For almost three years students in several overcrowded Rogers Park public grade schools have been relegated to makeshift classrooms in cafeterias, auditoriums, and washrooms, while their parents have pleaded unsuccessfully with Board of Education officials for relief. New construction requires money. And board officials, wary of opposition to tax hikes even for noble causes, dillydallied on the issue, often refusing to meet with parents or even return their phone calls.
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“The garden gives us a little peace, a little break from the concrete and brick of the city,” says Irene Trion, a Rogers Park resident and leader of the garden group. “It’s not that we’re antischool. We just think there have to be other ways of solving the overcrowding problem without destroying one of the few parcels of green we have left in the city.”
Convictions run just as strong among the school’s supporters. “I agree that gardens are great, but we have a crying shortage of class space,” says Ede Snyder, principal of Gale. “If some developer were coming in to build yuppie town houses, I could see opposition taking hold. But we’re talking about the educational future of our children. When you have classrooms in cafeterias and on auditorium stages, how can you be against a school?”
The school board resisted most requests for new classrooms. It pleaded poverty and argued that more classrooms meant less money for salaries, which would increase the likelihood of a strike.
Trion–whose garden includes sunflowers, morning glories, and roses–says local schools should use the garden to help teach botany. “Not many kids ever get the practical experience of weeding, fertilizing, or taking care of life,” she says. “You plant a seed in the ground, and something grows. That’s the miracle of life. You can learn to appreciate life.”
For the moment, it’s doubtful that the gardeners can gather enough opposition to block the project. The garden is in the 49th Ward, whose alderman–recently elected Cook County clerk David Orr–is resigning. And none of the candidates running for Orr’s seat has yet taken the gardeners’ side. “I understand why they would be reluctant to get involved,” says Trion. “It’s hard to look like you’re against schools. But we’re not giving up. If our referendum gets a large turnout to vote against the school, that will force the politicians to act.”
