 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
May 8 , 2006 • VOL. 44, NO. 9 • Oakland, CA
St. Mary’s
College honors founder of
alternative middle schools in Chicago
Christian
Brother Edmund Siderewicz, founder of alternative schools for disadvantaged
children in Chicago, received an honorary doctorate in educational leadership
from Saint Mary’s College during their annual convocation, April
24.
Speaking at the Moraga campus, he challenged the college to help provide
“a seamless system of Lasallian education” that insures that
more low-income students graduate from college.
His own commitment to that goal led him to create San Miguel middle schools
in two of Chicago’s most troubled neighborhoods.
The schools are named for Miguel Febres Cordero, the first native of Ecuador
to become a Christian Brother.
The first school opened in 1995 in the largely Hispanic Back of the Yards
neighborhood, an area that formerly housed Chicago’s stockyards
on the city’s south side and Irish and Polish blue-collar workers.
Today Mexican butcher shops, bakeries and restaurants serve the largely
Hispanic community.
The school enrolls middle-schoolers of low-income immigrant families who
are lagging behind academically and in danger of succumbing to gangs and
drugs.
The campus is housed on the third floor of a vacated parish high school.
To reach their classrooms, the 78 students climb 68 steps and are met
near the top by a large mural of Our Lady of Guadalupe, painted by a local
artist.
The school blends rigorous academics with mandatory parental involvement.
It proved so successful that a second San Miguel school opened in 2002
to serve 110 predominately African-American students in grades 5-8 who
live in a run-down neighborhood on Chicago’s west side.
In both schools, pupils attend classes all year, nine hours per day. Families
pay $300 to $600 in annual tuition per student, based on their income.
The two campuses operate on a $2 million yearly budget that comes almost
entirely from individual donations.
Housed in a renovated two-story brick building, the Gary Comer Campus
was named after its lead benefactor, the founder of Lands End, Inc.
The school is “a first step towards breaking the educational barrier
that perpetuates the cycle of poverty,” Comer told the Chicago Sun-Times.
He pointed out that the average lifetime cost of jailing someone is $1.7
million to $2.3 million.
“If I put $1 million into that school and save one kid, I’ve
doubled my investment,” he said.
Brother Ronald Gallagher, president of Saint Mary’s College, praised
Brother Siderewicz for his work with the San Miguel schools.
“The Lasallian education you offer these students is not only about
challenging them to achieve academic excellence,” he said. “You
also provide a safe, loving and nurturing environment that allows children
to open up, blossom, and be truly transformed.”
Some Saint Mary’s College students volunteer as tutors at the San
Miguel schools during their January term and others have spent up to five
years as teachers there through the Lasallian volunteer program.
(Debra Holtz of the Office of College Communication contributed to this
story.)
Brother Edmund Siderewicz
