Chicago board formally closes 2 struggling charter high schools

The Chicago school board has formally voted to shutter two high schools in the struggling ASPIRA charter network.

Chalkbeat Chicago reports that hundreds of students have already left the two Northwest Side schools--ASPIRA Business & Finance High School and ASPIRA Early College High School--and enrolled at new campuses in the city.

In a unanimous vote Thursday without any discussion, the school board revoked ASPIRA’s charter after months of cash advances to the network and escalating demands for financial information that district officials say the charter’s leadership never provided.

About 500 ASPIRA students have transfered to various city high schools. The largest group transferred to Carl Schurz High School, which this week held a meeting to introduce some of the 235 new students and their families to clubs and other activities.

Interim Chicago Public Schools CEO Macquline King decried what she described as an ongoing lack of cooperation from ASPIRA leaders in transferring student records and other issues, an accusation that an ASPIRA official strongly disputed.

The district started moving students out of the Early College and Business and Finance campuses earlier this year after concluding that the network could not furnish the money needed to complete the year. ASPIRA’s leaders at first argued the district was undermining the schools midyear, but they eventually decided to lay off all of their employees at the two campuses.

The vote at Thursday’s school board meeting has made the closure permanent.

The city's charter school sector has faced a turbulent stretch. Several schools have closed or turned to the district for help with making payroll.

Critics of ASPIRA argue that the network's financial missteps and insufficient transparency have at least contributed to the crisis.

District officials have said ASPIRA leaders wildly overestimated projected enrollments in budgeting and failed to come up with a feasible plan to finish out the school year, despite $2.5 million in advances from the district.

King said 75% of ASPIRA students have transferred to district schools, and officials are working to ensure the rest have found a new campus. 

Jennifer Conant, the charter division chair of the Chicago Teachers Union, which represents educators at ASPIRA, said about 50 students remain enrolled in the two network campuses, though few are coming to school.