Chicago district says it won’t raze elementary school field house

From The Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago school district officials have agreed to lease a field house next to Whittier Elementary School to a community group for $1 a year and build a library inside the school. The action comes as a group of parents continued a sit-in at the field house to gain control of the building and convert it into a library to prevent it from being razed.

Earlier...from The Chicago Sun-Times: The Chicago City Council has told city school officials to postpone demolition of the Whittier School field house and restore heat cut off on protesting neighborhood parents that have been staging a sit-in. An engineering report commissioned by the district says the field house is unsafe, so school officials want to demolish it and put down artificial grass as a play area. Parents say another engineering firm has determined the structure is repairable, so they want it converted into a library and parent center.

SEPTEMBER 2010...from The Chicago Sun-Times: A six-day standoff between Chicago Public Schools officials and protesters demanding a library for an elementary school in the Pilsen neighborhood shows no signs of ending; both sides indicate they are ready for a drawn-out fight. Parents, children and activists have occupied a field house at Whittier Elementary School around the clock since Wednesday. The district says the building is unsafe and must be demolished because there is no money for renovations, but protesters insist it could be converted into a library for less than the cost of demolition.