With the application deadline for Chicago’s best college and career academies quickly approaching on Jan. 20, Morgan reassures herself that her students will be equipped with all the necessary tools to apply.

Morgan is the director of Community Outreach and Graduate Support at Austin’s Catalyst School-Circle Rock, one of Austin’s newest college preparatory K-8th charter schools. Catalyst School-Circle Rock opened in September of last year and operates under Renaissance 2010, a Chicago initiative to close down failing schools and open 100 high-performance schools in needed communities.

“Renaissance 2010 schools give parents choice,” said Morgan.

Catalyst School-Circle Rock works hard to ensure that students and their parents are prepared for the transitional challenges of high school including equipping students with practical life skills and teaching them how to complete high school applications.

Since the majority of these students live in Austin, many of them will apply to high schools in and around the Austin community.

Since the closing of Austin High School in 2006, Renaissance 2010 has opened three smaller high schools in its former location. Each of the three smaller schools — Austin Business and Entrepreneur Academy, Austin Polytechnical Academy and Austin VOISE Academy: Virtual Opportunities Inside a School Environment Academy — feature specialized curriculums.

Renaissance 2010 supporters say these smaller schools will better prepare students for college and the workforce than traditional general education high schools. Each school accommodates between 560 to 600 students with hopes of having a higher graduation rate than regular Chicago high schools.

“Renaissance 2010 provides high quality education in a community like Austin. Students attending the smaller high schools are receiving a different education to get them to the next level,” said Chicago Public Schools’ spokesman Malon Edwards.

However, some argue high schools in Austin under Renaissance 2010 do not fully prepare students for college or today’s workforce.

State Rep. La Shawn K. Ford (D-Chicago) believes Renaissance 2010 does not benefit a community like Austin. Ford has been instrumental in the fight for Austin to have its own neighborhood high school.

He and other community leaders, including Ald. Emma Mitts (37^th) and Ald. Ed Smith (28^th), believe Austin needs one high school as a way to accommodate all youth in the community. Ford has been fighting to have a high school placed at the former Brach’s candy site located at 410 N. Cicero. He believes that students in Austin needs an option of a general education high school.

“Renaissance 2010 does not address the educational issue in Austin,” said Ford. “It just closes down failing schools without providing any support for the schools to remain open.”

Julie Woestehoff, executive director of Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE), said that although CPS claims that students in Austin’s three smaller high schools receive everything required under the CPS graduation policy, “it’s doubtful that students actually receive the basic all-around education they will need to qualify for college or for many jobs or careers.”

“These small, narrowly focused schools don’t have the staff to offer a full range of subjects,” said Woestehoff. “CPS has decided it will no longer try to offer a quality general high school experience like students in Chicago used to have, and students in the suburbs still receive.”

However, Principal Todd Yarch of VOISE Academy said that VOISE combines the use of technology, best distance learning practices and quality online curriculum to better prepare students for today’s technology-based society.

“We prepare our students to be better competitors for today’s labor force,” said Yarch. “Teaching our students online learning and technology helps them qualify for the best colleges and jobs in the city.”

Check out our related story: Austin Lacking the Schools Needed to Educate Its Students

“Every single day it hurts that I won’t see my daddy,” said McKinnley. “Since my daddy got sentenced to prison, my life changed for the worse.”

McKinnley, her older brother and her mother currently live in North Lawndale, where she is a freshman at North Lawndale College Prep High School. After her father’s incarceration, she said she became severely depressed and began to rebel in school. She also often found herself in violent confrontations in her neighborhood.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, black children are nine times more likely than white children to have an incarcerated parent. Studies have also shown children with incarcerated parents are more likely to end up incarcerated themselves.

Dr. Betty J. Allen-Green is on a mission to change this.

With a shoestring budget, Green is helping kids in North Lawndale and beyond create a path different from their parents.

She is the founder and executive director of the Lawndale Amachi Mentoring Program (LAMP), which offers mentoring services to young people with incarcerated parents living in the North Lawndale community.

“Our object is to break the cycle of incarceration,” said Green.

According to the Council of Crime and Justice, children with incarcerated parents face several different challenges. These challenges can include the loss or change of a caregiver, limited access to a parent during and after incarceration and behavioral and emotional issues such as academic failure, juvenile delinquency and developmental issues.

