CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The new school year for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) starts two weeks from Monday, and administrators at Urban Prep Academies (UPA) are hard at work to ensure students know they will be open.
“We’ve been working all summer,” said UPA Chief Academic Officer Dennis Lacewell.
Lacewell spoke to WBBM from Urban Prep’s Englewood campus, where he said they’re busy getting staff ready for the new year. The school won the latest round of a legal fight with CPS, which had revoked its charter.
That made recruiting a challenge for UPA, but Lacewell said they can handle it.
“We’re just going to have to increase our efforts, in terms of being out in the communities,” he said.
Lacewell said that despite CPS’ revocation announcement in the fall of 2022, UPA families have stood by the school, which focuses on young Black men.
“Ninety-five percent of our families stayed with us throughout the whole year,” he said. “Our families certainly believed in Urban Prep and believed that we would prevail. We are expecting all of those students to return.”
A CPS spokesman said the district plans to appeal the ruling but will provide the necessary support to the all-male school.
Orientation, meanwhile, starts Thursday.
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