Dive Brief:

• Last week, AltSchool CEO Max Ventilla presented a proposal to a group of residents in Chicago that would bring his innovative school model to the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
• The private school, which plans to serve just small numbers of kids, has already opened new locations in Palo Alto and Brooklyn in the past month.
• If the Chicago proposal goes through, that will bring the school’s total campuses to seven.

Dive Insight:

AltSchool’s model has garnered attention both for the financial backing it received from tech giants like Mark Zuckerberg and its approach, which combines tiny schools with project-based learning and custom technology. The school has built out its own digital platforms for teacher collaboration and student tracking.

But the main concern Chicago residents seem to have raised is far more quotidian. At the public meeting, they worried about increased traffic as a result of the school’s tiered start times. "We’re going to try to address the most significant issues that people have. Ultimately, I think it’s a solvable problem,” Ventilla said.