Author: Mila Koumpilova

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.When Anna Vilchez became principal at Steinmetz College Prep four years ago, she had to quickly turn to an unexpected crisis.Since 2018, the high school on Chicago’s Northwest Side had teamed up with the nonprofit Northwest Center as part of Sustainable Community Schools, a partnership between the school district and its teachers union. High-needs campuses and partner nonprofits receive about $500,000 a year to expand family outreach, wraparound student services, and after-school programs. But as Vilchez took over, Steinmetz and Northwest Center…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.The Chicago High School for the Arts, an arts-focused Chicago contract school known as ChiArts with a popular conservatory model, did not seek renewal and wants Chicago Public Schools to consider taking over the campus. The request comes after an unprecedented move by the Chicago Board of Education in February to absorb five charter campuses run by the Acero network that the nonprofit had planned to close. Earlier this year, another Chicago charter school, EPIC Academy, announced it would close at the…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.Chicago Public Schools watchdog agency is pressing for changes to how the district collects and uses family income information after finding “scores of employees” abused or mishandled the process — issues the agency has repeatedly called out in the past.In its annual report for the 2024 fiscal year, the district’s Office of Inspector General found that hundreds of CPS employees appear to have significantly understated their incomes on forms used to determine hundreds of dollars in fee waivers for students and additional…