Last week, Evanston/Skokie District 65 announced that it would keep both seventh and eighth grades open at the Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies, as about half the students in both grades preferred to stay for at least the remainder of the year, while the other half wanted to move to a different school.
The district ended up accommodating every family’s preference by offering to fill in educator vacancies at Bessie Rhodes with department leaders and building administrators who are licensed to teach subjects like math, English and Spanish.
But after revealing those initial choices on Friday, families still had until Monday to change their decisions. It turned out that all 10 eighth-graders who were going to stay at Bessie Rhodes have now opted to switch schools, according to an email to families on Tuesday afternoon, leaving eighth grade vacant at Rhodes.
The vast majority of eighth graders — 19, to be exact — are moving to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Literary & Fine Arts School on Monday, Nov. 18. Another four are going to a neighborhood middle school instead. Meanwhile, for seventh grade, eight students are staying at Rhodes, with three going to King Arts and seven going to a neighborhood school.
So, after the dust settles next week, eight out of the 41 seventh- and eighth-graders who began the year at Bessie Rhodes will remain.
“This week we are collaborating with school communities to ensure that all students are feeling fully supported, whether they are staying at Bessie Rhodes with new instructors or transferring to another school,” Superintendent Angel Turner said in the district’s Tuesday message.
According to a planning document that Turner shared with families, transferring students participated in a shadow day at their new school on Tuesday morning, while the eight seventh graders sticking at Rhodes met “the district office team members who will be providing instruction to them for the remainder of the year.” On Wednesday, Bessie Rhodes staff met with the teams at each school receiving transfer students “to ensure all information is shared for a smooth academic and social emotional transition.”
By the end of the week, transferring families should receive communication from the registration and transportation departments, according to Turner, and an email from their new schools inviting them to a meet-and-greet and school tour.
All changes will officially go into effect for the start of the school day on Monday morning.
Eighth grade will close at Bessie Rhodes after all is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.