One proposed bid for the former Shedd Elementary School - a community center

 I didn't update with regards to what's going on with Shedd School after that meeting that took place - which was a CPS meeting - with regards to what the plans are for that closed school. There are people who are coming up with plans for that school.

Recently I was alerted to an article from the Chicago Tribune which talks about one potential bid for the former Shedd Elementary School - branch of Bennett School.

I like how this article describes the building:

The low-slung building shows few signs of life: Ivy branches snake up the exterior walls, weaving through cracked brick and boarded-up windows. Its marquee sign reads like an epitaph, with faded block letters: “John G. Shedd Elementary School. A great place to learn!”

Would be nice if it could be again.

I snapped this shot in about 2009

Community meeting: Former Shedd Elementary School - TONIGHT

Cross-posted from Ninth Ward Chicago

Just saw this today via Concerned Citizens of Chatham. How many you already know about this? This meeting is with regards to the shuttered Shedd School property.

This meeting is happening tonight at Harlan Community Academy High School - 9652 S. Michigan between 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM.

 

I shot some 2025 photos of Shedd School recently

We've had a nice few days here in Chicago. Aside from some rain and sometimes snow. And spring is very close which means the frigid temps of winter are mostly behind us now.

I'm glad to get these pics before the tree and vines reactivate for the season and cover everything right back up. Only wish that my lenses were available to take even better pics. Better go look for them before everything blooms.

You're free to click on the pictures for a larger resolution.

Shot from 99th Street

You might be able to see here the front entrance is boarded up.

The board is devoid of any events and no flag on the pole.
We're looking towards Indiana Avenue here.

This is where my time started. The old Kindergarten classroom.

As always you're free to share your memories of this school whatever they may be. That's what this place is set up for although it seems I have a knack for covering other subjects here.

Successful president & CEO of Shedd Aquarium has died

 This really has nothing to do with Shedd School although the Shedd Aquarium both share the same namesake former Marshall Field's CEO John G. Shedd. One of my favorite memories from school was going on a field trip to the Shedd Aquarium. Of course that trip took place before this man Ted Beattie who recently passed away took over the Aquarium for 22 years.

Before arriving at the Shedd Aquarium he worked for the Cincinnati Zoo, also the suburban Brookfield Zoo and in 1994 arrived at the Aquarium. He left his position as President & CEO in 2016.

Here's more from the Tribune:

In 1994, Beattie was hired to be the Shedd’s third president and CEO. During his tenure, the Shedd perennially ranked as Chicago’s No. 1 or No. 2 paid attraction among zoos and museums. Among the projects he oversaw were the $47 million Wild Reef area and a $79 million rehab of the Abbott Oceanarium.

“He was really hardworking, but he got everything by building a consensus — that’s how he would do that,” said former Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner, a former Shedd Aquarium board chair. “That’s how he was able to build the Shedd to its size today.”

Beattie told the Tribune in 2015 that he wanted the Shedd “to be the friendliest place in town. Out of that statement we would manage our programs.”

Beattie played a role in the transformation of the museum campus that contains the Shedd, the Adler Planetarium and the Field Museum of Natural History, and he also focused on developing talent at the aquarium.

Retired Lincoln Park Zoo CEO Kevin Bell, a longtime friend, recalled Beattie’s laserlike focus on developing leaders.

“The thing Ted was most proud of in terms of his accomplishments was his work with leadership,” Bell said. “Talk to most people around our industry, and those are the words that are going to come up.”

Fahner noted the numerous leaders of zoos and aquariums across the U.S. who once had worked for Beattie. “He’s got like 11 or 12 people (who worked for him) who are just kind of a diaspora all around the country,” Fahner said. “They were all disciples of Ted’s.”

Well I wonder how they're doing these days.

Come to think of it, time to pay that place another visit and share it on the YouTube channel. 

h/t CapFax

The Catoosa Tornado and a classmate's connection

I went to school with the classmate in question from this Tulsa World piece. My 7th grade teacher at the time Mr. Albrecht was dressed up more than usual one morning to tell us the bad news. A classmate Erinn Haynes was in Oklahoma and her family was caught up in a tornado. Erinn survived, however, her parents and younger sister perished in the Catoosa Tornado.

Erinn didn't return to school for the rest of that year although she did return to graduate from the 8th grade. She did come back to see everybody before the end of that year, and she was at that time a long way from recovery.

The article published in 2018 showed that she's still suffering some effects mentally and physically. She survived and I know that she has a strong faith that helped her survive this. Having read this article I have a better idea of what happened with her on that fateful day 28 years ago as of April 22nd.

