Edward Jenner School

Edward Jenner School, also known as Edward Jenner Elementary Academy of the Arts, was a public PK-8 school located in the Cabrini-Green area of the Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, United States. Named after Edward Jenner, The school was opened and operated by the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Jenner merged with Ogden International School in September 2018. The campus is now Ogden International–Jenner which serves grades Pre–K, 5th through 8th.

Edward Jenner School
Address
Edward Jenner School
Edward Jenner School
Edward Jenner School
Edward Jenner School
Edward Jenner School
Edward Jenner School
1119 North Cleveland Avenue

Chicago
,
Illinois
60610

United States
Coordinates41.9021258°N 87.64083069999998°W / 41.9021258; -87.64083069999998
Information
School type
Opened1944; September 2018
(Ogden International-Jenner)
ClosedJune 2018
(Jenner School)
School districtChicago Public Schools
PrincipalDavid Domovic
(Ogden International; acting)
StaffDr. Kimberly Watson
(Head; Ogden International-Jenner)

(Head; Ogden International-Jenner)
GradesPre-K–8 (Jenner School)
Pre-K; 5–8
(Ogden International-Jenner)
GenderCoed
Enrollment1,262 (2018–2019)
Campus typeUrban
Color(s)     Green
     Gray
MascotOwls
Websiteogden.cps.edu/jenner-campus-5-8--prek.html

Background

Student body, performance, and culture

In 2016, 98% of the 239 students at Jenner were African-American; almost all lived in low-income households.[1] All but two of the students were black and about 33% were homeless in 2013. As of that year, some students lived in newer housing developments that accepted former residents of Cabrini-Green while others lived in the remaining Cabrini-Green row-houses.[2] Before the City of Chicago installed a Lighthouse academic program for low-performing students around the year 2000, 15% of Jenner students met the national average in performance in mathematics, and 14% did so in reading. After the program was installed, these assessments jumped to 29% and 21%.[3]

Jenner teacher Mathias J. Schergen stated that, as in Cabrini-Green itself, students at Jenner were bound to one another through extended familial and "godcousin" relationships and that the school and wider area had a symbiotic relationship.[4] Schergen, who gave himself the nickname "Mr. Spider" when he began teaching at Jenner in 1993, taught art at the school for 22 years, retiring in 2015.[5][6][7] By 2000, Schergen had turned a classroom in the former Jenner building, about to be replaced by the current building, into a museum.[8] Later, he received a Gold Apple Award for his teaching.[9]

History

Edward Jenner School opened in 1944 with a majority student body made up of Italian migrants. In January and April 1966,[10] African-American parents boycotted the school in order to remove the white principal, Mildred Chuchut of Jenner.[11] Due to this boycott, Chicago Public Schools transferred her to Stowe Elementary school on August 10, 1966.[10][12][13]

Dantrell Davis, Cabrini–Green and violence

Don Terry of The New York Times wrote that the school's atmosphere deteriorated after the October 9, 1992 shooting death of Jenner student Dantrell Davis, age 7. Davis was walking to school when he died. From March to October of that year three students, including Davis, were fatally shot within blocks of Jenner.[14] The school had 570 students during the 1997–1998 school year.[15] That year the playground was in such a poor condition that children could not use it, and violent acts occurred in the vicinity of the school.[16] In 1997, the Chief Executive Officer of the school district, Paul Vallas, stated that he may move students from the school building to another temporary location for safety reasons; 7th and 8th grade students had witnessed a fatal shooting in September of that year.[15]

Enrollment decline and new campus

In August 1966, the school had 2,523 students.[10] At that time, it was Chicago's largest elementary school.[10] During the 1970–1971 school year, Jenner had 1,920 students. 25 years later, during the 1996–1997 school year the school had 625 students.[17] Jenner's current campus opened in 2000. At the time of its new campus opening, Enrollment had declined due to the rapid demolition of the Cabrini-Green public housing complex where majority of its student population resided.[18] The campus occupies the block that held the previous campus.[6] The building has 29 classrooms, a gymnasium, a science laboratory, a math lab, art rooms, and music rooms.[2] Its building capacity is 1,060.[19]

Merges with Byrd and Schiller schools

Jenner's attendance boundary extended due to the closing of another grade school located within Cabrini-Green, Byrd Elementary School, in 2004.[20] The school later received students from another Cabrini-area school, Schiller Elementary School when it closed in 2009.[6] Incidents of violence at the school increased after merges with Byrd and Schiller schools due to placements of rival gang members together.[18]

In 2007, the Jenner had about 600 students, and about 33% of students passed mathematics, readings, and science standardized tests administered by the state of Illinois. That year Steven Drummond of Education Week stated that while Jenner was still surrounded by poverty, violence "is not as prevalent as it once was".[21] Mina Bloom of DNA Info wrote that Jenner had improved safety-wise since the appointment of principal Robert Croston, who received his degree from Harvard University.[18] In 2015, Maureen Kelleher of Catalyst Chicago, a sister publication of the Chicago Reporter, stated that "safety has become less of a concern" due to gentrification of the area.[6]

Proposed merger with Manierre, later enrollment and merger into Ogden

During the 2012-2013 school year, the school had 329 students.[2] That year, CPS considered closing Jenner, but instead decided to close Manierre School and merge its student population into that of Jenner.[6] Manierre is in "Sedville", a gang territory area in Old Town.[22] Concerns involving students crossing gang territorial lines meant that both schools remained open.[23]

