This story is part of a series on the perspectives of parent groups and school communities leading up to Evanston/Skokie School District 65’s school closure decision. Other stories in the series can be read here.  

Lincolnwood Elementary School parent Jamia Powell is on a quest for clarity.

Her oldest child, a fifth grader, is on the autism spectrum, so she is enrolled in Lincolnwood’s Structured Teaching Education Program. The program equips three schools — Lincolnwood in the northwest, Lincoln Elementary School in the southeast and Nichols Middle School, centrally — with staff and dedicated facilities, like enclosed playgrounds and sensory rooms, to support students with special needs.

From her home near Evanston Township High School, she knows she will have to drive north to drop off her younger daughter and east to drop off her older daughter at Nichols next year. Because of District 65’s persistent difficulties with transportation infrastructure, she said she gave up on busing her children long ago.

Lincolnwood would close under one remaining scenario, and its STEP program would move to Dewey Elementary School. Powell said he wondered how the district plans to equip Dewey with the facilities and staff necessary to take on the program.

“You’re having these kids restart in a different environment, and you’re going to see regression,” she said. “It’s a transition, and it’s been known that transitions are hard for children that are on the spectrum.”

Powell, a single mother, said she started organizing with other parents and writing to the board after her children came home worried that their school was going to close. Since Powell moved to Evanston — largely because of the STEP program — her child has had the same teacher, who she called her child’s “best friend.”

As her fifth grader moves to Nichols and her fourth grader may be forced to leave Lincolnwood, Powell said her children are nervous that they’ll lose the teachers and friends they have grown up with.

“I guess I want clarity on how I can best prepare my kids for something that we know is about to happen,” she said.

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Related Stories:

— Absent Salem and Opdycke, District 65 board narrows to final 2 school closure scenarios

— District 65 flips to two school closures after public pushback, new financial projections

— ‘One shot to get this right’: D65 board mulls over school closure scenarios