Rhodes parents ‘blindsided’ by Turner’s conclusions

Brandon and Brigitte Frett Utter have a second grader at the Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies in Evanston/Skokie School District 65.

They plan to enroll another child in kindergarten at Rhodes next fall. And, if the magnet program is still around when their two-year-old becomes school-age, they hope to place that child at Rhodes as well.

Right now, there’s a good chance Rhodes will be closed when the two-year-old turns five.

But the Utters and other Rhodes parents say they’re not giving up the fight to save the K-8, bilingual, Global Studies program that Interim Superintendent Angel Turner has said will close when the new 5th Ward School opens in the fall of 2026.

“I’m not opposed to a 5th Ward School,” Brandon Utter tells Evanston Now.

“But I am opposed to putting Bessie Rhodes on the chopping block.”

After Monday’s lengthy school board discussion on both the 5th Ward and Rhodes, Turner issued a statement, concluding that the majority of the board had “indicated favor” of a plan (Option “A”) which places Rhodes’ K-5 students at the Ward 5 building, with bilingual TWI (Two Way Immersion/English-Spanish) there for those youngsters.

The former Rhodes students would then attend Haven Middle School for grades 6-8, where the intent is to add TWI.

Another option (“B”), a “wait-and-see” to determine if a complete K-8 Rhodes program could be moved to a different D65 building, Turner indicated, was not supported by a board majority.

Technically, that’s correct. But there was no actual vote on Rhodes’ future. It was simply an effort to find an informal consensus, which, at 4-3 in favor of “A” was hardly overwhelming.

Brigitte Utter says, “My heart sunk when I read the [superintendent’s] email. A lot of people were blindsided. The lack of reaching out to Bessie Rhodes parents was really shocking.”

Another Rhodes parent, Melissa Rosenzweig, is a representative of a Rhodes community group.

She tells Evanston Now that Rhodes caregivers are organizing and writing to the school board, pointing out that parents want “what we were promised when we enrolled” at the school … K-8 in one building, a bilingual program and a Global Studies curriculum focusing on international cultures and understanding.

Reasons for choosing Rhodes, Rosenzweig says, include “the holistic bilingual experience … not just for bilingual education, but also for Latinx culture in particular and multiculturalism in general.”

The last 18 months have been challenging and painful for Rhodes families.

When the school board approved the new 5th Ward School in early 2022, the plan was for the entire Rhodes K-8 Global Studies TWI program to move to the new building. “A school within a school,” it was called.

But when the price tag for the 5th Ward school skyrocketed from the original $40 million to $65 million, the “school within a school” plan was dropped in September, in order to save money. And the 5th Ward School was downsized from K-8 to K-5, also to cut costs.

But there’s another dilemma.

District 65 needs the Rhodes students (K-5, anyway) to go to the 5th Ward school, or, as one administrator put it during Monday’s board meeting, the 600-student school would be “half empty.”

And with cost overruns, schedule delays, and downsizing the building, the last thing District 65 needs, politically and financially, is a brand-new, $48.4 million (latest potential price tag) structure full of empty desks.

Of course, Bessie Rhodes parents were originally promised a K-8, Global Studies, TWI program in one building.

It was supposed to be in the 5th Ward. But with that not happening, Rosenzweig notes that based on surveys and public comments, Rhodes “caregivers … would still prefer a K-8 TWI school elsewhere over a K-5 program in the 5th Ward.”

The K-8 Global Studies TWI model, Rosenzweig adds, is only a few years old.

If it dies, she says “the promise of launching the program would be shelved without its chance of proving itself. There would be sadness and disappointment because there is so much promise.”

And Brigitte Utter says, “I want [the school board] to commit to Bessie Rhodes as they originally stated,” K-8 TWI, one facility.

Further, if Bessie Rhodes does not continue as a single school, there have been no announced plans by District 65 officials to salvage the Global Studies curriculum.

Then, there’s something else.

A survey for “Amplifying Black Voices” found that the majority of African-American 5th Ward residents simply want a walkable neighborhood school restored to a part of town that has been without one for years. TWI was not important to them.

Board President Sergio Hernandez said, “The whole intent [of the 5th Ward School] is to serve a community which has been marginalized for decades.”

District 65 Board President Sergio Hernandez and Board Member Mya Wilkins.

It once all seemed possible — make everyone happy. Back when the school board OK’d the 5th Ward School in March 2022, it was to be a neighborhood, K-8 structure in an historically Black community, with the Bessie Rhodes program included in the facility.

But other than location, not any more.

Rhodes parents plan to keep lobbying the school board, and also show up next month when the panel is supposed to decide on “A” or “B” for Rhodes.

As Rosenzweig has said, TWI is a critical program for native Spanish speakers.

She tells Evanston Now that a Rhodes parent wrote “Enrealidad el Distrito escuchandonos?”, which translates “Is the District actually listening to us?”

Interim Superintendent Turner says she is listening, even if the answers she’s trying to provide may not please everyone.

The Bessie Rhodes issue, she told the board,”is keeping me up at night, to be honest.”

She may have a lot more sleepless nights.

Credit: Evanston Now