YCCS-McKinley-Lakeside Leadership

YCCS-McKinley-Lakeside Leadership is one of the micro-enrollment four-year high schools in Chicago, Illinois, operated by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299, with 103 students on its rolls from grades 9 through 12. Compared to the state average of about 834 students per school, that is 88% leaner than typical.

Chicago Public Schools Dist 299 runs 622 schools in total, collectively educating 324,396 students. YCCS-McKinley-Lakeside Leadership is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, YCCS-McKinley-Lakeside Leadership reports that the student body is overwhelmingly Black (94%). Other groups include 4% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 22% Black, putting the school's mix meaningfully more Black than the area baseline.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 7 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.7:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 13.8:1 average. An estimated 95% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is above Cook County's rate of about 66%.

After controlling for student poverty, YCCS-McKinley-Lakeside Leadership is in the bottom 10% of Illinois public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 16.6%; YCCS-McKinley-Lakeside Leadership posts 2.5%, -14.1 points below that line.

Across the wider county, Cook County reports that the typical household earns roughly $83,498 per year, 43% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. In all, Cook County runs 1406 public schools (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students), of which YCCS-McKinley-Lakeside Leadership is one.

The closest other public school is Drake Elem School, roughly 0.2 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), YCCS-McKinley-Lakeside Leadership ranks 9th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 42.5%.

Geographically, the school is in a city-core area. YCCS-McKinley-Lakeside Leadership is a charter school, which puts it inside the public-school system but outside the standard district-managed model.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at YCCS-McKinley-Lakeside Leadership has shrank 32%, going from 151 students in 2018 to 103 in 2025.

Inside the community feed, the feed for YCCS-McKinley-Lakeside Leadership typically covers science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.