The Chicago Board of Education approved an amended resolution at a Thursday meeting requiring Chicago Public Schools to keep open several charter schools slated for closure despite financial warnings that this would be unwise.
After a protracted and often confusing debate on the feasibility and fine print of the amendment, the school board voted 16 to 3 with one abstention to keep five of the seven schools slated for closure in Acero Charter Network through the end of the 2025-26 school year and incorporate them as district schools the following year. It did not provide concrete options for the other two schools.
The last-minute change in the resolution also reflects the dynamics of a divided board—with several newly elected and appointed members—that is facing serious financial challenges. The vote followed despairing pleas from throngs of parents and students in their schools’ T-shirts explaining how the closures would harm their families.
This is the second time the board has voted to maintain the schools through the 2025-26 school year. In December, the board passed a vote for the same outcome, but the agenda for Thursday’s monthly meeting indicated that the board would vote to amend the resolution and close three of Acero’s schools, not two.
The amendment, posted 48 hours before the board meeting, directed the district to keep just four schools open — a reduction from the original five — through at least the 2025-26 school year. However, the future of those schools in the following year was uncertain.
Several board members passionately discussed the financial decisions facing the board and acknowledged the devastation the closures would inflict on the schools’ families and communities. However, most of the meeting’s public comment segment was taken up by parents and students at Acero, who expressed their frustration—some with raised voices and tears—about the lack of communication from Acero leadership and their discomfort with the uncertainty they have faced for weeks.
“We’re broken due to this situation. I hope that no organization — be it charter or public — be so careless and reckless,” said Acero’s Fuentes Elementary parent Angelica Juarez.
Acero charter schools are authorized and overseen by the district. The seven schools in question serve 2,000 students who are predominantly Latino. News about the potential closures of the schools was first announced by Acero leadership in October. It has been the source of contention at board meetings for months since.
Acero’s 11-member board initially cited funding challenges, declining enrollment and inadequate spaces to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act as reasons for the closures. They said keeping the schools open would leave the network with a $40 million budget shortfall for the 2025-26 school year.
The district has been in ongoing negotiations with Acero leadership, including CEO Richard L. Rodriguez, according to Alfonso Carmona, CPS’ chief portfolio officer.
Carmona cited state law that requires school districts to give charter operators between 97% and 103% of the funding it gives district-run schools per student. Maintaining the Acero buildings would exceed that, Carmona said. It would take $4.1 million at a minimum to keep all seven campuses open, according to Carmona.
“The district does not have legal grounds to keep any of the campuses open,” he said.
Cisneros debate
Thursday’s amended resolution stated that Acero’s Paz and Cruz campuses would close this spring, instead of staying open through 2025-26. And Sandra Cisneros Elementary School would also close with the pair, a change from December’s board vote. The Casas, Fuentes, Santiago and Tamayo schools would stay open for 2025-26 and the four schools’ futures would remain uncertain after that.
Debby Pope, representing District 2 on the North Side, led the charge to amend the resolution, bringing Cisneros back into the list of schools that would stay open in 2025-26 and removing the “plan of the viability to transition” the five schools to being district-run in the following year.
Ellen Rosenfeld, the board member for District 4, challenged her: “My oath when I took this office and was repeated today is I shall respect taxpayer interests by serving as a faithful protector of the school district’s assets.”
It sparked several minutes of discussion from board members, both appointed by Mayor Johnson and elected this November. The mayor is a former teacher and Chicago Teachers Union organizer and ran his mayoral campaign largely around promises to boost education in the city.
Johnson currently maintains control of the board. Under state law, the mayor gets 11 appointments, while the rest are elected until 2027. Of the 10 members who won seats in November, four were endorsed by the teachers union and six were charter school-backed or independent. Members of the board say this has created some interesting dynamics.
Pope was appointed by Johnson after a previous board resigned en masse over how to manage the district’s budget gap. Rosenfeld won her District 4 race without CTU’s backing.
“We cannot remove the word viability from this language. We have to be able to ask ourselves. Is it functioning? Is it effective? Is it financially sustainable? What is the strain on the district office? We must be able to keep that word viability in there,” Rosenfeld said.
Despite Carmona presenting a detailed presentation to board members with the financial outcomes of keeping different numbers of the schools open, board members approved both the new amendment and the resolution. Much of the discussion about Cisneros revolved around questions about the life expectancy of boilers at Cisneros, and the related costs.
Teachers, students and CTU organizers provided emotional testimony before Thursday’s vote, with most breaking down into tears. They referenced an ICE arrest that occurred outside an elementary school in Gage Park Wednesday.
“This is supposed to be a safe place, and it’s not. Where is there a safe place for these children?” said Acero parent Lucy Salgado. “Don’t take their education away. Everyone deserves an education … I’m going to beg you.”
Salgado knelt before the board, separated only by a glass partition, to conclude her comments. A dozen other parents and students followed, many visibly overcome by emotion. Sobs echoed through the room.
Following the board’s passage of the resolution, families were overcome with emotion, grateful to witness the end of the months-long saga of whether or not their school would succumb to Acero’s initially planned closures.
They embraced one another, crying tears of joy. One couple praised God.