LAMP was launched in 2006 by staff including Green at Theodore Herzl Elementary School located at 3711 W. Douglas Blvd. in North Lawndale. Green was the school’s principal at the time and there were several students with jailed parents, including McKinnley.

“Children need a program like LAMP because they tend to have instability, especially if it’s the mother who’s incarcerated,” said Billeka Palmer, an AmeriCorps Vista volunteer with the program. “Children need the stability in knowing that someone will be there.”

A 2006 investigation by the Chicago Reporter called “Uncounted and Unseen” found that “children of incarcerated parents are disproportionately poor, African-American and Latino, and for many, their lives are shaped by the same cycle of poverty, violence and recidivism that ensnares their parents.”

According to the Department of Justice, in 1999 an estimated 767,200 black children, 384,500 white children and 301,600 Hispanic children had a parent in prison.

“Many children with incarcerated parents become invisible victims of crime, part of an ill-defined population that often sees its needs unmet,” said study co-author Jeff Kelly Lowenstein.

Kelly Lowenstein and his colleagues found that children’s needs are not a legal priority in the judicial process. Programs for children with incarcerated parents that do exist are specifically dedicated to reuniting families before the parents’ release. However, he believes that positive intervention needs to take place in these young people’s lives throughout their parents’ incarceration.

The impact of incarceration is especially harmful in a community like North Lawndale that already struggles with so many social and economic problems. LAMP focuses mainly on the North Lawndale community, collaborating with 13 elementary schools and a high school in the neighborhood. Green also works on the issue city-wide.

LAMP was patterned after the nationally recognized Amachi program in Philadelphia. The word “Amachi” derives from Nigerian language, meaning “Who knows what God has brought us through this child.”

In September, Henry Ford Power House Charter High School opened its doors.

Power House High is located inside of the Charles H. Shaw Technology and Learning Center. The public charter school is the result of a $40 million rehabilitation and the adaptive reuse of the Sears power plant. The project was funded by tax credits for historic buildings and new market tax credits, according to Kristen Dean, executive director of the Homan Square Community Center Foundation, which owns the building.

“Our school is part of a historical site,” said Power House principal Kophyn Alexander. “We are a green school, one of the few in the city of Chicago.”

Throughout the school building, the team of architects implemented energy-saving features including geothermal walls and retrofitted historic windows. The school also includes a planted “green” roof, low-flow toilets, solar-powered sinks and energy-efficient skylights.

“Power House High is designed to be a LEED Gold, highly energy efficient building,” said Dean. The foundation partnered with the Henry Ford Learning Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating public schools in public spaces. Their goal was to design an exemplary school that prepares students for college and careers.

The school is home to 260 freshmen and sophomores, 30 more than originally planned, according to Alexander. The plan is to add another grade each year until Power House High is a four-year institution. The school is open to all Chicago students, selected by lottery if there are more applicants than seats. Applications for freshmen, sophomores and juniors for the 2010-2011 year are now available in the office.

“I think that my school is special because it used to be a part of a very important industry,” said Power House sophomore Regan Taylor. “Sears is still around but I know it was even popular when my parents were my age.”

The project began in January 2007. The process of renovating a 100 year-old power generating station into a contemporary, LEED-certified high school had its difficulties. However, the developers were “undaunted,” according to the project website.

Power House High’s design was based on the award-winning Henry Ford Learning Institute located in Dearborn, Mich., a national cultural attraction founded in 1997. Now, a Chicago school shares the same mission to educate students academically and prepare them for the global community of the 21st century.

“It was a complex process to see what use that type of building could serve to the North Lawndale community,” said Rose Grayson, an associate at FARR Associates, the principal designers of the project.

The building was set up for every room to tell a different story. The Great Hall, an area for both students and other members of the community, still houses the original 40-ton gantry crane and rail system from the original power house.

A project that started off as a mission to put an empty building to use turned into a recovery of a place that now contributes to North Lawndale’s youth and their futures.

“Power House High School is truly a power in the community,” said Alexander. “It provides collaboration with teachers, students and the community. It’s a place where everyone can benefit.”

Helen Loving, secretary at North Lawndale College Prep, said that having two schools share the campus at 1313 S. Sacramento Ave.  “has created a segregated building and encourages negative behavior among the students.”

North Lawndale students have classes on the 3rd floor, while Collins Academy students are on the 2nd floor. Both high schools share the same gym and auditorium, but each school has its own lunch room.

