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AUSTIN WEEKLY news ■
Vol. 31 No. 37
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September 27, 2017
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Douglass High seeks to improve rating,
austinweeklynews.com
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Also serving Garfield Park
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How to own a Corvette, page 3
‘Injustice at its worst,’ says Leland grad of budget cuts School hit with over $400K in cuts, lays off only music teacher By XUEER ZHANG
ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
AustinTalks
Austin’s George Leland Elementary School is seeking help from the community to get through a 10 percent budget reduction in the Chicago Public Schools new budget. Leland’s after-school programs, arts and music education, and library services have been especially hard hit. “We were met roughly with over $400,000 (in) cuts, and there’s loss of resources at the school,” Principal Turon Marcel Ivy told about a dozen parents and local business owners who gathered Sept. 12 at L!VE café in Oak Park to consider ways to help. The budget for Leland Elementary, located at 512 S. Lavergne Ave., is nearly $3.75 million for the 2017-2018 school year. Leland is among most Austin schools that have lost faculty and/or staff members under the new budget, according to a recent AustinTalks story. In Austin, 16 out of 19 neighborhood schools lost a total of 47 teachers, classroom assistants and/or security staff due to the CPS cuts for the new school year. See LELAND CUTS on page 7
Power up! Runners turn down Mayfield Street on Saturday, Sept. 23, during the annual Austin P.O.W.E.R. of Life 5K Walk/Run in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood. Story and more photos on page 4.
Public safety training center proposed for W. Garfield Park
Community activists say the $95 million for the proposed center could be better spent elsewhere By IGOR STUDENKOV Contributing Reporter
The City of Chicago is looking to buy a 30-acre site at 4301 W. Chicago Ave. to build larger, more modern training facilities
for the city’s police and fire departments — but the plan has attracted a vocal contingent of community activists who believe the money for the proposed facility would be better spent on other things, such as funding schools and social services. According to a Chicago Sun-Times
report, the city is expecting to spend at least $20 million to buy the land and do some initial construction work and another $75 million to build the rest. The purchase cleared the Chicago Community Development Commission on Sept. 12 and the Chicago Plan Commission on Sept. 21. In a recent interview, Ald. Emma Mitts (37th), whose ward includes
Austin Chamber of Commerce on the move... 773.854.5848 • www.austinchicagochamber.com
See TRAINING CENTER on page 10