CPS Board Votes to Close Last Four Englewood Neighborhood High Schools

Despite fierce opposition from parents, teachers and students, the CPS Board of Education voted yesterday to close the last four neighborhood high schools in Englewood. The schools to be closed are Harper, Hope, Robeson and Team Englewood high schools. The board also voted to close the National Teachers Academy elementary school in the South Loop; it will gradually be turned into a high school. CPS says that the four high schools' enrollments have declined so far that a full courseload can't be offered; money is allocated to schools based on student enrollment numbers. After Robeson closes this June, a new high school will be built on its site; it will open in fall 2019 to 9th graders. As with the last school closings in 2013, parents and the Chicago Teachers Union mounted organized opposition to the closings. Students also protested and spoke before the vote. (Chicago Sun-Times)
Nancy S Bishop

Nancy S. Bishop is publisher and Stages editor of Third Coast Review. She’s a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and a 2014 Fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. You can read her personal writing on pop culture at nancybishopsjournal.com, and follow her on Twitter @nsbishop. She also writes about film, books, art, architecture and design.