Walmart Superstore

appreciated the opportunity to serve the customers in these communities and the hope is to continue to serve them in the surrounding stores.

On Thursday, April 13th, elected officials and community leaders gathered to protest the store’s closing. Even then, the parking lot was full and people were coming in and out of the store with their carts full. The 21st Ward Alderman-elect Mosley said he was working on a resource guide of places where constituents could get the items they normally bought at Walmart. He also wants to have a community meeting to discuss what residents want to see in the space once the store closes.

“That’s a huge disruption to this community. They didn’t give us any

Continued From Page 2 time to plan how we could still fill or work to fill these voids. We are reacting to the closing, that’s not a good place to be. We want to be proactive, we want to plan for our community to thrive,” he said.

Cook County Commissioner Stanley Moore also received calls from constituents when they heard about the Walmart closing. One of Moore’s constituent’s daughter’s works at Walmart and gets college tuition reimbursement. Another constituent is working at Walmart while going to Loyola.

“This was the purpose for bringing Walmart to this community in the first place. We fought for Walmart to be here. This was a vacant lot and we wanted Walmart to come, because we

Chicago Public Schools

said, ‘our children deserve to be able to not leave their community in order to have a part-time job, or summer job, or a job just to help them get through school, or if some of our seniors want to work. They shouldn’t have to drive downtown or to the suburbs in order to be gainfully employed,” Moore said. Moore said it is a shame to lose Walmart after fighting to bring it to the community and making it through the pandemic.

The elected officials and community leaders want to meet with Walmart leadership and ask them to reconsider.

The other locations Walmart is closing are the Neighborhood Markets at 4720 S. Cottage Grove, 2844 N. Broadway and 2551 W. Cermak.

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enrollment data shows nearly 1,000 (973) more preschoolers were served in the past year, with 16,403 three and four-year-olds enrolled in CPS schools as of the 20th day of the 2022-23 school year compared to 15,430 preschoolers at the same time the previous school year. The majority of those students - more than 12,000 - were four-year-olds in the District’s full-day program.

CPS currently offers expanded preschool classes in 68 of the 77 neighborhoods. By the first day of school on August 21, 2023, the District will have expanded to 75 neighborhoods by adding 21 classrooms within 11 elementary schools for a total of 420 additional available seats.

programs through the Child Care Assistance Program; visit Illinois Action for Children’s website. The Find and Compare Tool helps parents view programs with specific early childhood accreditations and see each program’s quality rating. Parents can also visit CPS’ Programs Page, which includes detailed information about types of programs and identifying characteristics of high-quality early learning.

Application Process and Eligibility