(WTTW Information)
Chicago’s Board of Schooling this week will vote on a decision demanding the Acero constitution community return any unspent public funding if it goes forward with plans to shut seven faculties on the finish of the present educational yr.
The board is ready to satisfy exterior of its typical month-to-month schedule Thursday in a particular assembly the place it would take up solely a small handful of issues, together with a decision to keep up the seven constitution faculties Acero plans to shut.
Acero presently operates 15 faculties, and the decision states that its management should meet with the board to “mutually focus on and discover options that allow Acero to proceed working” every of these faculties via June 30, 2026.
But when Acero proceeds with closing seven faculties earlier than the subsequent college yr as deliberate, then the operator “shall return all unspent public funds and property as required beneath 105 ILCS 5/27A-10.10 and Acero’s Constitution Faculty Settlement.”
The decision states its motion may additionally be thought-about when it comes time to resume Acero’s constitution settlement in 2026.
Acero management final month introduced plans to stop operations at Cruz Okay-12 and Casas, Cisneros, Fuentes, Paz, Santiago and Tamayo Elementary Colleges. These closures would impression greater than 2,000 college students and round 270 instructional staffers.
The constitution community stated the closures have been spurred by declining enrollment, rising personnel and services upkeep prices and insufficient college services.
Since then, Acero households and Chicago Lecturers Union management have pleaded with Chicago Public Colleges to soak up the colleges into the district so they may stay open.
The decision additionally states that CPS will lengthen its GoCPS software deadline for Acero college students to Dec. 15 with the intention to “reduce the potential disruption.”
The board in September accepted a decision vowing to not shut any public faculties earlier than 2027, however that nonbinding measure doesn’t cowl constitution faculties, that are publicly funded however privately operated.
The members of the board that accepted that measure additionally all resigned en masse final month and have since been changed by new mayoral appointees. A type of new appointees — board president Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson — has additionally since stepped down beneath stress after a collection of antisemitic, misogynistic and conspiratorial social media posts he made generated widespread outrage.
The six-member board on Thursday may even vote on a decision “cementing” CPS as a welcoming district for all college students and vote to authorize the retention of an outdoor legislation agency.
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