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CICS West Belden Community Schools Coordinator, Diego Nunez is one of our latest educators making waves. He is making mental health with a community mindset for students a priority.  

A Statement from CICS 

Earlier this Spring, the Archdiocese of Chicago put up their property for sale on Spaulding Avenue, which includes the church and rectory, but it also includes our thriving school community, CICS Irving Park. While CICS has a long-term lease on the school building, the decision by the Archdiocese of Chicago to put their property on sale would have a significant impact on the CICS Irving Park school community. In response, CICS has been working with the Archdiocese of Chicago to ensure that any impact on our school community is minimized and that CICS continues to be part of the Irving Park community for many years to come.

Thus, we are excited to share that CICS is finalizing negotiations with the Archdiocese of Chicago to purchase the CICS Irving Park campus and adjoining rectory and church. The CICS Board of Directors and CICS Network leadership, with support from Distinctive Schools leadership, have approved this purchase and believe that this is in the best interest of CICS Irving Park’s teachers, staff, students, families and the Irving Park community.  

We reached a major and important milestone with the purchase agreement and we will continue to provide important information to keep you informed of this process as the full execution of this agreement is still a few months away.

Our commitment to CICS Irving Park remains strong. This summer CICS completed several projects to prepare our campus for back to school. Our facilities teams were busy making enhancements to the Irving Park campus making it safe and ready to welcome our community on August 23. With an eye toward the future, we will continue to ensure that our awesome, powerful community has a permanent place to call home!  

The CICS school community continues to thrive and is proud to continue to be a part of the Irving Park community now and long into the future. We thank the Irving Park community for its continued partnership!

About Chicago International Charter School

Chicago International Charter School is a vibrant network of diverse Chicago charter schools that enable students to thrive every day, put them on a path to success in college and life, and empower entrepreneurial educators to pursue excellence through innovation. CICS is serving more than 7,400 students at 13 campuses across Chicago. To learn more, visit  www.chicagointl.org.

Let's TACO' bout our amazing teachers and staff! Teacher Appreciation Week is one of our favorite times of the school year because we get a chance to show how much we appreciate what they do for our organization. In lieu of recent news, we thought it was highly important to share the joy from that day because they deserve it and we need a friendly reminder that our unsung heroes do a lot for their students and will do anything to protect them at all costs. Teachers have to be more than a teacher at any given moment. They are our frontline workers for CICS, our students, and our families.

So, what better way to show them a token of our gratitude and appreciation by helping them complete some of their classroom tasks. Yes, you heard correctly!  The network staff for CICS came ready to work and give our teachers a break from some of the everyday tasks they have in addition to daily prep. 

The network staff served at our Loomis-Longwood and Lloyd Bond campuses and helped with the following: teacher copies, updating bulletin boards, library organization, read-aloud, and much more! In addition, we stayed true to our theme and served them tacos for lunch (all you can eat) and gave them an unforgettable gift all the way from Guadalajara, Mexico. Two artists traveled all the way to Chicago, IL to paint us a one-of-one painting to grace our halls and it's more than we imagined. 

Instead of going on about how amazing the day was, check it out for yourself below.

For more real-time moments of joy from our network, be sure to connect with us on our social media platforms: 

Instagram: @CICS_Charterschool

Twitter: @CICS_Schools

Facebook: Chicago International Charter School 

LinkedIn: Chicago International Charter School  

Congratulations CICS Loomis-Longwood High School Basketball Coach Keyon Smothers!