I'm tempted to ask about a tree that was planted for her late sister Paige. Shedd School has been closed since 2013 and have little clue about the fate of that tree that was planted in her honor or even the location of it. I might have a funeral program in my possession and I was not in attendance for that funeral. The program was probably copied and handed to us - her classmates - at that time.

I can't say I really understood the gravity of Erinn's situation at the time, however, what wasn't lost upon me was this was a very sad thing to find out about a classmate. When we found out it was just after spring break at the time.

I hope you read some of Erinn's story and the memories of others who lived through that storm on that day at Tulsa World.

Shedd School still serves its purpose

I remember many days spend in Shedd's cramped library. The books I remember checking out of the library under a man named Mr. Hackenbrock were mainly sports books - usually old books with black & white photographs underlying the sports of basketball, baseball, hockey or even boxing also a book showing how to draw animals. 

During our library period we also played computer games on IBM computers carted out into our gym/library. These were some fun interesting days.

What if I told on Shedd's lot there is a box full of books where you're allowed to leave a book and you can take a book. These types of book boxes exist throughout the city and its located on the playset on 99th Street. So adults and youth alike can come up to Shedd at anytime to entertain themselves or otherwise educate themselves outside of a classroom.

I snapped a few shots when dropping off books there. 

Oh yeah! I got sidetracked for a second

I hope you didn't forget that I spoke with my former principal at Bennett-Shedd School, Mr. John McCormick back in late February. I wrote one quick post about the possibility that back during the 1980s Shedd School itself would've been closed long before it happened by 2013.

It was a great chat about the start of his career with the Chicago Public School starting off as a substitute in 1971 and then eventually spending 10 years as a special education teacher until he was ready to advance his career as a school principal. He started at Bennett-Shedd in 1984 and left that role in 1995 to become an elementary school principal for a suburban school district.

What I enjoyed about the conversation was he definitely put together a vision of what he hoped to accomplish at Bennett-Shedd. He noted that both schools had been under a series of interim principals until he took on the role. He makes sure to note that when he left in 1995 he was confident in the team he put in place would continue the successes he had as principal. In 1995 he was succeeded by the late Mrs. Barbara Ellis.

Finally I wrote a few times earlier this year about the computer lab at Bennett School on the third floor. It was a place where my class from maybe about 4th or 5th grade and up spent at least an hour of time to do class based work on IBM computers. Mr. McCormick noted that they received a grant from IBM to put computers in our school and presumably they weren't IBM/PC clones they were IBM PCs. It's amazing to note that IBM is no longer in the PC business, though they were certainly one of the dominant players in the computer game for its time.

Regarding that computer lab, I opined that it could've been where I could have written and even preserved a copy of my autobiography that was necessary to graduate from the 8th grade. Even in the early to mid 1990s many people didn't have a computer at home. And for assignments like the autobiography many of my fellow students had to complete them by hand.

Either way I'm getting to work on the actual post starting as soon as I post this. This project I wanted got held up by current events in the world. Here's hoping Mr. McCormick is making out OK with the current pandemic. Hopefully all of you are as well.

Stay safe! Be well! 

Your Daily Dose of Internet

[VIDEO] Aside from the introduction to this video which is of the various noises of the very good looking walrus at about 1:20 mins into this video we are treated to clips of penguins running around the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

In light of this coronavirus the Shedd Aquarium (another namesake of former Marshall Field's & Co. president in addition to John G. Shedd Public School) is closed through April 20, 2020 according to their website. So it's in the news that the penguins were released into the public areas of the aquarium now devoid of people to check out the various exhibits.

The penguins running loose even made the news and not just locally if you can believe that. The clips you saw in that "Daily Dose of Internet" was seen on a recent edition of CBS' This Morning .

What if Shedd School had closed 30 years earlier?

During the past week I spoke with Mr. John McCormick. He was the former principal of this blog''s namesake school in addition to its sister at Bennett School. It was an interesting chat not only about the status of Shedd, his career and how he started in the education field, also his time as Bennett-Shedd's principal from 1984 to 1995.

Shedd was a school he said could run itself with a student population of at least 180 students. It was certainly different from Bennett School which had a student population of 600 and for an administrator who was in charge of two buildings or campuses the larger school would draw you in. The challenges of running two schools essentially even if philosophically they were really one school was mainly communication. Especially on those times when you might be at one school say Bennett, but there are situations where you had to drop everything and go to Shedd to address a situation.

