If you can tune in to the 10:30 CPS Board meeting at 10:30, Pete Leki will testify. There are also a total of 50 others from across the city who will testify on other topics.
Letter from Pete Leki below;
I’ll be testifying to the board of CPS downtown this morning at 10:30.
You can watch it live at https://www.cpsboe.org/
In the time since the most recent news article, the principal sent a letter to me, which seemed, at first, to ban or restrict me from the garden. However, with the intervention of the alderman, I’ve been allowed to continue to garden as a volunteer. This first year principal has stated that he now manages the garden.
He underestimates the expertise, effort, and time I dedicated to my job. He expects the volunteers that I managed to step up and do the job that I did, including managing themselves. I also submitted a letter to the LSC, detailing suggested corrections for the minutes of the previous meeting, and asking to be allowed to comment in the August LSC meeting. Instead, they ignored my letter and seem to have violated the open meeting act by not admitting me to the virtual meeting until they made a motion to adjourn. My corrections about misstatements regarding my job and the ecology program were ignored.
It takes good community relationships to manage hundreds of volunteers. The gardeners are doing the best they can, but they are deeply concerned about the future of the garden.
Additionally, I’ve started a podcast, titled, Mr. Leki Radio, which is linked on our website, WatersEcology.org
Tonight, we’ll have garden night, 5-sunset, with the usual tasks, food, music. All new and old community members and school families are welcome to come enjoy the garden and learn. We’ll learn the latest flowers in bloom and in seed and will have a task list for young and old.
Pete Leki