Students Trying to Graduate on Time

By Samantha Battle


Struggling students who may not graduate on time at King College Preparatory High School are doing all they can to accept their diploma with the rest of their classmates in June.

Even if these students take night school along with their regular classes, they won’t have enough time to earn all the credits they need to graduate on time. So students asked Principal, Jeffrey Wright, if they could take an extra class on the weekend to get the credits they need.

At the LSC meeting Feb. 19, Wright brought up the idea that was presented to him by the students. Parent and neighborhood representatives, a student representative and teachers all were shaking their heads in agreement and in interest with what the principal was saying.

"Students came to me and told me that they would rather make up the work and go the extra mile to graduate on time with their classmates instead going to an alternative school and getting out the easy way," Wright said.

Going to an alternative school will let these students that are behind graduate on time because they don’t require as many credits as a college preparatory high school.

The students that are behind failed classes their freshman and sophomore year and now they have to make up those credits in order to have all the credits needed to graduate.

Wright will be paying $200 for each student in the program for these classes out of his own pocket. Wright doesn’t have an exact count on how many students will be taking this class just yet but it is estimated to be about 20 students.

"That’s a lot of classes and a lot of work to do," said Bobie Knight, a vocal teacher who teaches vocal at King College Prep.

The students who want to take this class will be getting Illinois virtual high school credits and Wright will be teaching and chaperoning the classes himself on a day that is convenient for him since he is taking time from his schedule.

"I respect that these students are trying so I don’t mind helping them," Wright said.

According to the Chicago Public High Schools Web site, the Illinois Virtual Program meets individual student and school needs as well as providing options in meeting the No Child Left Behind guidelines.

"CPS Virtual High Schools offer more than 100 online courses at more than 70 high schools and middle schools. Students have demonstrated nearly an 80 percent successful completion rate with over 6,500 students enrolled," according to the Chicago Public Schools Web site.

Students from all schools in this virtual program include regular education students, those who had dropped out of school for a while, those recovering credits, and alternative learners from different Chicago Public High Schools.

Those students who want to benefit from this program will have to sign a contract along with their parents, agreeing to be responsible for paying back the money if they miss a single class.

The cost is $200 per student so if a student misses one class, that student will have to pay $20, two classes $40 and so on.

The class will consist of general subjects such as math, science and English. Students will also be able to work on work from other classes also.

Going to school and night school and then adding another weekend class is a lot of work, but students who want to partake in this program understand that and are willing to take on that extra workload.

"I really want to graduate with my friends that I’ve been with since my freshman year and so I don’t mind doing the extra work," said Taylor Johnson, a senior at King College Prep. "I messed up in the beginning so it’s my responsibility to make up for it."

Chicago Public High Schools Getting More Private School Applicants

By Samantha Battle


Many of the public college preparatory high schools in Chicago get thousands of applicants every

year. This year, many of those applicants are coming from private schools because it is getting

expensive for parents that have their kids in private schools.


Many graduating eight-graders and some seventh-graders from private schools are deciding

whether to go to a public school or stay in the private school system, a choice that can be very

difficult because it makes people choose between financial stability and a top-notch education.


"A lot of my friends and I want to go to public high schools after we graduate," said Stacie Webb, a

seventh-grader at St. Columbanus Elementary School, a private Catholic school in the Park Manor

neighborhood. "We are all trying to get into the same high school but half of all our choices are

college preparatory high schools."


According to CPS records, the number of eighth-graders trying to get one of the 3,000 slots in

public college prep high schools has risen 10 percent this spring to 12,857.


During a recession, it could be understandable that parents may not have enough money to

continue to pay for private schools. Some students even want to make it easier on their parents by

suggesting they go to public school when they have spent their whole educational experience in

private school.


“Seeing that my parents have been paying for going on nine years of Catholic schooling I want

them to have a break and my mom loves the fact that I want to go to a public high school,” Webb

said. “She actually wants me to go to a public high school rather than a catholic high school

because she wants me to experience something different rather than what I’m use to. She is

trying to do everything she can to get me into a good public high school.”


According to the Archdiocese of Chicago, average tuition for a Catholic elementary school is

$2,476 and a Catholic high school is $4,500. Fees for public school round out to about $250 for the

whole school year according to the CPS Web site.


King College Preparatory High School in the Bronzeville neighborhood had about 31,000

applicants for the upcoming school year and about 8 percent of those applicants were from private

school, according to Jeffrey Wright, the principal at King. About 10 percent of the students that

were admitted into King for the upcoming school year is from private schools.


"Our goal is to get some of the best students in the city of Chicago to come to King," said Kevin

Tate, the assistant principal at King College Preparatory High School.


"The system is open to anyone who lives in Chicago. Their parents pay taxes for the public schools

regardless of where they choose to send their children for their elementary education," Wright said.

