Jones College Prep

[HSObsessed]

So the latest on the Reuse Jones website seems to make it sound like they're going to try to expand the number of spots for neighborhood kids upward each year.

We DO know that the new Jones, which will open next fall, will have a special CTW program, focused on Engineering and Law. 25% of the seats will be open to children living in the neighborhood borders of Jones. The goal is to open approximately 25% seats, which translates to 75 out of 300 students - progressing this number every year with every new class.

They have also posted the boundaries of what is considered the Jones "neighborhood" for purposes of giving preference to admitting kids. It's very big, with the lake on the east, 26th St on the south, Ashland on the west and Grand on the north. However, I'm not sure many middle schoolers live within the boundaries right now, except maybe in Chinatown and Pilsen. If a lot of the young families in the South Loop, West Loop, and Fulton Market areas stay a few years, however, there will be.
http://www.jonescollegeprep.org/apps...pREC_ID=386772

[Another Jones Parent]

Ben Joravsky wrote about Jones recently in the Chicago Reader --

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago...nt?oid=8425462

"How Mayor Emanuel could turn Jones high into a neighborhood school—and win my almost undying support"

What do you think?

Here's his conclusion:

I predict that if Fioretti and residents apply enough pressure, the mayor will call a press conference to announce he wants to turn Jones into a neighborhood school because it's really important to keep the middle class in Chicago—like it was his idea all along.

....

If things go really well, maybe CPS will even create a vocational program, like the one at the old Jones Commercial School, which, in my humble opinion, should never have been destroyed in the first place. But hey, it's never too late to try and rectify old mistakes.

[HSObsessed]

What do I think? I think that a new neighborhood HS in the old Jones building would be hard pressed to attract enough kids to fill it. The stated boundaries would be Grand on the north, Ashland on the West, and 35th St on the south. This would mean kids whose current nabe HS is Wells, Phillips, Tilden, Juarez and Crane would now have this school as their "fall back". Most of these same kids are applying to Jones SE, Jones CTE program, Payton, Young, Westinghouse, 6 Noble HSs (including Muchin in the heart of the Loop), and Ogden IB as their first choices. The truth is that there are already enough "fall back" options out there. There's just no way that there will be 200+ kids every single year who would enroll in a new Jones neighborhood HS. Fioretti tweeted about this article that they need a new Jones nabe HS because Phillips is "too far".