District 65 board votes to dismiss administrator charged with sex crimes

Washington Elementary School’s assistant principal, who was arrested this month for allegedly sexually abusing juveniles, is no longer employed at Evanston-Skokie Consolidated School District 65, barring a successful appeal.

The D65 Board of Education voted unanimously last week to suspend and dismiss Carlos Mendez, 51.

Documents The Record obtained Monday following a public-records request show that the board voted on Feb. 23 to dismiss Mendez, a tenured administrator at Washington Elementary, who was arrested on Feb. 5 on suspicion of child sex crimes. 

The district did not immediately disclose the identity of the dismissed staff member.

The resolution the board approved states that Mendez has been suspended without pay pending the final disposition of dismissal proceedings that were initiated by the resolution.

Mendez’s dismissal will become effective once the board’s decision is “affirmed as provided by law, or in the event that Mr. Mendez does not request a hearing within the time provided by law,” the resolution states. 

“You engaged in immoral, irremediable and cruel conduct that has damaged your reputation as a teacher and administrator in the school community, damaged the reputation of the School District, and caused harm to the students of the School District,” a notice signed by Pat Anderson, president of the D65 board, said. 

Chicago police arrested Mendez and another D65 employee, Maribel Flores-Hernandez, 34, at Mendez’s Chicago home on suspicion of child sexual assault that allegedly involved the “coordination of grooming and coercion,” a judge wrote. 

The two had outstanding warrants from Florida, where some of the sexual abuse allegedly occurred during a June 2025 vacation. Mendez and Flores-Hernandez, then a paraprofessional at Joseph E. Hill Early Childhood Center in Evanston, were reportedly dating.

D65 Spokesperson Hannah Dillow said the allegations do not involve any current or former district students. According to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, the sexual assaults were domestic and involved two juvenile victims.

The Feb. 23 resolution states the district put Mendez on leave on Oct. 28, 2025 — the same day the district apparently received a notification from the Department of Child Family Services that it was investigating Mendez and a report of “Suspected Child Abuse and/or Neglect.”

On or about Dec. 23, 2025, DCFS apparently “found sufficient evidence to issue indicated findings of abuse against you based on these allegations,” the board wrote Mendez. 

Mendez “failed to notify the District of the issuance by DCFS of indicated findings against you of sexual exploitation and substantial risk of sexual abuse,” the board wrote. 

Section 24-12 of the Illinois School Code gives Mendez a little over two weeks to request a hearing before an officer selected through the Illinois State Board of Education, the resolution states. 

Mendez’s attorney, John Curnyn, reportedly told the Evanston RoundTable that Mendez will fight the criminal charges.

He and Juneitha Shambee, an attorney for Flores-Hernandez, did not respond to The Record’s request for comment.

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