"As long as everyone is given equal access and applies through the same process, with the same

standards, it seems only fair that both public and private school students are given access to the

selective enrollment schools."


The amount of private school applicants is about the same as the public school applicants

according Wright.


Private schools do offer different scholarships to help parents who can’t afford to pay the full tuition

but for some parents, that isn’t enough.


"I would like for my child to stay in the private school system but the money just isn’t there right

now," said Yolanda Ferguson, a stay-at-home mother who has a daughter at Providence St. Mel.

"Even with the scholarships they offer, it’s still hard and you have to qualify for those scholarships."


For now, Ferguson is going to keep her daughter in her current school until she can get into a good

public high school. She is currently applying to some public college prep high schools for the

upcoming school year.


There are difficult potential consequences that some parent’s face when trying to find a public

school for their kids to go to, such as credits not transferring. Also, college preps want students with

high test scores and then there is the possibility of having to choose a less academically rigorous

school and also a school that is not in a safe neighborhood if the student is not accepted into the

college prep school of choice.


Private school curriculum is different from the public school curriculum so if their child is

transferring, there may be a problem in transferring credits because of the difference in curriculum.


"In the catholic school system, we teach religion and it is a part of the curriculum along with

vocabulary, which may not be a part of the curriculum in public schools," said Michele Moore, a

seventh grade Spanish teacher at St. Columbanus. "Students here at our school need to have

taken these classes in order to graduate whereas at a public school, these credit wouldn’t even

count. This goes for the curriculum in private high schools also. My son attended Hales Franciscan

High School for a year and they were required to take religion and vocabulary also."


In order to get into the good college prep high schools that most parents prefer, you have to score

high on the admissions test. Students also have to have the acceptable test scores that the college

preps are looking for in order to qualify to take the entrance exam.

From School Counselor to Assistant Principal

By Samantha Battle


Kevin Tate, 35, went from being a school counselor

working closely with the students and being known

as a “cool person,” according to some of the

students at King College Preparatory High School,

to the assistant principal and having to show

authority with the students.



When Tate became assistant principal, he kept some of his duties that he did as a counselor and

added new tasks. Tate is still in charge of admissions along with the new responsibilities of

walking the halls and getting the students to class on time and working with Principal Jeffrey Wright

on school events such as pep rallies and school barbecue’s. The only thing he doesn’t still do now

is counsel the students one-on-one as he did as a counselor.


Even though his position involves a lot more tasks and having to be more involved with the school,

Tate feels this transition has been going smoothly since he had worked at King for five years as a

school counselor.


Instead of dressing in his normal dress shirt, tie and slacks that everyone is used to seeing him in,

he opted for blue-jeans, a black King sweat shirt and gym shoes on a day during spring break,

taking time from hosting a detention day for students to do an interview.


Tate has just finished the classes for certification in being an assistant principal this past summer.

He then decided to apply to the newly open assistant principal position at King in late March. The

former assistant principal had taken a new job as principal at another Chicago public school

leaving the seat for assistant principal open.


Although Tate was already working at King as a school counselor, he still had to go through the full

process of applying and being interviewed for the position.


“This process sort of happened all of a sudden,” Tate said. “I was definitely interested and I went

through the interview process just like anyone else would have. I had an interview with the teachers,

the principal and even some students and it just kind of worked out.”


Tate has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and taught middle school kids for five years.

After teaching, he realized that he wanted to be more involved with the students so he went back to

school to become a certified counselor.


“I thought that the school counseling track would give me a lot more insight and sort of why students

are doing what they are doing,” Tate said.


After working as a counselor for five years, he decided to go back to school again because he

wanted a position as a leader of a school. So he went and got his second master’s in educational

leadership at Loyola University in Chicago and that’s how he is where is now.


“I think I have been in a school long enough where I know how to sort of mold and shape a school

so that it is successful,” Tate said. “My whole educational career has been pertaining to students.”


Tate wants King to be able to rank among the top college preparatory schools in the city and have

students with high test scores such as Jones College Preparatory High School, Walter Payton

College Preparatory High School and Whitney Young College Preparatory High School.


With assistant principal now as his job title, Tate has had to transition himself from working in an

office for the most part to communicating on a different level with the students than before when he

was a counselor and being an authority figure.


“At first, I used to just be in my office working with students, but now I have to walk the halls, tell the

students to get to class, checking them on their language, tell them to take their hats off and

greeting them at the door,” Tate said.


Tate thinks that because the students respected him as a counselor they will continue to do so as

an authority figure now.


The students have noticed this change in demeanor, and some support it.


“I like that Mr. Tate is the new assistant principal,” said Eric Moore, a senior at King. “He was very

nice as a counselor and I think he would be great at being assistant principal because he knows

how to communicate with the students on a level that gets the student to respect him. He doesn’t

treat us like little kids in elementary school. Instead he treats us like adults.”


