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The Chicago High School for the Arts, an arts-focused Chicago contract school known as ChiArts with a popular conservatory model, did not seek renewal and wants Chicago Public Schools to consider taking over the campus.
The request comes after an unprecedented move by the Chicago Board of Education in February to absorb five charter campuses run by the Acero network that the nonprofit had planned to close. Earlier this year, another Chicago charter school, EPIC Academy, announced it would close at the end of this school year — unless the school district takes over operations of the schools as it did at Acero campuses. These moves suggest the Acero vote has set up a template for independent school operators facing fiscal challenges to push for campus handovers to CPS that would avert these school’s closures.
In a letter to parents this week, ChiArts leaders said rising financial pressures on the West Side school led to the decision not to seek renewal. They assured families that the school will finish out the school year undisrupted and said they are discussing options to keep the campus going in the longer run with CPS leadership.
Similar to charter schools, contract campuses are tuition-free schools run by private entities with public dollars.
“You will be happy to know that the ChiArts board, leadership, and CPS are already working closely together to create a sustainable plan that protects what makes ChiArts so special — its tuition-free, pre-professional arts training and rigorous academics,” Tina Boyer Brown, the school’s executive director, and Néstor Corona, its principal, said in the note to families.
The Chicago Teachers Union, which represents educators at ChiArts, EPIC, and Acero, said in a statement that the recent closure announcements are a sign that “the charter bubble is popping.” The union — a longtime critic of charters that has blamed them for the emptying out of some neighborhood campuses — advocated vocally for keeping the five Acero campuses open by absorbing them into the district.
The union blasted the ChiArts board for making the decision to pull out of running the school without input from staff and families and for informing them of that decision only after the deadline to apply for renewal had passed. And it signaled it might again press for a CPS intervention in keeping the school open.
“When charter operators abandon the schools they were entrusted to run by the district, CPS owes support to every student and staff member,” the union said in its statement about ChiArts.
ChiArts parent Rousemary Vega found out about the possibility the school could close when her daughter, Zamara Ramos, called her crying from the school. Ramos, a freshman at the school and an aspiring actor, was a 2-year-old in a stroller when Vega became a fixture at protests against the 2013 closure of Lafayette Elementary, whose building ChiArts now occupies.
“It’s devastating news,” Vega said about the ChiArts announcement. “It was just, ‘Not this again.’ It’s a nightmare.”
Vega said that when her daughter started at ChiArts in the fall, the family got no wind of the school’s financial troubles. Ramos remembers the exhilaration she felt when she received her acceptance letter from the school and felt certain the campus would open doors to a career as a performer.
“I just got here and now I might have to leave,” Ramos said. “It definitely hurts because this is like a second home to me already.”
Vega and Ramos said they hope the school board will do whatever it takes to preserve the school’s unique arts model.
The district’s school board gave the school a two-year renewal last year — a shorter period because the school was flagged as not meeting standards in the Financial and Operations Performance category. It is currently in financial remediation, the district said. The district said in a statement it is assessing whether the school’s current financial setup, which relies on philanthropic support and non-traditional staffing, is sustainable.
In a statement, CPS praised the school’s model, which combines intensive arts instruction with college prep academics, and said making a decision on the future of the school will require more “review, conversations, and collaborations.”
School leaders said in a statement that the school has struggled financially in recent years.
“Despite careful fiscal management and the school’s strong enrollment, the school faces funding shortfalls amid rising operating costs, leading to a recurring, unsustainable deficit,” the statement said.
A spokeswoman for the school said ChiArts leaders were not available for interviews Friday. But in response to questions from Chalkbeat, she provided a statement from school leaders noting rising operational costs the school has faced recently.
In the spring of 2024, the school had decried school budgeting changes in CPS that it argued had left it underfunded. At the time, the district was transitioning to an approach that assigned a set number of staff to each school regardless of enrollment and then allocated additional positions and dollars based on school need. It did not apply that new model to charter and contract campuses. The school’s enrollment has remained relatively stable at about 600 students in the past decade even as the district’s overall student numbers plunged.
Carlos Rivas, the school board member whose district ChiArts is in, said Friday that he had been briefed by CPS on the issue and had a meeting scheduled with the school’s leaders.
“The goal is to find a long-term solution,” he said.
The school will host an in-person meeting on campus at 6 p.m. Monday and a virtual meeting at noon on Tuesday.
Chalkbeat Chicago bureau chief Becky Vevea contributed reporting.
Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.
