Rahm Announces Payton College Prep Expansion

School to receive new $17 million annex

For the second time in as many days, a CPS school is getting an expansion.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Wednesday that a new annex at Walter Payton College Prep that will include enough classrooms to add 300 to 400 new selective enrollment seats.

Construction on the new annex is expected to begin in the summer of 2014, and completed by December 2015, according to a news release from the Mayor's Office.

The expansion is designed to help meet the demand of students who qualify for selective enrollment schools.

Currently, there isn't enough room at CPS schools to place all of the students that qualify. Around 6,200 students applied last year for 220 spots at Payton, which is located in the Old Town neighborhood.

"It is in our interest that every child that has a chance to get into selective enrollment should not be rejected because ... it's one thing to say because of test scores, but you should not be rejected if you have the opportunity to actually have met the standard, we should make sure you have the availability to go there," Emanuel said at a news conference at the school.

The project costs $17 million and is paid through by TIF funds, according to city officials.

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