Every morning, Mirella Gomez walks her three children to school at Helen A. Haugan Elementary in Albany Park. One by one, she kisses them on the forehead and whispers a gentle reminder in Spanish to take care of themselves before sending them off for the day.

Since August, her daughter has been telling her stories about crowded spaces in the school, but it wasn’t until Monday that she saw the reality for herself.

Gomez said she visited the school’s former library to grab documents she needed.

Suddenly, her daughter’s words struck her as she scanned the room. Every inch of the space was claimed by people and things, Gomez said.

Desks, tables and play areas for children were packed tightly near the printing area. Boxes and bins of nameless items on shelves swallowed her in, she said.

What was once a library had been converted into a very tight multipurpose room including a makeshift office space for school counselors, teachers and the school’s dean. Students and parents also meet there for student counseling sessions or parent conferences, when necessary.

Gomez found the crowding she observed so concerning that she wrote it down in her personal journal so she’d never forget, she said. “There’s no space for us. . . There’s no space for them to play,” Gomez wrote in Spanish in her notebook.

And she does not stand alone.

Other Haugan parents and community members have echoed her concerns, telling the Tribune that students and staff are occupying spaces like former storage closets, hallways and at tables underneath stairways to accommodate the growing student population, which has increased nearly 24% over three school years to 1073, according to the most recent CPS data.

“Every kid here is being impacted by that (overcrowding),” Haugan parent Cliff Tarrance said. “We’re happy with the school but the overall quality of education is definitely impacted by that.”

Even the school’s principal, Heather Smith, does not have a private office, sharing space with school clinicians, community members told the Tribune. Smith declined the Tribune’s requests for comment.

Yet, despite these pleas from the school community, on Dec. 1, Chicago Public Schools denied Haugan’s request to move roughly 250 students in its seventh and eighth-grade classes to nearby North River Elementary, a lottery-based school roughly a six-minute walk away, for the 2026-2027 school year.

In its decision, the district weighed multiple factors, including “a space analysis of both schools, enrollment patterns, safety considerations, cost implications, impact on the school communities, and other relevant factors,” CPS Acting Chief Portfolio Officer Conrad Timbers-Ausar wrote in a letter published on Haugan’s website.

The district’s space analysis concluded Haugan can hold 1,230 students.

But the school community insists this is not the full picture.

In 2012, researcher Jeanne Marie Olson found a problem with the formula Chicago Public Schools used to measure school space. She showed that CPS’s method didn’t match the real maximum class size among other factors.

Using her calculations, Haugan’s school community rechecked their building against current CPS standards and determined it should only hold 1,159 students.

As of Thursday, they are 86 students shy of that limit, according to CPS data.

“Neighborhood schools have to take everybody that shows up,” Olson said. “So if you end up with 41 kids in kindergarten and you’re trying to make kindergarten manageable. . . Now you’ve got a problem.”

In a statement to the Tribune, CPS wrote “While Haugan has space constraints, it is not currently overcrowded,” Decisions to convert spaces to meet their needs are made by the schools, not the district, according to the statement.

Alejandra Carrillo says goodbye to her daughter, Elen Sanchez, at Haugan Elementary School in Albany Park on Dec. 9, 2025, in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Co-locating at North River Elementary would provide Haugan with additional classrooms for holistic and special education services, parents said. When Smith and the school community requested an expansion in September, they agreed that seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms would be the easiest to co-locate, causing minimal disruption to the school’s foundation. The eight classrooms designated for seventh- and eighth-grade students would be redistributed at Haugan for other educational uses.

Although their request was denied, the Haugan community emphasized that the fight to secure more space for students is far from over.

It’s merely the beginning, they said.

A decades-long battle for space

For longtime community members, the denial feels familiar.

Local School Council (LSC) member Marni Willenson said the situation mirrors what happened in the community more than two decades ago.

That’s when Willenson served on a neighborhood committee, which she said was formed to give residents a voice in charter school expansions across Chicago. At that time, a new school building was constructed just blocks away from Haugan.

