Chicago Public Schools approved a charter school for the Near North Side and one for the Near West Side last week. With a specialized curriculum and reliance on private funding, they’re part of a controversial new direction taken by the Chicago Board of Education to improve schools citywide.

Chicago International Charter School will open its 16th Chicago campus at 1443 N. Ogden Ave., in Old Town, this fall. The school will first enroll sixth and seventh graders, then expand into a middle and high school. Ogden International, a magnet middle and high school that has temporarily called the building home, will move to 24 W. Walton St.

Meanwhile, the first Legal Prep Academy, a high school, will open in the fall of 2012 at 1901 W. Carroll St., in Near West.

Both new schools are in the 27th Ward, and Ald. Walter Burnett says the charters benefit the neighborhood by enhancing school choice.

But unlike traditional CPS neighborhood schools, charters take students from across the city. So Burnett would like to see a pledge from both schools that 30 percent of their students come from the surrounding neighborhood.

Burnett also said that he would specifically like to see students at CICS from the mixed-income housing developments at Cabrini Green that have replaced the demolished public housing high rises. The CICS school is a 17 minute walk from Cabrini Green.

Cybil Madison Boyd, director of the new CICS, said she’s meeting with Burnett next week and will meet with the Chicago Housing Authority within the month.

Boyd said CICS is open to a neighborhood requirement, but added, “We’re a bit off schedule and haven’t been able to get started as quick as we would like” on an admissions policy.

“We were just approved,” Boyd said.

Meanwhile, the president and founder of Legal Prep Charter Academies, Sam Finklestein, said he was “very open” to 30 percent of Legal Prep students coming from the neighborhood.

“We think [the percentage] will be much higher,” Finkelstein said. “We’ll make sure that all the parents in the surrounding area know about it.”

The Board of Education first considered the charter schools in December, but tabled the proposal after opposition from groups like local school councils and the Chicago Teachers Union. Opponents of charter schools spoke again at the Jan. 26 meeting and argued charters use taxpayer money that could be better spent on CPS neighborhood schools.

But one financial advantage of charters is that, unlike neighborhood schools, they are not entirely funded by public dollars. By creating their own curricula, charters like Legal Prep and CICS are able to attract private investment.

That’s a big plus for CPS, which came into the year with a $245 million operating deficit.

“Charter schools may be the only way the board can really afford new schools,” Burnett said.

The first legal-themed school in Chicago, Legal Prep will focus, “on the skills all great lawyers possess: excellent written and oral communication, critical thinking, problem solving, and advocacy,” according to their website. The school will use money from law firms, as well as other private companies and foundations, to get started. Finklestein said Legal Prep was still finalizing what private funding sources would get the school started.

CICS, meanwhile, will rely on funding from the MacArthur Foundation to get started. The campus will be a “Quest to Learn” school, meaning that it will focus on the principles of game theory. Boyd explains that teachers will focus on storytelling and that students will go on “missions and questions that will create a need to know or understanding something.”

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By Chinatown Resident from Chinatown
Posted: 02/09/2011 7:20 PM

Is it the 25th Ward or 27th Ward? Title says one, but article refers to another... just wondering...

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By j dilla from old town
Posted: 02/06/2011 11:03 PM

no one is going to send their children to a charter school in OLD TOWN!!! Won't happen!