Yo’s always thought that a public school is a good measure of a community’s development. We’ve noticed that enrollment and performance levels at South Loop Elementary have risen over the last few years as more families decided to move into the growing neighborhood. After all, there are only so many private and magnet schools to choose from. We’ve seen enrollment drop at Gale Elementary Community Academy in Rogers Park, which the principal puts down to the fact that lower-income families are being priced out of the neighborhood and replaced by DINKs with dogs.
Craig Benes, the principal of Talcott Elementary tells Yo that public schools in West Town are losing 50 to 80 kids a year as lower-income rental properties are torn down and replaced by detached housing.
He explains it thus: “A six-flat might be replaced with two single-family homes. The parents don’t even have children of school age yet and they just have dogs. We could easily lose 20 kids.”
Talcott’s population is down from 1,000 eight or nine years ago, Benes says, but it’s one of the few West Town public schools whose numbers are growing. Two years ago its student population was about 490. Come September, 600 children will be enrolled, Benes says. Why the turnaround? Benes believes it’s partially because Talcott became the city’s first “musem academy” two years ago. Exhibits and shows at The Art Institute of Chicago, the Mexican Fine Arts Museum, the Field Museum and the Chicago Children’s Museum have become an integral part of the school’s curriculum. Yo wants to hear from homebuyers about what role local schools play in their decision.