Clare for Peirce LSC

"The early days of the pandemic were devastating, but at least, back then, “there was a consistent story—‘These are the dangers of COVID-19. This is what we have to do,’” Joel Cooper, a psychologist at Princeton who has studied pandemic cognitive dissonance, told me. Now, he said, the messages we are getting seem to contradict one another. We’re expected to go to work, but warned not to get COVID because hospitals are nearly at capacity. We’re told it’s safe to send our kids to school, even as we watch school COVID numbers rise each day. We’re told to get vaccinated, but that vaccines won’t prevent us from getting infected. We’re told to wear masks, but that Omicron is so contagious, they might not protect us.

“There’s no consistency anymore,” Cooper said when we spoke last week—a conversation that was interrupted by a text from a close friend telling me that her high-risk daughter had just tested positive for COVID. What we have instead is chaos. As another of my friends, the social worker Carla Naumburg, put it, “Parents are being forced to choose between bad and worse, and we have no idea which option is bad and which is worse.”"

COVID Parenting Has Passed the Point of Absurdity This was always unsustainable. Now it’s simply impossible.

Do you or someone you know in the Peirce community have an interested in serving on the Local School Council as a community representative?

Peirce School currently has one vacancy for the Community Representative position. This is a volunteer position through June 2022.

For those interested, you can access the application materials (linked in comments) or by emailing Lynn Carro at [email protected].

Application Deadline: Due to the main office at 1423 W. Bryn Mawr by 3:00pm on Monday, October 18th.

Candidates will have the option to make a public statement to the council on Thursday, October 21st during the regularly scheduled Local School Council Meeting which begins at 6:00pm.

Learn more about the Elected School Board for Chicago on Tuesday! Register here:

46th Ward Democrats This past summer, the Illinois legislature passed – and Governor Pritzker signed – an historic new law which creates elections for Chicago School Board Members. The transition now begins from a completely appointed school board to one that will be 100% elected. The future of Chicago schools will...

I wanted to share with y'all a statement I read at our most recent LSC meeting last week, in acknowledgement of the week that we are in.

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Acknowledgment of the Anniversary of George Floyd’s Murder and the Uprisings

It feels, sometimes, as if humanity and common decency are being lost in the mix of the tumult of this pandemic year. This is writ large in the social and political unrest in our country and around the world; and, it is certainly felt in the tensions within the Peirce community. Some decry how ‘divisive’ the school climate has become, and question where the humanity has gone.

But I invite us to consider that actually, it is the very assertion of humanity by some groups who have long been denied their full humanity which is happening, and that may appear as division to those who might not have had to acknowledge the wholeness of every person before.

Indeed, humanity, decency, the need for fairness and justice--for all people--comprise the heart of the task before us. The defense of humanity and the quest for decency have been The Task for all of us, whether we know it or not, for as long as we’ve been old enough to understand that the world isn’t fair. And for a lot of us, that realization comes way too young.

But yet others of us have been able to ignore this task longer than many.

The murder of George Floyd, which we sadly commemorate this week, has been a spark in a room full of gas. His terrible death inspired thousands to take to the streets, to act up, to make good trouble in defense of humanity, in defense of the full humanity of everyone. And yes, in particular, first and especially, defense of Black life in all its value, its fullness.

Yet it is not only the man himself, George Floyd, which spurs so many of us to action. The conditions for the uprisings in response to his death were in place long before, cultivated by historical inequity, compounded by a global pandemic which has killed millions and exacerbated poverty and misery for even more. In addition to these ongoing processes, we were all ‘tuned in’ more, not only to the same news as we waited to learn about the novel virus, but also tuned into our own bodily vulnerability, as we sheltered in place and only left the house when absolutely necessary, and always masked up.

So when we watched in slow motion as Derek Chauvin murdered a man for no good reason, we were all set to receive the message that great evil carried: we. Must. Choose. Humanity. We choose to defend life. We choose justice.

And to some watching, the choice to take action seemed extreme. Some were just tuning in for the first time. And that is alright; it is alright to be where you are, to not know everything, to stumble forward with help, into the arms of a longstanding, loving, committed legacy of the defense of human decency. The stumbling among us, at Peirce and beyond, has been just that: awkward, imbalanced, scary, uncertain. But we trust in this school community to lean on each other as we move forward nonetheless, recognizing the full humanity of everyone here and respecting it through our words and actions.

(And if we work very hard, we might even be as good and loving as our children one day.)

Y'all, check out some Peirce students being awesome in this weekly announcement video! 😍😍😍💡💡😎🥰

5.10.21 Peirce Weekly Announcements.mp4

Yesterday the LSC collectively released a statement in response to the shooting in Atlanta on Tuesday. I am very proud to have helped draft it and to stand in solidarity with all families affected by this domestic terrorism. Here it is:
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LSC Statement: Declaration of Solidarity with the Asian Community

The mass shooting on Tuesday in Atlanta where eight lives were lost, six of whom were Asian, highlights a troubling increase in hate crime incidents against Asians in our country.

We imagine that the Asian families in our community must be hyper aware, scared and afraid of being the next target of hate and worst of all, violence.

Though we are unaware of any anti-Asian incidents in the Peirce community, it is important that we center the pain and trauma that is likely gripping Asian families in our community and recommit to ensuring that Peirce does everything we can to be a safe, welcoming, and comfortable space for all people.

