City Council approved funding for field lights and an athletic track at the upcoming Foster School following a 7-2 vote at Monday’s meeting.
With a planned August 2026 opening, the space will be the 5th Ward’s first neighborhood school since a previous school with the same name closed in 1979. Groundbreaking for the new school took place in July, more than two years after the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 board approved its construction.
Monday’s vote follows a series of changes to the school’s design, including a cost-cutting shift from serving K-8 students to K-5 students.
Ald. Bobby Burns (5th) proposed adding a track and lights to the design in June. Since 5th Ward residents face lower life expectancies and other health disparities, according to the Evanston Process for the Local Assessment of Needs, Burns said these changes would provide them with a space for leisure and physical activity.
“When the district made the decision to go from K-8 to K-5, there was an opportunity presented for myself and others to think about how the school could serve our other priorities in the community,” he added.
As multiple councilmembers pressed him for clarification on the construction timeline, Kirby Callam, director of strategic project management at District 65, reiterated that the council needed to vote on the revisions at Monday’s meeting for the bidding process and construction schedule to proceed as planned.
According to project manager Michael Perez, the design team previously sent a plan without a track field to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, a government agency managing stormwater in Cook County. Adding a track would require the team to send a new plan for review since the drainage system around the school would change.
“The design aspect of this is the important step forward, not necessarily approval of the project itself,” Perez said. “If it’s agreed that we can move forward with the design, we can start the process with MWRD.”
Ald. Thomas Suffredin (6th) and Ald. Krissie Harris (2nd) voted against the proposal, saying they did not want to rush making a decision without additional details.
Suffredin asked Callam about the construction process, plans for payment and hours of access to the track. According to Callam, the track will be available to the public after school and on weekends, and the city and district are still finalizing guidelines for light use.
“This project has been plagued by unexpected deletions, and now to have an unexpected addition thrown at a separate government and being told it’s a ‘do it tonight’ thing just further exacerbates the problem of mistrust that’s been plaguing the project all along,” Suffredin said.
Under the approved plan, the city will pay for the track’s construction, while the city and district will share the cost of the lights. The Five-Fifths TIF district will fund the city’s contributions, with payments set to occur in mid- to late 2025.
Callam told The Daily that the district is committed to keeping Foster School within budget through minor cost-saving design changes.
District 65 officials will next review the Foster School’s budget on Oct. 7.
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