Marquise Weatherspoon will join the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 board, the district announced in a Monday news release. 

Weatherspoon, who was chosen from a pool of seven candidates, will fill a vacancy left by Rebeca Mendoza, who resigned from her position on the board effective April 28. Weatherspoon ran in the 2021 school board election and was the fifth place candidate in a race which filled four board vacancies.

“This appointment is a privilege for me, and my family echoes my excitement in joining this great leadership team,” Weatherspoon said in the release. “I promise my community that I will bring my lived experiences, love for all children, my grit and determination to my work on this board.” 

Weatherspoon currently works in sales and customer service and is a minister at Christ Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Evanston.

Weatherspoon, a third-generation Evanston resident, is a District 65 alumna and a single mother of four children who currently or formerly attended district schools, the release said. Weatherspoon is president of the community leadership council Advocates for Action and treasurer of the Chute Middle School Parent Teacher Association. 

Weatherspoon advocates for the acceptance and equity of all children, the release said. She believes in sustaining family wellbeing and stability and hopes to increase accessibility of information for the District 65 community. 

“Ms. Weatherspoon’s depth of and variety of knowledge are an excellent complement to this governing body and the priorities ahead for D65 to address the gap in opportunity to achieve for racially/ethnically marginalized students and students with (Individualized Education Programs) as well as resolution of the structural deficit,” Board President Anya Tanyavutti said in the release. 

Her term will run through the April 2023 election.

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