The Campus History
On May 13th, 2001 fourteen community residents of Little Village neighborhood staged a nineteen day hunger strike demanding the construction of a new high school. Almost four years later the Little Village Lawndale High School Campus opened its doors to four hundred students in the fall of 2005. The campus is comprised of four autonomous small schools: Multicultural Arts H.S., W
orld Language H.S., Social Justice H.S., and Infinity: Math, Science, and Technology High School. Each school has its own principal and teaching staff. Each school will houses approximately 385 to 400 students from the neighborhoods of North Lawndale and Little Village. Our learning communities are specific to each theme of the school, but some facilities are shared. For example, students share the library, swimming pool, courtyards, auditorium, dance studio, child care center, gyms, health center, long distance learning labs, and the literacy center. Thus, students get the advantage of a tight-knit school environment without sacrificing the advantages of a larger facility. The architectural structure of the campus has won numerous awards, and has been replicated in other parts of the country. Students from every school participate in the same sports and after school activities. All four schools are public, neighborhood schools, open to every student within the boundary area. All teachers and staff are Chicago Teacher’s Union Members. The Campus Small School Design:
When the activists of the hunger strike continued to advocate for control of the school model, they collectively went door to door asking parents to create an ideal situation for their children to learn in. These surveys produced fascinating results. Parents responded that they wanted a safe, small, and academically rigorous place for their children. They wanted the school to value bilingualism and biculturalism: World Language High School. They wanted the school to celebrate art, dance, and music as part of the curriculum: MAS; Multicultural Arts High School. Additionally, parents called on the educators to prepare students for the ever increasing jobs requiring strong math, science, and technological skills: Infinity; Math, Science, and Technology High School. What surprised some educators and activists the most from the surveys was the concept of “keeping the values of peace and equity” that came out of the hunger strike alive. Parents wanted all the children who graduated from the new high school never to forget the physical, spiritual, and communal struggle it took to achieve justice. Out of this desire came the fourth school: The School for Social Justice. This Spring of 2009, each school will graduate its first Senior class. Almost ten years later from the start of community meetings and organizing in 1999, children will join their parents in celebration of both the struggle of the community to achieve this milestone, and their personal academic and social journeys into the adult world.
