Member action spurs upgrades at Washington High School, inspires us to keep fighting – Chicago Teachers Union

When staff and students returned to George Washington High School this fall, several surprises awaited them. Over the summer, CPS had installed air conditioning window units in both the student cafeteria and the counselor offices and a permeable brick walkway in one of the internal courtyards.

These upgrades will immediately lead to a better student experience at school this year. They are a direct result of the sustained action of CTU members, parents and community residents who have been raising their voices, highlighting the deficiencies and dangerous conditions and organizing to secure a new, sustainable green school building for the Southeast Side’s only neighborhood high school. 

I have worked at Washington High for the past 10 years and I also live in the neighborhood. While there are many things our school is proud of  — caring teachers and staff, strong student leadership, and championship athletic programs —  the physical condition of our building is unfortunately not one. Still, the improvements we saw this year are welcome and demonstrate our ability to win when we work in collaboration with our families and community. 

With over 1,520 students, even CPS acknowledges we are severely overcrowded, at 111% capacity. We lack sufficient classroom space, teacher planning rooms, and parking spots for our staff. The non-air conditioned auditorium is used for health and driver’s ed classes. And, in the winter months, educators and staff must open windows and run air conditioners because our aging heating system can’t properly regulate the temperature. 

Our four mobile classrooms, located behind our main building, are more than 25 years old with holes in the ceiling and floors. We don’t have a regulation turf field for soccer and football games and the pool is broken more days than it works. In 2022, we made news when part of our ceiling collapsed, injuring a staff member. 

Washington’s mighty CTU members, along with parents and community residents, have been advocating for a new building for years and this year Mayor Brandon Johnson and CEO Martinez visited the school. It was the first time any mayor had bothered with us. 

When the mayor and Martinez visited George Washington, they got a small taste of the unbearable conditions our students and staff endure on a regular basis. The auditorium, gyms, and hallways lack air conditioning, so when our VIP visitors got to the auditorium they found a PE teacher drenched in sweat and students missing desks. 

Washington High School sits in the middle of one of the city’s most toxic communities. Industrial pollutants from the long-shuttered steel mills still impact its air, soil, and water quality. The neighborhood posts higher asthma rates and cancer diagnoses than other areas of the city. And more than 1,600 diesel trucks drive on nearby streets during our school hours every weekday. 

This is why CPS must prioritize schools located in Black and Brown environmental justice communities like ours for facilities improvements to ensure our students have healthy safe environments both at school and at home.

Our experience at Washington has shown that CPS is most responsive when CTU members take collective action as a school community. During the last school year, we organized several actions aimed at pressuring CPS to collaborate with us on a plan for a new, green school building.

We organized a walk-in and press conference during the heatwave in the fall of 2023. CTU president Stacy Davis Gates and CPS Board President Jianan Shi joined us and toured the building. We had teachers speak at CPS Board meetings in July and August of 2023 and a parent speaker in April of 2024. We highlighted issues of overcrowding, facilities problems and lack of athletic spaces in our comments, and we urged board members to partner with us in securing funding for green renovations and new school buildings.

For Earth Day this past April, CTU members at Washington taught lessons about environmental justice, wearing green on Friday, and posting photos on social media before school. We connected the issue of toxic lead, asbestos, and mold in school buildings with systemic environmental racism in Chicago.

Donald Davis, center with glasses, and his colleagues before their Sept. 30 walk in for full funding.

Finally, Washington staff attended regional meetings to engage in CPS’s facilities master plan and capital budget. While this was a positive experience overall, we left feeling that CPS was asking us to limit our expectations for what’s possible.

Washington teachers have joined CTU’s Climate Justice Committee and helped write contract proposals urging CPS to create safe, healthy, and climate resilient school buildings. And, in June, many of us attended our first-ever public bargaining session with CPS focused on green and healthy schools.

When we use the term “green schools,” we refer to school buildings that are free from toxins like lead and asbestos, that reduce their carbon footprint and are resilient to future climate challenges. However, just as important, “green schools” also must offer climate justice curriculum and job training to equip our students with skills to enter the green economy after graduation.

That may sound like a tall order, but our union has shown time and again that when we fight and work in collaboration with our school communities, we can win. CTU members at Washington understand this is a long-term fight and will not back down until our students have the healthy, safe, green school they deserve.