Evanston/Skokie school district considers school closures
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
The Evanston/Skokie District 65 school board is scheduled to vote Monday on whether to close elementary schools as they try to close a multimillion-dollar budget hole.
The big picture: The North Shore district comprising 18 schools and education centers needs to cut up to $15 million as part of a Structural Deficit Reduction Plan (SDRP) and one of the options is closing what they classify as underutilized schools.
- All the three schools being considered for closure are at less than 50% capacity, according to the district.
Why it matters: Each closure removes an anchor for community, forcing families to rebuild that at a new, sometimes farther, school. Supporters of closing schools argue ignoring the problem and continuing to maintain underused facilities will create longer-term financial instability.
Driving the news: The six-member board — the seventh position is vacant after a member stepped down this month — is expected to vote on one of the following scenarios:
- Closure of Kingsley and Willard
- Closure of Kingsley and Lincolnwood
- Closure of Kingsley
- Closure of Lincolnwood
State of play: District 65 has already cut nearly $20 million and 130 full-time positions as part of the SDRP, and is planning to close one school, Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies.
- D65 is on track to open Foster School next year, a project the school board approved in 2022.
- Foster, located in the historically Black 5th Ward, closed in 1979, forcing students to bus across town and lose programming.
Flashback: In 2017, Evanston overwhelmingly voted for a referendum to raise property taxes by nearly 6% in order to put more than $14 million toward the district's budget in the first year, and slightly more in subsequent years, ideally into the mid-2020s, the Evanston RoundTable reported at the time.
- But those increases haven't been enough.
By the numbers: About 40% of D65's students are white, 23% are Black and 21% are Hispanic, according to the most recent data.
- About 40% of kids in the district are low-income.
Friction point: The community's response has been mixed among support for one school closure, two school closures or no closures.
What they're saying: District parent Lindsey White believes closing two schools is the most prudent approach.
- "My children would move in a two-school-closure scenario; however, even despite this going against my family's best interest, I still believe it's the right thing to do for our entire community and for all of our kids," White tells Axios.
- Additional cuts have not been named specifically, but White fears it will mean fewer interventionists, social workers, instructional coaches, assistant principals, and possibly PE teachers and fine arts teachers.
The other side: Community groups like Invest in Neighborhood Schools, started by Katie Armistead and Liz Wolens, support closing one school but have raised questions about what other cost-cutting measures should be explored before closing additional schools.
What's next: The Evanston/Skokie District 65 school board meeting is Monday; the time is still being determined.