In 2015, Robert Croston, the principal of Jenner, and the principal of Ogden International School, a K–12 institution with an elementary campus in the Gold Coast and a secondary campus in West Town, proposed merging their schools; Ogden was overcrowded while Jenner was under-enrollment and was threatened with closure. Some parents approved of the merger, while others opposed it.[24][1] At first the merger proposal was canceled as there was not enough time left to get it accomplished for the 2015-2016 school year,[25] and aside from the opposition of some parents, the CPS had what David Matthews of DNA Info referred to as "lukewarm support".[1] CPS head Janice Jackson had stated that there was not enough "due diligence" done in order for the merger to go through.[26]

The enrollment at Jenner was 239 by 2016 and considered by the district extremely under-enrolled.[1] In August of that year the discussions on how to merge the schools resumed,[27] and in December of that year CPS confirmed that the process of merging the schools would begin.[28] The CPS board voted unanimously for the merger in February 2018, and the merger took place in September 2018.[29]

Feeder patterns

Students zoned to Jenner for K-8 were zoned to either Wells Community Academy High School or Lincoln Park High School for senior high.[30][31]

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References
  1. Matthews, David (2016-11-01). "Ogden-Jenner Merger Is Best For Both Schools, New Study Says". DNA Info. Archived from the original on 2016-12-21. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
  2. Schmich, Mary (2013-02-23). "One school digs in to stay alive". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
  3. Wilgoren, Jodi (2000-01-24). "The Bell Rings but the Students Stay, and Stay". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-12-24.
  4. Schergen, Mathias J. "Art: An Educational Link between School and Community" (Chapter 7). In: Johnson, Lauri, Mary E. Finn, and Rebecca Lewis (editors). Urban Education with an Attitude (UPCC book collections on Project MUSE). SUNY Press, February 1, 2012. ISBN 0791483584, 9780791483589. p. 79.
  5. Nadworny, Elissa (2015-07-15). "'Mr. Spider' Says Goodbye: An Art Teacher's Final Day At School". National Public radio. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
  6. Kelleher, Maureen (2015-09-25). "Can Jenner's "terrific facility" and strong arts programs overcome its history?". Catalyst Chicago. Archived from the original on 2016-05-01. Retrieved 2016-12-22.(published by Community Renewal Society, Chicago Reporter is a sister publication)
  7. Schmich, Mary (2015-06-12). "After years of teaching, learning, 'Mr. Spider' retiring to pursue dreams". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
  8. Schmich, Mary (2000-06-08). "Memory Museum Holds Bits Of Past, Thoughts Of Future". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
  9. Drummond, Steven (2006-12-22). "Forever Young". Teacher. Education Week. Retrieved 2016-12-23. (print date: January 1, 2007)
  10. http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1966/08/11/page/1/article/miss-chuchut-transferred
  11. http://chicagotribune.newspapers.com/image/196156775/?terms=miss+chuchut+transferred
  12. "Miss Chuchut Transferred." Chicago Tribune. Thursday, August 11, 1966 - Page 1.
  13. Lyons, John F. Teachers and Reform: Chicago Public Education, 1929-1970 (Volume 253 of Working class in American history). University of Illinois Press, 2008. ISBN 0252032721, 9780252032721. p. 183: [...]increasingly the conflicts revolved around the removal of white principals from black schools.[...]"
  14. Terry, Don (1992-10-17). "Even a Grade School Is No Refuge From Gunfire". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-12-22. "But the bullet that ripped into Dantrell's head also wounded the spirit of the school and the struggling apartment buildings that surround it."
  15. "Safety Plan Devised for Troubled School". The New York Times. 1997-11-20. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
  16. Belluck, Pam (1997-11-19). "Gang Gunfire May Chase Chicago Children From Their School". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
  17. Marciniak, Ed (Institute of Urban Life President) (1997-11-29). "Keep Cabrini Schools". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2017-02-12.
  18. Bloom, Mina (2016-05-23). "How A Cabrini-Green School Went From 'Out Of Control' To Feeling Like Home". DNA Info. Archived from the original on 2016-12-22. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
  19. Matthews, David (2015-09-22). "Ogden School Presses Ahead with Jenner Merger". Archived from the original on 2016-12-22. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
  20. Dell'Angela, Tracy (2007-04-26). "School gone, but teacher's lessons live on". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
  21. Drummond, Steven (2007-01-01). "Forever Young". Teacher. Education Week. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
  22. Konkol, Mark; Paul Biasco (2013-05-21). "Parents Win Battle, Manierre Elementary Won't Close". DNA Info. Archived from the original on 2016-12-22. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
  23. Bloom, Mina (2015-09-04). "For Proposed Merger, 'Help Us to Help You,' Jenner Official Says to Ogden". DNA Info. Archived from the original on 2016-12-22. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
  24. Robert Croston has died, CPS principal who helped engineer N. Side school merger
  25. Matthews, David (2015-11-05). "Ogden Principal Tells Parents Jenner Merger 'Should Not Proceed' Next Year". DNA Info. Archived from the original on 2016-12-21. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
  26. Vevea, Becky (2016-10-29). "Supporters Of A Chicago School Merger Hope To Stamp Out Segregation". NPR. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
  27. Matthews, David; Mina Bloom (2016-08-10). "Ogden, Jenner Merger Talks Back On; CPS Seeks Input". DNA Info. Archived from the original on 2016-12-22. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
  28. Matthews, David (2016-12-05). "CPS Moves Forward On Ogden-Jenner Merger, Seeks Input At Community Meetings". DNA Info. Archived from the original on 2016-12-21. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
  29. "Timeline of Events". Jenner-Ogden Merger Official Site. Retrieved 2018-05-21.
  30. "Near North/West/Central Elementary Schools." Chicago Public Schools. May 17, 2013. Retrieved on December 22, 2016.
  31. "HS North/Near North." Chicago Public Schools. 2013. Retrieved on September 30, 2016.

Further reading

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