CPS document shows city has school closure plans

CHICAGO — An internal Chicago Public Schools document reveals that Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration has more extensive school-closing plans than it has acknowledged publicly.

The Chicago Tribune reports that it obtained the document, dated Sept. 10. That’s when teachers in the nation’s third-largest school district were on strike.

The newspaper says the “working draft” shows the administration has weighed how many elementary and high schools to close, which neighborhoods would be affected and how to manage public response. Schools aren’t listed by name, but the document indicates that 95 would be closed or consolidated. Most are on the West and South sides.

Administration officials repeatedly denied during and after the strike that they had a figure on school closings.

But they’ve said the city can’t afford to keep operating underpopulated schools.