Friday marked the last day of school across Evanston/Skokie School District 65, but for Willard Elementary School parents like Erika Crowther, whose kindergartner participated in the building’s Two-Way Immersion program, the occasion felt “bittersweet.”
“The program has really been everything that we hoped that it would be,” Crowther said. “It was the reason why we came to Evanston.”
After her family moved back to the Chicago area, Crowther said her daughter enjoyed a single year of Willard’s bilingual program, which brought together English- and Spanish-speaking students to develop proficiency in both languages. Next year, her daughter will continue the TWI program at the district’s newly-constructed Foster School.
In January, the District 65 Board of Education voted 5-1 to terminate Willard’s TWI strand as part of Phase 3 of the district’s Structural Deficit Reduction Plan, which aims to reach financial stability by cutting $16 to $18 million from the district’s budget.
News of the district’s plans “hit us hard,” Crowther said. Back then, she organized with fellow TWI parents to oppose the program’s closure.
“We thought that logic would carry us through,” she said. “I think that the district had already kind of made up their minds.”
More than 75 students were enrolled in Willard’s TWI program this year, and by default, many will continue their bilingual education at Foster with Crowther’s daughter. Still, about 24 of this year’s Willard TWI students were granted permissive transfers to attend other schools, according to District 65 data.
Crowther said about half of her daughter’s kindergarten class will attend Foster. The other half opted to remain at Willard despite the TWI program’s closure, she explained.
Willard parent Mark Kennedy, whose daughter has several friends in the TWI program, also called Friday’s festivities “bittersweet.” He said the TWI program’s termination, along with shifting attendance boundaries, will impact Willard’s community.
“It’s not going to be the same next year with the TWI kids gone and also some of the 5th Ward kids going to Foster,” Kennedy said. “Happy for them, but it’s bittersweet for us because the character of the school will change.”
For Willard TWI parent Jennifer Marin, who attended Willard herself, the last day of classes felt “nostalgic.” While she enjoyed sending her son to a building she knew closely, Marin added she is excited for Foster’s inaugural students to “set that baseline.”
Despite her frustration with District 65 administrators, Crowther emphasized the quality of Willard’s teachers, which she said motivated her family’s decision to continue the TWI program at Foster.
“We’ve heard about teachers who are going to be moving over to Foster, specifically TWI teachers,” she said. “That gives us a lot of confidence in the program.”
TWI classes have benefited Crowther’s daughter, she explained, by “reinforcing her own confidence in speaking” Spanish and exposing her to other bilingual students.
Marin, whose family is also bilingual, said transferring to Foster to continue the TWI program was an easy decision.
“I didn’t want him to lose that,” she said. “We were just going to follow the TWI program, no matter where it went.”
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Related Stories:
— D65 board votes 5-1 to close Willard TWI program
— ‘This is a tragedy’: Willard TWI families stand at a crossroads after D65 decides to shutter program