Tate has also recognized that the students have perceived his new position.


“I think that they are very supportive and they have acknowledged that I’m someone who they have

known and has become a new leader now,” Tate said.


“The feedback has been good so far and some have said ‘Hey Mr. Tate, is there anything we can

do to help,’” Tate said laughing.


Not only has Tate had to adjust with working with the students on a different level but also with the

principal. As a counselor, Tate didn’t work as closely with Wright as he does now, although Wright

did come to Tate when he was adjusting to the school when he came about three years ago.


“Working with Mr. Wright has been an easy transition for me because we work so well together,”

Tate said. “I was the person he had to sort of lean on in his transition here because of my role of

recruiting for the school and admitting students and that is a very important role for a principal to

have a good relationship with that person because we have to sit down and go through and say

which student would be right for King.”


Wright said, “Mr. Tate is very good at what he does and he has been very instrumental in the

development of the fine college preparatory culture that has cultivated here in the last five years.


Parents and teachers have also given their feedback on Tate’s new role.


“I think Mr. Tate is a very good choice for this position because he knows the students so well

already and he knows King and how it works and the schools goals,” said Arthur Hart, a parent of a

student at King.


“I’ve worked with Mr. Tate for a while now with him being a colleague of mine and I don’t think they

could have chosen anyone better than him,” said Benjamin Washington, the band teacher at King.

“He knows this school and its goals of making King one of the top college preparatory schools in

Chicago. He even supports our school marching band by helping carry the school sign in parades

we march in and he inspires us to be the best Chicago public high school band there is,”

Washington said.


Kevin Tate hopes to become a principal of a school some day. What he has done thus far is just

preparing and leading him to that future goal.


“They say when an opportunity knocks you've got to be ready to bust through the door,” Tate said.

“So I’m just trying to learn as much as I can and get that hands-on experience so that when that

opportunity does come I will be ready.”

A Play Written, Directed and Produced by Students

By Samantha Battle



A teenage girl stood in front of a makeshift mirror and captivated the audience as she

practiced what she was going to say to her father who had been absent for nearly her whole life

and just now wanted to show up and play the father role.




The scene was part of a play called “The Secret Life of Teenagers” that King College Preparatory

High School drama students performed Thursday. In the play they talked about topics

like friendships lost, sex, drugs, body image, broken families, school and fatherless homes. All

the skits in the play were taken from an experience that these students personally went

through.




In the scene with the girl practicing what she was going to say to her father, she explained how

she has been doing just fine without him in her life and how she really doesn't consider him a

father but more as a sperm donor.



Another skit in the play was about anorexia. A skinny, light-skinned black girl stood in front of

an imaginary mirror and on the other side was a heavier dark-skinned girl acting as her

conscience. The girl’s conscience said things that girls who are dealing with anorexia feel, such as

"Why don’t you look like the models in the magazines?" and "Look at how big your thigh’s are!"

Then the real girl faints because she has starved herself and ends up in the hospital. In the end,

her friends show up and tell her that nothing is wrong with her body and she looks fine just the

way she is.



At the end of each skit, there was a challenge that each character faced. The purpose of the skits

were to show and inform others how to deal with these situations and what to do when you see

or know someone who might be going through some of these things.



The idea for the play came from drama classes when students were asked to sit in

a circle and talk about things that happened in their life whether it was good or bad.



“Our teacher was surprised to hear some of our stories because he didn’t think that

we would actually open up as much as we did,” said Christian Dills, a drama

student at King.



The drama teacher, James Zvanut, then decided to have a play about their stories.



"The play is marked by honesty and courage and the students’ participation in this

play is revealing, emotional and occasionally spellbinding," Zvanut said.



The play was put together in five months. The students performed these skits as

improvisations at first and over time, they turned them into scripts and memorized

and rehearsed them.



The students wanted to inform their peers and the parents about what they actually

go through in their life, so they made the decision to showcase these

real-life situations.



"I believe that it is important that parents see this so that they could find out how

their children really feel and some of the things that teenagers go through," Dills

said. "People need to be aware of certain things that teens are faced with so that it

can be prevented."



The play was written and produced entirely by the students. They wanted the play

to be as real as possible and so did the teacher.



"Mr. Zvanut didn’t really have much to say because he felt that everything should

be addressed," Dills said. "He just wanted us to hold out on using profanity."



The play also touched and informed the viewers. As the play was going on, the

audience stayed engaged the whole time.



“I couldn’t take my eyes off of the play," said Taylor Ward, 15, a relative of one of the

actors. "It was very helpful because I personally know some people

who go through some of these things at my school. I didn’t know how to approach

the situation at hand without hurting my friends' feelings and this helped me be able

to help others and myself also if I’m faced with some of these issues".

Hyde Park Neighborhood the Same After Obama Becomes President

By Samantha Battle and Kevin Hillemeyer