Chicago Public Schools is pushing 15 more campuses into its Sustainable Community Schools model, expanding a neighborhood-hub experiment to 51 schools just as a $150 million state-funding fight threatens to complicate the math. The schools are slated to receive wraparound academic, health and social supports, but the district has not locked down the money expected to help finance the broader expansion.
Mayor Brandon Johnson announced the new cohort Monday at Malcolm X College, according to the Chicago Tribune. The schools include Chicago Vocational High School in Avalon Park, DeWitt Clinton Elementary School in West Ridge, Mary E. Courtenay Elementary Language Arts Center in Uptown, Parkside Elementary Community Academy in South Shore and Roswell B. Mason Elementary School in North Lawndale, along with campuses in Gage Park, Roseland, Humboldt Park, Archer Heights, Albany Park, Grand Boulevard, Little Village, Ukrainian Village, Englewood and Auburn Gresham. The expansion follows 16 additions during the 2025-26 school year and would move CPS closer to a labor-contract goal of at least 70 sustainable community schools by the 2027-28 academic year.
At its core, the model is designed to make schools more than places where students show up for class and disappear at dismissal. Chicago Public Schools describes Sustainable Community Schools as community hubs built around partnerships with families, educators and neighborhood organizations, offering services such as after-school programming, health care, family engagement and workforce training.
New Campuses Stretch Across Chicago Neighborhoods
The expansion spreads the model across both sides of the city, with a particularly heavy presence in historically disinvested South and West Side communities. Other designated schools include Gage Park High School, Mildred I. Lavizzo Elementary in Roseland, Chicago High School for the Arts in Humboldt Park, Theodore Roosevelt High School in Albany Park, Marie Sklodowska Curie Metropolitan High School in Archer Heights, Little Village Elementary and Roberto Clemente Community Academy in Ukrainian Village.
The district's FY2026 budget described the earlier expansion as an 80% increase, taking the program from 20 schools to 36. That growth was billed as a way to bring additional wraparound services to students in some of Chicago's highest-need communities, even as CPS was already warning that longer-term revenue problems remained unresolved.
The latest move builds on last year's 16-school rollout, which focused on Austin, Belmont Cragin and Englewood. Public bargaining materials from the Chicago Teachers Union laid out a longer-term expansion path, including 15 additional schools in the 2026-27 school year and 20 more the year after.
The Expansion Comes With A Price Tag
Each Sustainable Community School receives about $500,000 annually, the Tribune reported, supporting coordinators, parent engagement, restorative-justice work, enrichment and other services. If that funding level holds, the 15-school addition would represent roughly $7.5 million in new recurring annual support, before any broader administrative or partnership costs.
The funding question is especially sharp after the Chicago Board of Education voted 11-7 on Thursday, July 30, to adopt a CTU-backed budget that relies on $150 million in uncommitted state revenue, according to Axios Chicago. District officials have warned that even if Springfield eventually approves the money, it might not arrive until the 2027-28 school year, while Gov. JB Pritzker has said the expected additional revenue is not currently available.
The Tribune also reported that CPS did not respond to questions about how the expansion would be funded or how the district would address its broader $150 million gap. For families in the newly designated schools, the promise is straightforward: more adults, services and community connections under one roof; the less straightforward part is whether the money will keep showing up after the ribbon-cutting headlines fade.
