“They are moving people around on spreadsheets,” Ms. Lewis added. “And children are not spreadsheets.”

Some parents worry that their children will not get the attention they need once schools are consolidated and class sizes expand.

“This is the first time in a long time this school has actually got a reasonable amount of kids in the classrooms,” said Torrence Shorter, a parent who sends four children ages 8 to 14 to Martin A. Ryerson Elementary School, which is on the closing list. Mr. Shorter is particularly concerned that his 8-year-old son, Joshua, who is in a special-education class with just 11 other students, will be forced into a much larger class.

At Joseph Stockton Elementary on the North Side of Chicago, another school on the list, Claudia Pesenti, a first-grade teacher, said she did not believe the school was “underutilized.” With 22 students in her classroom, she said, “I even think there should be a better ratio just because of the needs of 5- and 6- and 7-year-olds. We’re fortunate to have 22 in the sense that other schools have over 30, but I still think it’s really criminal.”

Rebecca Carroll, a spokeswoman for the city schools, said that schools are funded with the expectation of an average class size of 30 students. But she said that was a “budgetary, not academic decision.”

The district says that with the money it saves from closing schools, it will invest in air-conditioning for all classrooms; libraries; expanded math, science and fine arts curriculums; iPads for all students in grades 3-8 and programs for advanced students.