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After shuttering 50 schools in 2013, Chicago Public Schools is still struggling to get rid of dozens of vacant school buildings. Meanwhile some of these buildings are attracting unwanted activity to communities, residents say.
The new school year begins September 2, but at least 48 school buildings from 39 shuttered schools remain empty. Fox 32 Chicago reported that residents who live near some of the schools say the buildings are magnets for loitering and small crime.
“It’s attracting bad stuff, like you know, bad stuff,” Melanie Sims told Fox 32 about the former Calhoun North Elementary. Other residents complained to the station about broken windows, lights being left on all night and graffiti.
These were problems critics of CPS’s decision to shutter schools expressed during protests last year. They also feared the schools would be turned into charter schools
But CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and CPS officials promised communities that vacant buildings would be sealed tight, and that turning them into charter schools was not the goal.
So far CPS has opened three of the initial group of vacant buildings for bidding, as aldermen discuss the fate of seven others, the Chicago Tribune reports.
