My Fellow Council-members, across so many schools, I am considering it:

We are parents.   We are teachers.  We are neighbors.

We have different skills but we all have one common cause: to provide to our city’s primary and secondary students an unparalleled education that prepares them for their future.  We should acknowledge that not all of us have had the same starting point, and not all of us have had the same path, but together we can make it to our shared goal.

I serve as a Community Representative at Walt Disney Magnet Elementary School along our city’s north lakefront.  The school’s community boundaries extend from Marine Drive to Damen, and stretch from Foster down to Diversey.  Before this, I served as a Community Representative to Nicholas Senn High School which teaches the students of Edgewater and Andersonville.

One school is a neighborhood high school.  The other school is a magnet elementary school.  Both schools teach a student population in which a majority of students are below the poverty line.  Both schools succeed with innovative tools inside the classroom and engagement outside the classroom.

I value these experiences.

We as Local School Council Members across Chicago have addressed such realities as campus safety in a time such as ours, teachers forced to use their own lunch and planning time to provide extra teaching to students who need just a few more notes, and even aging infrastructure in our school buildings.

I bring with me a decade of public policy experience, including helping write and pass common sense renters’ rights housing amendments in the City of Chicago, and  advocating for education policy and passing laws to promote and recruit for the teaching profession in the State of Illinois.

I know I would work together and talk with the CPS Board, but only by also listening to the CPS community. I would be a dedicated liaison. Open communication is the first step toward productive partnerships.

In consideration of all of the above, I am exploring a candidacy to represent my colleagues of Local School Councils by serving on the Local School Council Advisory Board (LSCAB).

I still have questions and need clarifications from the Office of Local School Council Relations, and I am actively gathering the input of my own colleagues on the Disney Local School Council; I am also soliciting the feedback from the broader LSC community and from education advocacy groups, and even more so, I am soliciting the feedback of my constituents.

Your input is valued: dan.kleinman@me.com

Thank you, and

Looking forward,

Daniel Steven Kleinman

Community Representative, Disney Elementary