The leadership of Urban Prep Academies, a widely-lauded network of high-achieving all-male Chicago charter high schools, has asked a Cook County judge to hold the Chicago Public Schools in contempt of court, for allegedly “brazenly” defying an appeals court order that Urban Prep claims should force CPS to keep Urban Prep open this fall.
On July 6, Urban Prep’s leaders filed a petition in Cook County Circuit Court before Circuit Judge Anna Loftus, seeking an order forcing CPS to justify its actions since the Illinois First District Appellate Court on June 23 overrode Loftus and entered a temporary restraining order in favor of Urban Prep and against CPS, appearing to bar CPS from continuing with its plans to defund Urban Prep and “disenroll” students from Urban Prep and enroll them in a new high school, administered by CPS in the Urban Prep school buildings.
The filing comes as the latest move in a court fight to determine the fate of Urban Prep.
Administrators at Urban Prep filed suit in April, accusing CPS of violating state law by seeking to effectively seize control of the charter schools.
In that complaint, Urban Prep’s leaders assert Illinois state law does not allow the Chicago Board of Education to simply evict the leadership of the charter schools and then essentially make it just another CPS school.
In October 2022, under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the Chicago Board of Education voted not to renew Urban Prep’s charter. In justifying that decision, the CPS board accused Urban Prep’s leadership of mismanaging the charter schools’ finances and of failing to property respond to accusations of sexual misconduct against Urban Preps’ former CEO and founder, Timothy King.
King resigned in August 2021, after the CPS Inspector General issued a report purportedly corroborating accusations against King by a former Urban Prep student and employee. King also sued CPS, asserting the investigation was a sham, conducted purely to railroad him out of his position and justify the eventual CPS takeover of the Urban Prep schools. That lawsuit remains pending.
King founded Urban Prep in 2003, growing the network of charter high schools to three campuses. The Urban Prep curriculum and programs have been nationally recognized for success in helping young males, predominantly from the Black communities on Chicago’s South Side, to succeed academically. Urban Prep has been consistently recognized for sending 100% of its students to college.
As of 2022, Urban Prep had about 1,500 students. Its high schools in Englewood and Bronzeville were chartered through CPS.
CPS indicated it would combine those two campuses into a single school under direct CPS control.
Urban Prep has appealed all of the decisions related to the change of leadership at Urban Prep, asserting the decision would close a longstanding route to academic success for hundreds of young Black males in Chicago.
However, all such appeals directed to state and city education officials were ignored. Urban Prep then turned to the courts.
On June 16, Loftus denied Urban Prep’s request for TRO, blocking CPS from proceeding with its plans to yank Urban Prep’s charter, strip it of funding, and reenroll all of its students in a new Bronzeville and Englewood high school.
Urban Prep appealed Loftus’ decision to the First District Appellate Court in Chicago.
Further, the appeals court directly ordered “that the October 26, 2022, decision of the CPS Board of Education non-renewing and effectively closing the Urban Prep Academies’ charter schools be stayed until this lawsuit is fully adjudicated.”
After that order was issued, Urban Prep’s attorneys contacted CPS, asking school officials to confirm CPS intended to cease with its plans to transfer control of Urban Prep to CPS, and intended to pay Urban Prep the quarterly payment they claimed was due by July 21.
In response, however, CPS officials informed Urban Prep that Chicago school officials disagreed over how to “interpret” the appeals court’s order. In a response to Urban Prep’s demands, CPS said it believed “nothing in [the Appellate Court’s] order creates a new charter for Urban Prep” for the 2023-2024 school year.
So, CPS said, it believed the TRO did not in any way force it to abandon its plans to shut down Urban Prep and open the new CPS run high school in its place.
Urban Prep asserts CPS’ refusal to reverse course amounts to a violation of the TRO, and contempt of court.
“The CPS Board’s actions have the intended and practical effect of impeding Urban Prep’s operations to the point that they can no longer operate – i.e., a closure,” Urban Prep wrote in its contempt petition. “Furthermore, the CPS Board brazenly stands by its improper actions – alleging that it will not permit Urban Prep to continue operating in the City of Chicago, notwithstanding the TRO.
“… If the CPS Board is permitted to disenroll all of Urban Prep’s students, Urban Prep will close, plain and simple,” Urban Prep wrote. “Without students, there are no Charter Schools. The TRO specifically prohibits the CPS Board from closing Urban Prep while this litigation is pending.”
Judge Loftus has not yet ruled on that petition. The case has been set on the trial call for July 19.
Urban Prep is represented in the action by attorneys Eric Grodksy and Eric B. Bernard, of the firm of Petrarca Gleason Boyle & Izzo, of Flossmoor.