One After 909 (West Armitage)

(On October 22, the Old Town School of Folk Music announced plans to sell its building at 909 W. Armitage Avenue. Set out below is a letter I sent Bau Graves, the school's executive director, on November 1.)

Dear Mr. Graves,

Last week, while sitting at my desk paying bills, I came across an October missive from the Old Town School of Folk Music asking me to renew my membership, which was about to expire. I’ve been a member of the school for over a decade, and it is, hands down, one of my favorite places in Chicago. (To give you some idea how often I visit the school, I shopped at Different Strummer earlier this week, and I have tickets for a concert at the school next week.)

When it comes to supporting the school, I know I’m just a little guy. The modest check I send every year pales in comparison to the dollars you and your colleagues raise from the city’s movers and shakers – individuals whose surnames are frequently followed by the word “Foundation.”

I write today simply to tell you why I’m not yet ready to renew my membership.

You’ve now been working in Chicago as the Old Town School's executive director for over a decade, so I’ll assume you have some level of familiarity with Mayor Emanuel’s decision to close more than 50 of the city’s public schools back in 2013. As a Chicago Public Schools parent who paid close attention to that process – I was one of the lawyers who challenged the closings in federal court – I continue to believe the mayor and and his hand-picked board were their own worst enemies. Yes, they got what they wanted in the short term, but the heavy-handed, top-down style with which they pursued their agenda caused a lot of collateral damage – institutional damage that has not yet been repaired.

Learn from their mistakes.

From where I sit, I view the Old Town School’s faculty as the heart and soul of your operation. I’m honored to count many of your teachers among my close friends and favorite people with whom to play music. Make no mistake, you blindsided them with the October 22 announcement that you are selling the building at 909 W. Armitage, and (from what I can tell) your rollout of that decision has not helped faculty morale.

The wise man knows what he does not know, and I certainly have no idea whether your decision to sell the Armitage building makes sense for the school and its long-term health. What I do know is that you’ve left a lot of my friends wondering whether they’ll have jobs next year. Unlike you, my friends didn’t enjoy spectacular increases in their Old Town School compensation between 2009 and 2016. A lot of them scramble each year just to find medical insurance.

Your accountants may view those guitar, voice, and piano teachers as fungible faculty members who are nothing more than line items on the school’s balance sheet, but you’ll be making a great mistake if you ignore their voices the next time you and your board members make a significant decision about the school’s future.

I’ll wait a few weeks to see how things shake out at the Old Town School, but in the interim, I’ll send the check I usually send your way to the nearby People’s Music School in Uptown. I’m confident the late Woody Guthrie would understand my decision.

Sincerely,
Matt Farmer