CHICAGO – Noble Street Charter School today announced that it will open the Loop’s first non-selective high school campus in the fall of 2009 at 1 N. State Street, following a gift from Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP Founding Partner Allan B. Muchin and his family.  The campus, Muchin College Prep, is one of two new high school campuses that Noble Street will open in 2009, and the first to be located in the Loop.  Noble Street currently operates seven campuses throughout the city.

 

Muchin College Prep’s location, literally at the center of the Loop, makes it accessible from all areas of the city, enabling it to attract a truly diverse student body.  The campus will have 600 students and the Noble Network charter management staff will also be housed in the new space, one floor below the campus.  The campus’s close proximity to Chicago’s corporate community will give students access to job shadowing, internships and other opportunities to observe and become involved in one of the world’s leading business communities.  In addition, the campus’s proximity to Chicago’s cultural landmarks will enhance the curriculum available to students.  Muchin College Prep will be led by principal Kim Neal.  Ms. Neal is a Teach for America alumna and most recently worked at Harlem Day Charter School in New York. 

 

“Mr. and Mrs. Muchin’s extraordinary commitment to Noble Street will provide a new public school option for thousands of Chicago high school students over the coming years,” said Ron Manderschied, president and CEO of Noble Network.  “We are grateful for their dedication and belief that our students can and will attend the finest universities in the country as a result of their hard work at the high school level.”

 

As a campus of Noble Street Charter School, Muchin College Prep will share the strong school culture and commitment to rigorous academics in place at all Noble campuses.  Each Noble Street campus principal and staff designs and modifies the particular academic curriculum and support services to best serve the student population at his or her campus.  However, all Noble campuses replicate best practices, including a rigorous, standards-based curriculum, promotion and graduation requirements and eligibility rules, comprehensive student support services, exposure to college-level courses, a strict discipline code, character education, community service requirements, a focus on college, and a commitment to health and fitness.

 

Allan and Elaine Muchin

Mr. Muchin has been a member of Noble Street’s Board of Directors since 1999 and is an active promoter of both Noble Street and charter schools in general.  He serves on the Real Estate & Facilities Committee of the Board, which is charged with assisting and advising the effort to find affordable and appropriate facilities in which to house Noble Street campuses.  Mr. Muchin is also on a special committee dedicated to performance and data, which examines how Noble Street evaluates its success and how that success is communicated to both internal and external audiences.

 

A longtime participant in numerous charitable and civic organizations, Mr. Muchin serves as Chairman of the Lyric Opera of Chicago.  He is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, the Commercial Club of Chicago, and serves on the Board of Visitors of the University of Wisconsin Law School and serves as a co-chair for the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago's Campaign for Justice.

 

Founded in 1974, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP is a full-service law firm with more than 650 attorneys in locations across the United States and an affiliate in London. The firm’s business-savvy professionals provide clients in numerous industries with sophisticated, high-value legal services, with a focus on corporate, financial services, litigation, real estate, commercial finance, intellectual property and trusts and estates. Among our clients are a wide range of public and private companies, including nearly a third of the Fortune 100, as well as a number of government and nonprofit organizations and individuals.