But when proposals emerged to populate the building – one from Haugan and another from charter operator Aspira Inc – Willenson said the community’s preference for Haugan was overruled by CPS.

At one time serving 800 students, Aspira Haugan Middle School ran the school designed to provide a high-tech education to middle schoolers from 2005 until it shuttered in June, citing low enrollment and a steep deficit. In 2022, North River Elementary opened in the building where 335 students are currently enrolled in grades K-8.

“We’re in such a parallel situation,” Willenson said. “Despite all the organization of the community, overwhelming community support and a critical need for using that space, we’ve been denied.”

Haugan officials predict the student population could swell by an additional 50 to 150 students next year.

Tiffany Harvey, a parent and local school council co-chair at Haugan Elementary School, stands outside of the Albany Park school on Dec. 9, 2025, in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

LSC Chair Tiffany Harvey expressed concern about the school’s ability to accommodate every student should enrollment change significantly next year.

“I know we are going to grow, “ Harvey said. “I’m very upset that parents in my community really don’t have the right to send their child to the neighborhood school unless they want to deal with larger class sizes.”

And while the Chicago Teachers Union signed a new contract in April for kindergarten classes to be capped at 25 students, Kristen Heilemann, who teaches kindergarten at Haugan, said she has nearly 30 students.

“It’s been a very hard challenge,” Heilemann said.

Special education teacher Anne Nolan, who co-teaches with Heilemann, sometimes takes her students who need individualized instruction into the hallway when the room gets too noisy. But sometimes the hallway is not a solution, she said, as other teachers are working with students there too.

“We’re fighting for space in the hallway—and the hallway—it’s a racket,” Nolan said.

Nolan emphasized that she wasn’t claiming Haugan is noisier than other schools, but said the crowded conditions make it especially difficult for young learners to focus.

Esther Pomranky, whose child is in pre-kindergarten at Haugan said she has a difficult decision to make next year.

“I’m between a rock and a hard place,” Pomranky said. “And I know a lot of neighbors are in the same boat.”And for many parents, the concern goes beyond crowded classrooms, converted school spaces and activities like “art on a cart” that sprouted due to a lack of space.

For them, it’s about equity and the right to have their voices heard.

District denies bias, parents press for fairness

Andrea Macias argues that the district’s denial of colocation is tied to racial dynamics. She believes Haugan’s crowding issue is being overlooked because of the community’s demographics. The school is located in a majority Hispanic and Latino community in the heart of Albany Park, with 82% of students reflecting the same demographic makeup.

More than 75% of Haugan’s students are also English learners, far above the district’s 28% according to the Illinois Report Card.

Gomez, who is president of Haugan’s Bilingual Advisory Committee, shared similar sentiments. “It’s enough injustice for our community,” Gomez said in Spanish.

An overcrowded school should concern everyone, according to Macias.“Whether your kid is affected or not, they live in our community,” Macias said. “It will always affect all of us.”

Zach Cavett hugs his daughter, Ezra, before she heads off to school at Haugan Elementary School in Albany Park on Dec. 9, 2025, in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

“You can see the need,” Zach Cavett said, whose daughter attends the school. “Investing in this community and developing it is going to be amazing for all of these kids who live here.”

In their statement to the Tribune, CPS denied allegations that race played a role in its decision.

“CPS strongly rejects any suggestion that overcrowding or facility challenges are acceptable due to a school’s demographic makeup. Promoting equity, particularly for Black and Brown students and multilingual learners, is a top priority for CPS as outlined in Together We Rise, the District’s strategic plan,” according to an emailed statement.

As for the vacant space at North River Elementary, the district said OPM will also “evaluate the enrollment needs of the entire Albany Park community to determine the most effective way to utilize the space available at North River.”

But Gomez said the time to find a solution is now.

“We need the space,” Gomez said in Spanish. “It is absolutely urgent that we get it.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/11/cps-haugan-elementary-overcrowding/