Oppose Lincoln Expansion and Save Our Playground

all for expanding our top schools. This project does not make sense given other under capacity top tier schools in close proximity.

Georgiafentis

i agree

I strongly oppose this expansion.

Save the playground!!!!!!!! Save the few places our children have left to play!

Please slow down this decision. Involve the community and study the alternatives.

It's a quest of quality over quantity or it's just a race towards the lowest common denominator.

Pam Gordon

There are many more schools deserving more space and fixing unsafe & unhealthy buildings

Green Space is Important!!!

No on Lincoln Elementary expansion

This needs more discussion and debate!

Steven Ivankovich Bob - my company has offered to build a new Lincoln close by without use of public funds. Bank sent letter to Alderman to validate funds, and Alderman won't even talk to me. Imagine that. When someone sends you a bank letter saying you have $300m of available funds to help solve the problem, you would think I could get a 15 minute meeting.

Bob - my company has offered to build a new Lincoln close by without use of public funds. Bank sent letter to Alderman to validate funds, and Alderman won't even talk to me. Imagine that.

You seem to have the issues down. Great comment!

I live on Geneva throwing distance to the school. Why is it that we and our neighbors first learned of this horrible "solution" when it was announced as a done deal on Veteran's Day? Why- because our Alderman can't be trusted. She is the only person that could have driven approval or not approved. Why did she not gain input of the immediate community? Everyone is impacted by this - parents, kids, those without kids, seniors and young adults. By expanding the school by +32% capacity we will be increasing the congestion, traffic, and safety risks which are HUGE. No one is considering the impact to the immediate neighborhood and our alderman doesn't care. This is what Rahm wanted and thus the Alderman agreed, without any discussion of this option whatsoever. Add to this the congestion the density and the new Webster Square development and the CMH soon-to-be development and our neighborhood will greatly lose what charm it has left. Those in support of this are South of Armitage- and when we asked the Alderman to show why she feels this answer is "supported" she claimed she does not have the time. She then pointed to two petitions which are 2 years old. One was about development at CMH so not relevant. The other was called Keep Lincoln Whole--- which again has nothing to do with this expansion solution. In a meeting our Alderman finally admitted to hand-picking a chosen small group to attend the media announcement on Veterans Day- despicable. And for us to learn of this ill-conceived decision by reading it on the internet is likely grounds for impeachment of our alderman. Moreover, the expansion means we are adding Pre-K which means now a third window of traffic at noon will be upon us.

Dear Bob, There are 600+ empty seats in Alcott, Mayer and Newberry and Lincoln is overcrowded by less than 200. The IB program is about one class or 30 students per grade 6-8th grade which is about 90 students (and their possible siblings). The CMH development should also be districted to Alcott, which was CPS’s original idea. The French program can be moved to Mayer, with well over 300 seats available, and a huge footprint and access to a playground and Trebes Park. LaSalle can also be slightly expanded to allow any Old Town family to transfer next year, and we have current Lincoln families from Old Town eager and ready to do so. Or a smaller, and therefore less expensive, annex can be built at LaSalle to accommodate all future Old Town families. The annex would be less costly because there would be no need to build a rooftop playcage. LaSalle’s playground is 3x Lincoln’s, it can accommodate an annex and still have 2x Lincoln’s current playground left over. It also occupies one full city block and therefore is a far better place to expand than Lincoln which has very little pick up and drop off space and occupies less than ¼ of a city block. Nearly all of the Lincoln families demanding the expansion of Mid-North’s traditional neighborhood elementary school to the point of eliminating its playground, are from Old Town. They should expand one of their traditional neighborhood elementary schools if they wish to do so, LaSalle, Newberry or Franklin, all have huge footprints, wonderful playgrounds, and could accommodate their demand to expand far better than Lincoln, which is in our backyard, not theirs. CMH could still be districted to Alcott, which is at 30% neighborhood resident capacity and is seeking more in neighborhood students. LaSalle’s magnet program could be retained and all current families grandfathered into Lincoln and LaSalle.

Pull the boundaries back to original ones at Armitage, move the IB program to Alcott, let the French program find another site.

I am so tired of the numerous cars double parked blocking me from the alley which I need to use in order to park in my garage.

Place the IB program at Alcott which has many empty seats & this will solve the Lincoln School overcrowding problem with no extra money spent.