South Chicago charter school may abruptly close, stranding 250 students
Chicago Public Schools informed parents Friday that Epic Academy, a small Southeast Side charter high school, plans to close and might not even last through this school year.
Epic Charter School in South Chicago with about 250 students informed CPS on Aug. 21 that it was facing “persistent enrollment declines and rising operational costs,” according to the district. The board of the privately managed, publicly funded school is expected to formally vote on the closure at its meeting Wednesday.
“While CPS is not making this decision, we are deeply committed to supporting Epic students, families and staff throughout any transition,” district officials said in a statement.
Epic teacher Andrew Escalante said the school was a tight-knit community where teachers stay for a long time and are deeply committed to serving the students and community.
Students in a hallway after school at Epic Academy on the South Side on Monday. Epic was started in 2009 by former teachers who saw the charter school movement as an opportunity to create a strong school in an area that did not have many. Three years ago, it bought an old Catholic school that it planned to renovate and expand.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
“Staff were definitely really sad to hear this news,” he said. “Students were also shocked. Overall, definitely a sense of disappointment and sadness."
Several charter schools have closed in recent years, but, if it happened, this would be the first mid-year closure in recent years, maybe ever.
“That would be incredibly detrimental to students and families and to the staff,” said Jen Conant, who runs the charter division for the Chicago Teachers Union, which represents Epic teachers. “Can you imagine the chaos?”
The Chicago school board voted in May to renew Epic’s contract for two years. Conant and others are bewildered that the school district wasn't made aware that Epic was in trouble during the renewal process.
But CPS said in a statement that its review process uses audits to examine past financial activities and does not “assess the future health of an organization using predictions regarding expenses and revenue.”
Epic was started in 2009 by former teachers who saw the charter school movement as an opportunity to create a strong school in an area that did not have many. Three years ago, it bought an old Catholic school that it planned to renovate and expand.
Yet its enrollment has been declining since the pandemic. CPS funds charter schools based on how many students they enroll.
CPS officials said Epic leaders thought they could keep the school open until 2027 by selling the building, but Epic has been “unable to materialize a sale of the property within the expected time frame.”
Epic operations director Victor Taylor said the school struggled when the district implemented a new high school assignment system in 2017, which he said prioritized district-run schools over charter schools.
As a single-site charter school faced with enrollment declines, it has become more and more difficult to balance its books, said Taylor, who has worked there for 12 years.
“So the funding is unfair, and the system itself is unfair,” he said.
Parents, he said, choose the school because it consistently has better graduation and college enrollment than nearby high schools. Taylor said juniors and seniors were planning to attend the board meeting Wednesday to try to prevent its closure.
Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ. Follow her on X @WBEZeducation and @sskedreporter.