We are writing to tell you about exciting work our fifth grade class is doing called Project Citizen. This project is sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago and the Center for Civic Education. It teaches us about how the government works and how we can affect public policy change even as fifth graders. Our class has looked at all the problems that affect our community and have unanimously decided to focus our attention on the policy of building new schools and creating equal schools in the City of Chicago. We based this decision on the fact that all schools should be equal. We know that our school is not equal to other schools. We have studied history about our school and about how schools need to be equal. This includes learning about the US Supreme Court Case of Brown vs. Board of Education and need for all schools to be equal.

We have created an action plan to try and get the word out about this policy getting equal and new schools. The action plan we created includes researching, petitioning, surveying, writing, photography and also interviewing and writing letters to people we think can help us fix the policy. We think and hope you would be interested in hearing about all the problems that our school in Cabrini Green is faced with everyday.

Our school building, Richard E. Byrd Academy, has big problems. There are too many problems to mention here, but we want to tell you about some of the most important ones. These main problems are what we think are important issues: the restrooms, temperature in our building, the windows and the lack of a lunchroom, a gym and a stage. We need a new school because of these problems. It is really important for our learning so we can be great when we grow up.

The restrooms are filthy and dirty. There are spitballs all over the place. They do not get cleaned up properly. It is also really smelly in the bathrooms. Also, we do not have soap or paper towels or garbage cans. We do not have doors on the stalls and have no privacy. The sinks have bugs in them and water is everywhere. As an example of how bad they are, sinks move and water leaks on the floor. The hot water faucets have cold water. Kids don't like using the bathrooms since they are so gross and falling apart.

In fact at Byrd the temperatures in the classrooms are broken. The heat is not turned on. It is really cold in the classrooms. As another example we have to put on our coats during class because it is so cold. They cannot fix it because the pipes are broken. It is uncomfortable and hard to learn. Our hands are cold and we cannot write. This needs to be changed!

As another example the windows are cracked. It is cold in our class because the windows are cracked. The windows are not efficient enough. There are bullet holes in the windows and there is tape on them. We cannot see through the windows and it is dark in the classrooms. We can hardly see what we are doing because it is so dark. This is not a good place to learn.

Another reason we need a new building is that we don't have a lunchroom. We eat in a hallway! The classes by the lunchroom are always getting distracted because of the lunchroom in the hall. That is why we need a new school so the classes will not be getting distracted. Another bad thing about our lunchroom is we don't get to decide what we want in lunch. Also, we want vending machines so we can eat a little snack to give us energy so we can learn better. Our school really needs a new lunchroom because the lunchroom lady shouldn’t have to tell students to be quiet. The teachers by the lunchroom shouldn’t have to close their doors to teach.

Another example of a problem is the gym is not connected to our school. Whenever it's bad weather outside we have to walk through the snow. In fact, it is not even our gym. We borrow a gym from Seward Park across the street. It is dangerous crossing the street and we shouldn't have to cross the street during school. This takes up our gym period. When we have basketball practice we get locked out because Seward Park is not open. If we had our own gym in our own school we wouldn't get locked out or be faced with the weather. When we walk to the gym there is ice on the ground. One day a little kid got hurt from falling on the ice.

Finally, we also do not have an auditorium or stage at Byrd. This is a problem because when we have assemblies, people heads are in the way because we have to have the assemblies in a hallway. There is no seating and it is difficult to see. There are never enough seats for everybody and people have to stand. As an example, we had the Harlem Globetrotters come to our school. We couldn't see anything. If our school had a stage we would be happy because we would have a better chance to watch the show.

We would like to invite you to see our school for yourself. We do not think that you would let your kids come to a school that is falling apart. Since the windows, the gym, the temperature, the lunchroom, stage and restrooms are not right we should get a whole new school building. The problems are not fixable and would cost too much to fix. Byrd Academy needs a new school building and the current policy has promised us one but it has not been built.

There are many reasons why we need a new school and we think you would agree. A new school would be a better school and we believe we will get a better education. We have the support of our teacher and of the administration of the school for this project. We are trying to get support for our new school. We are asking the decision makers in the City of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools to help us get a new school. We are also asking anyone else to write letters of support for us and talk to the people who will make the decision about us getting a new building. We are willing to fight for what is right and we will not give up. We will even raise the money ourselves!

The disadvantages of getting a whole new school are slim to none. We have told you about many of the problems in our and know that they need to be dealt with. We believe that they do not violate any US or state constitutions. In fact getting a new school would support the existing laws because our school violates them now because it is not equal to other schools.