Union Park High Schools, Inc.

Welcome to Union Park High Schools, Inc.

As a nonprofit, Chicago-based school management organization, Union Park is leading the effort to design, open, and operate a network of union-partnered charter high schools in the city's least served communities. Our mission includes promoting supportive working and learning environments for teachers by emphasizing collaborative decision-making, providing ongoing professional development, and by fostering mutually beneficial relationships of respect between teachers and governing bodies -- relationships founded on a common interest: providing students with the best education possible.

Union Park was born from a vision shared by Christine Boardman of the Service Employees International Union Local 73 (SEIU) and two long-time Chicago educators, John Ayers and Kirby Girolami Callam. Together, they bridged partnerships with the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) and Talent Development High Schools at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). These organizations recognized the need for radical change in Chicago's schools, and established Union Park to design, open, and operate a network of faculty-friendly charter high schools, each implementing John Hopkins University's powerful Talent Development High School reform model. In addition to recognizing the importance of initiating curricular reform, each partner behind Union Park believes strongly in creating a supportive school environment for learning and working, and in establishing a collaborative process for making and executing key decisions.

What is a Union Park high school?

Staff

Kirby Girolami Callam, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Callam is a veteran educator with experience in both charter and unionized district settings. After starting his career as a hospital management systems engineer, Callam discovered his calling while serving as a volunteer mentor, coach and program leader in Chicago's Cabrini Green public housing community. He went on to found and lead the Washington Park Youth Program on the city's South Side. Callam spent nearly a decade working for the Center for School Improvement and the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago, culminating with his work as a Director at the university's North Kenwood/Oakland Charter School. Callam next pursued a career as a classroom teacher to round out his school-based experience and became a certified teacher in 6-12 math. For the past five years he has worked as a sixth and eighth grade teacher at Haven Middle School in District 65 of Evanston, Illinois. During this period he has also managed a part-time consultancy to charter schools and charter starters, providing expertise on design, budgets and facilities. Of the 22 charter school proposals Callam has helped develop, 16 were approved. Callam has a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, a Master of Arts in Teaching from National-Louis University, and a Master of Public and Private Management from the Yale University School of Management.