North Lawndale Community Action Council

@CHIdocumenters The meeting is called to order at 5:02 pm and is opened with a prayer led by Areulia Shakir

@CHIdocumenters Community Action Councils are a part of CPS and are designed to “bring together families, school administrators, teachers, staff, and community stakeholders to support the improvement of local education”

@CHIdocumenters After some introductions, Rodney Brown speaks to the new grocery store, and the first 2 homes of 1,000 homes have broken ground happening in N. Lawndale

They also speak o the “Be The Healing” conference coming up tomorrow and Friday. More info on that can be found here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/be-the-healing-chicago-2021-tickets-148120222573?fbclid=IwAR1n8v2w7Xaq7ZBvQwzu7vmzRVuX4xG_EF8bbUmDw6tNbwOzqR4fUVBy3Lo

Robin Koelsch of Communities in Schools Chicago gives a brief presentation on who they are and what they do:

More on Communities in Schools here
https://cisofchicago.org/

Overview:
- Nonprofit serving staff, parents, and students
- Also work with community partners to service the needs of students in schools and communities (can range from arts to mental health).
-Also career & higher education programs

How CISC Chicago operates:
-build relationships
-facilitate connections
-train & convene partners

If you’re interested to learn more in having CIS being a community hand between your school system and community, here is more info and you can submit a request to Robin at rkoelsch@cisofchicago.org https://t.co/RISr73LbnB

Maya Portillo is speaking next on behalf of Playful Learning, a”collaborative project that transforms everyday public spaces where families work, play, and live into opportunities for learning.”

https://www.metrofamily.org/programs-and-services/education/playful-learning/

Currently in N. Lawndale:
- sidewalk installations that encourage play and also brain building https://t.co/o40iUKNDT5

Currently, Douglas Blvd is set to have a massive installation to encourage play and learning.
For example, this math installation is both engaging but also encourages STEM skill, like an activity table and math bench. These are also ADA accessible.

Up next is Bryan Stokes, Chief of Early Childhood Education at Chicago Public Schools is presenting on the CPS vision for early childhood. Including wanting a 50% increase of incoming kindergarteners meeting benchmarks across developmental domains

He notes that Chicago followed suit with the National downward trend of enrollment of pre-k and kindergarten students (during COVID).

CPS wants to increase that enrollment, especially in North Lawndale.

Stokes says CPS is currently in the tail end of a 4-year rollout of a program where all Chicago families can send children aged 4 to full-day preschool.

North Lawndale is ne of the first communities to expand their pre-k and kindergarten capacity.

Overall, CPS wants 18,180 full-day seats available. Right now, there are 16,020. They plan to find a way to build classrooms to serve the remaining 2,160

Mayor Lightfoot has spoken to this effort, saying “Early childhood education helps to put our children on the fast track toward obtaining both short- and long-term academic excellence.”

Read more on that here. https://chicagodefender.com/mayor-lightfoot-encouraages-families-to-enroll-children-in-preschool-for-upcoming-year/

This also comes on the heels of a 44% decline in preschool enrollment.

https://chicago.chalkbeat.org/2021/4/26/22403452/chicago-advertising-preschool-universal-pre-k-will-families-return-in-pandemic-year

Applications for fall (and also some summer programming) are available now. Stokes advises families to “apply early, apply now”.

Interested families can apply here https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/chicagoearlylearning/home/how-to-apply.html

From a national lens, and link to the pre-k enrollment push, here is how President Biden’s American Families Plan would benefit children and families:

https://www.chalkbeat.org/2021/4/28/22407696/american-families-plan-schools-children-biden

The next speaker is Herald Johnson, head of the Steering Committee for the North Lawndale STEAM Partnership Academy.

So far, they have had meetings to discuss what this school would look like.

Future meetings have curriculum, programming, and partnerships on the agenda.

In May, a meeting for parents of the school system (not for community members) can come and see plans and give input.

Previously on this project: https://chicago.suntimes.com/education/2020/12/1/21768292/cps-school-closure-north-lawndale-sumner-lawndale-community-academy-crown-academy-fine-arts

Johnson speaks to the importance of having the STEAM Academy centrally located.

Johnson also directs folks to keep up on all of the work NLCAC/NLCCC has done. You can check out that information here https://nlcccplanning.org/

Meeting called to an end at 6:19 pm