About Christopher House Elementary School

Since its opening in 2013, Christopher House Elementary School provides high-quality, personalized education with immersive family support that means each individual scholar’s needs from Kindergarten through the 8th grade at our Stewart Campus located in Chicago’s Belmont Cragin neighborhood.

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To Find Us

We are located at 5235 W. Belden Chicago, Illinois 60639. You can call us at 773-922-7500 or fax us at 773-922-7559.

Our school is located at the intersection of Latrobe and Belden, near Fullerton and Laramie. Street parking is available near the school. Please pay attention to all posted parking notifications.

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Mission

Christopher House Elementary School’s mission is to develop independent, creative, lifelong learners in a school where students, teachers, and parents form a community committed to excellence, achievement, perseverance, respect, and compassion. The school’s rigorous college prep curriculum develops critical thinkers who will succeed in high school, college, and beyond.

Purpose

Helping children and their families thrive.

Christopher House partners with families to provide a continuum of education by delivering innovative, high-quality, personalized education across our family of schools. We are proud to serve scholars from birth through high school as well as immersive family supports for our caregivers to create stable, healthy, and self-sufficient families.

Beliefs

Children and families thrive when:

  • They have access to a high quality education
  • Education begins at birth, with parents as the first teacher, and continues through life
  • Parents have high standards and set high expectations for their children and themselves
  • Professionally trained teachers use strength-based instruction and  know their students as individuals
  • Parents support their children financially and emotionally
  • Evaluations and program adjustments are data driven
  • Education includes developing perseverance and social intelligence
  • Parents and teachers work together to continuously improve programs

Vision

Christopher House scholars will achieve higher levels of academic and social emotional excellence than ever before as a result of equitable learning environments. As an organization, Christopher House will set a national standard for educational excellence and family engagement.

Values

  • Commitment to Excellence
  • Achievement & Perseverance
  • Respect & Compassion
  • Equity

“With each passing year at Christopher House, our school, teachers, and families place additional responsibilities on and raise our expectations for each and every scholar. We do this because of our unending belief in who our scholars are and all that they can accomplish. We truly believe in our scholars, and we want them to succeed in both school and in life.” – Dr. Arturo Abrego

Meet Our Staff and Board of Directors

Meet our world-class educators and leaders who are nurturing tomorrow’s leaders.

Building Our Community

At Christopher House Elementary School our goal is to provide a learning environment that encourages scholars to be courteous with others, responsible for their actions, active participants in the learning process and respectful to themselves and others. It is our intent to assist and teach each child to attempt all tasks to the best of his or her ability. In a positive and safe school environment scholars can learn about themselves and continue to develop those skills needed to be responsible citizens.

The positive learning environment at Christopher House Elementary School is promoted in part by a structure that:

  1. Allows all scholars the opportunity of uninterrupted learning time
  2. Provides reasonable expectations
  3. Encourages scholars to demonstrate problem solving skills
  4. Utilizes natural, logical, and appropriate consequences

Christopher House Elementary School expects all scholars to conduct themselves in a socially responsible manner. In order to create and maintain a strong and cooperative school community, we have defined clear behavioral expectations and implemented community-building strategies in the classroom and school-wide. 

To learn more: click here for our Christopher House Elementary School Code of Conduct.

Our School Finances

Fiscal Scorecard

Each year, CPS rates all charter schools on several key metrics of financial health. Our school’s most recent available scorecard is linked here: 

2020-2021-Christopher-House-Charter-School-Scorecard

Annual Report

Our fiscal year starts on July 1 and ends on June 30 of the following year. Our most recently completed fiscal year was FY23, which ended on June 30, 2023. Our total budget in FY23 was approximately $19.5M.

Sources of Funding

Our funding consists of 88.6% government grants, 6.8% contributions of cash and other financial assets, 1.2% contributions of nonfinancial assets, 0.7% program service fees and incidental revenue, 2.1% special event revenue, and 0.5% miscellaneous, which includes investments.

The adjacent chart breaks down our various sources of FY23 revenue.

Primary Expenditures

The adjacent chart breaks down how we spent our funds in FY23:

  • Program Services include curriculum, classroom supplies, educational materials, enrichment opportunities, and meal services, among others.
  • Support Services include those costs associated with overall function and management, including fundraising.

Say Hello

Contact Us. We’d Love To Hear From You.

Have a question about Christopher House Elementary School and not sure who to ask? Find the information on our Contact page.

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Christopher House
5235 W. Belden Ave.
Chicago, IL 60639