Illinois parents furious after school weighs ousting students with 1 month of notice

Outraged parents flooded an Illinois school board meeting Monday over an announcement that seventh and eighth grades would be cut from a bilingual school with just one month of notice.

The Evanston-Skokie School District 65 (District 65) decided in June it would be closing its Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies (Bessie Rhodes School), the district's only fully bilingual K-8 program. District officials said at the time the school would shut down after the 2025-26 academic year, citing budgetary needs.

However, parents at Monday's District 65 Board of Education meeting said they were told earlier this month Bessie Rhodes School would be ending seventh and eighth grade classes on Nov. 15, roughly a year and a half sooner than expected. The decision was credited to teaching vacancies at the school, some community members said.

Many voiced outrage over the abrupt announcement, accusing District 65 of causing "frustration, anger, hurt and sleepless nights."

This decision is harmful, cruel, irresponsible," one mom told the school board. "The only option that is in the best interests of students is that they remain at their school."

"You guys did not involve the kids, the parents and obviously, the teachers," another mom added. "You guys keep apologizing for making these decisions, and it's unacceptable."

Frances Aparicio, a local resident and the retired director of the Latina and Latino Studies program at Northwestern University, also confronted the school board. She told board members she is witnessing the same "disregard" for the Latino community that she saw at Northwestern through the handling of Bessie Rhodes School.

"Latinos in Evanston have been disrespected. They have been perceived as passive and unimportant," Aparicio said. "Dual immersion programs are the best model in bilingual education across the country, and I don't understand why this model school is being dismantled when other school buildings with White communities that are underenrolled are not being affected."

District 65 Superintendent Angel Turner apologized to families during the meeting for the "pain and disruption" they have faced, acknowledging that the district has "continued to perpetuate harm to a community that has already been through so much." She told attendees the district is now weighing other options for Bessie Rhodes School and it will consider parent input.

A spokesperson for District 65 told Crisis in the Classroom (CITC) on Tuesday a final decision regarding next steps will be communicated by the end of the week.

"We are considering alternate paths in response to many of the needs we've heard, including an option for current seventh and eighth grade students to stay at Bessie Rhodes," the spokesperson said.