Another of the long list of sagas involving the same small minded group of professional opponents trying to make a name and the newspapers. The LEARN Charter School was recommended for approval by a local advisory council under the Renaissance 2010 Program. The group truly represented the community and had the best interests at heart throughout the year-long almost 175 hour process. The few opponents of this decision were a part of this entire process until the very end. They legitimized it by being a part of it no matter how you want to evaluate it. However they are now picketing and testifying that they were excluded from the process and that those of us in it were not community. Nothing could be further from the truth. I will match our credentials with theirs any day and place! Those taking up the fight have been misrepresenting the real facts with their own “facts” which have no truth. As soon as parents and staff are recruited for their fight, they learn shortly thereafter that they have been misled and lied to and departed. The picketers are generally students and adults that have never had kids in Thorp, generally not even public school parents! Here they pretend to be looking after the best interests of the Thorp School family. At the last CPS Board hearing, they continued to expound about the Thorp kids being thrown out of their school building and thrown into an unsafe and dangerous building within the campus. They knew quite well that the principal made the ultimate decision of which two of the three buildings that he wished for and which one of the three would be designated for the LEARN Charter School that would be sharing their campus. The local LSC Chair also went on record indicating that she knew nothing of this decision. The truth of the matter is that she was at a meeting where the principal admitted that the choices were his. The opponents still spewed the lies at the school open house and board meeting knowing quite well that it was misinformation. The day of accountability needs to come. Legitimate community leaders and residents need to challenge these individuals that presume to represent our best interests and surely do not. A selective few with a lack of honesty do not have the right and should not assume the privilege of being our spokesperson!
