United Neighborhood Organization Will End Managing Charter Schools After Upcoming School Year
By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 15, 2014 7:30PM
The upcoming school year will be the last that the beleaguered charter school group, United Neighborhood Organization, will manage schools. The UNO Charter School Network board announced Thursday it will assume control of 16 schools from UNO at the end of the 2014-15 school year, and will not renew UNO’s contract.
Confused what the difference is between UNO and UNO Charter School Network? You aren’t alone. The latter organization came into being last year after the Sun-Times ran a series of articles exposing questionable hiring practices involving state-funded school construction work done by companies owned by two brothers of former UNO executive Miguel d’Escoto. There is a symbiotic (some may say “shady”) relationship between the two entities.
Technically, the network was separate from the community organization, but the two shared the same CEO, Juan Rangel, and some of the same board members. Between 2009 and 2012, the network paid the parent organization $17 million, though it was unclear what the parent organization did for the network, according to Chicago magazine.
Two months ago, UNO settled charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission accusing the group of defrauding investors on a $37.5 million bond offering for construction work by failing to disclose conflicts of interest. In a release sent to the Tribune, UNO Charter School Network said the change in management will not affect parents or students.