Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Superintendent Devon Horton was named the Joseph E. Hill Superintendent of the Year by the National Alliance of Black School Educators. 

“I am truly honored to serve this incredible community and humbled to receive this recognition,” Horton said in a statement to students and families. “It’s representative of so many individuals who work tirelessly on behalf of our students every single day.”

The award is named after the first Black superintendent of District 65 and one of the founding members of NABSE. It honors current superintendents who “have demonstrated a quality of leadership that resulted in significant positive outcomes for students of African descent.” 

Horton became the superintendent of District 65 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in June 2020. 

Under Horton’s leadership, the district implemented a set of strategies to improve student achievement with its MIRACLES Continuous Improvement Plan in the 2020-21 school year. Since then, the district has continued to issue a MIRACLES in Action report twice per school year to monitor district-wide improvement efforts. 

According to Horton’s reflection after the 2020-21 school year action report, the program seeks to support educators in continuing student growth, building partnerships with families and ensuring long-term financial sustainability of the district among other action items. 

District 65 is also working to continue its Student Assignment Plan to ensure all students have access to a neighborhood school with adequate programming.

The Student Assignment Plan includes attendance boundary changes and a funding plan to build a new school in the 5th Ward, which is predominantly Black. The 5th Ward has lacked a public neighborhood school for 43 years, following the closure of Foster School in 1979. 

Horton said the district is continuing to make meaningful progress to support its students.

“The sky’s the limit and we are only getting started,” Horton said in the statement.

Horton will receive the award at the 50th Anniversary of the National Alliance of Black School Educators Conference held Nov. 30 through Dec. 4 in National Harbor, Maryland. 

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Twitter: @selenakuznikov 

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