As Evanston/Skokie School District 65 administrators and board members walked into the Joseph E. Hill Early Childhood Center on Monday, more than 100 teachers in the District 65 Educators’ Council gathered in the lobby, demanding fair pay.
“We teach, we care, be fair!” one sign read.
About an hour before, about 100 parents, students and community members marched to the education center from the Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies, opposing the district’s plans to close the school’s seventh and eighth grade classrooms in mid-November.
At the District 65 school board meeting following the protests, administrators reviewed their intent to seek community input on Bessie Rhodes’ seventh and eighth grade classrooms before hearing proposals tied to the district’s deficit reduction plan.
Superintendent Angel Turner began by reading a statement, previously sent to Bessie Rhodes parents Friday, apologizing for the “pain and disruption” caused by the district’s choice to give parents one month of notice before closing Bessie Rhodes’ seventh and eighth grade classrooms.
“This was certainly not our intention but an unintended outcome of moving too fast,” Turner said. “Our goal was to give families and staff as much notice as possible to prepare for the transition; however, it did not allow for the necessary time for collaboration.”
Turner identified four currently vacant teaching positions at Bessie Rhodes, an increase from one at the start of the school year. She presented three alternative options to address this shortage, one of which keeps Bessie Rhodes’ seventh and eighth grade students at the school while district staff members fill open teaching positions.
In the other two proposals, seventh and eighth graders would either move to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Literary and Fine Arts School together or be split up across various schools by grade.
According to Charmekia McCoy, chief of academics and schools management, Bessie Rhodes administrators interviewed several candidates to fill the vacant positions. McCoy said some candidates did not accept offers because they desired higher salaries or lacked the necessary credentials, while Bessie Rhodes Principal Charlise Berkel added that some took jobs elsewhere in the district.
“It has been a challenge (to fill vacancies) even though the current staff has been quite valiant and flexible in taking things above and beyond what the contract requires them to do,” Berkel said.
McCoy added that, if the district were to proceed with its original plan, it would provide affected students with continued social and emotional support and opportunities to meet teachers and students at their new schools.
District administrators will meet with seventh and eighth grade parents about the plans at Bessie Rhodes Tuesday evening.
Firms also presented five proposals to create the district’s deficit reduction plan, which Turner introduced at the Sept. 16 board meeting. Two consulting firms cooperated on one of the proposals, while individual firms led each of the other four.
District 65’s budget for the 2025 fiscal year contains a $13 million deficit, an increase from about $10 million in both FY23 and FY24.
Turner suggested the board continue discussing the proposals at its Nov. 4 Committee of the Whole meeting with a focus on three areas: staff cuts, school closures and increased efficiency for special education services.
Board member Soo La Kim said the group would need to balance its differing priorities carefully.
“I think that there are a lot of levers that we need to consider, so we need experience in those areas: education, contract, staffing, some ability to analyze that facilities data, et cetera,” she said.
Earlier in the meeting, Trisha Baker, president of the District 65 Educators’ Council, called on the district to negotiate a new contract with its teachers. The district’s previous contract with DEC expired at the start of the school year in August.
DEC Vice President Emily Castillo-Oh said the school board was reneging on its values and harming students by mishandling finances, all amid potential school closings and insufficient support for teachers.
“How are you upholding the thriving D65 ideals when your actions fracture communities, erode trust and create division between leadership and those on the frontlines of education?” she said.
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Related Stories:
— ‘We pick here’: Bessie Rhodes community continues protesting planned 7th, 8th grade closures
— Bessie Rhodes families protest planned closure of 7th, 8th grade classes
— District 65 Board of Education passes FY25 budget with $13 million deficit, sets cost-reduction plan
