FREE
AUSTIN WEEKLY news ■
Vol. 31 No. 46
■
November 29 2017
■
Learn about prisoner reentry services,
PAGE 9
austinweeklynews.com
@AustinWeeklyNews
■
Also serving Garfield Park
@AustinWeeklyChi
Thrive Th i 2017
Special pullout section
Austin school faces likely closure next year Plato Learning Academy could shutter due to poor academic performance By XUEER ZHANG AustinTalks
It came as a shock the morning of Oct. 24th to Plato Learning Academy Principal Charles Williams when a staff member sent him a link to an article reporting the Chicago Public Schools was considering closing Plato due to low academic performance. “I knew that we received a level 2 again,” said Williams, who became Plato’s principal in August 2016. But the big surprise was that the announcement hit the papers before it was officially announced to the school community, he said. And, he added, the news came the same day CPS had scheduled a visit as it considered renewing Plato’s contract, which will expire in June 2018. “It was a little disappointing because I would have wanted to inform our parents prior to [the announcement],” Williams said in a recent interview. Plato is among six charter/contract schools that appear on the CPS warning list so far this year for failing to meet academic standards CPS See PLATO on page 4
ALEXA ROGALS/Staff0 Photographer
HUMANITY ON DISPLAY: Train customers walk past Dorrell Creightney’s photographs hung on the wall on Monday, Nov. 27, 2017, at the L Green Line Central Station on Central and Lake Street in Austin.
On W. Side ‘L’ stops, an homage to ‘happy people’ The late photographer Dorrell Creightney’s photos have been installed at ‘L’ stops on the West Side By IGOR STUDENKOV Contributing Reporter
Around this time last year, Austin resident Vanessa Stokes was looking for a way to share her father’s photography with the Austin community, where he spent
his final years. Dorrell Creightney passed away in 2011, but left behind a large archive of street scenes, images of Chicago jazz museums performing, portraits and nude photography. Stokes and her sister wanted to share positive images that depicted African-Americans go-
ing about their lives. Stokes said that they wanted to remind people that, contrary to the usually negative media depictions, good things happen in black neighborhoods, too. This fall, several of those photos went up at the Central/Lake Green Line ‘L’ station. And two weeks ago, 12 photos went up on the two sides of Kinzie/Larramie Union Pacific West Metra Line viaduct, near By the Hand Club’s Austin location and Laramie Green Line ‘L’ station.
Austin Chamber of Commerce on the move... 773.854.5848 • www.austinchicagochamber.com
The photos at the ‘L’ station will stay up for three years, with different photos displayed each year. The photos under the viaduct will stay up indefinitely. Stokes said that, so far, the response has been positive, and Austin Weekly News observed many residents praising the images while they were being installed. Creightney was born in Kingston, Jamaica. He moved to the See CREIGHTNEY on page 6