When Carl Schurz High School principal Heidy Moran heard that the district was moving students out of the troubled ASPIRA charter network, she expected a handful of transfers. What she didn’t anticipate was a flood of calls from hundreds of parents.
“I was like, I don’t know what’s going on, but we knew we’d need to assemble a welcoming team,” Moran said in her office Wednesday.
Over the past two weeks, more than 200 former ASPIRA students have transferred to the Irving Park school. The Schurz community quickly stepped up — from shifting class schedules, to moving prom to a larger venue to accommodate more students, Moran said.
“If there’s anything I want to highlight, it is just how our students and staff mobilized,” she added.
The Chicago Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to revoke the charter of the ASPIRA network, ending months of drawn-out uncertainty over the fate of the operator’s two Avondale high schools.
Chicago Public Schools announced it would begin transferring students from ASPIRA Business & Finance and Early College high schools last month. District officials said ASPIRA ran out of funding to finish the school year, despite receiving $2.55 million in advances from CPS since November.
As a charter network, ASPIRA schools are overseen by an independent board but receive public funding and operate under contract with CPS.
The back-and-forth between ASPIRA leadership and CPS officials has sparked debates about charter funding, and raised questions about the stability of the sector as Chicago’s school-aged population continues to decline.
“When charter operators suddenly close their doors, students, staff and taxpayers have to hold their bags,” interim CPS CEO Macquline King said at Thursday’s board meeting. “This disruption is traumatic.”
Both high schools, which are predominantly Latino and low-income, enrolled about 570 students at the start of the year.
Without additional funding — which CPS said it legally can’t provide — ASPIRA had no clear path forward, according to the district. Since the fall, the network had repeatedly come close to missing payroll. CPS stepped in with extra funds to keep ASPIRA afloat, but officials said the district was nearing a state-mandated funding cap.
Staring down the red, ASPIRA issued layoff notices to all staff, effective in April. But despite its dwindling funding, the operator had refused to self-close.
“It’s been difficult, and so frustrating,” said Guadalupe Galvan, whose 17-year daughter recently transferred from ASPIRA Early College to Schurz. “It was all uncertain. We just didn’t know what to do.”
In a statement last week, a district spokesperson blasted the network for “systemic fiscal mismanagement and a refusal to engage in a transparent dialogue.” ASPIRA has also not provided required financial documents, including payroll records and monthly cash flow statements, according to CPS.
“By providing conflicting and inaccurate information, the operator has created an environment of confusion and fear rather than prioritizing student welfare,” the statement said.
ASPIRA leadership, meanwhile, has attributed the network’s financial woes to declining enrollment, pointing to the per-student funding gap between charters and district-run schools. In a letter to the board Wednesday, ASPIRA CEO Edgar Lopez insisted that the network has taken “concrete steps” to remedy its finances.
“We respectfully believe that these challenges are actively being addressed and are not indicative of an immediate inability to operate safely or support students in the near term,” Lopez wrote.
But the CPS spokesperson said ASPIRA leadership has “failed to rectify its fiscal instability.” King told the board roughly 75% of ASPIRA students have already transferred to district-run schools.
Citing state law, the district had previously said it could not revoke a charter until the end of the school year. A CPS spokesperson did not directly address a question on what prompted the reversal, but said in a statement that the district “must step in immediately to ensure educational continuity.”
‘An element of grief’
Dozens of ASPIRA families filed into the auditorium at Schurz Wednesday, greeted by the school’s smiling welcoming team of students and staff. The halls were lined with colorful tables displaying information on sports, clubs and course offerings.
Moran acknowledged the challenges facing the school’s newest students.
“There’s an element of grief. They miss their teachers, their routines, maybe their friends that weren’t able to make it here, and that are at other schools,” she said. “There’s a lot of apprehension amongst the seniors.”
To ease the transfer process, CPS officials said the district is immediately transferring student academic records, waiving student fees, assisting with transportation and offering tutoring and mental health support. At Schurz, every new student is assigned a peer mentor.
“I really enjoy having new people, helping them around the school, showing them their classes, helping them with their work if they need help,” said senior Yaraliz Torres, 18, who is part of the Schurz welcoming team. “For me, it’s pretty fun having new friends.”
ASPIRA parent Reyna Escobar and her son, 18-year-old Jonathan, approached each table at the event to take flyers. Escobar said the past month has been difficult because of conflicting information from ASPIRA leadership.
“(ASPIRA) said the school might close, but why? What they were telling us wasn’t clear,” Escobar said in Spanish. “It was really hard.”
Her son chose Schurz because most of his friends from ASPIRA Business & Finance transferred there. He called it “heartbreaking” to leave his former school, but noted it has been a smooth transition to Schurz so far.
“They’re offering us a lot of help,” Escobar said. “The teachers are friendly, the principal, thank God, is bilingual … and they’re making sure (students) get through.”
