At the June 22 meeting, the HPKCAC voted unanimously in support of the following statement regarding the CPS decision to keep the Special Ed Pre-K program at Bret Harte Elementary School oepn:
June 22, 2016
One priority of
the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Action Council is Early Childhood Education.
Our 3-point plan states: “We know that early childhood education (ECE)
is foundational to our children's development, and we want our ECE options to
both grow in number and in impact. The elementary schools in our
area should have preschools that offer child-centered programming geared toward
the well-being of the whole child and not just their academic selves.” The Bret Harte early childhood instructional classroom
(Special Ed Pre-K) is such a program because it meets the special needs of
children in our community. This high quality program meets
an important need in our community specifically and on the south side more
generally. In addition, this high quality program is a very important
part of the entire community at Bret Harte Elementary
School. This is a program which works. We are pleased that “CPS determined that a need exists for the early
childhood instructional classroom at Harte.” (Michael Passman, CPS spokesman,
June 21, 2016), and reversed a previous decision to close the program. The HPKCAC will work with Bret Harte and CPS to spread the
word about this high-quality program. With our focus on quality early childhood
education we are pleased that CPS will continue to offer this important
component of early childhood education at Bret Harte.
HPK CAC 3-point plan
