No decision from District 65 brings school-closure process to a halt

(Editor’s Note: This story was reported by Hope Perry for the Evanston RoundTable, a neighboring independent newsroom. It was shared with The Record as part of an ongoing collaborative effort.)

The Evanston/Skokie District 65 School Board on Monday night was again unable to reach a consensus on whether to close one or two additional schools at the end of this school year, meaning it’s likely that only the Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies will close at the end of the 2025-2026 academic year.

Like in November, board members deadlocked when voting on closing either just Kingsley Elementary School or both Kingsley and Lincolnwood elementary school. Board President Pat Anderson, Vice President Nichole Pinkard and Maria Opdycke voted in favor of closing only Kingsley, while Sergio Hernandez, Mya Wilkins and Andrew Wymer voted against.

Hernandez, Wilkins and Wymer voted in favor of closing Kingsley and Lincolnwood, and Anderson, Pinkard and Opdycke voted against. 

The board also unanimously voted not to advance a scenario that would have closed both Kingsley and Willard Elementary. Opdycke and Pinkard were the only members to vote yes on a scenario that would have closed Lincolnwood alone. 

In the kerfuffle that followed the meeting, several board members quickly exited the room.

“We will communicate [what comes next] to the community,” Anderson said as she dismissed a crowd of television cameras.

The repeated tie votes mean that the board likely has run out of time to close additional schools after this year. Assistant Superintendent Stacy Beardsley said at an earlier meeting that the district needed to choose a closure scenario and hold three public hearings on each school set for closure by winter break. 

Ties are also possible because board member Omar Salem resigned in early November, and the remaining six board members are scheduled to meet behind closed doors several times in the next two weeks to deliberate appointing a replacement.

“I thought we were going to walk out with more certainty,” Willard parent Guillermo Serpa said after the meeting. 

How District 65 got here

The district is considering school closures because it needs to cut $10 million to $15 million to eliminate its structural deficit by fiscal year 2030 after running budget deficits for several straight years. 

Back on Nov. 17, all three school closure scenarios up for a vote — just Kingsley; Willard and Kingsley; or Lincolnwood and Kingsley — failed to advance, with board members splitting their votes the same way they did again on Monday.

But a special meeting was called for Nov. 20 after what Superintendent Angel Turner called a “procedural error” left a fourth scenario, closing just Lincolnwood, off the Nov. 17 agenda. At that Nov. 20 meeting, the board unanimously rejected advancing the Lincolnwood-only scenario. That night, the board also agreed to reconvene Dec. 1 to vote again on the same four scenarios — which again resulted in no decision. 

Public discussion

Public comment on Monday lasted for about an hour and featured many familiar speakers, including members of the parent group Legion of Data Nerds, who again asked the board to close just one school.

A recent RoundTable piece broke down one of the group’s concerns: that the district’s financial projections changed between the Nov. 3 and Nov. 17 board meetings. 

“We’re not here emotionally advocating for the comfort and stability of our own school. We are here trying to demonstrate a reasonable approach to this process,” Kingsley parent Julia Emfinger said.

Present, but silent, were several principals of District 65 schools, sitting in the first two rows in reserved seats. When asked whether they all signed the letter that was read into the public record by Superintendent Angel Turner at the Nov. 20 meeting, which advocated for the board to come to a decision, Oakton Principal Christopher Robinson said their presence was a statement, adding that they may speak later. The principals did not end up commenting during the meeting.

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