Chicago Public Schools takes over successful charter school, which vows legal fight

(The Center Square) – Nationally recognized Urban Prep Academy will now be under the control of the Chicago Public School system after state education officials rejected the nonprofit’s appeal of an earlier ruling by the Chicago Board of Education.

Urban Prep campuses in Englewood and Bronzeville will now officially fall under the CPS umbrella, essentially ending the charter school network’s 17-year run as a nationally known institution celebrated for effectively serving Black boys.

“The decision reached today was not an easy one to make, and the powerful testimony we heard throughout the process did not fall on deaf ears,” officials said.

In rendering its decision, Illinois State Board of Education officials argued the schools were poorly run and not financially responsible, adding “it did not have the best interest of students in mind.”

Board officials also pointed to recent allegations of misconduct levied against school founder Tim King, including those outlined by the CPS inspector general in a recent report where it was alleged that King “groomed” an underage student who later worked at the nonprofit, remaining on the payroll even after he was no longer employed there.

King has denied all the allegations, and not long after the Board’s ruling about the CPS takeover was made public, Urban Prep officials moved to file suit in the Circuit Court of Cook County “asserting that the Chicago Public Schools has violated state law that there be a moratorium on school closings until 2025.”

In a statement, Urban Prep officials added, “We are very disappointed that the Illinois State Board of Education has denied our appeal of the Chicago Public Schools Board of Education’s decision to close Urban Prep. Nevertheless, we remain committed to ensuring that Urban Prep and the thousands of students it has served remain open. To that end, Urban Prep Academies has filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Cook County asserting that the Chicago Public Schools has violated state law that there is a moratorium on school closings until 2025. We trust that the courts will rule in favor of justice and Urban Prep students and families.”

School officials have also called on Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, an educator by trade, to do whatever he can to help the school to be able to continue serving it students.

“Further, Urban Prep has had an unparalleled level of success for its students. Urban Prep’s 90% high school graduation, for example, dwarfs CPS’s 65% high school graduation rate for Black males,” officials added. “Across every metric, Urban Prep outperforms Chicago Public Schools for our demographic, which makes the CPS and ISBE decisions even more confounding.”

CPS officials insist they have no intentions of closing the schools, and said they hope to retain all the teachers and staff at the two campuses.

As recently as last fall, Chicago school board members acknowledged that Urban Prep’s academic model has been successful for the Black teenage boys it serves, which includes aiding many of them in going on to college after graduating from the school.

Prior to the vote, as Urban Prep’s chief academic officer, Dennis Lacewell took center stage in trying to convince state officials they would be doing a disservice to the community by ending the school’s run.

“A decision to close our schools would eliminate this black institution which almost 20 years ago took on a challenge to successfully educate the most neglected demographic of students: Black boys,” he said.