6 Fenger students from Altgeld Gardens want to transfer
Despite the political furor caused by the videotaped beating death of Derrion Albert, only six of the 100 Fenger High School students living in Altgeld Gardens want to transfer out to Carver Military Academy, officials said today.
Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman said he has reached out to nearly all of the Altgeld families — by phone, registered letter and old-fashioned door-knocking — and all but a handful have chosen to stay.
“What you have there is a lot of people speaking out on behalf of the parents who are not the parents,” Huberman said, creating the impression that a mass exodus was in the works.
“Most of the parents want to keep their kids in Fenger. They’re very positive about what’s happening inside that school. . . . You see students engaged. You see students learning. Families we’ve talked to have said, ‘We like what we see. We don’t want to leave that.’ ”
Like Orr Academy High School, where Mayor Daley served as Principal-for-a-Day today, Fenger is a “turn-around” school with new leadership, new computers and millions of dollars worth of new investments.
“You have degraded Fenger because of an unfortunate situation that took place eight blocks away. It’s really unfair. . . . It’s a school that’s improving. You have trashed this school too much,” Daley said at a news conference at Orr, 730 N. Pulaski.
Albert, 16, was killed during a brawl between students from Altgeld and a neighborhood closer to Fenger known as the “Ville.” Nine school buses have been ferrying Altgeld kids to Fenger ever since to guarantee their safety.
Earlier this month, CPS offered them three other options: a mid-year transfer to Carver Military; transportation vouchers to attend other schools or entry next fall into a charter high school on the site of the shuttered Carver Middle School that needs $4 million worth of renovations.
Huberman also clarified questions about the criteria Fenger students will have to pass to gain mid-year entry into Carver Military.
“This is not a Whitney Young school . . . where it’s very competitive selective enrollment. They need to sign a code of conduct. They need to . . . show a desire and willingness to be in a high-discipline environment [with] very high expectations. We anticipate all of those kids who have shown an interest mid-year are gonna be accepted,” he said.
South Side Aldermen Anthony Beale (9th) and Carrie Austin (34th) said they are not surprised that only a handful of students are opting out of Fenger.
“The press has blown this thing out of proportion like there’s this big crisis where these kids are fighting every single day. That is not the case,” Beale said.
Huberman noted that nine students were shot last year near Fenger and “no one said anything. No activist came out and said, ‘This is a major violence problem.’ You had a videotape that changed the equation.”