When the Chicago Board of Education made the decision to close 50 public schools in 2013, it set a goal to sell or tear down all the closed buildings by 2017.
But today, 21 of the 50 abandoned buildings remain -- proverbial beached whales in the middle of often-struggling residential communities -- on Chicago’s West and South Sides. Several of the schools are deteriorating and often vandalized, with no real future in sight.
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WATCH HERENBC 5 Investigates has been following the fate of these vacant schools ever since they closed. In 2014, and then again in 2016, we reported that Chicago taxpayers were spending millions on these empty buildings, for heat, light, landscaping and other maintenance.
Now, 12 years later, NBC 5 Investigates checked in again, to see if the remaining buildings had been disposed of or repurposed.
This CPS website shows the 21 schools that we found are still abandoned and unused.
The Chicago School Board just put these 21 buildings up for bid – something it has done in past years as well, when it was successful in selling some of the other closed buildings. The current opportunity to bid on these vacant properties ends on May 30, 2025.
Investigations
But what is happening to these buildings in the meantime?
We visited several of the schools, some of which seemed to still be in fairly good shape more than a decade after they were closed, but others showed serious signs of neglect, blight, and irreparable wear and tear.
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SIGN UP So NBC 5 Investigates filed an updated request for public records, to try to figure out how much these buildings have cost taxpayers ever since they were closed. CPS provided us its most recent expense records for heat, light, landscaping, general maintenance and repairs for all of the remaining buildings. We tallied up all of CPS’ spreadsheets and found that Chicago taxpayers have spent a total of $7,282,456.20 to maintain these empty, unused schools, over the past dozen years.
Originally, that $7.2 million was supposed to be offset by far greater savings. At the time of the closures, then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago School Board predicted a total savings of nearly of nearly $1 billion over the next decade, mainly on building repairs they’d avoid, and salaries they’d save from the staff who would be leaving the closed schools.
But over the next several years CPS admitted its projected savings from repairs were far less than expected. And much of the staff from the closed schools stayed employed – just transferred to other (open) schools, which lowered that savings as well.
In addition, the school board had taken out loans, in the form of bond issues, to help welcoming schools absorb the displaced teachers and students who would transfer there. CPS now pays $25 million each year to pay off those bonds, and may do so for as much as 20 years into the future. Those annual payments basically cancel out any of the original projected savings.
There are a lot of lessons to be learned from this process, according to Joe Ferguson, president of The Civic Federation.
"What we had [in 2013] were decisions, largely, that were closures, rather than consideration, from a community perspective, of what this public facility might be best utilized for, in a multivariate way – not just education --- that actually improves the lot of the community," Ferguson said.
Ferguson said tough decisions, like the 2013 closures, must be accompanied by hard questions, confronted ahead of time, that take into account all the realities and consequences – even the unpleasant ones.
“We avoid, by and large, the political third rails” when embarking on big public projects, he says.
“We’re not going to get to an understanding of the problems, as they actually exist right now, in a holistic way – which means we’re not going to get to the solutions that are going to meet the needs [of a community] -- unless we’re willing to talk about hard truths," he added.
That’s especially pertinent now as the Chicago Public School system is once again faced with the challenges of declining enrollment, as spelled out in a comprehensive Civic Federation assessment published this past January. That’s the same issue that faced CPS in 2013, but because the process back then had such painful results – such as these 21 schools still not being disposed of – there may hesitation to face that process again.
“We're promoting investment in neighborhood schools at a time when we have schools that are profoundly underpopulated," Ferguson says. "We don’t have a real accounting of continuing to operate a facility [which is significantly under-utilized] – at the organizational level, the institutional level, the curricular level, the development level, the community level, as well as the financial level.
“None of that is actually spoken of," he said. "Why? It’s too politically sensitive because of how we went about the business in 2013, when we hadn’t mapped out all of this with the input of the community.”
But Ferguson also said the 2013 experience is valuable because it can teach public officials to trust those communities, and that affected residents and families can, indeed, handle the hard truths of any future school-consolidation, and will even appreciate and respect the public officials who dare ask the most difficult questions.
“All these things need to be talked about at once, but starting with the community receiving hard facts,” he said. “But I do think people understand – in this city, in this district, in this region, in this state – that we’re out of runway for a lot of things, and there are hard decisions that need to be made.”
As for the remaining abandoned buildings from the 2013 closures, CPS would not talk about them on camera. A spokesperson did give NBC 5 a statement, which says, in part:
“The District is eager to find buyers for these buildings and is continuing marketing efforts to maximize outreach and publicity for the available sites through the real estate broker engaged on this project. Concurrently, the District is constantly evaluating vacant buildings, including ongoing engagement with elected officials and community members, to see if any sites are suitable for immediate reuse by the City or other governmental agencies.”
The district would not release any information about the current state of the bid process because bids are still coming in. The district also would not consent to allowing NBC 5 to tour one or more of the schools (even though they are for sale.)
