Board Votes to Close Trumbull, Students to Attend Nearby Schools

In three minutes, the Chicago Board of Education voted to close 50 schools, including one in Andersonville. Immediately after the decision, cries of, "Rubber Stamp!" rang throughout the audience.

After voting to save four specific schools and delay one closure by a year, the board grouped the rest together for a mass vote; unanimously agreeing to close Trumbull and 48 other schools in the fall. 

Wednesday's board vote was the final step before a 5-year moratorium on school closings. The members, appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel are David Vitale, Jesse Ruiz, Andrea Zopp, Henry Bienen, Mahalia Hines and Carlos Azcoitia. Proposals needed a four-person majority to pass. 

In March, Chicago Public Schools officials named Trumbull Elementary School to an original list of 54 schools slated for closure. High maintenance costs and underutilized classrooms were the reasons given to parents and teachers. 

Supporters of Trumbull Elementary protested the closure in three public hearings, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. Accounting for the school’s 30 percent special education population, classrooms aren’t underutilized, parents said. 

Students from Trumbull have the option to attend either McPherson or Chappell in Lincoln Square or McCutcheon in Uptown. Those are all higher performing schools than Trumbull, but that doesn’t put some parents’ minds at ease.

“This is my family. You’re taking away something from us,” said Trumbull parent of two Donna Davis at a public hearing in April.

Davis pulled her children out of McCutcheon after seeing gang activity, drugs and violence.

“There’s no violence at Trumbull,” she said.

At the board meeting, CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett thanked the community for voicing their opinions through the process. 

"Members of our community have provided recommendations, alternatives and suggestions and solutions. And we have listened," she said amidst shouts and boos from the audience. 

Security pulled rowdy attendees out of the four-hour meeting as chats of "Children will die because CPS lies," interrupted the meeting. 

One parent, Erica Clark, spoke during the public comments portion and when her time was up, she laid down and continued talking, the Chicago Sun Times reports. Security officers pulled her form the room while the crowd chanted, "Every school is my school.”

Wednesday's vote signals the largest mass school closing in history, affecting more than 30,000 children across the city. 

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