Prairie Crossing Charter School is an asset to the community

Do you why the prairie is burned every spring and fall all around Lake County? It is to get rid of invasive species and maintain the habitat as prairie. That is important to do, because only one tenth of one percent of tallgrass prairie remains in the United States (http://www.fws.gov/midwest/planning/northerntallgrass/). We have that tallgrass prairie right here, everywhere where you have seen a prescribed burn taking place. Tallgrass prairie is an endangered ecosystem with its own endangered plants and animals. Prairies store carbon, which is now excessive in our atmosphere, and they filter contaminants out of water as it slowly moves back to our aquifers. Yet how many people around here know what a national treasure our surrounding prairie is? We are lucky to have some insightful people that have spearheaded preservation and restoration efforts around Lake County.

Students at Prairie Crossing Charter School (PCCS) are taught all about the prairie. It is all around them as a living laboratory - especially useful because the school makes do without any proper science laboratories of its own. Students are also taught environmental engineering and design from Kindergarten on. My husband and I laughed at our first grader's excitement at seeing dual-flush toilets in a public bathroom, but she knows how important water conservation is. Are you aware of the increasingly concerning water shortage in the western United States and worldwide? Dual-flush toilets are one innovation that can make a difference. Clerestory windows, energy efficient lights, composting…my second grader can tell you all about these things. She told my husband about them at student-led conferences a couple of months ago. The students at PCCS recognize they are the leaders when it comes to reducing our ecological footprint. Our generation, and those of the past, have not done too hot of a job when it comes to taking care of the Earth. Guess where many of the fastest growing careers are predicted to be? Think green (http://ilenviro.org/illinois-clean-jobs-coalition/). We are at a point where we all need to increase our environmental literacy, but PCCS is not in the business of growing environmentalists per se. Every industry, from law to engineering to marketing, has a rapidly increasing need for employees that surround issues of sustainability. I will venture to say there is hardly a company that is not interested in going more green or feeling consumer pressure to do so. Yet how many people around here know what a national treasure PCCS is? And yes, I mean national. National Charter School of the Year (2007), National Green Ribbon Schools Award (2012), National Blue Ribbon Schools Award (2013). There are few schools doing what PCCS does, and there is a national call for more.

This is a school in which the entire community, and the state, should feel proud of. The teachers and staff at this school are innovative, creative, and resourceful. They are creating masterful curricula from scratch that reflect our local environmental assets while encompassing every subject. And yet, Woodland School District wants the school closed over the relatively tiny amount of money the school receives. Already, my property taxes go to Woodland while my children go to PCCS. Woodland lawyers have based their case (about money) on the differences in demographics at Woodland. PCCS holds an annual public lottery that is open to everyone and unbiased. It is true there are differences in demographics and PCCS has been grappling over why that is so. Is it an outreach problem? A perception problem? An issue of cultural differences (perhaps spending significant time outdoors is not an educational value for all?) A point that seemed to sway the judge in his ruling was that PCCS doesn't have an allocated transportation budget to reflect how PCCS could bring low-income students to and from school. Parents bring students and the school because there is no transportation budget. PCCS administration facilitates carpooling by providing new families with information about neighborhood families who might assist. The judge wanted documented information, but the fact is that families at PCCS tend to resolve that on their own. Last year I was contacted by a father of a new student who knew he needed help getting his child home regularly. His wife did not speak enough English to feel comfortable enough to contact parents. They live on the other side of our subdivision but I was more than happy to help out. PCCS administration had provided the father with information about several families and we took it from there. The administration had no need to be involved at that point, and although this is common practice at PCCS, it is not written anywhere. It is a small enough school that it can be handled on a case-by-case basis. PCCS does not provide lunches, (nor have money or room for a cafeteria) another deterrent to low-income families. Yet, if it was needed, I know with 100% certainty that there are many families that would happily pack an extra lunch in the morning. The Parent-Staff Organization (PSO) at the school has a strong presence and knows how to get things done. There are already organized groups in the PSO for providing snacks for the staff lounge, occasional lunches for the staff, and regular-farm to table meals, besides many other non-food related tasks. I also know low-income families have had fees for after school care waived. I agree that a family needing these services would not know all of this upfront and thus may be deterred from applying to the lottery. Is that a reason to close a school? I have not seen one solution suggested anywhere from PCCS critics in this regard.

PCCS has been characterized as a wealthy neighborhood school serving high-achieving kids. The truth is they don't even have a place to put kids who are being screened for kindergarten or for registration. They make do with what they have, shifting people around throughout the day. There is a tiny library solely for environmental books (and I mean tiny). Also, I know just as many families from surrounding areas of Wildwood, Gurnee, and Wauconda as I do from the Prairie Crossing subdivision. There is a higher percentage of students with IEPs (special education services) at PCCS than there is at Woodland. My girls have heard students in their classrooms talk in Hindi, Japanese, German, Russian, and Bulgarian besides being taught Spanish in Kindergarten and every year after. If I felt at all that PCCS was elitist or discriminatory, I would never have my children attend there. In Minnesota taught ESL to newly-arrived Hispanic families in their own homes, tutored Native American students, and worked as a receptionist at a southeast Asian mental health care clinic treating war-weary clients with PTSD. I tell you this to illustrate my abhorrence for insular attitudes. My husband was in the Navy and at every duty station we consciously chose to live within the community rather than in base housing, including Native Hawaiian and Chamorro communities where we were certainly the minorities. When my husband retired from the Navy last summer, it was our chance to accomplish our long-standing plan of moving back to my home state of Minnesota to be near my parents and sister. We had been planning that for over fourteen years, ever since we were dating. Instead, we passed up the benefit of having the Navy move us for free one last time. My husband found new work locally, and I begin teaching at the local community college. We started putting roots down here, entirely based upon our daughters' enrollment in PCCS. I have a younger son who has accompanied me to my girls' classrooms for lunch and recess since he was two (yes, not only are parents encouraged to volunteer, we at times bring younger siblings along!) He is extremely excited to start kindergarten there in the fall; he just showed me the bench he will sit at while he waits for me for me to pick him up after school next school year. If Woodland were able to close down PCCS? Well, I'm not sure what would happen. Perhaps private school, perhaps homeschool, perhaps call the realtor and make that move back to Minnesota after all. Do I want to remain in a state that doesn't even recognize the treasures that it has? I still have faith that it will recognize the treasure that is PCCS.

Respectfully,

Michele McCormick

PCCS parent