Education
Chicago School Board Approves Resolution That Aims to Save 5 Acero Charter Schools
Chicago’s Board of Education has approved a revised measure that aims to keep open five of seven Acero charter school campuses that had been slated for closure, after previously directing Chicago Public Schools to maintain all seven.
The 21-member board at its monthly meeting Thursday voted to amend language in a revised resolution that would now keep five Acero schools open beyond this academic year: Cisneros, Casas, Fuentes, Tamayo and Santiago. The original item up for vote sought to maintain only four of those schools, with Cisneros added later in an amendment proposed by board member Debby Pope.
The board previously directed CPS to try to save all seven of the schools slated for closure, but district officials indicated they “would not legally be able to fund Acero at the level needed to maintain all campuses.” The revision approved Thursday does not mean that the board can’t further change the language in the future.
The Acero charter network, which operates elementary and high schools serving predominantly Hispanic students, announced last year plans to shutter those five campuses as well as Cruz K-12 and Paz elementary, citing declining enrollment, increasing personnel and facilities maintenance costs.
That proposal immediately sparked widespread pushback and protests from students and families.
“I am angry,” said Luis Delgado, who graduated from Santiago in 2023. “That same day when Acero announced that they were going to close down seven of the 15 Acero schools, I saw my mother, I saw teachers that I look up to and I saw my younger brother cry because they thought that they would not be able to see the school that brought me to be the person I am today.”
Several speakers at Thursday’s meeting tearfully described their schools as second homes for themselves and their families and pleaded with the board to keep them open.
“This has been and continues to be a school community that has a never-ending supply of love from our teachers, our parents, our friends that we hope will be by our sides forever,” Andrea Ayalla, a seventh grade student at Cisneros, told the board.
In December, the board — which at that point was comprised of seven members handpicked by Mayor Brandon Johnson — approved an initial resolution, which directed CPS officials to meet with Acero leadership in order to “ensure that the needed steps are taken to maintain” all seven campuses for the 2025-2026 school year.
Specifically, CPS appeared intent on absorbing five of the campuses, converting them from charter to district-run schools, while investigating the viability of taking over two more schools.
“They cannot go back on their word,” Stephanie Gomez, the parent of a Santiago student, said outside CPS headquarters Thursday morning. “Your commitment to this resolution will be a reflection of your commitment to these students and these families.”
The revised resolution removed language seeking to evaluate the viability of taking over any other Acero schools, while adding in a line that states: “The District will support the transition of the students, families, and staff at Paz, Cruz and Cisneros as Acero winds down the operation of these three campuses at the end of the 2024-2025 school year.”
The new resolution also removed wording that directed CPS officials to “create a detailed plan to transition” five Acero schools into district-run schools and replaced it with wording that instead directs them to “create a detailed plan of the viability to transition” those schools.
According to CPS, a joint analysis between the district and Acero of the funding needs for the campuses revealed that CPS would not legally be able to fund Acero at the level needed to maintain all seven campuses.
CPS officials also said they don’t have legal grounds to force Acero to keep any of the campuses open.
“Today we do not have any grounds to hold them accountable,” CPS Chief Portfolio Officer Alfonso Carmona told the board. “We don’t have any leverage from the perspective of the law to negotiate with Acero.”
