The Sustainable Community School initiative is aimed at transforming struggling schools that have low enrollments and where 80% of the student body is considered low-income. Uplift's most recent enrollment is 177 students (down from 377 in 2013) and 96% of its students are considered low-income (i.e., they are eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunches, live in substitute care, or their families receive public aid).
The goals of the Sustainable Community program are to engage the students, the parents, the community, and the educators so that they are working in concert to create successful lives for the students. The $10 million will go toward creating extra services for students, tailored to each school's individual needs. The program will begin in October.
This will be the second time Uplift is taking part in a new CPS initiative. It opened in 2005 as a "Renaissance 2010" school, with no geographic enrollment boundaries and the ability to exercise flexibility regarding CPS curriculum and policies.
Dr. Tyrese L. Graham was named last month as Uplift's new principal, succeeding Stephanie Moore, who had held that position for Uplift's entire existence. Dr. Graham came to Uplift from Lake View High School.
With the additional money, the Sustainable Community initiative, the community partner, and a new principal, we look forward to what is to come. As Dr. Graham recently tweeted,
We are accepting transfers @uplift_high for the upcoming school year! We have a lot of changes in store, including new AP offerings for our students! Join us as we transform Uptown’s neighborhood high school. #BuildingABetterUplift
I'm a substitute teacher and taught at Uplife HS one time....my last time. You figure out why.
ReplyDeleteThis is precisely why CPS is a bankrupt shitshow. There is absolutely no reasonable justification for keeping a high school open with 177 students!! It is long past time to consolidate these low attendance schools. Keeping them open is an unbelievably irresponsible waste of resources that cheats the student and the community both. It is unconscionable how we as a community use our schools and their students as vanity projects and political pawns. It is long past time to make the school board an independent elected body.
ReplyDeleteRahm and CPS are too afraid to close the Uplift school because of the uproar over closing the previous ones.
DeleteI was really for this school staying open, until I met some of the teachers. The ones I met were so blinded by their own agendas, they are actually putting the students in more danger by ignoring blatant crime happening right on school grounds. It's no mystery why the enrollment is down so much. What parent would send their kid there?
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to see a new principal, but if this school has any chance, it needs to get rid of a big chunk of the staff holding it hostage.
I don't know what you mean. Example?
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