A protest at the Chicago Public Schools board meeting tomorrow over plans to close about 20 public schools could draw several hundred people, organizers say.

After the meeting, CPS will kick off a several weeks of hearings on proposed closures and other changes, leading up to a vote on the issue next month.

The protest is organized by the Grassroots Education Movement, which includes more than a dozen advocacy and educational groups, including the Chicago Teachers Union, Teachers for Social Justice, Blocks Together and Designs for Change.

The group says the CPS Renaisssance 2010 program does a poor job of including parents, teachers and students in decisions on school closings and turnarounds.

“The experience of our membership is that there’s no space for them in Ren 2010,” says Cecile Carroll, the education organizer with Blocks Together, a West Humboldt Park advocacy group. “They’re not a part of the closings, they’re not a part of the openings, they’re not a part of the turnaround.”

Meanwhile, teachers are concerned about losing their jobs, says Senn High School counselor Wendy Boatman, who is a spokeswoman for the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators.

“Our biggest concern is the loss of teacher jobs going to non-union charter schools, as well as the effect it has on the general-education high schools,” Boatman says.

Anitra Schulte, a CPS spokeswoman, said she could not immediately answer questions about the protest.

“They’re actually really getting inundated with information requests from reporters, and at this point are asking for questions to be submitted to us in writing,” she says.

Don Moore, the executive director of Designs for Change, says the protest is the coalition’s kick-off event, and will be followed by other demonstrations. He expects at least 300 people to come to the protest; a similar protest over school closures last year drew about 500 people. Coalition supporters will meet Saturday to discuss how to help one another and how to collectively advocate for the schools on the closure list.

“This coalition is trying to build a political movement collectively among the affected schools and their supporters,” Moore says.

He says political considerations appeared to be driving the creation of the closure list.

“There are no criteria that were used to determine which schools would be closed or consolidated or phased out that really stand up to scrutiny,” he says.

Closing schools arbitrary can have a host of negative effects on students, from overcrowded classrooms at the schools who take displaced students to even greater funding imbalances.

”Closing a school—we’ve been out at a lot of these schools—is really a devastating blow to the community,” Moore says. “And the school board seems oblivious to the impact of school closings, for example on children who have to cross into hostile gang territory.”

Both Moore and Carroll agree that the round of hearings slated for the next month leading up to the Board of Education’s vote on which schools to close are “a sham.”

“They have a target number, so – you know what I’m saying – If they have this number they’re trying to get to, is it really about the hearings? No,” Carroll says. “They have a numerical goal they’re trying to get to.”

Moore said its unlikely the Board of Education would look at many of the transcripts and comments from the hearings, since board members themselves do not attend the hearings.

“There’s this charade where schools invest enormous amounts of time in showing up for these hearings and talking about why their schools shouldn’t be closed, and then the board never really takes any of that into account,” Moore says.

Both Moore and Carroll agree that the round of hearings slated for the next month leading up to the Board of Education’s vote on which schools to close are “a sham.”

Tomorrow's events include a news conference at 10 a.m. at the Chicago Board of Education, 125 S. Clark St. A protest is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m., after the board meeting.

Saturday’s meeting of coalition members, which is open to the public, will start at 12 p.m. at the United Electrical Workers Hall, 37 S. Ashland Ave.

“Even if we can keep them open for a longer period of time, any little thing will be looked at as a success,” Boatman says.