In the face of strong community pushback, the Noble Network of Charter Schools has withdrawn its proposal to relocate a campus to Uptown.
The charter school network said on Thursday that it is now planning to relocate its Nobel Academy from its temporary space in the Loop to a Near North Side building that houses the Chicago International Charter School's ChicagoQuest campus at 1443 N. Ogden Ave.
The two charter schools will share the building while Nobel keeps looking for a permanent home for its campus.
Nobel was initially seeking to relocate its campus to an Uptown location at 640 W. Irving Park Rd., contending that it needs a larger space to accommodate its incoming class.
The proposed move to Uptown, however, was met with strong opposition from North Side aldermen, principals, community members and others. Critics of the proposal voiced concerns that nearby neighborhood schools could be impacted negatively in terms of their budgets and enrollment if the Nobel campus relocated to Uptown.
"I think it became clear in Uptown that there wasn't going to be any support for that decision," Noble's director of government affair Matthew McCabe told the Chicago Tribune. "We didn't want to prolong this process into July."
Last month, the Chicago Board of Education delayed consideration of Noble's Uptown relocation plan, saying it required additional time to look over the proposal.