Hope Learning Academy parents push CPS to keep their school open after independent operator announces it will shut down: ‘We’re family’

At the start of her son’s first grade year at Chicago’s Hope Learning Academy last fall, Dequisha Johnson felt that her prayers had been answered.

Johnson, 29, had been preparing him for preschool since before he turned 2. But his love of learning had faded by the time he was in kindergarten where, she said, his school had no outdoor recess and administrators failed to stop her niece, who also attended, from being bullied.

While considering their alternatives, she and her sister Dynisha Johnson attended an open house at Hope. Sensing the engaging and inclusive culture they sought, the sisters decided to enroll their kids. The transition was still difficult. But Johnson said she knew they’d made the best choice within the first couple of months.

“The way that they lit up — their whole attitude, their everything changed. My son has never been this happy. He has never been as confident.”

And now, she said, “It is being ripped out from under us.”

Hope Institute — the Springfield-based operator of the contract school, which has around 240 students in kindergarten through fifth grade — abruptly opted this spring not to renew its operating agreement with Chicago Public Schools after it expires in June.

And the Johnson sisters aren’t the only parents unwilling to accept the alternatives offered by CPS thus far — of transferring Hope students, including those in special education programs, to nearby schools that parents have already decided they don’t want their children to attend.

Family members have launched an online petition demanding the school be kept open, signed by around 1,200 people. Several parents and grandparents — including at least one who experienced Chicago’s mass school closures a decade ago as a parent — mobilized to speak out at the April Board of Education meeting.

But while district officials may have listened, Johnson and others said they still don’t feel heard, questioning why CPS can’t keep the Hope school community together at its existing Near West Side campus. Families note that by contrast, CPS recently said it will keep two Urban Prep schools open at their existing locations after their charter was revoked.

“If I wanted to choose any other school that was in the same district, I would have done that,” said Johnson, who added that CPS officials at the board meeting offered what she considers “false hope” about students being successfully merged into other schools. “

All I’ve been doing is crying, and I will say, stressed out, concerned as to whether or not my son is going to excel like he is here,” she said. “Is he going to be treated like a student as opposed to family? Is he gonna be bullied and how are they going to handle it. …

“We’re family. We’re not just parents and teachers. We want to know what you’re gonna do to our house. CPS already guaranteed jobs for staff, so why don’t they just stay in the building?”

In the case of Urban Prep, a CPS spokesperson said the district had the minimum six months needed to incubate new programs at the charter operator’s former campuses, in Bronzeville and Englewood. Hope Institute didn’t provide the district enough notice to successfully incubate programs at its existing school facility, the district said.

CPS offered the Hope Institute a four-year renewal in January, and at the April Board of Ed meeting CPS Chief Portfolio Officer Alfonso Carmona said the nonprofit’s March decision to close the school, and school officials’ justification for it, came as a surprise.

In an emailed statement, a Hope Institute spokesperson pointed to CPS in explaining its decision to close the campus: “CPS has impeded every opportunity for (Hope Learning Academy) to grow for many years. The conditions and constraints placed on the contract school have fostered an environment that is untenable.” The organization said that, rather than provide services not meeting its standards of quality, Hope Institute made the “very difficult decision” to withdraw.

First grade teacher Matt Proshka, who has Dequisha Johnson’s son in his class, was among multiple Chicago Teachers Union members at the school board meeting who said the contract school operator didn’t value the school’s students of color and large number of diverse learners.

“Parents never got the respect of a face-to-face discussion about the closure,” Proshka said. “Hope management also said we had too many special education students. Unless the school’s mission changed — I was unaware — our school has always been about inclusion and helping diverse learners.”

CTU charter division chair Jen Conant also spoke, noting that Hope Institute made its decision to close on the heels of the staff’s decision to unionize.

Hope Institute, which operates a range of programs in multiple states, said serving children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities has been its mission for more than six decades, during which it’s been committed to bargaining with unions in good faith.

“We are proud to have strong, positive relationships with our current unions and wholly respect our employee’s rights to organize,” Hope’s statement said.

As of the April board meeting, Hope Institute officials said they had not received a demand to bargain. “Furthermore, we directly impact thousands of individuals and their families each year. To suggest that we are not interested in serving special education students is egregious and severely misinformed,” Hope officials said.

Carmona said that despite CPS being blamed for the decision, it became clear in a discussion with Hope Institute leadership that the problem wasn’t CPS.

“From that moment on, (CPS’ focus) has been about: How do we actually do right by our students?” he said.

William H. Brown STEM Magnet School, just a couple of blocks from Hope Academy, has the available seats to absorb the vast majority of Hope students, he added, but families will have the choice to select among Brown and three other schools, of which two will be close to their home.

A CPS spokesperson said individual meetings with families are also ongoing: “Our top priority is ensuring continuity of services and supports to our students, staff and families. We are actively engaging with school officials and families during this challenging time to develop a plan that best meets the individual needs of students and staff. We are confident that the district will be able to continue providing services without interruption and that students and families will have the support they need to be successful in the coming year.”

Still, many members of the school community don’t see the plan to merge the student body into other schools as the best solution.

“We need CPS to absorb all Hope staff and scholars and to remain in our current school. Please do not let the school close. If you do, you’re not just letting the school close, that you agreed to a contract with, you are allowing the closing of relationships and connections that have been created between teachers, scholars, parents, and the community we serve,” Proshka, the Hope teacher, told the board, becoming emotional while acknowledging cost considerations may be a factor. “You know what’s more valuable, tangible and important? These scholars’ education and future.”

CPS said its neighboring schools offer the same programs and services as Hope, while Urban Prep’s program doesn’t exist in other district schools.

East Garfield community advocate Gloria Austin’s granddaughter is a student at Hope, and another grandchild attended Hope. A longtime former Local School Council member at a different school in the community, Austin said parents are understandably reluctant to assume their children will experience the same level of engagement at another school.

“You cannot just stick these young children anywhere and expect them to receive the same level of attention, care, compassion and education,” Austin said. “At Hope you don’t have overcrowded classrooms. You don’t have educators that browbeat students into submission. You don’t have that issue with lack of compassion. The reason why parents are involved at Hope is because they see that the educators are involved in their children — and a lot of times that even extends beyond the classroom.”

A regular volunteer at Hope, Austin credits its local leaders, rather than Hope Institute management, with creating “a beacon of hope” in the community. Once she learned of the closure, Austin passed out flyers in the school pickup line, encouraging parents to mobilize. Like Dynisha Johnson, Austin attended CPS’ open house on families’ choices moving forward and was dismayed that keeping the school open wasn’t an option.

“To see this school close — it will just put another nail in the coffin,” she said, given past school closures and an unfair stereotype that neighborhood youths are prone to violence. “Those who are in the upper class and have the ability to say ... ‘It’s time for us to move on and close the school,’ really what they’re saying is ‘We don’t care.’”

Asked by school board member Joyce Chapman whether the district can guarantee Hope students will receive whatever services they need to excel at their new schools, Stephanie Jones, CPS’ chief of diverse learner supports and services, said her office has been working diligently to support students’ transition. “We too value our families and want to make sure students have exactly what they need to be successful.”

With the future uncertain, Dynisha Johnson said she hopes parents will protest, while her sister Dequisha is back where she started a year ago, placing her faith in prayer.

“I don’t trust that they’re going to do everything necessary for our children,” she said of CPS. “Even though they may have made up their mind, to me, my God has the final say.”