BRONZEVILLE — A private social justice school will be moving into the former Hales Franciscan High School campus this fall.
It Takes A Village bought the school at 4930 S. Cottage Grove Ave. in August. The Illinois Facilities Fund and the Chicago Community Loan Fund provided the school $12 million to buy the 9.1-acre campus and renovate the 100,000-square-foot building.
The school network was launched in 2004 in West Humboldt Park by Nakisha Hobbs, her mother and fellow educator Gwendolyn Harris and family friend Anita Andrews-Hutchinson to provide “high-quality, culturally responsive education and life-empowering social services” to students and their families, according to their website.
It Takes A Village expanded to the South Loop in 2008. Tuition is $12,500 a year, with the majority of families receiving financial aid, Hobbs said.
Hobbs told Block Club the move to Bronzeville ends the school’s seven-year search for a new home. School leaders plan to welcome the first group of students to the new campus in the fall.
“We looked at some vacant land a while ago in the Illinois Medical District, but to start from scratch and build a whole facility up from scratch was going to be a heavy lift. Then we actually did start to try to do a project in the medical district, but the state budget impasse happened, which prevented us from moving forward,” Hobbs said.
The school still held out hope it would find a new site large enough to accommodate its Pre K-12 students, one that would be situated in the community they set out to serve. The former Hales Franciscan campus “got on ITAV’s radar” four years ago, Hobbs said.
Hales Franciscan closed in 2019. The historically Black catholic school, known for producing high-achieving alumni like NBA player JeVale McGee and “Last Dragon” actor Julius Carry, experienced a “dramatic drop” in enrollment due to the rise in competition from charter and selective enrollment schools, the Chicago Defender reported in 2015. It closed for the 2016-17 school year because of the low enrollment, before shutting down permanently.
It Takes A Village wasn’t the only group interested in the campus, Hobbs said. Other developers also expressed interest, some of whom were looking to tear it down, she said.
The school was outbid for the property, but the fact it had a history of nonprofit ownership and It Takes A Village had a plan for similar use worked in its favor to close the deal faster, Hobbs said.
The old campus still needs a bit of work before classes begin on Aug. 26, Hobbs said. To that end, $2 million has been set aside for the first phase of renovations, which include a new roof, floors and a fresh coat of paint.
The overhaul of the campus is split into several phases. Improvements to the landscaping, expansion of parking and a building rebrand will be done in the second phase, with the construction of the Early Learning Center happening in the third phase, Hobbs said.
Leaders also plan to build a new high school building, which will be large enough to accommodate approximately 350 students. Leading design efforts is Third Entity’s Lynsey Sorrell, whose team is also heading the Chicago Prize-winning Sankofa Wellness Village project slated for West Garfield Park.
“We want this campus to be as green and welcoming as possible, and we want every inch of it to be used by both our students and by the community. We’re envisioning outdoor classroom play spaces that will be shared space we can also use for community programming,” said Hobbs, a former associate director of Early Childhood Learning with the Illinois Department of Human Services.
The school will welcome 320 kindergarten through 8th grade students from its Village Leadership Academy this fall. Once the Early Learning Center is completed, the school will add 150 children up to age 5, Hobbs said.
“By being located in Bronzeville, the work our students do as youth leaders here in the city of Chicago is going to have a more profound impact,” Hobbs said. “Being here in the community will allow not only parents to be easily engaged in campaigns, but community organizations, community members, elected officials, everybody, We think that it’s going to be more powerful and beneficial for us.”
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