The Evanston Township High School District 202 Board of Education reviewed the ETHS Foundation’s progress on the Evanston to Everywhere capital campaign at its Monday night meeting.
The campaign is focused on renovating the school’s arts and career-technical education spaces, funding a new art gallery, black box theater and industrial kitchen. The foundation raked in more than $11 million last year and is now almost halfway to the campaign’s $48 million goal, according to Chief Advancement Officer Jeff Hammock.
In his presentation to board members, Hammock stressed the importance of recent upgrades.
“When you look good, you feel good as a human being, and that’s true for the students and the spaces in which they walk,” Hammock said. “For a lot of people, it’s not just a building.”
Nearly half of the foundation’s $23.5 million haul came from donations of more than $5 million.
Two-thirds of donors so far are ETHS alumni, comprising more than 4,700 of the roughly 7,600 total contributors. About 8.4% of the school’s alumni have donated to the foundation since it was founded, Hammock said.
Board member Mirah Anti applauded the campaign’s focus on the relationship between ETHS and the broader community. Hammock said the school’s presence in the city has bolstered fundraising efforts.
“As I’m sitting down with alumni, even outside of Evanston, they understand that ETHS, in large part, is like the community center for the town,” Hammock said. “It is the one building that everybody goes through, and that still remains meaningful.”
Earlier in the meeting, Assistant Superintendent Pete Bavis and ETHS’ Director of Research, Evaluation and Assessment Carrie Levy presented an overview of how district officials will report data on metrics — including cumulative GPA, attendance and discipline rates — during the 2025-26 school year.
In previous years, district officials delivered data reports throughout the school year. Moving forward, board members will receive a comprehensive data report each November and updates to the district’s data dashboard will be made quarterly.
The new strategy will provide clearer and more current data reports, Bavis said.
Beyond improvements to the Arts and Innovation wing, the board also reviewed a Capital Improvement Program that encompasses renovations costing over $25,000 elsewhere in the school building.
The program includes plans for new gathering spaces, a roof restoration and IT infrastructure projects. The board also expressed support for installing HVAC in the school’s gymnasium, funded primarily through the sale of School Fire Prevention and Safety bonds.
“One of the biggest complaints I hear is the lack of AC in the gym,” Student Representative Eva Hansen said. “So I think this will be a huge deal in terms of student satisfaction.”
The district is often unable to fund all capital improvements because the cost of repairs outpaces revenue generated each year, the district’s Chief Financial Officer Kendra Williams explained.
Rising construction costs and extended planning periods have made actualizing capital improvements even more difficult, according to Williams. These challenges have forced the district to balance maintaining facilities in the 1.2 million square foot building with individual classrooms’ needs, she said.
Board member Leah Piekarz agreed with Williams. She called renovations to the Arts and Innovation wing “exciting” and the HVAC installation in the gym a much-needed upgrade.
“This report is a good reflection of what you were talking about in terms of balancing classroom-related projects and the practical nitty gritty stuff,” she said.
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