Special Issue Volume 15, Issue 4 Special Issue: the Awareness Project
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aw rint June 2016 Special Issue Volume 15, Issue 4 Special Issue: The Awareness Project Instead of focusing on everyday Payton news for this issue, Paw Print staff explored serious challenges that they believe our school and school system, and Chicago as a whole, face now. Read about a different issue, as chosen by the staff, on each page. Editorial Chicago’s Looming Storm: Chicago Public Schools by Editor Matthew Mata Chicagoans are no stranger to severe weather systems sweeping across the city. However, in recent years, and frankly, for decades, the Chicago Public School system continues to be plagued by scandals, financial crisis, and heavy criticism Since 2000, the Chicago Board of Education has had high turnover rates of their Chief Executive Officer – Paul Vallas, Arne Duncan, Ron Huberman, Terry Mazany, Jean-Claude Brizard, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, Jesse Ruiz, and Forrest Claypool, thus averaging a new “face” of the Chicago Public School system every two-years. While “forever” critics of the May- oral- picked CEO and school board can easily cast blame on these high turnovers, it is crucial to recognize and to critique the accountability exemplified in the school system. The two entities that are primary stakeholders in Chicago’s education system are the Chicago Teachers Union, which has over 20,000 teachers and paraprofessionals working within the school system, and Chicago Public Schools, who bear the responsibility of properly providing a quality education to over 400,000 Chicago children. With both organizations nearing a year of negations for a new teacher contract, it is imperative that both keep laser focus with the best intentions and best interest of the children in CPS -- and when both do that it is near impossible for the education system to fail. However, a vital mishap that has been causing such strain on the relationship and ability to collectively advocate against disruptive factions are divisive rhetoric coming from an ab- sence of accountability and lack of transparency by stakeholders at times. The lack of education is the crux of so many societal problems, so it is crucial that the image of Chicago Public Schools with communities, parents, students, and critics is elevated. With these three non-financial steps, the stigma surrounding the practices of the Chicago Board of Education would be less scrutinized. 1) Grant the honorary student board member the right to vote. While it is a privilege to attend and to have the ability to offer insight to the board, the Board of Education is already given student testimonials at their monthly board meetings. Similarly to the state board of education, this would allow the Chicago Board of Ed to retain an odd vote count, and even if this causes there not to be a consensus at times, it only sheds light on the fact that there may be an issue with the referendum. 2) Evaluate Chicago Board of Ed members. Due to teachers being evaluated as frequently as quarterly, it is only fair that the Board Members that regulate such evaluations are upheld to similar standards. Their evaluation must be based on school and student engagement apart from CPS pre-coordinated events. Board members should be eager to further gain insight about student needs and what makes schools a success or what programs (such as contracts with private providers) are simply not up to par. And this is gained through interactions with students and school environments through spontaneous visits. While yes, board members are volunteering their time, the referendum and decisions they are making must be chal- lenged through experience and not just raw data. 3) Actively recruit board members who reflect the racial populations within our schools. While a Latino or African American board member cannot speak on behalf of or for the racial group within CPS, they can certainly add input and have an understanding of particular learning curves or services that are commonly needed within certain racial groups. While the Asian population in CPS is not the majority, they must still be adequately and respectfully represented in the decision-making process. 