Students who live in a mostly minority section of west Evanston will have a better chance of being admitted to the nearby Timber Ridge Magnet School after a vote Monday night by the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 board.
Board members approved a proposal that would reserve 20 percent of Timber Ridge kindergarten admissions for children residing in the Kingsley, Lincolnwood and Willard elementary school attendance areas, south and east of McCormick Boulevard and north of Church Street. Timber Ridge, 3701 Davis St. in Skokie, is a science- and technology-focused magnet school that accepts about 40 new kindergarten students each year.
The decision to give priority to students residing in the designated area — where 98 percent of the residents are minorities — prevents racial disparity in the school’s enrollment, said Lynn McCarthy, assistant superintendent of school operations for District 65. It also gives the students an opportunity to attend a magnet school.
“Evanston tries to keep all the schools integrated and help schools that are unbalanced,” McCarthy said. “We don’t want only schools that are all-white or all-black.”
Under the district’s “60-40” guideline, each school should not have more than 60 percent of one race.
Implementation of the Timber Ridge proposal would not change the racial balance at the school. Instead more minority children who live in the designated zone near Timber Ridge would be admitted and fewer minorities who live outside the area would be able to come to the school, said Jonathan Baum, a member of the school board.
Since schools were desegregated, the students in the mostly minority area near Timber Ridge have been bused to other schools to maintain a racial balance, Baum said.
The students do not have a neighborhood school, and District 65 has not had enough money to build a new school in that area, he said.
“This has been a source of frustration in the black community,” Baum said.
Making admission to Timber Ridge easier for these students would help to compensate for the children not having a neighborhood school, Baum said.
The application process to Timber Ridge is very competitive, with only one in five students being admitted.
Under the new plan, every child who applies from the designated area automatically will be admitted until the 20 percent limit is reached.
After that the children are placed in the same pool as students from other areas.
Although the 20 percent allocation may mean less of a chance for students outside of the area to get in, McCarthy said it would not upset anyone at Timber Ridge.
“It’s a well thought-out plan,” she said. “It’s just better for the kids.”
King Lab Magnet School, the only other magnet school in D65, already follows a similar process of granting priority admissions to nearby students. Baum, who pushed for the admissions proposal at King Lab earlier this year, said there have not been any problems at the school, 2424 Lake St.
Jennifer Hill, a kindergarten teacher at Timber Ridge, said she does not see any disadvantages to the proposal. She said the plan will add diversity to her classroom, which helps students learn more about each other and different cultures.
“Evanston students have the tremendous opportunity for experiencing a rich and diverse classroom,” she said. “That’s why I always wanted to teach here.”
