'Keep Your Promise': Evanston Students Plead With D65 Board Not To Close Schools

EVANSTON, IL — Monday night's tearful Skokie/Evanston School District 65 Board meeting ended without a conclusive decision after hours of discussion from board members and the community.

The public comment section of the meeting lasted nearly two hours, with 76 district community members delivering emotional appeals before a packed room and the board. Several young students also came to the podium to plead for the board members to save their schools.

"It would be really hard to change schools, because I have to start over, learn routines, learn a new building, and leave behind people who know me and care about me," one Willard Elementary School student said at the meeting. "Please keep your promise, and let me stay. It's important to me to finish elementary school when I started."

Walking into the building Monday night, emotions were on high as the board was presented with three options. The first two would close three elementary schools: the Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies, Kinsgley Elementary School, and either Willard or Lincolnwood Elementary Schools.

The third option, added over the weekend under the advisory of the district's legal counsel, would close just Kingsley.

D65 is considering closing the schools because it faces a structural deficit, needing to cut $10 million to $15 million by fiscal year 2030. Board members discussed several creative ways to make up the money aside from closures, including fundraising, which some community members proposed.

Though the board seemed open to the idea, board Vice President Nichole Pinkard and Board Member Sergio Hernandez said it likely wouldn't completely fix the funding problem the district is facing.

"I'm all for fundraising, but what's at stake here is something that has been sitting here with a band-aid for decades, and we really have to be decisive," Hernandez said.

Addressing the public at the meeting, Superintendent Angel Turner said aside from balancing the district's budget, the board's overall goal is to secure an educational future for every single student in Evanston and Skokie.

"The work presented tonight is the culmination of years of tireless effort, strategic planning and, yes, profound struggle. I want the community to know that this decision is agonizing," Turner said. "It has been incredibly difficult, and the struggle to arrive at this point is deeply felt by every member of my cabinet and me, this is not a process we enter lightly, but one necessitated by our commitment to fiscal responsibility and continued academic excellence."

When it came to the vote, all six members voted not to go for the first option, which would start the process to close both Kinsgley and Willard along with Bessie Rhodes.

The board came to an impasse with the other two options, voting 3-3 on the option that would close Kingsley and Lincolnwoodand the option that would close just Kingsley. Because of the deadlock, the board will have to reconvene and call a special meeting on Thursday to vote on an additional scenario that would only close Lincolnwood.

The vote again comes to a tie, the board will be at am impasse until a seventh board member is appointed to break the tie.