With this being said we'll share more of what was shared between Mr. McCormick and myself during our conversation. I did want to share with you something that really rocked my world and could only cause me to wonder how different my childhood would've been if it happened.

Shedd School has been closed since 2013. What if Shedd had been closed in the late 1980s? According to Mr. McCormick the possibility was there. The reasoning wasn't much different that the decision to close 50 schools back in 2013. Perhaps concerns over underutilization and certainly concerns over demographics. One solution that helped keep Shedd open was to expand the attendance boundaries. Although any students from outside of the middle class neighborhood of Roseland Heights didn't always transfer to Bennett School at least the infusion of students outside of the neighborhood allowed the Shedd branch to remain open.

We both agree that hopefully the former Shedd School building will find a use within the neighborhood at some point in the future. When I heard things I've heard that Chicago State University was interested, and a private school was also interested. So far not a whole lot of movement on the building though if I learn of anything new I will share that with you all.

Unfortunately if one attends a meeting of Ward 9 Alderman Anthony Beale you might hear a member of the community call for Shedd's reopening. Unfortunately it's probably not likely usually the current answer is that the demographics doesn't justify Shedd's reopening. Once a decision is made to close a school it will be exceedingly difficult to get it reopened. Right now a small neighborhood school remains closed for the foreseeable future as the property waits for a new use.

Hopefully in the near future, I will share more about my conversation with former Bennett-Shedd Principal McCormick.

Updates

To continue writing this blog my goal is to hopefully inform or entertain you all. It's probably why I do share some things that I hope you all would be entertained by. Also to share things that hopefully inform you of the issues of the day. Some of you may be parents and my goal is to keep that in mind.

With this said my former elementary school principal dropped by a few months and I had considered this encouragement to keep this blog going. It's become important for me to find ways to draw people to this blog and if you want a blog to grow that will always become a difficult task.

Over the years as something of a public service I used to have an EveryBlock widget on this blog to share any crime reports or any media reports for your convenience. Usually this is for the general area around both Bennett & Shedd schools. Of course EveryBlock no longer exists and thus no widget of benefit to anyone.

I used to have a weather widget from Accuweather (although there is still one at the top of the blog that only shows current conditions). One widget that Accuweather once provided was not only current conditions, a forecast and a radar as well. I'm working on finding a weather widget to attach to this blog to help inform you of the local weather here in Chicago.

Also it's probably time to revamp the about page. Not entirely sure what to put on there, although what you see in this blog could serve as a basis. Also bear in mind I'm looking into creating a domain for this space in the near future which is in keeping of this blog's identity.

Also I'm working on a fb page that hopefully will allow anyone who follows this blog to keep track of updates. That continues to be a work in progress.

I'm planning to make some changes here, hopefully good changes...

Also feel free to let me know what you'd like to see on here as far as posts or even just everyday things that you think would be of great value if you do check this blog. The comments here are always open. 🙆

Former CPS school to be adapted into a community center

I posted a quick blurb at The Sixth Ward about a community center to be located in a former CPS school named for an illustrious late president of the prestigious Morehouse College. It's a shame that the school had been closed since 2013, but it's great that it had found a reuse as a community center in Englewood.

As so far there have been no further updates that I know of with regards to the now closed Shedd School, I've always maintained this as one idea to reuse that property. Of course, it has to be reused with the right team to execute their plan. Here's hoping there are some updates as far as what's next for the former "John G. Shedd Public School".

Time for an updated pic of Shedd School

Update

I can't believe this blog has been in publication for over a decade. When I started this place it can't be said there was a solid sustainable plan. I've always done what I've been known to do, just start posting and see what direction it goes.

Sometimes the direction can change on a dime. Perhaps talk about Bennett-Shedd (I started this blog because Shedd School where I started my schooling wasn't listed at CPS although Shedd is closed now), perhaps some local politics, perhaps even some education issues. Even wanted to turn this place into a "Ninth Ward blog" and now I'm not so sure about that.

Either way another update to mention to you all is regarding the domain. I feel referring to this blog as the Shedd School blog or John G. Shedd Public School blog is outdated. I've had some ideas on a domain name which have been executed over the years.

For example I wanted to use ninthward.us until I allowed that domain to expire. Here are a few ideas for domains

sheddschoolbadger.com
bennettsheddbager.com
sheddbadgercity.com
bennettsheddbadgercity.com
badgercityninthward.com

You might see a pattern here, I really would like to use badger as part of the domain name. Badger was during my time in school the original mascot of Bennett-Shedd Elementary School. I understand that now Bennett's mascot is a lion and if Bennett School had any sports teams they would be refered to as P.R.I.D.E (or you can also say pride of lions). I can't believe that I'm just old enough to refer to myself as old school. So to use badger as part of this blog's identity is an homage to Bennett's original mascot.

