Groundbreaking Held For New Foster School In Evanston's 5th Ward

EVANSTON, IL — A groundbreaking ceremony was held Monday afternoon at Foster Field in Evanston to mark the start of construction on a long-awaited new 5th Ward neighborhood school.

At a special meeting Monday, the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 board voted to name the new school Foster School and give it the mascot of the phoenix.

The old Foster School closed as a neighborhood school in 1967 amid the district's desegregation efforts, leaving students from the predominantly Black neighborhood to be bused to other schools around town.

The ceremony marked the beginning of site clearing and ground improvements, with the first two bids for the project coming in under budget at approximately $1.3 million.

Turner & Townsend has been hired as a representative of the school district in order to oversee the construction process with a goal of ensuring the project stays on track and within budget.

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Mayor Daniel Biss described new Foster School as a "successful partnership between the city and the school district" and "long overdue," speaking at Monday's ceremony along with city staff, district administrators and current and former councilmembers, according to the Evanston RoundTable.

First approved in March 2022, the $48.4 million project was scaled back earlier this year after it ran $25 million over budget during the design stage.

Under former Superintendent Devon Horton, who departed last summer to take a superintendent role in suburban Atlanta, district administrators projected substantial savings from reduced transportation costs that never materialized.

The new Foster School was originally supposed to have been opened this fall and included students up to 8th grade as well as the Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies magnet program in a three-story building.

The school is now set to be complete by the 2026-27 school year, but it will only include students up to 5th grade, with two stories instead of three and no Bessie Rhodes multilingual program.

Board members last month voted 5-2 to permanently close the magnet school at 3701 Davis St. in Skokie following the 2025-26 school year.

The new school is being funded through lease certificates issued by District 65. They can be approved without a vote, unlike traditional bond referendums — such as an unsuccessful 2012 5th Ward school referendum. In this case, the district is paying them back at a cost of $3.2 million per year through 2042.

Former 5th Ward Ald. Dolores Holmes, a graduate of the old, segregated Foster School, and longtime head of the nonprofit that operates out of its old building, described it as a "rebirth," the RoundTable reported.

"I’m grateful," Holmes said. "And congratulations to District 65 for keeping your word."

Earlier:

• With Looming Deficits, District 65 To Close Only Bilingual School
• New Name, Mascot Needed For 5th Ward School Ahead Of Groundbreaking
• Renderings For New 5th Ward School Revealed By District 65 Architects
• Already $25 Million Overbudget, District 65 Board Decides To Downsize 5th Ward School