An Illinois Appellate Court on Friday ruled that the Chicago charter school focused on Black male students will be allowed to stay open as a lawsuit challenging its closure moves through Cook County Circuit Court.
This is a major win for Urban Prep Academies, said Craig Wimberly, president of the Coalition of African American Leaders. COAL has been fighting for Urban Prep. It’s the city’s only all-male charter school operator, once celebrated nationally for getting all its seniors, who are almost all Black, into college year after year. It currently has two CPS campuses, one in Englewood and one in Bronzeville, with about 380 students enrolled before classes ended for the year. CPS budgeted $8 million for Urban Prep this past year.