I've learned recently that a former principal and Bennett-Shedd noted that this blog got his attention with the Shedd School identity. So as of now I have some decisions to make as far as this blog's direction and identity. If this blog gets an audience based upon association (and as always I hope to gain a bigger audience beyond that), hopefully it just shows that I'm on the right track. Time will tell!

Shedd School blog 10 years

Hello my name is Levois in addition to creating this blog I also created The Sixth Ward.

Ten years ago I created this blog in a dorm room at Morehouse College and to be fair I lacked a real plan for this place on the internet. All I remember is that my goal was to just have a place for Shedd School and keep the history of my former elementary school alive. Shedd was where my academic life started.

To be fair (and with apologies to any young people) I just have to admit that often I hated school. It was something I had to do whether or not it was the expectation of my parents or the law. Either way I as a young person would have always fantasized about what the rest of the world was doing while I was sitting in a classroom at a neighborhood school. I couldn't wait to get out of school for the summer though a few times I instead had to do summer school.

So just as many young people do now, I had my ups and downs with school. Perhaps I wasn't getting along well with classmates (i.e. was getting picked on), wasn't getting along well with teachers, parents were upset because of bad grades etc. On the other hand you made many friends a lot of whom were lifelong (and in my case I connect with a lot of them online with social networking), perhaps you still connect with your favorite teachers who are now retired, also you can always reflect on the subjects you loved to learn way back when.

So either way this school which was my first experience with education so many years ago deserves to have something of a legacy. Like I said I had no solid plans for this blog other than taking pics of Bennett or Shedd School or talking about education policy or even now as more of a neighborhood blog. Just bear in mind there were periods of time I even lacked motivation in updating this blog.

So who knows if the emphasis on this blog will change again. What I do hope is that if anyone has any Shedd School history to share feel free to e-mail me. I must also admit that due to the declining enrollment rates in CPS, Shedd has closed their doors and is a building without a use at the moment. Still this was the one place that despite the ups and downs I do have fond memories of.

Shedd School represents my childhood which was by no means perfect. Though I recognize now that the times we had as children speaking for myself it was taken for granted. I'm sure many of us took our childhoods for granted also. However, many of us have grown up have lived our lives and still many of us have children and providing hopefully allowing them their childhoods that they will also take for granted.

So here's to celebrating this blog's 10th anniversary. Perhaps I have motivation for another 10 years at this blog. Time will tell, so I will enjoy this while it lasts.

South Side Weekly: Repurposing Shedd School #Ward09

Shedd School on Christmas Day 2017

Sorry to have missed out on this article from last year, it's still a contentious issue after almost five years. What to do with the former Shedd School. Well there were some proposals that were rejected:

The Rescue Missionary Christian School then presented their information to the district and 9th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale, along with another bidder (“We never got a name. All we knew was that it was a [housing] developer,” Tucker said). Both bids were rejected. “The highest bidder did not get community approval so my thought was, ‘Shouldn’t it go to the second highest bidder since you only had two?’ But no, he rejected both bids and put it back up for sale. At least that’s the story we got,” said Tucker.

In fact, because Shedd was not officially considered one of the schools closed in 2013, there was no district requirement for community input or public meetings at the time (now, that requirement has been lifted for many schools closed in 2013 as well).

According to Beale, the bid by the Rescue Missionary Christian School was denied because he felt they did not have “the resources to accomplish what the community is looking to have done,” he said. “If the building needs redoing, they really don’t have the capital to rehab the building, keep up with the maintenance of the building, keep up with the landscaping, all those types of things.”

According to a Freedom of Information Act request, Shedd Elementary accumulated approximately $5,430 in gas and electricity costs from July 2015 to June 2016, which has residents wondering why taxpayers are still paying to keep the lights on in a closed building.

Beale explained that some buildings are secured by alarm systems. “You don’t want a school just sitting there open. You might want to make sure the heat stays at a certain temperature so the pipes don’t freeze. There’s a lot of things going on, just because a building is vacant doesn’t mean that there’s no activity in the building. There’s still a light amount of maintenance being done,” he said.

The building is still in good condition and has yet to become an eyesore in the neighborhood. But residents still want to see the building repurposed.

