193 Chicago elementary schools not safe from closing
By Lauren FitzPatrick and Art Golab Staff Reporters January 19, 2013 2:30AM
Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett speaks at the City Club of Chicago lunch at Maggiano's Banquets. File photo. | Rich Hein~Sun-Times
Updated: January 20, 2013 2:29AM
It’s not quite “The List” of schools slated for closing or consolidation by June.
But for the first time this year, Chicago Public Schools officials definitively ruled out some of the schools that will be spared from closing or consolidation.
The rest at this point number nearly 200 based on three recommendations that CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett approved Friday from her handpicked panel, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis.
High schools are safe, so are the highest-performing — or Level 1 — elementary schools, and a few schools that are still growing grade by grade into their buildings, Byrd-Bennett said Friday.
That leaves 193 elementary schools that have not yet been spared and could be subject to drastic action, the Sun-Times has found.
The district won’t release its own preliminary list of schools that could need defending to survive drastic school actions until Feb. 13 after Byrd-Bennett figures out how to deal with three other