This Week in CPS: Take a Free Field Trip on the CSO, Activate Go CPS and Hear Tales from Robeson HS

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To celebrate the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 100th anniversary season, Chicago Public Schools can get free bus service and free tickets to selected concerts. Details here. The lineup of concerts includes opportunities to hear Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” and Benjamin Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.” Most shows are recommended for grades K-5

It’s Not Too Early to Think School Admissions for Next Year

If you’re applying for high school or kindergarten next year–or anywhere in between–it’s time to activate your child’s GoCPS account. If your child is applying to high school, you’ll need an activation code they should have received back in June. If you don’t have a code, call the CPS Office of Access and Enrollment at 773-553-2060.

If you want to get a feel for your child’s chances of admission to various high schools before digging into GoCPS, there’s an app for that, built by Chavez Elementary Principal Barton Dassinger (with help from an app developer). It’s an easy way to see the schools where your child has a good shot at getting in.

If your child is applying to kindergarten or your family is considering a move to a different K-8 school, you don’t need an access code, just your child’s CPS ID number.

Remembering Robeson High

On Saturday September 15, Englewood’s Kusanya Cafe and South Side Weekly will host a community brainstorm reflecting on the legacy of Robeson High School. In February 2018, CPS announced Robeson will be demolished to make way for a new STEM high school in the neighborhood.

Back in June, South Side Weekly launched The Narratives of Robeson High School, an audio documentary and digital archive. Stories from Robeson alumni are still being accepted. To participate, email [email protected].

Shout-Outs

Shout-out and public service announcement: Chance the Rapper and Lyft are teaming up to raise money for Chicago schools. For the month of September, if you round up your payment for Lyft rides as a donation to CPS, Lyft will match it.

Congratulations to Heather Anichini, executive director of the Chicago Public Education Fund, who was recently announced the 2018 winner of Teach for America’s Peter Jennings Award for Civic Leadership. Anichini was honored for renewing the Fund’s commitment to supporting great principals with strong professional development and opportunities to collaborate.

Congrats are also in order to WBEZ’s Linda Lutton, who recently celebrated 10 years with the station as an education reporter. For those who don’t know, Linda had been reporting on schools for some time as a print journalist with the Daily Southtown and, even earlier, for Catalyst Chicago. Her deep track record covering Chicago’s schools is an asset to the city. We wish her the best and look forward to many years of great reporting to come.

Photo by Kael Bloom on Unsplash.

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Maureen Kelleher

Chicago Unheard blog manager Maureen Kelleher also serves as a senior writer and editor at brightbeam, a nonprofit network of education activists demanding a better education and brighter future for every child. Before joining the brightbeam team, she spent a decade as a reporter, blogger and policy analyst. Her work has been published across the education world, from Education Week to the Center for American Progress. A former high school English teacher, she is also the proud mom of a middle-schooler. Find her on Twitter at @KelleherMaureen.
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