Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee.Medication at School-Parent Information.Loudoun Education Alliance of Families (LEAF).Eligibility for Special Education or Section 504.Career and Technical Education Advisory Committee.A Procedural Handbook for Supporting Students with Allergies."This is about providing a high-quality education to the children in Chicago, it is not about who we are authorized by," Ucan said. It's a rare setup - just two other schools in the state have the designation - but Ucan said the schools will be accountable to the state's commission, a governing body that will rate the school based on three major factors: academics, financial sustainability and organizational performance. The Catalyst Chicago website also reports commission-authorized schools “get state and federal funding for special education and low-income students directly, rather than through CPS.” The company’s newest schools are what are known as “commission-authorized” charter schools, meaning the state will hand over about $1,600 more per student than CPS gives its “district-authorized” charters, according to Catalyst Chicago.ĬPS did not return calls regarding the funding of its schools and commission-authorized ones. I wanted to be working in a building that would serve the students,” he said.Īfter the company’s bids to open two schools were denied by the CPS Board of Education last year, Concept won an appeal in March from the Illinois State Charter School Commission to open the facilities.īut public pressure stymied the North Side effort and the group has instead opened a campus in North Austin, Horizon Science Academy Belmont. It doesn’t matter if it’s private, public or parochial. “My thought process has always been about quality schools. He said making the transition was simple. Hannsberry also has been a public school classroom teacher and administrator, and he now serves as dean of students at Horizon. Included in the roster of faculty are fresh-faced newcomers and public school veterans teaching a curriculum that includes math, science, social studies, art, music and foreign language.ĭavid Hannsberry has spent 31 years in public education, with stints as principal at Grand Crossing’s John Harvard Elementary School and a suburban Oak Park school. Some Chicago Public Schools administrators, by comparison, make six-figure incomes. The highest-paid classroom teacher makes $45,000 per year, while the highest paid administrator makes $70,000. So far, 32 teachers have been hired, with more planned when Concept opens a high school inside its building at 2245 W. About 80 percent are Hispanic, Ucan said. Imagine if we had more time,” said Concept Vice President Salim Ucan.Īlthough the school is open to students across the city, the majority of Horizon students - 250 of the school’s 424 students - come from the surrounding neighborhoods, according to a document provided by Concept. "We did all of that in a very short time. The Council's OK allowed Concept to ramp up its marketing campaign while contracting the construction work in time for the first day of classes Sept. There are 424 students enrolled in K-8 classes, short of the 432 target set by school leaders earlier this year, when the City Council approved Concept's bid for a zoning switch. “It’s been wonderful, believe it or not.” “We have a young boy, and I wanted him to go in a positive direction and not a negative direction,” she said. She enrolled her two kids, a fifth- and sixth-grader, after family and friends here steered her away from the city's neighborhood schools. It’s the first week of classes at Horizon Science Academy McKinley Park, a charter school that earlier this summer received a cold reception from community activists fuming at the prospect of more charters opening in the city while CPS moved to close 50 neighborhood schools.Ĭoncept Charter Schools, the Des Plaines-based company that manages 30 schools across the Midwest, has come under fire for what critics say amounted to union-busting after teachers at its Chicago Math and Science Academy in Rogers Park lost a lengthy legal battle with the school to keep its union intact.īut none of that seemed to matter to parents like Michele Rea, a Missouri transplant now living in Bronzeville. Inside, students walk in single-file lines from one classroom to the next, guided by soft piano music that has replaced the jarring ring of a school bell between periods. MCKINLEY PARK - The former factory has been gutted, its interior replaced with sparkling new classrooms and brightly painted walls.
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