Chicago's Board of Education Votes to Close NTA and Convert Into Neighborhood High School

Looks like the South Loop High School is moving forward (via SunTimes):

Despite emotional opposition, Chicago’s Board of Education voted Wednesday on the first school closings since 2013, a historic measure that also affected primarily African-American schools.

All six current school board members voted to permanently close Harper, Hope, Robeson and Team Englewood high schools, the last four neighborhood schools in that South Side community. Former principal Gail Ward abstained from voting to close National Teachers Academy elementary school, which will gradually be turned into a high school for the booming South Loop.

NTA, home to mostly African-American students at 55 W. Cermak, will eventually be merged with the wealthier and more diverse South Loop Elementary School, which is getting a new annex. NTA’s building will become a neighborhood high school for the Near South Side, including for the residents of Chinatown who long have lobbied for a nearby neighborhood school.