The intended effect of this recent attack in Atlanta, as with any racialized attack, is to isolate the affected person and/or community. However we know that what happened in Atlanta is not an isolated incident, but is the extreme end of unchecked, rampant white supremacy culture that dominates American life. The LSC is committed to Peirce’s continued development as an explicitly antiracist, multicultural school. We are holding our Asian families especially close to our hearts in this moment, and we unequivocally stand in solidarity with you as we work together for a peaceful, fair and free world.
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Declaración de Solidaridad con la Comunidad Asiática

El tiroteo masivo del martes en Atlanta en el que se perdieron ocho vidas, seis de las cuales eran asiáticas, pone de manifiesto un preocupante aumento de los incidentes de delitos de odio contra los asiáticos en nuestro país.

Imaginamos que las familias asiáticas de nuestra comunidad estén hiperconscientes, asustadas y temerosas de ser el próximo objetivo del odio y, lo peor, de la violencia.

Aunque no tenemos conocimiento de ningún incidente antiasiático en la comunidad de Peirce, es importante que nos centramos en el dolor y el trauma que probablemente se apodera de las familias asiáticas de nuestra comunidad y nos comprometemos de nuevo a garantizar que Peirce haga todo lo posible para ser un espacio seguro, acogedor y cómodo para todas las personas.

El efecto que se pretende con este reciente ataque en Atlanta, igual que cualquier ataque racializado, es aislar a la persona y/o comunidad afectada. Sin embargo, sabemos que lo ocurrido en Atlanta no es un incidente aislado, sino que es el extremo de la cultura de la supremacía blanca desenfrenada que domina la vida estadounidense. El LSC está comprometido con el desarrollo continuo de Peirce como una escuela explícitamente antirracista y multicultural. Llevamos a nuestras familias asiáticas especialmente cerca de nuestros corazones en este momento, y nos solidarizamos inequívocamente con ustedes mientras trabajamos juntos por un mundo pacífico, justo y libre.

In support of IL Raise Your Hand, they are kicking off TLC week with three teach-ins for CPS families to dig deeper into parent and student demands right now.

Trust - 2/16 at 5pm
Learning - 2/18 at 6pm
Care - 2/19 at 6:30pm

Join on FB Live this week: http://facebook.com/ilraiseyourhand

See you at 10am!

CPS Families, Did you not feel heard tonight at the town hall - or ever? Still looking for that mythical "table" that we're supposed to show up to?

Join IL Raise Your Hand tomorrow 2/11, 10AM, on their FB page for a live press conference and share your comments: https://facebook.com/ilraiseyourhand

At 6pm (Shortly!) the Mayor's Office is holding a town hall for parents to address reopening. Feels like kind of an afterthought, tbh. But we have an important voice! We love our children, and we deserve to advocate for them with CPS. I hope you can join the town hall tonight!

Official livestreams Getting vaccinated will help keep you from getting the COVID-19 illness and may also protect people around you. The vaccine will be offered to all Chicagoans who want it as soon as larger quantities become available. Learn more at Chicago.gov/COVIDVax.

Hello, friends! I hope to see you tonight at our organizational LSC meeting of the new LSC! 6pm tonight!

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From Nicole for Peirce LSC from last Wednesday, for an update on school reopening:

"Last night over 150 people attended Peirce's Special LSC Meeting. The council passed the following statement by a vote of 8 to 1:

"Based on health concerns related to COVID-19, the Local School Council of Helen C. Peirce School of Elementary Studies urges the Chicago Public Schools leadership and Board of Education to reconsider its plan to return to in-person learning in January, and instead work together with Local School Councils, parent and community organizations, and the Chicago Teachers Union to create a plan that is safe, equitable and instills trust for all parties."

A number of current and incoming Peirce LSC members also signed onto the following joint letter to Alderman Osterman with LSC members from all of the schools in our Ward: https://docs.google.com/.../1FS6quWS9qmACv.../edit

There were 20 people who spoke during Public Participation, and here are some of my main takeaways:

- Even though 54% of Peirce parents selected Hybrid learning on the CPS Survey, our most vulnerable students and families did not choose this option. Some families who chose Hybrid indicated that they only did so in order to have options, and to also put pressure on CPS to come up with a good plan, but many are planning to continue remote learning at this time.

- The Peirce community recognizes that our action or inaction makes an impact beyond our school community, and beyond our Ward, and we stand in solidarity with the students, families, teachers, and schools that have less resources than we do.

- Students are learning with the remote model, and there are still countless unanswered questions about the Hybrid model including the integrity of the pods and if the students will change teachers/classmates.

- Our teachers have been denied requests for accommodations, or have simply not heard back from CPS, and are being forced to choose between their jobs and their health and the health of their families.

- Teachers reported dirty classrooms, HEPA filters that are designed for smaller spaces than where they are being used, and dirty vents.

- The mental health of our children is a concern, and we want to hear from CPS on this issue.

- There is concern over the new strand of COVID-19 that is impacting children at higher rates than previously seen.

- We all want our children back in the classroom as soon as it's safe to do so.

- The Peirce community wants us to go even farther than the statement passed, so there might be more to come."

48th Ward LSC Member Statement on CPS's Reopening Plan Honorable Harry Osterman Alderman, 48th Ward of Chicago 5533 North Broadway Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60640 January 5th, 2021 Dear Alderman Osterman, We, the undersigned elected parent, teacher, and community representatives of Local School Councils in the 48th Ward wish to voice our support fo...