After Discovering New Gym Windows At Sullivan High School Didn't Open, CPS Has Replaced Nearly Half Of Them
CHICAGO (CBS) -- After discovering that newly installed windows on the second floor of the gymnasium at Sullivan High School don't open, Chicago Public Schools has begun the process of replacing them.
The new windows were part of $25 million in much-needed repairs and upgrades to the school building in Rogers Park.
But, as CBS 2 Political Investigator Dana Kozlov reported last week, the second floor windows in the school gym didn't open, making the space nothing short of a sauna.
That part of the school building, erected in 1923, doesn't have air conditioning. It does have an overactive boiler that can create stifling conditions in winter. All in a pandemic, no less.
CPS spokesman James Gherardi said Wednesday five operable windows have since been installed in the gym, and Ald. Maria Hadden's office on Wednesday said CPS has ordered replacements for the seven other windows that didn't open.
Hadden, whose 49th Ward includes Sullivan High School, last week said nobody from the school had to chance to review the plans before the the windows that didn't open were ordered an installed.
The gym's old windows did open. All of the windows in Sullivan's classrooms open and they also have air conditioning units. According to Hadden, the original response from CPS after learning the new windows didn't open was that the cash-strapped school, with a 90% low-income population, needed to come up with the cash itself to fix the mistake.
"That was infuriating," said Hadden.
