Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.
Two suburban Chicago charter schools are appealing to Illinois’ state superintendent to stay open after the local board of education voted to close the campuses in 2027 unless contract renewal terms can be reached.
The charter closure decision and subsequent appeal comes as North Chicago District 187 is transitioning away from state oversight. Like Chicago, the school district will have a fully elected school board in 2027 after roughly a decade of state control. It will continue to have a state Financial Oversight Panel until 2031.
North Chicago District 187’s Independent Authority, which is a hybrid school board made up of state appointees and elected officials, voted in late September to wind down the operations of two LEARN charter school campuses, citing the inability to reach a contract agreement. Earlier this year, the same board voted to grant LEARN a seven-year contract renewal.
“We’re in this gray area of operating schools without a contract to do so,” said District 187 Superintendent John Price. LEARN 6 and LEARN 10 campuses have operated without a formal charter contract since 2021 and 2022, according to the resolution and documents obtained by Chalkbeat.
Price told Chalkbeat Wednesday the first preference would be to reach a contract agreement, rendering the wind-down plan moot. “Clearly, the district wants the schools to be open. We’ve offered a seven-year renewal,” he said.
Andrew Broy with the Illinois Network of Charter Schools said it’s “very common” for a charter school to operate without a contract or under the terms of a previous one after the authorizing school board votes.
“Just like if a union contract is pending for years, it rolls over,” Broy said. “The same thing happens in charter school contracts today.”
One key sticking point in the contract talks between District 187 and LEARN has to do with a school building on the Naval Station Great Lakes base that LEARN has directly leased from the federal government since it opened in 2012. District 187 said it has applied to directly lease the building and is proposing to sublease it to LEARN under the same terms. But the two parties have not reached an agreement on the arrangement.
District 187 is also currently building a new facility for district-run Forrestal Elementary with federal funds.
LEARN President and CEO Greg White has said the network cannot agree to a new contract until all the financial terms, including the building lease for LEARN 6, are sorted out. He said closing the campuses would be short-sighted given their success.
“It was actually the work of ISBE and the Navy and families in North Chicago is why we’re there,” White said. “We’ve had a long-term relationship, a very positive relationship, with the Illinois State Board.”
He said Thursday ISBE should grant the appeal because state law says “if a district chooses not to renew a charter, it must be able to place every student in a higher-performing school. There are no higher-performing elementary schools in North Chicago.”
LEARN’s two campuses in North Chicago are rated “commendable” on the most recent state report card and collectively, they serve 800 of the district’s more than 3,500 students. LEARN officials noted no other District 187 elementary schools received a commendable or higher rating. The local high school, however, is also rated “commendable.” ISBE is in the process of revising those labels for school performance.
In Illinois, charter schools can only be authorized by local school districts. If a local school board denies a charter application or terminates it, charters can appeal to the state superintendent. There are currently nine state-authorized charter schools that won appeals in the past.
LEARN’s appeal was submitted on Tuesday, kicking off a process involving a third-party hearing officer who makes a recommendation to ISBE. The timeline would not likely result in a decision before February or March.
Nevertheless, more than two dozen parents of LEARN students from North Chicago showed up at ISBE’s monthly meeting Thursday to urge state officials to keep the two campuses open beyond 2027.
Jennifer Jerez, a parent of three current and former LEARN 6 students, said she enrolled her older children at the school because they were struggling “academically, mentally and even emotionally” at their previous school.
“They were struggling to read and write at 13 and 15,” she said. “I was desperate for help as any other parent, and so I applied to LEARN 6. There, my eldest flourished. He found his voice. He got into the honor roll, and he got accepted to a prestigious high school. He is now 22 in his third year at [Northern Illinois University], and is majoring in psychology.”
Jerez said her 6-year-old is now in first grade at LEARN 6.
“I am begging you to please, please, let him have the same opportunities that my eldest had,” she said.
“LEARN has given my children and so many others the opportunity to reach higher than they ever thought possible,” said Michelle Malcom, a parent of three current and former LEARN 6 students. “I ask you to grant LEARN’s appeal and reverse the district decision to close our schools. Keep these schools open. Keep hope, choice, high expectations alive for North Chicago.”
Tension between charter schools and their authorizing school boards is not new. But in recent years, in Chicago and Illinois, there have been more instances of charters closing.
Some charter closures have been voluntary, such as recent decisions in Chicago by charter operators to not continue operating certain campuses, prompting the city’s school board to intervene and keep some of the charters open as district schools. Others have been prompted by conflicts or financial mismanagement.
The state board has not always granted appeals. Last year, it denied an appeal by a charter school in Peoria after the local school board there voted to end its contract with the school.
Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.
