Monzel’s Response – Council and CPS

Q. In the past when I have raised concerns about the public school system to council members, I have always been told that is an issue for the board of education. It seems once candidates are elected to City Council, the priority of our public schools is passed off to the board of education. If you are elected, what is your specific plan to have City Council to be more directly involved in the public school system issues? And will you regularly attend the board of education meetings? (Garry Smith, Madisonville)

A. In December of 2005, I was honored when Mayor Mark Mallory appointed me the chairman of City Council’s first ever Education, Health and Recreation committee. One of the main objectives of this committee was to create a real working relationship between City Council and CPS’ Board of Education. With my counterpart Rick Williams, chairman of CPS’ Partnership/Public Engagement committee, we have held several joint committee meetings and 2 joint sessions of both the full City Council and School Board.

With this joint committee, we have been able to address such city-school issues as truancy, school safety, and the school’s facilities master plan’s affect on city neighborhoods. Regarding truancy, we created a truancy hotline number (363-0003) where any citizen can call to report a student being truant. And with the implementation of CPS’ facilities master plan there will be at least 30 former school buildings that will sit empty, like an abandoned big box retail store, in many of our city neighborhoods. This joint committee has begun reviewing ways to work with neighborhood leaders to make sure these sites are utilized for the improvement of the community.