Johnson wants a ‘contingency plan’ from Chicago Public Schools on the closure of Acerto charters

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Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday criticized Chicago Public Schools leadership over a heated school closure proposal by the Acero Charter School Network, using the moment to call for greater accountability of Charter Schools.

However, Johnson did not elaborate on what steps he would like to see the district take to prevent these closures. According to the Chicago Board of Education, there appears to be no legal path to stopping the closures the agreement with Acero.

While Johnson emphasized that he is not saying CPS CEO Pedro Martinez has done anything wrong, he said the district needs to create a “contingency plan” in response to the proposed Acero closures and that he and his team “don’t want that kind of leadership have seen. from the neighborhood.

Acero’s proposed closures have further strained the already strained relationship between Chicago Public Schools leadership and Johnson, who asked Martinez to resign in September. Martinez has refused to resign.

On Tuesday, Johnson also questioned how the Acero Network — whose staff is affiliated with the Chicago Teachers Union, a Johnson ally — reached its current financial situation just a year after CPS deemed it worthy of a three-year contract extension. The network attributed the closures to a A budget deficit of $40 millionreports Block Club Chicago.

“It’s not about pointing the finger at someone who is doing something wrong – it’s about how we correct course so that families don’t lose out,” Johnson said.

Neither Acero nor Chicago Public Schools immediately responded to requests for comment, including what options, if any, it is considering in response to the proposed school closures.

Last month, the Acero Network announced its plans closes seven of its schools, or about half of those it operates, impacting about 2,000 students on those campuses. The network cited a $40 million budget deficit. It is unclear where students will enroll, but those students, like any Chicago resident, have the right to enroll in their neighborhood school.

As a charter school network, Acero is privately operated but publicly funded. It is allowed to operate 15 campuses, largely on the Southwest Side, under terms set forth in a contract with Chicago Public Schools. Acero’s current contract was last extended in July 2023 and runs until June 2026.

Acero’s contract allows the network to close schools, but says the network must provide written notice to the district by Oct. 15, and that closures cannot occur before June 30 or the end of the school year — whichever comes later , “except in situations of emergency where the health, safety or education of Charter School students is at risk.”

CPS did not immediately say whether the network had notified the district before Oct. 15. The news about the proposed closures became public on October 9 – which CPS CEO Martinez has said publicly around the same time he found out.

Since the network’s announcement, Acero families and teachers have opposed the closures and have raised their concerns with the Chicago Board of Education.

Union officials have asked the district to intervene or absorb the campuses and keep them open for another school year. When the district declined to renew an agreement with Urban Prep charter schools in 2022, CPS officials pledged to keep these schools open as district campuses. That ultimately did not happen and the two campuses remain open under cancellation agreement with Urban Prep until June 2025.

CPS did not immediately respond to questions about what options it might consider at this time.

The Chicago Board of Education plans to hold a special meeting Thursday vote on a resolution calling on Acero representatives to appear before the board and discuss alternatives to the closures. The resolution also says that if Acero ultimately closes its seven campuses, it will “return all unspent public funds and property,” and that the district must extend the deadline for GoCPS — the application Chicago families use to apply for various schools, including charters and selective enrollment campuses – through December 15. That deadline has been reached already postponed to November 22.

When asked why the mayor is advocating so strongly for Acero given his past criticism of charter schools, Johnson said he doesn’t want “any family to have to go through that kind of trauma” that comes with school closures.

Still, Johnson invoked a long-standing position of his: that charter schools, as private entities, should be given more responsibility. CPS is already charged with overseeing charter schools, setting terms in each operator’s contract and deciding whether operators’ schools should be renewed.

“Part of my job is to challenge CPS and its leadership to respond to charter operators that have these structural elements within their budget framework that are not sustainable over the long term and require audits,” Johnson said. “It requires CPS to dig a little deeper to look at the trends that are emerging.”

Tensions between Johnson and CPS continue to rise

On Monday, the mayor’s office staff, including chief of staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas, and two of the mayor’s closest allies: Alds. Carlos Ramirez Rosa and Byron Sigcho-Lopez – met with CPS staff, including Martinez, about the proposed Acero closures. Olga Bautista and Frank Niles Thomas, members of the Chicago Board of Education, were also present, according to a source with knowledge of the meeting who was not authorized to speak to the press about private conversations.

It was a “controversial discussion,” in which mayors questioned CPS leaders about when they discovered the proposed closures, whether the charter network’s financial documents had already been combed and what CPS has done about the issue, the source said. Martinez said the district has been in contact with Acero families and is considering the best options, the source said.

“Pedro’s story remained consistent with what he has said privately and publicly: He found out when the district did around the same time they went public,” the source said.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Sigcho-Lopez said the meeting made him “concerned about (Martinez’s) leadership style” and, like the mayor, wanted an audit of Acero’s finances.

“He had a lot of excuses, a lot of contradictions, but not a lot of answers as to what he’s actually going to do to make sure that those 2,000 kids aren’t forced, you know, into a transition that doesn’t stand in anyone’s way. interest,” Sigcho-Lopez said.

Pacione-Zayas told Chalkbeat that CPS officials were asked whether the district had contacted the Illinois State Board of Education for guidance and whether the district had considered incorporating the campuses — including how it would affect their budget.

“None of it was prepared,” Pacione Zayas said. “All that was revealed to us was that they were the GoCPS (application deadline) with seven days.”

Families use the district’s GoCPS application to apply for schools, including preschool programs, selective enrollment and magnet schools.

CPS has been exploring the costs behind a number of scenarios, including taking over the campuses, according to a CPS source who was not authorized to speak to the press. The source declined to explain whether this was a viable option, saying they were unsure if City Hall was aware of the district’s analysis.

Reema Amin is a reporter for Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at [email protected].