The controversy over a new military academy at Nicholas Senn High School has faded among the student body, according to the principal, but the challenges and opportunities created by gentification in the surrounding Edgewater neighborhood continue to grow.
Diverse Senn, which sits on a stately expanse of lawn at 5900 N Glenwood Ave, is changing, says Principal Richard Norman – and not just because of the flap surrounding a recent decision by the Chicago School Board to move the Rickover Naval Academy into the west wing of the building. The ensuing battle pitted schools chief Arne Duncan and local officials against a coalition of community members, students and some faculty, who objected to partitioning the school to create a military enclave.
More than two years later, there’s still local opposition to Rickover. But Norman maintains that within school walls there’s a truce. “We seem to be coexisting quite well,” he says, noting that the naval students mostly stay in the school’s west wing. When Senn and Rickover students do share common areas, they tend to “self-segregate,” he says (i.e., in the cafeteria, Rickover kids sit together, and Senn students keep to themselves, too). Norman chalks this up to the fact that the two groups attend different classes and for the most part come from different neighborhoods. Senn kids are local, and Rickover pulls its students from all over the city, with only a handful from Senn’s attendance area, he says.
A bigger issue for Norman these days is gentrification, which he’s witnessing firsthand as an Edgewater resident. For the students, he says, it’s a “double-edged sword.” The growth of new businesses and organizations gives them better access to internships and cultural experiences (for example, a French class has taken field trips to French restaurants). But the influx of affluent homeowners also presents challenges. These new residents are less likely to have big families, and they’re more likely to send their children to private or specialized schools. Norman says this has contributed to declining enrollment. There are currently 1,500 students at Senn, compared to 2,000 five years ago.
Less quantifiable changes are afoot, too, in Norman’s view. Senn reflects the neighborhood’s identity as a melting pot of immigrants, with students from 70 countries who speak 30 languages (the school has sizeable programs catering to non-English speakers). Moreover, the vast majority of students come from low-income families – 94 percent get free or reduced price lunches. Edgewater’s newer and wealthier residents are “less comfortable” with students from this socioeconomic bracket, he says, although he declined to mention any specific complaints.
Norman did tout several programs Senn has undertaken to improve its relations with Edgewater residents, including sending students to clean up area parks. And he hopes the outreach will work both ways. “I encourage the community to become involved in the school,” he says.