Charter schools, which have grown in proliferation during Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s tenure, are getting far less love as the mayor is winding down his time in office.

One charter school in Chicago will close at the end of this school year and three proposed charters have been rejected, even though two of the proposals are in areas deemed ripe for selective enrollment institutions.

The Kwame Nkrumah Academy Charter School, serving 197 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, will lose its charter after this school year due to underperformance, according to Chicago Public Schools officials.

Parents of children at the school, located in the city’s Roseland neighborhood, will get the option to enroll their child in higher-performing district and charter schools.

CPS leaders said the school has failed to get off the state’s Academic Warning List and has failed to successfully implement a mandatory remediation plan. They added that the school has also failed to squelch district financial and operational concerns.

District leaders said a site visit to the school suggests “that the school lacks the capacity to provide students a high-quality education, and higher-quality school options exist for students in the community.”

CPS officials at their Dec. 5 meeting also rejected proposals for charters from Intrisic Schools for the Near North Loop, Kemet Leadership Academy for Greater Englewood and Moving Everest 2 for Austin/Belmont Cragin.  The latter two proposals were in areas seen as having a need for charter schools, but CPS officials said both proposals were lacking in key areas.

“High quality charter schools can serve as important options for families, but we have been clear that in order to operate in our district, schools must provide students with a high quality education and applicants must meet a clear need in the community and prove their ability to serve students well,” said CPS CEO Janice Jackson.

However, another charter that had been on chopping block will get another two years to operate.

CPS leadership staff had also recommended Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men High School – West Campus be closed, but after board consideration, the institution was granted another two years of operation.

Urban Prep West serves 176 high school students at its West Side location. It had faced closure for many of the same reasons as the Kwame Nkrumah Academy, including failure to implement remediation plan and improve enough to be removed from the Academic Warning List. However, CPS Board members opted to give the charter school another two years to turn things around.

Of the proposed charter schools, Intrisic 2 showed the most promise, according to CPS officials, but its planned location Downtown did not resonate with CPS officials. They noted there is not a need for more charters in the Downtown area.

“CPS does not support opening additional schools that do not meet a clearly identified need for families,” district officials said in a statement.

CPS leaders said the Kemet Leadership Academy proposal had an “incomplete and unproven” proposed curriculum.

Moving Everest 2 got a thumb’s down from the district, in part, because it did not “demonstrate the capacity or program to serve English Language Learners,” CPS leaders said.

kbeese@chronicleillinois.com