Too bad they didn't send a photographer to this property. When the weather warms up and the leaves on trees grow ago there are vines growing on what used to the the kindergarten class room. That's an eyesore enough although yes, the building itself may well still remain in good condition. Here's hoping a satisfactory plan will be created for the former Shedd School.

Snapped some shots on IG

Walked around the neighborhood on Christmas day snapping shots of the closed Wendy's & Walgreens in addition to the closed Shedd School. Honestly if only there were more positive pics and not just of closed buildings. Hopefully in future - especially when the weather warms up - I can take far more interesting pics around the neighborhood.

A post shared by The Sixth Ward (@thesixthward) on Dec 26, 2017 at 8:50am PST

Shedd School as seen in December

Shedd School as seen in December 2016

The issue of Shedd School came up at the last of this year's community meetings with Ald. Anthony Beale in October. There is interest in re-opening Shedd as a school and Beale's response was to a written question posed by a resident in attendance.

Unfortunately it was noted at the meeting that Shedd was closed because of declining enrollment. While the question noted an increase in children in the community Beale suggested that it still isn't enough to justify reopening that former school. If it were to ever re-open there may have to be consideration of bringing in students from outside of the neighborhood.

In the meanwhile the school remains for sale as there are signs on the building as I saw from this past summer, pictures were shown on our ig account. Beale pledged to let the community know of any bidders on the property.

A photo posted by The Sixth Ward (@thesixthward) on Sep 2, 2016 at 5:57pm PDT

Rebrand?

The Badger

I'm going to justify this for a moment. For the years that I attended Bennett-Shedd we were known as badgers. In recent years I learned that the mascot has been changed to the PRIDE. Regardless as someone who attended grade school in a different era I will always consider myself a badger.

To be sure it took me years to appreciate being a badger until the realization that changes were made. It was something that was taken for granted and then I did the one most students should do graduate and move on.

Years ago this blog was started in a dorm room at Morehouse because the school where I started my education career - Shedd School - was no longer listed independently even if it was a branch school of a larger elementary school. It's really hard to say what the point of this blog was supposed to be although that has recently changed in recent years.

I've experimented with re-branding this blog over the years. The header on occasion may only have John G. Shedd, Shedd School, or even Public School in the header. As a subtitle recently you have seen "A 'ninth ward' blog".

Here are my thoughts.

What if I purchased a domain similar to sixthward.us and use ninthward.us. Perhaps I could also do sheddschool.com or sheddschool.us or sheddschool.org - although I do not represent an organization at all. Perhaps I can also do a variation of badgercity or badgertown as a domain name. Perhaps give this blog a badger title and in one main respect dispense with the Shedd School branding.

Took these shots of the Shedd School property

On my walk to Pullman a few days ago. It was a wet rainy day as depicted in these photos. The first two pics are of the front one is similar to the shot you see in the blog's header.

200 E. 99th Street

200 E. 99th Street

Here's the backlot a field that I used to play around in during recess and of course before school started the kids would play in this field also. Fun days and sadly no longer common. I'll explain after this pic.

Looking from 98th & Indiana

Shedd School has been closed since about 2013 and the local community organization Roseland Heights Community Association has been concerned about a zoning change for this property. It has been zoned for industrial use and therefore a concern is now seen over this greenspace just a block away from Michigan Avenue.

As a former student there, it's unfortunate that classes are no longer held here. However, my hope is that the greenspace remains for the community. If the building remains then it shall be used for the benefit of the community.

Sidenote - I've been using this accessory on my smartphone called an olliclip. Basically this is something you can slip onto your iPhone, iPad or Android devices and take shots with various lenses to enhance your mobile photography. That's why one of the pics above seem unusual.

Star Trek Beyond trailer

[VIDEO] The main event people are going out to see right now during the holiday season is the new JJ Abrams production Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Then recently a new trailer for next year's Star Trek Beyond comes out and there seems to be mixed opinions on the trailer.

The trend lately has been that these previews seem to give most of the movie away. Not a whole lot given away in this trailer but by some it gives an impression of films such as Guardians of the Galaxy or The Fast and Furious franchise. Either way this is another film to look for next year.

BTW, would you believe 2016 will mark 50 years for the Star Trek franchise. It's been close to 20 years since as a 6th grader at Shedd School I started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and then following all things Trek ever since. I will be looking forward to this film soon.

What's new at the namesake school....

See the ivy growing over the windows at the closed Shedd School. Vegetation growing over the windows to the kindergarten classroom and across the way over the windows to the auditorium. At least the rest of the property appears to be well maintained as the grass is cut.