With Looming Deficits, District 65 To Close Only Bilingual School

EVANSTON, IL — A divided school board decided to close the only bilingual school in the district when it opens a new school in Evanston's 5th Ward, a move that has prompted protests and potential litigation.

Following months of mandatory public hearings, Board members in Evanston/Skokie School District 65 voted 5-2 Monday to permanently shutter the Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies, 3701 Davis St. in Skokie following the 2025-26 school year.

Board President Sergio Hernandez, Vice President Mya Wilkins, and members Soo La Kim, Joseph Hailpern and Biz Lindsay-Ryan voted in favor of closing the magnet school, while board members Donna Wang Su and Omar Salem voted against it.

"I've never been part of a school closing, as I imagine none of you have. It's absolutely hard. This is a learning moment," Hernandez said, asserting the board did its due diligence before the vote but could do more in future reconfiguration planning. "We just have to be a lot more intentional about ensuring that we're engaging the community as best as possible, in particular, the most marginalized folks."

The original plan for the construction of a new K-8 5th Ward school included Bessie Rhodes as a "school within a school," to incorporate its fully bilingual model into a new building. But after the design for the new school ran $25 million over budget, board members decided to shave off a floor and three grade levels and from the new school planned to open on Foster Field at Foster Street and Ashland Avenue in 2026.

"We were lied to. We were lied to about the dream that we voted on. We lost months of progress thinking that we were building a K-8 school. We can't ignore that," Hailpern said Monday. "I don't want to rehash. We have to move on and do the best plan with what we got, but there's no love lost for me on the transition to our new superintendent because we were lied to, and it was a huge error."

Former District 65 Superintendent Devon Horton resigned from the district in July 2023 to take a job in the Atlanta area and subsequently defaulted on a debt repayment plan for a $25,000 early departure penalty, though the board did not seek to penalize him.

Superintendent Angel Turner took over on a permanent basis in March after holding the job on an interim basis following Horton's resignation. The district had a budget deficit of about $7 million last year that is projected to continue to rise annually unless cuts are made.

A representative of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights sent a letter to district officials urging a delay in vote and citing its successful litigation against Chicago Public Schools closures. And several parents told the Evanston RoundTable they are talking to lawyers' organizations about putting together a case against the district.

Board members have said that all District 65 middle schools will have expanded dual English-Spanish language programs. But parents pushing to keep Bessie Rhodes oppose segregating students in two-way immersion, or TWI, model within their other schools.

“We care deeply about having a wall to wall TWI program,” Aide Acosta, an organizer of the movement to prevent the closure, told the Chicago Tribune. “It is offensive that Mr. Hernandez sits there and patronizes the rest of us as if we didn’t know what was best for our children and as if some of us are not experts in education as well.”

More plans for school consolidations are expected to be revealed in August.

Earlier: Renderings For New 5th Ward School Revealed By District 65 Architects