Despite vehement disapproval from several members, the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Board of Education “gave the nod” to Superintendent Hardy Murphy to cap kindergarten class sizes next year as a short-term solution to space issues.
As a result, an anticipated 28 kindergartners who would have attended Dewey Elementary School, Lincolnwood Elementary School or Willard Elementary School will not be able to attend their neighborhood school. Affected students’ placement will be decided on a first-registered, first-served basis, with time-stamped registration forms to ensure accuracy.
According to projections made by District 65 as well as an outside consultant, enrollment in the district will increase by 158-593 students over the next five years. In order to accommodate extra students, along with their eventual conclusion of capping enrollment, board members debated enlarging class sizes and moving strands of two-way immersion classes from overcrowded schools to magnet schools.
Board members Tracy Quattrocki and Katie Bailey were strongly for the latter option, saying TWI classrooms are under-populated and could be condensed or moved to ease overcrowding.
The board will continue to discuss long-term solutions at its March 2 meeting.
“I have issues,” Bailey said. “I’m not done.”
Parents and other Evanston residents lined the walls of the meeting room to speak about their concerns with the inclusion plan and classroom-capping.
Sixteen of the 25 speakers expressed concerns about the board’s move toward inclusion of special education students into regular classrooms. Many spoke of the fate of Park School, a facility exclusively for special needs children.
“Park School is not a place; it’s a haven that cannot be duplicated in regular education classroom, not even close,” said Barry Minerof, a Park School parent. “There may be no plan to close Park School, but this plan, if continued, will have that result nonetheless.”
Others who addressed the board articulated apprehension about the limiting of kindergarten enrollment in some schools, as well as proposed changes to the magnet schools.
The Magnet School Study Committee presented a report regarding their research and recommendations about the future of the two magnet schools in the district, Dr. Bessie Rhodes Magnet School and Martin Luther King Lab Magnet School.
The committee suggested themes for both schools and a plan to enhance those concentrations over the next several years.
Bessie Rhodes, the committee suggested, would become Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies. It would focus on world languages with daily Spanish lessons and international teacher exchanges. King Lab would morph into Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Literary and Fine Arts School, with daily fine arts instruction in music, art, drama and creative movement and an emphasis on writing.
Board members had several questions about plans to pay for staffing changes, new classes and programs. Members of the committee assured the board the funding per student would be equivalent to general education students, yet these alterations would require “a district investment to make this happen.”
“I’m sitting on the finance committee, and all we’ve talked about is cuts,” Quattrocki said. “So if we do have money in the budget, we should decide how much that is that we would allot, and if we don’t then we need to be clear about that.”
The board decided to form an investigative team to look into these inquiries.
Implementation of the changes, if approved, would begin during the 2011-12 school year.[email protected]
