Aspira's Last Stand?

North River Plans to Move into Aspira Charter Middle School

By Jim Vail

Are Aspira's days finally numbered? The North River
Elementary school plans to move into the building that like
most neighborhood schools is grossly under-enrolled.

You could call this a strange twist of fate.

The Aspira Charter Middle School engineered an inside deal with the city in 2005 to take over a brand new building despite promises made that the new middle school would be a public school to relieve the overcrowded Haugan Elementary School in Albany Park.

Now the controversial charter school could be kicked out of the building they have called home for the past 15 years in yet another inside deal, only this time a public school has plans to move into their building and eventually take it over.

The North River Elementary Public School that currently rents space in the Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church near Montrose and Kedzie plans to move into the Aspira Charter Middle School, and eventually kick the charter operator out.

However, Dianne Daleiden, a math teacher at North River, is concerned about the announcement first made at their school's local school council to move into the Aspira building at Lawndale and Leland because there is no parking. It is difficult to find street parking, and a small lot to park for the school must be shared with the teachers at Aspira, as well as middle school teachers from Haugan Elementary who also plan to move into the building.

The proposal for North River Elementary School to move into Aspira Charter Middle School will be on the Chicago Board of Education's meeting agenda this Wednesday, November 18.

Daleiden said the Chicago Teachers Union has called for a meeting this Friday to discuss the proposed move and how it will affect the teachers at the three schools. Aspira is a charter school, but its staff is part of the CTU. 

She questioned why the union would call a meeting for teachers after the board meeting this Wednesday. The board trustees could vote on the move with minimal community or teacher input.

The Aspira name has been synonymous with corruption and inside deals ever since it took over the beautiful new building that cost taxpayers about $25 million. In 2005 the Haugan Elementary School pleaded with the board of ed to build a middle school to relieve the overcrowded elementary school. It was then agreed that the Haugan teachers would move with the 6, 7 and 8th grade students to the new building. But like an ominous creature appearing out of nowhere, they swooped in and declared that the building would be the new home of a charter school. This outraged the community, but every local politician including newly elected City Clerk Iris Martinez were in on the corrupt inside deal.

The deal made no sense at all. Aspira could not run a school, and the Sun-Times wrote several articles denouncing the decision to let them run a charter school. Aspira was so inept changing principals like Trump changing wives, not ordering enough textbooks and discipline problems so bad where gang bangers from the nearby Roosevelt High School were openly recruiting members inside the building.

It was so bad that parents formed a group called Parents Against Aspira that documented the problems at the school, pleading with Chicago Public Schools officials to remove Aspira. 

The parents led me to reporting for Substance News the horrific story of an art teacher named Basil who had to go in hiding after the Aspira community led a witch hunt to oust her. The Sun-Times ran a front page headline "Racist Teacher Fired from Aspira" that of course incited anger in the Hispanic community. Basil, who I found out was an elderly and sweet art teacher who changed careers to become a teacher had explained to the students in one class that Mexicans cleaning homes or sweeping floors is not a bad thing. All jobs have dignity, she told them. Suddenly one student stood up and screamed out, "Mexicans are only good for sweeping floors, she says!" The student then led a few other students in a march to denounce their alleged racist teacher. It was so bad that Basil told me she was afraid to leave the building when they fired her because crowds were gathering all around to denounce her. Why would they lead a posse against a little meek art teacher? She had questioned whether the school was following labor law practice, such as why were teachers not getting the state mandated amount of time for lunch break. Several years later she won an EEOC lawsuit against Aspira for the false charges and destroying her reputation.

But that was exactly how Aspira operated. It was a political operation that used protesters to line political pockets. 

And politicians like Martinez, who was the area's state senator at the time, benefited from this. Aspira director Jose Rodriguez served as her treasurer, and once served as a trustee on the Board of Education under Mayor Richard Daley until he was forced to resign because he ran the Aspira social agency that was getting city contracts, which was a conflict of interest since he was a trustee voting on awarding vendor contracts to the public schools.

Aspira corruption hit the big time when a federal lawsuit was filed against them for strip searching their female students. The revelation was an embarrassment to then CPS Chief Arne Duncan, who touted the charter operator despite the problems. The lawsuit was filed the week when President Barack Obama named Duncan his secretary of education.

Aspira made a crafty move by immediately agreeing to its staff becoming unionized, an unusual situation since charter schools fight against union drives because it would force them to pay their teachers more like their counterparts at the public schools under a CTU contract.

Aspira was able to cash in on the corrupt charter school craze because people like Rodriguez and UNO Charter director Juan Rangel got the vote out in their respective Puerto Rican and Mexican communities for the corrupt Daley regime. 

But today the tables have turned. UNO ousted the corrupt Rangel, who had worked for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and renamed their network of charter schools Acero. Acero also has a unionized staff who went on the first ever charter school teachers strike in 2018. Rodriguez was also eventually ousted from Aspira.

Today gentrification is the name of the game. Real estate prices play a big role in deciding what schools get built. While charters have primarily invaded the South and West Sides of the city to replace the public schools that were closed, middle class families look for magnet public schools.

North River fits that bill. The school is not a neighborhood school but a semi-magnet school or non-attendance boundary school where students must apply to get accepted. This part of Albany Park is seeing white middle class families slowly replacing working class immigrant families.

The neighborhood high school Roosevelt where gang bangers once openly recruited students at Aspira has also seen a lot of change over the past 10 years. Teachers say they do not have the rough students causing problems like in years past. One former student is currently attending the University of Chicago.

Aspira like many neighborhood schools is grossly under-enrolled due to the loss of affordable housing in the city. One teacher said they have about 200 students in a building that can house 1,000.

The fact that North River pays a lot of rent to Our Lady of Mercy at a time when the city is facing a budget crisis due to the pandemic could also play a role.

The North River principal told his LSC that the alderman supports the move, but there has been no community meetings to discuss it.