2 HEALTH PAW PRINT June 2016 HEALTH What’s in my food?: Traversing Aramark’s mysterious ingredient lists for CPS lunches BY IZZI EINHORN AND CATHERINE CONLEY Walter Payton College Why won’t Aramark disclose the Sun Times, who asked to re- Preparatory High School the ingredients of school lunches? main anonymous, about his ex- This is the question we set out to perience in trying to obtain this 1034 North Wells Street answer when we found the only information; he described a long- Chicago, IL 60610 listed ingredients for lunchroom winded process of bureaucratic red phone: (773) 534-0034 chicken nuggets are “chicken nug- tape and closed doors. The reporter fax: (773) 534-0035 gets.” This proved to open a lot explained that he filed a Freedom www.wpcp.org more doors than we thought. of Information Act, which did not paytonpawprint.com In 2010, President Obama prove helpful because Aramark is @PaytonNews passed the “Healthy Hunger-Free a private company and, thus, does Kids Act.” This act set federal not have to comply with such acts. Principal: guidelines on school lunches and Secondly, we spent a great deal Tim Devine is widely known, as it was heav- of time searching for nutritional Assistant Principal: ily supported by Michelle Obama. information for school lunches David Adamji This is the reason cookies are no that we thought was non-existent, longer sold during Payton’s lunch but proved to be accessible if one EDITORS-IN-CHIEF periods (something that, sadly, knows where to look. In other only this year’s seniors experi- words, despite being limited and Paul Hayes enced), and the reason food can- difficult to find, the nutritional Julia Huebner not be sold for fundraisers during breakdown of CPS’s cafeteria food Matthew Mata school hours. is publically available online. Nadiyah Pate Despite this strict set of rules, Lastly, there doesn’t seem to be it is extremely difficult to find a clear reason for the lack of open- LAYOUT EDITORS nutritional information on school ness from Aramark. While media Vivian Gasca lunches. Aramark, CPS’s school outlets will be denied ingredient Camille Grandjean lunch provider, does not list in- information if they attempt to con- Hannah Lowenthal gredients on any packaging or tact Aramark or CPS, individu- Quinn Mankowski Do you know what you are eating? website, and while calories and fat als, such as parents and students, Photo by Catherine Conley content can be found through links are supplied with this information PHOTO EDITOR on some online menus, it seems upon request. It appears there really isn’t an school lunches almost every day. Annie Y. Jiang as if these facts are hidden in the We reached out to a CPS nu- answer at this point. While not having a list of ingre- most discreet places. Why? tritionist that works in conjunc- In the end, we were able to get dients for each product, what we SECTION EDITORS We uncovered a few notable tion with Aramark who willingly the nutritional information that we consume doesn’t deter me from Distribution and Exchange: discoveries throughout the search told us the ingredients for speci- asked for. All we had to do was eating my favorite chicken sand- Matthew Mata, Paul Hayes for the reasoning behind the miss- fied dishes, but could not provide email in each food item that we wich or cheese pizza, but as con- ing ingredient lists. First off, we a comprehensive list for all CPS wanted ingredients for. sumers and students we have the Politics: Julia Huebner found that we weren’t the first to meals. That means every roll, every right to know what we are eating. Sports: Nadiyah Pate investigate this topic. Mainstream So if Aramark records the in- hamburger patty, and every side While by no means are we ad- media outlets, such as the Sun gredients used for the CPS dishes, dish needs to be explicitly request- vocating the boycott of Aramark PAW PRINT STAFF Times, have written detailed arti- and the dishes truly are meeting all ed. This system is not very effi- or the bombarding of CPS with William Baker cles surrounding the great lengths federal health standards, what is cient, and it discourages student concerned emails, we are advo- Bison Carcelli they went to to obtain nutritional stopping them from releasing the curiosity in exactly what is in the cating for the increased transpar- Allison Cho information from CPS. We spoke information in a public, accessible food one eats. ency of Aramark in respect to their Catherine Conley on the phone with a reporter from manner? As seniors at Payton, we eat lunchroom ingredient lists. Annabel Doerr Isabel Einhorn Kila Goodwin Juliana Iturralde Elena Johnston Jack Knabe Youth Wellness Team initiated at Payton BY BEN SMITH Alexander Lefauve Staff Writer Claire Luning Earlier this year, several stu- able to come together and share Quinn Mankowski dents founded Youth Wellness their work with students. Grace McDermott Team at Payton, which is a pro- The founders realized that so Thomas McKeon gram sponsored by Mikva Chal- many clubs at Payton were over- Luis Palacios lenge, a local organization that looked by students and the great Richard Piper helps students become civically work that they were doing should Julia Porter engaged in their community. be shared, not overshadowed. Tristan Rinholm The founders of the Payton Youth Wellness Team offers in- Cole Robbins chapter pursued the idea when creased accessibility to these Ben Smith they engaged in Mikva Chal- groups and the information that Prince Roy Stephenson lenge’s Youth Congress.