What's happening at Pulaski School?

Kamelia, an artist friend of mine, works with the Chicago non-profit Green Star Movement. The group's mission is to collaborate with schools and community centers to beautify their buildings with murals that celebrate the diversity of urban life. She is a project leader and, as a result, is aware of current events within the local branches of the Chicago Public School system.

Last night, at the outdoor viewing of Tootsie in Grant park, Kamelia asked me to join her in protest of the campaign to change over Bucktown's Pulaski Academy from an arts-focused curriculum to an IB (International Baccalaureate) one.

The multiple factions of concerned parents and teachers have different objectives: maintain the school as is, which promotes arts-based and bilingual education to its students, mostly low-income hispanics that live outside the community; restructure the school's curriculum and staff under the rigorous IB guidelines, satisfying the appeals of the local parents and (purposefully?) altering the socio-economic and cultural makeup of the school; and protect positions at the school that are in danger of being phased out by the new program.

The controversial issue was covered by the newspaper in this Chicago Tribune article.

I will be meeting the marchers at the Chicago Board of Education today to find out more.