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Our City, Our Schools, Our Voice

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Please sign up to march with TSJ-we will be marching on both the South and West sides. And you can march 20 minutes, or the full three days, your choice! And all TSJ marchers get a new, TSJ "activist" t-shirt that looks just like our logo w/ an orange background! Nice!

The march ends with a rally at Daley Plaza, Monday, May 20 at 4 PM!

Final West Side march route and times here; 
March starting point:
Lafayette Elementary, 2714 W Augusta Blvd.
Saturday, May 18, 10:00 AM

Final South Side march route and times here;
March starting point:
Jesse Owens Elementary Community Academy 12450 S. State
Saturday, May 18, 10:00 AM

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To help provide logistical support, please email Rebecca at the CTU. Tasks include (and some of these can be done while marching)
___Trouble shooting Floaters                    
___Marshal                         
___Communicator (media liaison)
___Chant Leader               
___Pass out Flyers/Signs              
___Registration table                     
___Food duty
___Set up/break down 
___ Driver

WE ARE ASKING PEOPLE TO CONSIDER TAKING A DAY OFF WORK ON MAY 20 TO MAKE SURE IT IS A STRONG FINISH TO THE MARCH ON A WORK DAY (Monday, May 20).
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Stop School Closings: What You Can Do!

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StudentsMarch001

TSJers: What You Can Do to Organize Against School Closings:

1) Petitions for a moratorium on school closings (attached, Spanish and English). Each sheet has room for 10 names. These are NOT online petitions, but are old-style real signatures (remember those?). Once done, they need to be delivered or faxed to CTU, or scanned and emailed (all contact info on petitions themselves). Then email us and let us know how many actual signatures you collected!! Help get as many signers as we can!

2) Go to Report Card pickup at a school near you that is affected by the closings (133 schools). Elementary schools are Wednesday, 4/17, and High Schools are Thursday, 4/18. Usually, report card pickup is 12:00 to 6:00, but check w/ the school. The best times are 12-1 and from 5-6. 
* Take the petitions (Spanish, English), ask people to sign them, and talk to parents. 
* Hand out attached fact sheet, available also at our website

3) Speak at a faith community near you (see flyer; this is an initiative to reach out to faith communities to fight the school closings).

4) Lobby in Springfield for a moratorium on school closings, and for the Elected Representative School Board. A bus is traveling to Springfield each Wednesday. CTU/GEM is working to fill it with parents and people who work at the school action schools, but others are welcome.  Please urge parents and others from closing/turnaround schools to get on the bus.  Next Wed. 4/17 there are a number of empty seats. Contact Carolyn to reserve a space.

5) Use and share the school closing curriculum-available here, created by Cyriac Mathew, Uplift HS.
  
6) Check out the calendar of events, school closing hearings, etc.

7) Attend CTU President Karen Lewis' talk at the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, this Wednesday the 17th at 7pm.  

8) Keep reading your TSJ emails to stay abreast and active!
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School Closings Curriculum - Teaching For Social Justice

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MassRallySOS075



Curriculum Created by Cyriac Mathew, a TSJer at Uplift Social Justice High School:

Teachers & Educators: Have your students learn about school closings and implement a related service-learning project! This is a two-week, work-in-progress curriculum to get our students to better understand some of the issues related to school closings and then make their voices heard. 

Whether you are a HS teacher or not-this curriculum is really important because it not only serves as a model of how to prepare young people to understand and change their world, but it also shows what teachers can do inside the classroom as well as outside! It's a great model and we urge ALL teachers to try to do similar work to what Cyriac is doing. 

Download the curriculum here:

For further info, email Cyriac directly. 

Also, a whole host of pictures by TSJer Sarah Jane Rhee and her ever-present camera:
  
March 27 Rally
March 25 Students March
Please make sure you give credit to Cyriac and/or Sarah if you use their materials!
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Help Organize Against School Closings!

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Join TSJ, GEM, and CTU in organizing against school closings. 
Help us gather TSJ folks to prepare for the March 27th STOP SCHOOL CLOSINGS Rally!

On March 27th, GEM will host a rally at Daley Plaza (Clark & Washington) to demand NO SCHOOL CLOSINGS! We are meeting at 4PM! Please come out for this important action!

Sign up here to attend the rally with TSJ. Download the TSJ Rally flyer here.

In preparation for this rally, there are several ways to get involved:
1. CTU is organizing meetings in the networks, along with other GEM members (community organizations). Download a flyer here with ALL meetings and addresses. If you are interested in attending or helping to organize at/for these meetings (in particular, working w/ other TSJ members), please sign up here. The TSJ organizers below will contact you (but their emails are here so you can contact them as well). The network meetings that TSJ people will be attending are:
  • Pilsen-Little Village (Mon 3/18, 6PM); contact Rosi or Byron
  • Fulton (Tue 3/19, 6:30PM); contact Phil or Pauline
  • Lake Calumet (Wed 3/20, 4PM); contact Rosi
  • Englewood-Gresham (Wed 3/20, 4:30pm); contact Tonya
  • Pershing (Wed 3/20, 4:30pm); contact Byron or Rico
  • Rock Island (Thu 3/21, 3:30pm); contact Kelly
  • Ravenswood-Ridge (Thu 3/21, 6PM); contact Katie
2. Help TSJ phone bank our members for the March 27th NO SCHOOL CLOSINGS rally. We will be phone banking Thurs March 21, 7-9pm (location near downtown). Sign up here to phone bank.

3. Attend the ART/BANNER making party for the March 27th Rally. Hosted by Jobs with Justice, Monday and Tuesday, March 18 & 19, 6-9PM, 333 S. Ashland Ave. All are welcome!





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School Closings Fact Sheets

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OccupyCityHall047

A TSJ working group/task force has created a series of Popular Education Pieces on school closings. Please download and share these fact sheets widely!

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School Closings: People Say NO!

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On February 13th, CPS released its list of potential school closings, which contains 129 schools, 124 of which are north of North Ave. Thousands of parents, teachers, students and community members have been showing up at CPS's school closings commission hearings to denounce CPS's plan to balance the budget on the backs of Black and Brown students and outsource neighborhood schools. We are building a city-wide coalition, the Grassroots Education Movement, made up of teachers, parents, students, and communities to defend and take back our schools.

Please support neighborhood schools by attending these hearings. There will be a hearing every weeknight and Saturday morning through March 4th. For a complete list, please visit this page.

Also plan to attend TSJ's next general meeting to help plan the fight against school closings:
TSJ Feb General Meeting
Sunday, Feb 24
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
UIC College of Education
1040 W. Harrison 
3rd Floor "Commons" Room (3233)
All are welcome!
logoAGENDA:
  • Discussion of School Closing Hearings and Community Response
  • TSJ "Popular Education Organizing Sheets"
  • Organizing Plan-People's Board Meetings, city-wide actions, and more
  • Updates
    • Free Minds Free People
    • Youth/Student organizing


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