Evanston citizens group to promote $48 million school ‘investment’
BY KAREN BERKOWITZ kberkowitz@pioneerlocal.com February 21, 2012 12:06PM
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Updated: March 24, 2012 8:13AM
The citizens’ group championing a “yes” vote on Evanston School District 65’s $48.2 million bond question is shifting into high gear this week with a series of community forums starting Thursday (Feb. 23).
State election law bars the school district from using resources to sway a vote, but allows the district to provide factual information. The committee of supporters, Citizens for a Better Evanston, has committed to marketing the referendum.
“A common thread for us is that we believe this investment in our kids is worth it,” said Toly Walker, a teacher at Evanston Township High School and a co-chair of the citizen’s group. “Evanston is known for its progressive nature, and what is more progressive than a state-of-the-art school?”
The first forum will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Evanston Ecology Center, 2024 McCormick Blvd., Evanston.
The forum will feature a short promotional documentary. Produced by Evanston filmmaker Susan Hope Engel, the documentary includes interviews with educators, parents, community leaders and other stakeholders. Hope Engel served on the School District 65 study committee that spent seven months investigating the need and community support for a school in the Fifth Ward that was lost during desegregation. She previously produced the award-winning “Unforgettable” for the McGaw YMCA’s 125th anniversary about the role of the Emerson Street Branch YMCA in the black community. She is one of four people co-chairing Citizens for a Better Evanston.
The second forum will be held Tuesday (Feb. 28) at Haven Middle School, 2417 Prairie Ave., Evanston.
In March, forums are planned for March 7 at King Laboratory School, 2424 Lake St., and March 15 at Chute Middle School, 1400 Oakton St. All meetings begin at 7 p.m.
Voter decision
After nearly a year of citizen study and public debate, the District 65 School Board voted 5-2 in December to give voters the final say on whether the school system should re-establish a school in the Fifth Ward. Officials said the new school would address the social injustice of dividing students among multiple schools.
The $21 million school also would provide 18 additional classrooms to address a projected shortfall of four to six classrooms at elementary schools in north Evanston, which would result in lower class sizes throughout the district.
Families living within an option area could attend the new school at Simpson Street and Ashland Avenue or their attendance area school. The option area includes portions of the Kingsley, Lincolnwood and Willard areas, as well as a small piece of the Orrington area.
Gilo Kwesi Logan, a co-chair of the committee, said the design drawings showing the placement of the school on the Foster Park site have eased concern about the loss of green space.
“I took the drawings to a whole lot of African-American leaders in the community. Once they could see that the whole field is not going to be lost — more than a football field’s worth of green space is going to be preserved — there were some converts,” Logan said.
If voters give the go-ahead, the district plans to construct 16 new middle school classrooms, eight at Haven and eight at Nichols. Haven is projected to grow from 700 to more than 860 pupils by 2016, while Nichols’ head count could rise from about 550 to 730.
In conjunction with that construction, the district would enlarge and modernize the small science facilities at Haven and Nichols, and modernize the science labs at Chute Middle School and King Laboratory School.
The new borrowing also would be used to create safe and visible entryways at several schools and provide upgraded locker rooms at Bessie Rhodes Magnet School, a Kindergarten though eight-grade building that was originally constructed with only elementary-aged students in mind.
The bill
District 65 is estimating the new borrowing — to be paid back over 20 years — would add about $127 a year in property taxes to the owner of a $400,000 home.
Supporters stress that the yearly tax increase is less than what taxpayers were paying for the referendum that voters approved a dozen years ago.
The debt stemming from that $28.5 million bond question was paid off over 10 years and ended with homeowners’ tax bill last fall.
That referendum financed construction of the Joseph E. Hill Education Center, among other projects.
Early voting for the March 20 primary begins Monday (Feb. 27) at the Evanston Civic Center.
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