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Several Chicago Board of Education members called Thursday for a solution to support students at EPIC Academy, a South Side charter high school that’s planning to close.
During a Chicago Board of Education meeting, some board members also asked for a deeper look into the district’s process for renewing contracts with charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run institutions that operate based on legal agreements with CPS.
EPIC’s independent board voted last week to close the charter school, citing enrollment declines and financial challenges. While EPIC leaders said they planned to close the school by the end of the 2025-26 school year, they have not ruled out closure before the end of the year. The Chicago Tribune reported that school officials are in talks with CPS for financial help, but the district’s finances are tight.
In May, the school board voted to approve a two-year renewal for EPIC on the district’s recommendation.
But by July, EPIC put up for sale a building it had purchased a few years ago to do a multimillion-dollar expansion that it hoped would improve facilities for students and draw more kids to the school.
EPIC’s impending closure comes months after the board decided to save and absorb five of seven Acero charter schools that were also slated for closure.
“It is beyond disappointing to see a community once again be disrupted by an abrupt closure,” said elected board member Yesenia Lopez, who sponsored a resolution this spring to tighten oversight on charter schools. “It is clear the process needs to be revisited.”
EPIC enrolls just over 250 students, about half the number it enrolled before the pandemic. Chicago’s charter sector has seen sliding enrollment for years, as have district-run schools.
Several EPIC students expressed frustration during Thursday’s meeting with EPIC leadership’s decision to close.
Ayomide Olatunji, a 17-year-old senior at EPIC, told board members that he and his classmates have “worked tirelessly” toward graduation and are in the middle of working with EPIC staff to apply for college. A midyear closure, he said, would “take away our sense of stability and strip this very moment we’ve been building toward for four years.”
The Chicago Teachers Union, which represents teachers at EPIC, called on the board to help prevent the school from closing midyear. Moving forward, union leaders want the district to turn EPIC into a district-run school or transfer all the charter’s remaining students to nearby South Shore High School so they can stay together.
“We should not have schools opening in the fall that have budget deficits that mean doors can close midyear,” said Jen Conant, the union’s charter division chair.
Some board members raised concerns about whether the district provided enough oversight before EPIC closed. Appointed board member Karen Zaccor said she wants a “more precise scrutiny of finances” for charters.
Elected board member Che “Rhymefest” Smith, whose district includes EPIC, said he supports the school and wants to look “deeper” into the issues contributing to the closure. Appointed board member Michilia Blaise, who represents the West Side, said she’s “ready to roll” with Smith on finding a solution to EPIC’s closure. She cited how difficult transfers can be for students.
“That’s heavy for a kid to show up at another school, and now they’re graduating with a bunch of kids who are graduating together, and they don’t know who they are,” Blaise said of a midyear closure.
CPS officials previously said their assessments of charters include slightly older financial data — which it considered as satisfactory for EPIC ahead of its renewal — and that the district doesn’t assess a charter’s future financial outlook. LeeAndra Khan, EPIC’s executive director, previously told Chalkbeat that the school informed CPS in January of its projected budget shortfall; CPS still recommended renewal for the school in May.
In a letter to EPIC families earlier this month, CPS officials said they would host a “joint initial parent town hall, host town hall meetings on an ongoing basis, and provide individual student support.”
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema atramin@chalkbeat.org.
