District 65 administrators proposed closing Dewey and Lincolnwood elementary schools at the board's Oct. 13 meeting, a plan that would move 713 students to different schools.
For families at those schools, the news landed hard. Dewey parent Ed Van Brusselen called it "a tough pill to swallow," the Evanston RoundTable reported. His family moved to Evanston from Austin, Texas, after the same thing happened at their last school. Lincolnwood parent Steven Lewis told the RoundTable his two children had already transferred from the closed Kingsley Elementary to Lincolnwood this year.
The closures are part of a broader plan to cut roughly $20 million by fiscal year 2028, according to the district's presentation. Shuttering both buildings would save an estimated $2.9 million annually and $58 million in maintenance costs over 20 years. Dewey's Two-Way Immersion (TWI) program would move as a cohort to Lincoln Elementary, and Lincolnwood's program for students with autism spectrum disorder would relocate to Orrington.
Families who have already been through a District 65 closure offer some perspective. Parents from the shuttered Willard and Bessie Rhodes TWI programs, whose children now attend Foster Elementary in the 5th Ward, described a rocky start that has gradually improved, as The Daily Northwestern first reported.
Jennifer Cameros, a 6th Ward resident, told the Daily Northwestern she transferred her children to Foster the day before the deadline. Her daughter came home every day during the first week asking to return to Willard. Heather Huddleston, a 5th Ward parent, had a different experience, calling the move "really smooth." Some former Willard and Bessie Rhodes teachers now work in the Foster strand, which helped ease the change.
Unresolved questions remain. Sylvia Carlson, a 5th Ward parent, told the Daily Northwestern that families were initially promised their cohort could move to Haven Middle School together. They later learned students may have to attend whichever middle school their homes are zoned for once TWI expands districtwide. Carlson said the issue does not directly affect her family but she has not gotten a clear answer for families it would.
Jo Ann Flores-Deter, a former Bessie Rhodes parent, left the TWI program entirely after the district changed Foster from a planned K-8 to a K-5 school. They enrolled their children at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Literary and Fine Arts School, which does not offer TWI.
The original Foster School closed in 1979 as part of Evanston's desegregation plan in the predominantly Black 5th Ward. Residents pushed for decades to restore a neighborhood school there.
At the Oct. 13 board meeting, board member Maria Opdycke got choked up describing families who moved from Kingsley to Lincolnwood and how they "have suffered," the RoundTable reported. She pressed administrators for lessons learned from the last closure process. They did not immediately answer.
Interim Superintendent Eric Witherspoon said the plan is meant to permanently address the district's financial challenges, ABC 7 reported. The board is scheduled to vote on advancing the proposal Nov. 9, with mandated closure hearings to follow in December.
