West Town Academy is a part of Greater West Town Community Development Project, a communitarian

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

working toward development on the

West Side West Side or Westside may refer to: Places Canada * West Side, a neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario * West Side, a neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia United Kingdom * West Side, Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Westside, Birmingham E ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. The school originated as a

GED The General Educational Development (GED) tests are a group of four subject tests which, when passed, provide certification that the test taker has United States or Canadian high school-level academic skills. It is an alternative to the US high ...

program aimed at Chicago high school dropouts. It became a fully state-certified

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

in 1998 and has been retrieving "disenrolled" minority students from the

Chicago Public Schools Chicago Public Schools (CPS), officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons, in Chicago, Illinois, is the third-largest school district in the United States, after New York and Los Angeles. ...

system through its association as a campus of

Youth Connection Charter School Youth Connection Charter School (YCCS) is a charter school in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1997 it is the only charter school in Illinois that targets dropouts and other at-risk students. YCCS serves over 3,500 students through 17 campuses throu ...

. It also operates as an independent high school through the enrollment of students who are wards of the court and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. This situation makes West Town Academy both a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

and

private school Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

simultaneously. The school and its parent agency have hosted many local, statewide and national politicians. Then newly elected state senator

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

was the commencement speaker for the class of 2000. Chicago Mayor

Richard M. Daley Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term ...

, Illinois governors

Rod Blagojevich Rod Blagojevich ( , born December 10, 1956), often referred to by his nicknames "Blago" or "B-Rod", is an American former politician, political commentator, and convicted felon who served as the 40th governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009, when ...

and Pat Quinn, and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury

Timothy Geithner Timothy Franz Geithner (; born August 18, 1961) is a former American central banker who served as the 75th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. He was the President of the Federal Reserve Bank o ...

have all used it as a podium to make policy statements. Democratic presidential candidate Senator

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...

and then candidate for the U.S. Senate from Illinois Obama held a campaign event in its original location during the 2004 campaign. The school was founded by William Leavy, who is also director of its parent organization, The school moved to its new location, 534 N Sacramento, Chicago, IL, in June 2010.

Academics

West Town Academy has received an average review of 5 out of 5 based on feedback from the community submitted on GreatSchools.org, a national school quality information site.

References

External links

Home page
{{Coord, 41, 53, 27.9, N, 87, 42, 10.1, W, type:edu_region:US-IL, display=title Public high schools in Chicago Charter schools in Chicago 1998 establishments in Illinois