Courtesy of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association

Last week, Ames Middle School LSC members held a vote among parents and students on the future of Ames.  Alderman Roberto Maldonado and Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a plan in October to convert Ames into a 7^th-12^th grade Marine Academy-affiliated school.

The alderman’s plan got a powerful shellacking at the ballot box. The 808 voters sent a clear message – converting Ames into a selective enrollment military school goes AGAINST the will of the community.  Votes of parents and other adults from Ames and the two main feeder elementary schools, McAuliffe and Nixon, during Report Card Pick-Up on November 12:

For Community School – 309 (96.5%)

For Military School – 11 (3.5%)

Votes of Ames students:

For Community School-459 (96%)

For Military School-29 (6%)

In addition, 2,481 parents from across all schools in the 26^th Ward and Logan Square signed a petition to keep Ames as a neighborhood school open to all students, not convert Ames into a military school.  These numbers blow away the 300-person survey that Alderman Maldonado purports to have.