CPS threatens to yank UNO schools charter

A top Chicago Public Schools official threatened Wednesday to yank the UNO Charter School Network’s right to operate one of the largest chains of privately run charter schools.

Jack Elsey, the top CPS official overseeing charters, said in a letter to the UNO network — which serves about 8,000 students, most of them Hispanic, at 16 schools across Chicago — that it has failed to provide adequate services to non-native speakers of English.

UCSN gets about $80 million a year in taxpayer funding to operate its schools.

CPS rarely revokes charters, even for schools with poor test scores. It seems unlikely it would act on the threat.

But Elsey said UCSN must present a written plan to fix the problems by July 15.

His letter comes as Jesse Ruiz, CPS’ interim chief executive officer, has been moving to block UCSN from cutting its ties with the United Neighborhood Organization.

UNO founded the charter network in 1998 and has been getting about $8 million a year to manage the schools. That longstanding relationship ended last Friday, when the latest management deal between UCSN and UNO expired.

UCSN leader Richard Rodriguez announced last year that the charter operator intended to manage the schools itself after the just-ended school year.

But since Ruiz took charge in April, CPS has told UCSN it needs approval from the Chicago Board of Education to manage its schools on its own.

On Tuesday, UCSN’s board voted unanimously to reject what its members said was an offer from Ruiz to merge with UNO and hire CPS official Pedro Soto as the new chief executive overseeing the charter schools, according to Rodriguez, who stepped down as the UCSN board chairman this week to become its interim CEO.

Responding to the CPS audit and letter, Rodriguez said Wednesday “Any non-compliance by the former UNO management team will be remedied by the new UCSN management team.”

According to an audit ordered by Ruiz, the UCSN schools “are not in a position to fully implement” programs for students learning English because they have just 11 teachers qualified to provide those services. They should have “nearly 100,” according to CPS.

Elsey told Rodriguez his schools’ charter is “subject to revocation based on the charter school materially violating state laws and rules that pertain to the instruction of ELs” — English learners.

In the audit, CPS officials also said, “The charter schools cannot advertise an English Immersion Model as their sole plan of action.”

Under Juan Rangel, who for years ran both UNO and the charter network, UCSN touted its putting a priority on English-language instruction for foreign-born students and children of immigrants.

Rangel left UNO in December 2013 in the wake of Chicago Sun-Times reports detailing how millions of dollars from a $98 million state school-construction grant were paid to companies owned by two brothers of Rangel’s top deputy, Miguel d’Escoto.