School board candidates talk about diverse learning, quantum careers at the Southeast Side Forum

EAST SIDE – With just over a week until Election Day, Southeast Side residents met with candidates vying for their district’s seat on the elected school board to discuss students’ educational needs, ideas for shaping curriculum and how to build a pipeline for careers in quantum computing.

Three candidates in Chicago’s District 10 school board race met with about 50 neighbors Friday morning during a forum at Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, 9805 S. Ewing Ave. on East Side.

Educational consultant Adam Parrott-Sheffer, artist Che “Rhymefest” Smith and nonprofit CEO Karin Norington-Reaves were present for the panel. Pastor Robert Jones and write-in candidate Rosita Chatonda were not present.

District 10 extends along the lakefront from 31st Street south to the city limits and as far west as Parnell Avenue, including portions of the 4th through 10th, 17th, 20th and 21st aldermanic wards.

Neighbors on Friday’s panel focused on concerns relevant to the demographics and future developments on the southeast side.

They asked the candidates about their plans to prepare Chicago Public Schools students for careers in… quantum development in South Chicago and the role of administration in shaping curricula for a diverse student population.

To view the full forum, including the Spanish translation, click here.

Quantum Career Pipeline

With a quantum computing campus planned for the former South Works steel mill – anchored by startup PsiQuantum, and with major political and financial support from the state and the city — candidates were asked how they can ensure local students have access to on-campus careers.

Mayor Brandon Johnson and city officials have pledged to work with CPS and higher education institutions to create more opportunities for South Siders to enter the quantum computing industry.

Parrott-Sheffer said the community needs “tougher contracts and stronger conversations” with the campus project’s financiers, which would push the developers and tenants to play a major role in building a quantum career pipeline.

“We must ensure that our partnerships with the companies creating this project see our students as their first employees and their next leaders of these organizations and institutions,” he said.

Smith said the district should use children’s existing interests in video games, music and other subjects as a way to introduce them to engineering, programming and other scientific areas.

“The community needs to know how to translate that into education,” he said. “We need to know what to ask for. There are people in town who work with the quantum computing facility and never help set up any viable training that we can see now.

Norington-Reaves called for curricula to better prepare students for computer-based careers, and that the quantum campus’s backers sign a community benefits agreement to ensure local hiring, investments in local economic development, skills training and other benefits associated with the project .

“We want to make sure that our parents and our youth have access to those jobs,” she said. “The people who are going to work for that company should volunteer in our schools and help educate our children.”

Culturally relevant curricula

Candidates were asked how they would shape school curricula to reflect the history and diversity of Chicago and its cultures.

Parrott-Sheffer said the school board should seek input from Chicago’s education and neighborhood leaders to help create curricula that “connects back to local communities.”

“What a board can do is make sure we’re creating strong, locally grown programs, but we can also work with local experts,” he said.

Smith also called on community members to guide the curricula, citing the achievements of former Mayor Harold Washington and Ald. Peter Chico’s (10th) family history in the South Side steel mills as examples of educational topics that locals can connect with.

“We have big giants all around us,” he said. “All we have to do is bring the community to the school.”

Norington-Reaves said cultural representation is important in curricula because students need to see themselves reflected in the novels they read and the math problems they answer.

“We need to have diverse reading, we need to have diverse writing, we need to have opportunities for exposure, and we don’t have those,” she said. “Part of the challenge is that the curriculum decisions are made by the principals.”

Neurodiverse needs of students

One participant asked the candidates how the board should meet the needs of neurodiverse students, meaning children with autism, ADHD, dyslexia and other differences in learning and thinking.

Parrott-Sheffer, who said he is the parent of a child with a disability and the guardian of an adult with a disability, said the district must gather direct input from neurodiversity students to ensure equitable education.

Parrott-Sheffer also criticized the speed at which teachers have to learn their annual curricula, saying two weeks is “not enough time to plan” how they will respond to the unique needs of their students.

“We have 330,000 students in our district who need all kinds of different things, which means we need a flexible curriculum,” he said.

Smith, who said his son had an individualized education program at school, said athletics, the arts and other extracurricular activities are necessary tools for neurodiverse students.

Smith also called for more funding for classroom assistants and special education counselors, to ensure “a nurse in every school” and “quality, safe transportation” to and from school.

“As a member of the school board, I want to ensure that all of our wrap-around services – after-school programs, sports, the arts – help young people with neurological issues,” he said. “When they start doing art, you see them carving out their own stories and healing themselves through art.”

Norington-Reaves, who said her daughter is blind, said she previously had to fight the district’s plans to raise her daughter in “a refurbished storage locker with a teacher and two kids.”

Every student must receive an education tailored to their abilities, which requires flexible curricula, better training for teachers and support staff, “inclusive classroom environments” and more accessible extracurricular activities, Norington-Reaves said.

“My daughter can’t go to after-school programs because no one is with her. There is no aide after school,” she said.

Multilingual education

Another participant asked how the candidates would support multilingual education in District 10, which includes communities with large Spanish-speaking populations.

Parrott-Sheffer called for more “two-way” bilingual schools where “all classes are taught in English and Spanish,” he said. Every teacher across the city should also be certified in English as a second language or bilingual education, he said.

Smith said teacher professional development should go beyond English and Spanish and include other languages ​​common in Chicago, such as Arabic and Polish. He also organized immersion programs where schools can encourage community members to share music, food and other cultural traits.

Norington-Reaves proposed “bilingual programming” in schools. For example, kindergarten through third grade could be taught in students’ primary languages, fourth grade would be a mix of their native language and English, and their remaining instruction would be in English, she said.

Will they meet with Southeast Siders?

Parrott-Sheffer, Smith and Norington-Reaves all pledged to meet with Southeast Side groups such as Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, Alliance of the Southeast, Claretian Associates and others to respond to community concerns during their first 100 days in office, if they are chosen.

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