Chicago Principal Loses Battle on Overcrowding

Librarian Kenneth Budz, who told the gathering of about several dozen parents and the neighborhood school council that the overcrowding is "incredibly wrong," said school authorities should have seen the influx coming and prepared. He admires McGreal's stand.

"I thought it was brave," Budz said. "He's got a conviction to do the best for children and teachers."

Gage Park's enrollment had been capped because of overcrowding, but the central authorities lifted the ceiling. Alarmed, McGreal froze enrollment in early August. The newly appointed principal offered suggestions for redirecting the overflow students and waited for his superiors to act.

They answered by proposing solutions that included a staggered schedule to expand the school day and accommodate more students. When McGreal balked, he was fired.

"I would not tolerate it for a second if my children were put in a school with over 1,750 students when the design capacity was 1,448," McGreal wrote to the community meeting. "I believe your children deserve the same respect."

Vaughn, the schools spokesman, said McGreal violated school board policy by turning away students: "We need the families to be greeted with open arms. They were being greeted by a cold shoulder."

Although enrollment is declining in the city as a whole, overcrowding has long been a problem in heavily Hispanic communities near Midway International Airport and the bulging Northwest Side.

Community leaders complain that the mayor and school leaders ignored the troubles even as they channeled cash and energy from the annual $5 billion operating and capital budgets elsewhere, particularly into "boutique" schools with limited enrollments.

"Believe me," Vaughn said of the overcrowding in the neighborhood schools, "we're frustrated about it, too."

Daley, a five-term Democrat who has impressed many an interviewer with his passion for fixing the public schools, earned a reputation for activism. In 1995, the Illinois legislature gave him control of the Chicago public school system, which he struggled to overhaul with a style that mixed personnel hardball and the closing of underperforming schools with fresh streams of money and ideas.

Two years ago, declaring that years of effort had barely changed the worst schools, Daley announced a program called Renaissance 2010 to remake more than 10 percent of Chicago's schools. The plan gives large roles to outsiders.

By 2010, one-third of the targeted group will be reborn as charter schools, one-third as small schools run by the district and one-third as independently operated contract schools.

In addition, as an average annual infusion of $100 million from the Illinois government dried up, Daley announced a $1 billion school construction program drawing heavily on special taxes. In the next six years, the city intends to build 15 elementary schools and nine high schools. Three other high schools will be renovated.

"Is it quick enough?" Vaughn asked. "No, but it's the best we can do given the lack of support we've gotten from Springfield."

One new high school is targeted for Gage Park, but it will not be ready for several years -- too late for the children of Jose Alejandro Garcia, who attend Gage Park High. As leader of the neighborhood council, he called last week's meeting in hopes McGreal's example would galvanize parents and school authorities.

Steinmiller, the history teacher, has little faith in the higher-ups, pointing to a nearby high school that is being overhauled to provide closer attention to a select group of students. She backed McGreal's choice, even as she hated to see him go.

"We needed his leadership. He had a real passion," said Steinmiller, who feels so strongly about Gage Park that her personal e-mail address incorporates the school's name. "But I'm glad he started the fight."