<http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-bowen13.html>
Bowen students demand change October 13, 2001 BY SABRINA WALTERS STAFF REPORTER Dozens of Bowen High students and their parents Friday demanded Chicago public school officials step in and restore order at the troubled Southeast Side school. "You're harming 900 students who will go to college not knowing anything,'' said Rosio Nazimek, a 1992 Bowen graduate. "Have some respect for them,'' Nazimek shouted during a raucous school protest Friday. Bowen was one of five Chicago public high schools that received the most severe sanctions imposed on failing schools last year. Sanctions included removal of school administrators and an overhaul of the curriculum. As a result, the school lost 32 veteran teachers, who opted to retire. Its academy structure was dismantled, and a number of courses were dropped, including a popular wood shop class. Students said the quality of education has further deteriorated, with some basic needs unmet. Problems with scheduling are regularly ignored, students said. Among the most serious is that principal Fausto Lopez has been unresponsive to requests for course changes required for seniors to graduate, said student leader Martha Lemos, a senior. And special education and bilingual students are enrolled in courses they are not prepared for, Lemos said Friday at a local school council meeting attended by about 100 students and parents. "Many of the students in special ed and bilingual ed aren't having their needs met,'' Lemos said. "For example, those in bilingual ed are in regular classes, and their teachers only speak English,'' she said. Lemos organized students after a fight to get her own schedule changed. She requested a transfer from a Spanish class that she had taken as a junior to a music elective she needs to graduate. Lemos eventually was moved after spending five weeks in the wrong class. "I was misplaced, but it only got resolved because my mother came to talk to the principal,'' Lemos said. According to Lopez and Chief High School Development Officer Wilfredo Ortiz, the problems at Bowen stem from changes in staff and programs that occurred when the school was sanctioned. Bilingual students for the first time this year were allowed to take regular courses, a move mandated by the state for those showing enough progress, Lopez said. In addition, students enrolled for at least three years in a bilingual program are required to join the "general population,'' Lopez said. Only 38 of the school's 1,000 students are eligible for bilingual education courses, Lopez said. Bowen, at 2710 E. 89th., is 60 percent black and 40 percent Hispanic. Parents questioned whether Lopez, a former elementary school principal, is the right person for the job. After intervention was imposed, Bowen saw its reading scores drop by 3 percentage points, to 10.5 percent. Math scores went up by just one-tenth of a point to 21.6. Lopez said the school was in flux when he arrived in September 2000 as an evaluator. -- This is the CPS Science Teacher List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
