. “So why would we want the kids’ parents to have to pay for them to take the CTA to those private schools?”

Concerns for Montefiore’s future even have the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and the Principals and Administrators Association on the same side, “which doesn’t happen often,” Pollett said. During a recent news conference with other school supporters, CTU President Marilyn Stewart said, “At one time Montefiore was filled. Now CPS wants [private organizations] to open schools like Montefiore” and warned the Board of Education, which is expected to approve the six private school contracts as early as this month, that “the population you’re dealing with is not something you can do as a start-up business.”

Also demanding the 78-year-old special school not be shuttered is the grassroots organization Clergy Concerned for the Community, a group of local ministers. 

“And we’ve had several of our old students come back to help with the campaign,” Ivey said, noting that “even a minister on our LSC was a student here. And who knows how many others are not in politics or working downtown who were also here?”

Montefiore’s better known alumni include successes such as the late newspaper columnist Mike Royko.

CPS used to run a similar program for troubled girls, the Motley School, which was started at Chicago Ave. and Ada St. by a group of Montefiore teachers. CPS later eliminated the program, but the need remains.

“Just a few years ago, the Chicago Crime Commission did a report on girl gangs,” Pollett said, noting “a lot of emotional and behavioral problems” still need to be addressed.

Those problems should not be addressed at Montefiore ”as some have suggested,” Pollett said, adding that turning co-ed “would be reckless.”

Despite what some Montefiore supporters describe as slow strangulation by the main office, “we are considered to be one of the top ten schools in the city for integrating computer technology into our programs,” she said.

CPS honchos repeatedly have insisted Montefiore is not among the 18 schools targeted for closing this year by CPS CEO Arne Duncan. CPS officials are not saying anything about next year or the year after, however.

Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) said he “fully supports” the “great work” being done at Montefiore and would oppose any attempt to close it. Fioretti has talked to Duncan and been assured the school was not slated for the axe.

Nevertheless, the alderman said he will keep close watch on happenings at Montefiore and has “urged CPS to talk with me and the community about Montefiore,” he said. “I look forward to a public discussion before any move is made to close a school that serves the entire city. There is no other school in the whole CPS system equipped to handle the behavioral issues that Montefiore addresses every day. At Montefiore, those boys are able to attend classes with their peers, play sports, and are encouraged to achieve their full potential. By keeping these boys out of other schools in the CPS system, those other schools avoid the difficulties trying to address issues they are not equipped to handle.”

Despite Fioretti’s promises to do what he can for Montefiore, Pollett and Ivey remain concerned.

“I don’t know if the political will is even there to deal with this population,” Pollett said, noting Montefiore supporters “really don’t have the kind of voice families of blind, deaf, or autistic children have. Ultimately, I think Montefiore’s survival will be determined by the mayor and whoever the mayor is listening to.”

Ivey said she planned to attend CPS’s next board meeting, then press Montefiore’s case with the mayor.

She concluded, “We haven’t had any demonstrations yet, but if that’s what it takes…”