Save Old Town School formed almost exactly one year ago, following the stunning announcement that the Old Town School of Folk Music planned to sell its building at 909 W. Armitage Ave. in Lincoln Park, where it had operated for five decades.

In our change.org petition published the day after the announcement, we called for new leadership at the School, more transparency about the 909 decision, an examination of class pricing policies, improved marketing efforts and the creation of a student advisory board.

What a difference a year makes.

The School has abandoned plans to sell 909, and is now investing in the building to make it a better place for its programs.  It has a new top executive (interim CEO Jim Newcomb) and a new board chairman (Rob Ospalik). Teachers have unionized to strengthen their ability to shape the School’s future.  A “student committee” is being formed. And as we had hoped, the new leadership team is working to expand School programs, rather than accept lower enrollment as inevitable.

Therefore, we think it’s time for our group to evolve as well.

Effective Oct. 22 -- the one-year anniversary of the 909 announcement -- we are changing our name to Students of Old Town School.  If you know us as SOTS, you can still keep using that acronym.  

Our mission statement:

Students of Old Town School is an independent forum for students and other members of the school's community to gather, voice opinions, take action and communicate about topics or issues of concern or interest.

We’re emphasizing students because they provide 60 percent of the School’s revenue, and we think they need a platform to share ideas and concerns.

But you don’t have to be a student to be part of Students of Old Town School.  We welcome input and ideas from teachers, donors, concert-goers -- indeed, anyone who cares about OTS.

We will continue to use our Facebook group as our primary place for communication and community-building.  We’ll change the name between now and Oct. 22.

In the meantime, we’d like to know what YOU think Students of Old Town School should be doing.  We’ve set up a short online survey to collect your input. Please take the survey here (it should take less than 10 minutes):

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XTMQNKK 

We also urge you to consider making a contribution to the fundraising campaign for 909.  You can contribute via this GoFundMe page set up by OTS:  https://www.gofundme.com/oldtownschoolarmitage.  You may also donate directly to the School here: https://oldtownschool.org/support/909/. 

We also encourage you to sign up for classes and workshops at the School.

Thank you to everyone who signed our petition, wrote letters to the board, participated in our Facebook community and otherwise supported our efforts to turn things around at the Old Town School. 

Together, we made a difference!