Acero Schools website said, while the decision is not final, seven schools that might start winding down operations and close at the end of the school year, in June 2025.

At dismissal at Cruz K-12 in West Ridge on Thursday afternoon, kids walked out of school holding paper flyers. Students skipped across the lawn on North Ridge Boulevard to greet expectant parents — most of whom hadn’t heard about the charter school board’s vote the previous day to close the middle and high school.

Days after Acero charter schools leaders voted to close seven schools, Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates wrote a letter demanding that Chicago Public Schools absorb them into the district in order to save them.