As distraught parents plead, school board votes to keep Acero charter schools open, despite financial warning
After a protracted and often confusing debate on the feasibility and fine print of the amendment, the school board voted 16 to 3 with one abstention to keep open all of the seven schools slated for closure in Acero Charter Network through the end of the 2025-26 school year and incorporate five into district schools the following year. It did not provide concrete options for the other two schools.
The last-minute change in the resolution to make it mandatory to absorb all schools and costs reflects the dynamics of a divided board — with several newly elected and appointed members — that is facing serious financial challenges.
The first change in the resolution language, which CPS made in its online agenda just 48 hours before the vote, would have gone back on promises the school board made in December — when a six-member board voted unanimously to keep all Acero charter school locations open until the next school year and absorb five of them in 2026. Acero first announced closures of seven out of 15 schools last fall.
It's the second time the board voted to maintain the schools through the 2025-26 school year. In December, the board passed a resolution for the same outcome, but the agenda for Thursday's monthly meeting indicated the board would be voting to amend the resolution and close three of Acero's schools, not two.
The amendment, posted just 48 hours before the board meeting, directed the district to keep the remaining four schools open through at least the 2025-26 school year. The future of those schools in the year following, however, was uncertain.
Several of those board members spoke passionately about the financial decisions facing the board. But most of the meeting's public comment was taken up by parents and students at Acero expressing their frustration – some with raised voices and tears — about the lack of communication from Acero leadership and their discomfort with the uncertainty they have faced for weeks.
'We're broken due to this situation. I hope that no organization — be it charter or public — be so careless and reckless,' said Acero's Fuentes Elementary parent Angelica Juarez.
Acero charter schools are authorized and overseen by the district. The seven schools in question serve 2,000 students, who are predominantly Latino. News about the potential closures of the schools was first announced by Acero leadership in October. It has been the source of contention at board meetings for months since.
Acero's 11-member board initially cited funding challenges, declining enrollment and inadequate spaces to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act as reasons for the closures. They said keeping the schools open would leave the network with a $40 million budget shortfall for the 2025-26 school year.
The district has been in ongoing negotiations with Acero leadership, including CEO Richard L. Rodriguez, according to Alfonso Carmona, CPS's chief portfolio officer.
Carmona cited state law that requires school districts to give charter operators between 97% and 103% of the funding it gives district-run schools per student. Maintaining the Acero buildings would exceed that, Carmona said. It would take $4.1 million at a minimum to keep all seven campuses open, according to Carmona.
'The district does not have legal grounds to keep any of the campuses open,' he said.
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