Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.Chicago Public Schools will open 15 more Sustainable Community Schools this upcoming school year, meaning roughly 10% of district schools will receive extra funding to partner with nonprofit organizations and provide wraparound support for students and families.Mayor Brandon Johnson announced the expansion Monday morning at Malcolm X College, where he was joined by allied Chicago Board of Education members, Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates, and several educators whose schools are part of the program or are joining this year. There are now 51 schools in the program, which CPS launched in 2018 with the CTU. A Chalkbeat analysis last year found the schools have mixed outcomes and have left millions of dollars unspent. The district’s contract with the union requires 70 schools to join the initiative by the end of its contract in 2028. Of the city’s roughly 630 public schools, which includes charters and others run by independent operators, 520 are run by the district. Schools in the program receive $500,000 annually to work with a community-based organization and provide extra programming and support for students and parents, such as hiring more mental health professionals. Schools must apply to join. Johnson said the expansion connects to his vision of creating more resources for communities, such as more affordable housing and “holistic solutions” to violence. “This model provides more than an education,” he said. “It is the hub of wraparound, academic, and social support that’s extended to the entire community.” The expansion is a sign that the “days of school closures, consolidation, and privatization has ended officially,” Johnson added — a potential nod to candidates for school board he doesn’t align with, who may be interested in closing schools in response to CPS’s dipping enrollment.District officials, the union, and school leaders have described the program as a godsend for schools with lots of students from low-income families. The office that oversees the Sustainable Community Schools program is slated to spend about 56% more than it budgeted last year, from about $24.5 million to $38.6 million.But since the program’s launch, schools and their partner organizations have left more than $6.6 million unspent, according to a Chalkbeat analysis last December. Chalkbeat also found that internal tensions and staff turnover sometimes strained partnerships between schools and nonprofit organizations.Student outcomes are mixed. Schools that originally joined the program now have higher graduation rates than schools that didn’t get into the program. Suspensions dropped among all schools in the program, as they did at similar schools outside the program. But chronic absenteeism is higher, and enrollment is lower, at participating schools.To combat some of these challenges, CPS changed how schools join the program, said Megan Hougard, chief of college and career success at CPS. Previously, schools and organizations did not meet before schools applied, she said. This year, CPS expanded the list of nonprofits that schools can partner with. Interested schools then met with the organizations, picked which one to work with, and applied together, Hougard said.Now, she said, “there’s shared expectations, and then there’s just a checkpoint of, ‘Is this the right match?’”One of the new schools in the program is Gage Park High School on the Southwest Side. Mike Norwood, a physical education teacher at Gage Parktold the crowd at Malcolm X that he “almost started crying” when his principal told him the 300-student school had been selected. He said the school has a strong environment but “needed a miracle” to help boost resources for its neediest students.The opportunity will allow the school, which is partnering with the Southwest Organizing Project, to create more clubs and activities for kids, such as job training, he said. “It takes a village to raise a child,” he said. “Now, it takes a school to raise a community.” Becky Vevea contributed.Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
