Hancock College Prep High School will be added as Chicago’s eleventh selective enrollment high school beginning in the 2015-2016 school year CPS announced Oct.1.

Hancock, located on 4034 W. 56th St., previously served the surrounding Chicago West Lawn Community, west of Midway airport. The school will no longer accept all neighborhood students. Instead, area eighth graders will be sent to Marie Sklodowska Curie Metro High School and Hubbard High School.

The reason for the transformation, according to CPS, is Hancock’s ideal location to serve students on the southwest side who travel long distances to attend top of the line schools like Lane. CPS noted Hancock’s small area of enrollment as another reason for their selection.

According to The Chicago Sun-Times, CPS’ Executive Director of Office of Strategy Management, Todd Babbitz recently spoke before a town meeting. Babbitz cited 371 students who travel from the southwest side to attend Lane as just one example of why a southside selective enrollment high school is necessary.

However, the idea has received some backlash. CPS neighborhood high schools, such as Hancock, have long had bad reputations. They have often been thought to be inadequate and sometimes are not given the benefit of the doubt that they are a good education option. Some accuse CPS of further encouraging this mindset by taking away an excellent public school option that was doing fine, as shown by what The Chicago Sun-Times called “jumps” in graduation rates and college acceptance, without the selective student body. To the people against the new selective enrollment school, taking away a well performing school from the community teens will be a disservice.

Kiana Ellis, Div. 657, is one of the alleged 371 students who travel from Chicago’s southwest side to attend Lane.

Ellis sees both sides of the argument.

“I think it is good and bad,” Ellis said. “They’re making it [the change from neighborhood to selective] for people like me who come from south to come to one of the world’s best schools. The bus takes two hours, which takes a lot of time out of people’s day… However, CPS will be taking away (a good public school) from people who live in the community and know the school better than me.”

Mr. Hudson, the Sound Engineering and Guitar teacher at Lane, is also a native southsider.

“It’s unfortunate for the students [students who were expecting to go to Hancock] that this is happening to,” Hudson said. “But in the long run the southwest side deserves and needs a good high school option – and a selective enrollment school might fulfill that. If they do this right with Hancock, Hancock can be very competitive. The reason I say that is because there are a lot of great families and a lot of great students coming from those families on the southwest side. Right now, a lot of those kids are coming to Lane Tech, Whitney Young, even all the way up to Northside and Payton. They take this long commute to get there. That goes to show you that these are people serious about their education. So, they also deserve to have an option that is close.”

Hudson also explained how he believes Hancock’s inclusion might affect Lane.

“The thing that I think about sometimes,” Hudson said. “Is that I will be kind of sad to see some kids that would have gone to Lane, going to Hancock. I think some of the best students from Lane come from the southwest side. I hope Lane continues to attract those types of students and I think Lane will. Lane offers something special. Even if Hancock is completely successful they won’t be able to do exactly what Lane does.”