Planning Rationale
In the interest of the students and communities, CPS often identifies underutilized buildings for facility improvements by transforming buildings with low enrollment from a single school facility into a shared facility. By co-locating more than one school facility in a CPS building (owned or leased by the Chicago Board of Education) CPS maximizes the capacity and use of the facility while enabling each school to operate autonomously.
The initial planning is led by the Department of Planning and Data Management (Demographics) and/or the Office of Innovation and Incubation. They are responsible for assessing facilities to determine where space is available and identifying facilities that can fulfill the space needs of a school that does not have its own site. The district may request that a co-location study be developed to confirm that two or more schools can be accommodated on one campus. The analysis shall include an assessment of improvements that should be performed to support the occupation of the facility by two or more autonomous schools. Consider the following separation needs:
- Construction of separate administrative offices for each individual school at a co-located facility.
- Construction of security measures including barrier walls with doors to separate individual schools.
- Installation of basic technological infrastructure to support individual schools.
- Development of separate entrances through installation of individual signage and separate locks.
- Installation of separate public announcement and/or bell systems.
In addition to the physical improvements required to define the boundaries of each individual school, programmatic needs must also be considered. While some campuses may have more than one building that can be used, separation may also occur across floors or different wings of one building. Depending on the number, type and location of spaces available, some program elements such as the lunchroom or gymnasium may be shared. New auxiliary spaces such as science, computer, art or music classrooms may have to be created so that each school has the needed spaces to meet promotion or graduation requirements. Accessibility should also be evaluated for each individual school.