The two schools under the same roof has created a sense of chaos in the realm where students are expected to achieve, students say.

During a typical school day, a student from North Lawndale may hear the bell sound downstairs for students at Collins to end class. When entering the building at the end of the school day, it’s quite confusing to see students scattered from both schools with separate colored uniforms: North Lawndale students in burgundy and khaki and Collins students in purple and gold. The two schools combined have a total enrollment of 1100 students.

Students and parents worry the combined school structure is impacting their social and academic welfare.

“Since my school has combined with Collins, I have trouble getting to class on time,” says Shanera Wilson, a junior at North Lawndale College Prep. “My teachers tend to mark down my grades if I’m always tardy.”

North Lawndale isn’t the only community dealing with this issue. Due to recent city budget issues, several Chicago Public Schools were forced to combine as a way to operate more cheaply, especially with dropping enrollment at some schools.

Some schools facing dropping enrollment and academic issues have found it more beneficial to combine with another school in hopes of boosting enrollment and improving academic performance. For example, Perspectives-Calumet Charter School at 8131 S. May Street is actually a combination of two schools.

The combination has had some positive effects for North Lawndale students as well, even with the chaos. Student enrollment at Collins Academy was at an all-time low in September 2007, with only 140 students. Combining with North Lawndale has attracted more students to Collins, which now has 116 freshmen and 121 sophomores. The plan is to add one grade every year until the school reaches a capacity of 500 students in grades nine through 12.

LaCael Palmer-Pratt, principal at North Lawndale College Prep, said sharing a campus with Collins has had a positive impact on students.

“North Lawndale students as well as Collins students are encouraged to help build unity for both schools,” said Pratt. “I realize that it is very difficult to find facilities right now across the city. I welcome Collins Academy and their students. Both schools have one mission–to strive for success.”

Staff hope the situation will continue to improve in the future, as they get used to their dual set-up.

“This has been a very difficult situation to adapt to,” says Dr. Joyce Cainn, principal of Collins Academy. “However, as time goes on, it becomes less difficult to maneuver around both campuses.”

Malon Edwards, a spokesman for Chicago Public Schools, said there are various reasons why several schools share the same roof.

“These schools have to go somewhere,” said Edwards.

Edwards said that CPS makes an effort to get parents involved when deciding to combine two schools as one. He admitted that for an outsider looking into a lot of the combined schools, it can appear to be a bit chaotic.

“The goal was to add additional donors as the Green for Grade$ program progressed over the years,” said Scott. “Unfortunately, due to the recent state of the city’s budget, we were unable to keep a lot of donors on board to implement this program for the 2009-2010 school year.”

The Green for Grade$ program was created by the Education Innovation Laboratory at Harvard University, also known as EdLabs. The program was implemented to develop student interest in school and a commitment to reaching academic goals in the first two years of high school when students are more likely to drop out, Scott said.

Parents and administrators interviewed for this story said they were unaware of the reason behind the program’s cancellation.

“In the face of budget shortfalls, we must absolutely direct funds to the highest priority areas and could not justify having to raise an additional $2 million to fund this for another year,” said Ana Vargas, spokeswoman for Chicago Public Schools.

“The first year of high school is extremely critical for developing academic skills,” said Latunja Williams, principal of Bronzeville Scholastic Institute, one of the schools selected for the Green for Grade$ program. “I believe the Green for Grade$ program truly motivated students and helped prepare them for their second years in high school.”

The Harvard-designed program measured students every five weeks in the areas of English, math, science, physical education and social studies. Students could earn $50 for “A’s,” $35 for “B’s” and $20 for “C’s.” While some students were thrilled to receive an allowance for good grades, several parents were extremely disturbed by the nature of this program.

“We have to keep in mind that our children do not just learn what we teach. Students learn what is implied by our words and actions,” said Trenton Oliver, parent of a child attending the high school.

“We are giving the wrong message with this program. Extrinsic rewards like this are damaging to a student’s work ethic when we consider their long term lives,” Oliver said.

Angelena Young, a sophomore at Manley Career Academy on Chicago’s West Side, is not happy that the Green for Grade$ initiative will not happen this year. She said she received a $200 check for her good grades last year and won’t receive the remainder until she graduates.

“That program really kept me motivated,” said Young. “I don’t have much to look forward to this year.”

With CPS still facing budget cuts and funding issues, many people, including Young, are wondering if they’ll ever see that money.