Evanston's new Foster Elementary School opened its doors Friday, Aug. 7, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a piece of good financial news: the $48.4 million construction project is on track to finish roughly $3 million under budget.

Representatives from Cordogan Clark & Associates, the project's construction manager, confirmed the projected savings during a media tour Thursday, Aug. 6, the Evanston RoundTable reported.

For a district that has faced persistent budget pressures and does not expect to seek a referendum until 2028 or 2029, the under-budget outcome offers rare fiscal breathing room. District 65 has not publicly stated how it will use the surplus funds.

"We kind of think of this project as a rebirth," Principal Charlise Berkel said during the Thursday tour.

The 80,000-square-foot school at 1600 Simpson St. in the Fifth Ward replaces the original Foster School, which closed in 1979. It is Evanston's first newly constructed public school in more than 60 years. The building holds 24 classrooms, serves kindergarten through fifth grade and has capacity for about 600 students. The first day of classes is Monday, Aug. 24.

A turbulent budget history

The project's path to a $3 million surplus was anything but smooth. District 65 initially approved a $40 million budget in March 2022 for a larger K-8 school. By October 2023, projected costs had ballooned to $65 million. In January 2024, the board pivoted to a smaller K-5 design with an estimated cost of $48.4 million.

In a June 18 statement announcing the departure of Superintendent Dr. Angel Turner, Board President Nichole Pinkard and Vice President Chris Van Nostrand credited her with redesigning and right-sizing the project, saying her leadership allowed the district to fulfill its commitment to return a neighborhood school to the Fifth Ward while keeping the project on time and on budget.

The project did arrive about two years past its original target opening date, though the current timeline held once the redesigned scope was set.

Inside the building

The school features Heritage Hall, an atrium with floor-to-ceiling glass on the west side. District 65 is working with the Shorefront Legacy Center to fill the space with media and artifacts documenting the history of the Fifth Ward and the old Foster School. Principal Berkel placed her own Fawohodie stool, a Ghanaian Adinkra symbol of independence and freedom, in the hall. A time capsule commemorating the school's first year will be stored behind its pedestal.

The library is named the Dr. Bessie Rhodes Library, after a Black educator who taught at the original Foster School and spent decades in Evanston and Skokie schools.

Sustainability runs through the design. The roof hosts a 199-kilowatt solar panel array, and the building is almost entirely electric, switching to natural gas heating assistance only when temperatures drop below 10 degrees Fahrenheit. The school is expected to achieve at least a silver LEED rating. Foster will also be the first District 65 school to use reusable metal trays, forks, spoons and cups, enabled by an industrial dishwasher in the new kitchen. District 65 sustainability coordinator Karen Bireta called the initiative a "great pilot" for the district.

The gymnasium doubles as a storm shelter with triple-thick walls and roof, double-thick windows rated for 250-mph winds and a backup generator.

What residents should know

Ashland Avenue from Simpson Street to Foster Street will operate as a one-way street heading southbound during morning drop-off and afternoon pickup, a traffic measure required by the City of Evanston, according to District 65 Director of Strategic Project Management Kirby Callam.

Foster will also host a strand of the Two-Way Spanish/English Immersion program alongside its monolingual classrooms.

Friday's grand opening ran from 3 to 6 p.m. with guided tours in English and Spanish. The school's mascot is the phoenix.