To get our policy of getting a new school building we came up with an action plan. Our action plan has many different parts to it. The class decided ourselves who wanted to be a part of each part of the action plan. We came up with a lot of different ways to get support for us getting a new school building. We liked being able to choose which parts we wanted to be a part of.

The action plan includes these ways of getting our policy of equal and new met: interviews, video documentary, expository writing, letters and emails, strike, surveys, petitions, news media and releases, photography, fundraising, research and made a website. We have been working on the action plan since December 2003 and have worked on it now for 6 months. We spend time every day doing something to help with the problems of the school and trying to get the word out. Every subject in school is part of Project Citizen.

The first thing we did was to interview people who we though would have information about getting anew school. We invited our local school council president members to be interviewed by our class. In the interviews we got tips, encouragement, advice and put out a good word for us. The interview helped us with our next steps. We decided to invite other people we thought could help us. This included state senators, congressman, decision makers like Arne Duncan, businessmen, college professors, students, and TV and newspaper writers. The interviews helped people get to know us behind the scenes and they wanted to help us.

We decided that one way to get the word out was to create a video documentary. We got help from Ms. Percak from Northwestern University to help us make the iMovie. We started to videotape all the problems and all the visitors we had. We also videotaped the interviews so that we could make a good documentary. Four of our classmates did this project and create d really great video. Everyone who sees it agrees.

Everybody in the class wrote a story about what they thought about the school. In the writing we talked about why we needed a new school. We shared our writing and created a letter that we sent to over 150 people that we thought could help us with getting the policy done. We got so many letters and emails in support of our efforts. Many people who got the letter were touched and wrote letters on our behalf to other people they thought might help us get a new school. We worked hard on the writing and some of the writing worked out for us because we got a lot of support and brought a lot of people into to our school to see the way it is. In response to our efforts we have received hundreds of letters of support.

Another part of our action plan was to go on strike. We thought that this may be a good idea. We had a threaded discussion which means everybody got to say something about going on strike. The class decided not go on strike because we knew that there would be consequences. One of the consequences was to go to school in the summer and we did not want to have to come to the hot school in the summer.

We read a book called Civics for Democracy and we learned about techniques of participation in social action. The books showed us how to do things. This book taught us how to make surveys and petitions. We decided to survey our school. We went around the school to give different classrooms surveys to see what the problems about the school. We got a lot of data and entered into the survey studio to make charts and graphs. We found out that most people thought we need a new school. And we also found out what people in the school thought were the biggest problems.

The book also told us how to petition and support. We made a petition and made folders with all of the information we had about getting anew school. We showed the information on the folders to people who were going to sign the petition. This way they would understand clearly what we told them about. We have gotten over 900 signatures of people who agree that we need a new school. The folder had writing and pictures and survey results. No one who saw our folders could disagree with what we were saying about the school problems. The class enjoyed going around the neighborhood and school to see what people thought about our school. And it also helped us get the word out. We think that the improvements that are happening at the school are because of us and the project getting the word out.

Because of all the hard work we have been doing with Project Citizen there are many newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations that have agreed to help us get the word out. We have been on ABC News, NBC News, National Public Radio, The Chicago Tribune, Cultures Magazine, SalonSENSE Magazine, The Orlando Sentinel, Columbia College Chronicle and even Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader has written about us. We feel that the news media has helped us get the word out to many people. We know this because sometimes we go places and people ay you are the kids on TV or because they have sent us letters and emails.

We have been taking pictures of all the bad things at the school. Also we have taken photos of all our visitor and of the six-year-old sign that say we should be getting a new school. The pictures have come in handy to show visitors that did not have chance to go on tour. We were also able to put them on our website www.projectcitizen405.com.

We have not yet done any fundraising but it is still in our minds. Some kids think we can make money by selling candy or washing cars. We could also have a bake sale but know that we would have to sell a lot to get $18,000,000! Some people have sent in money to our school and we do not even know who they are. We have something on our website for people to donate money. You can donate money there if you like.

Throughout the six months of the hard work we have been researching a lot. We have found out all about building new school in Chicago. We have also found out about our school’s history. We have even found out about the laws and how the government works and decide on who gets new schools. We have looked at equality of schools and know that ours is not equal. Almost everything we have done with Project Citizen is on our website at www.projectcitizen405.com.

We have been trying to get the decision makers to meet with us, but they have not responded. Their secretaries have told us that they are investigating the problems but have not scheduled a time for us to meet with the decision makers to show all the work we have done. We are going to keep up trying to get support try to get to meet the decision makers so they will give us money to get a new school. We are planning to go to the Capital Improvement Program Meeting on May 17, 2004 to show all hard work we have been doing with Project Citizen. We hope this will help us.