A proposed expansion for a private school is getting some push back from Chicago residents worried they’re going to be forced out of their homes.
Some residents rallied against Francis W. Parker School in the city’s Lincoln Park neighborhood Saturday.
Residents made it clear they’re against plans to expand Francis W. Parker School and called out 43rd Ward Alderman Timmy Knudsen for supporting the proposal.
“We have close to 2,000 signatures in opposition to this project while he’s only citing a couple hundred letters of support,” said Stacy Scapino, East Lincoln Park Neighbors.
The school wants to build a new educational building on Belden Avenue. The plan also includes adding field lights, security cameras on Webster, and converting an administrative building on Clark into affordable housing units.
“We’ve honestly been staying up at night sitting in our living room thinking about what we’re going to do and where we would go,” said Dipa Shah, Lincoln Park resident.
Residents said 15 families on Belden could be forced out of the area and their neighborhood schools.
“We feel like we’re being bulldozed by this private school who feels like they can do what they want with impunity,” said Liz Metzger, Lincoln Park resident. “You claim to be a progressive school and have progressive values, but that is not being reflected right now in what you’re doing to our community.”
The private school has been in the community for more than 120 years. The chair of the Parker Board of Trustees told NBC Chicago they’re doing several things to address concerns from residents and reiterate the expansion would not cost taxpayers.
“The reason we’re expanding is because we want to provide more access to a Parker education to children across Chicago particularly students from underserved areas of Chicago,” said Deji Jimoh, Chair of Francis Parker Board of Trustees.
He added families in the expansion building will be given priority access to any vacancies in another residential building owned by the school. He said they’re donating to two schools in Lincoln Park and have conducted studies to look at the impact on traffic and parking.
The alderman’s office said for the past six weeks they’ve gathered feedback from residents and found more than 60% of responding residents support the expansion.
“It’s disheartening to me that there’s so much misinformation and so much push back and that there’s this feel of you know it’s the community versus Parker, but it’s not we are of this community,” he said.
The expansion still needs to be approved by the city.
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