The Chicago Board of Education renewed the contracts with six charter school operators Wednesday, despite recent hesitations from some board members about approving long-term agreements after a slew of financial troubles in the sector.
The majority of the board voted Wednesday to extend the contracts of the Academy for Global Citizenship Charter School in Garfield Ridge, the Chicago Collegiate Charter Schools in Pullman and West Pullman, the Chicago Mathematics and Science Academy Charter School in Rogers Park, the Christopher House Charter School network, the Intrinsic Charter School network and the Acero Charter School network, all with various locations.
Charter schools are overseen by independent boards but receive district funding and operate under contract with CPS. Around 8,300 students across 16 campuses are served under the now-extended contracts. The contracts have been extended for terms ranging from four to seven years.
The vote comes after months of disagreement among board members on how to handle charter oversight after the abrupt closure of two ASPIRA charter schools in Avondale in March, a move school leadership said was driven by financial woes despite receiving additional funding from the board in the fall. Another charter school, South Shore’s Epic Academy, is set to close at the end of the academic year for similar reasons – low enrollment and financial struggles.
Other charter networks have also faced struggles in recent years. In 2024, the board voted to absorb five of seven Acero charter schools, also heading for closure, a move district officials projected would cost upward of $30 million.
The process of reviewing the charters and the length of contracts has previously been a point of concern for the board. While 11 members of the hybrid, 21-person board – half elected by city constituents and half appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson – voted late last month to punt the renewal decision to Wednesday, few members voiced opinions before extending the contracts.
Appointed board member Karen Zaccor, District 4A, commended the work the district has done to revamp its charter renewal and monitoring practices in recent months amid the uncertainty and closures within the networks.
Those moves include mid-cycle reviews, revised budget templates with three-year financial projections, and a financial early-warning process that checks for factors such as declining enrollment and operational deficiencies. These formal checkpoints did not previously exist to monitor charter networks through the school year.
The new review framework is a continuous process containing “multiple and frequent opportunities for intervention” that could potentially help defend against situations like Epic Academy’s closure going forward, Zaccor said.
“Our goal is to have a process that, while nothing is foolproof, protects against future similar events. If that’s politics, so be it,” Zaccor said. “We have to acknowledge that the landscape that made charters profitable has been changing, and we have to be vigilant as a result. CPS and the board are on the hot seat to ensure stability, which includes both sustainable finances and steady improvement in academic areas that are falling short.”
Still, other board members had qualms going into the meeting on specific contract renewals.
Only one member, elected Yesenia Lopez, District 7B, voted outright against any contract renewals. Appointed board member Debby Pope, District 2B, voted for the renewals but said the uncertainty created by the Acero network schools’ closures still lingers. Five of the charter operator’s 13 campuses will be officially absorbed and transitioned into CPS-managed schools in the fall.
“…I am going to vote for this, although I do still have concerns about the matter in which that operator did what they did, and I’m very glad that we have strengthened the provisions for ongoing oversight,” Pope said before voting on the Acero contract.
