The Evanston Township High School Foundation has raised more than $12 million for new and upgraded facilities, resources and programs for students since its inception 16 years ago. The foundation has consistently supported updates to the school’s infrastructure that aim to make learning more equitable and better prepare all students for opportunities after high school.
In the 100 years ETHS has spent in its building at 1600 Dodge Ave., expansions over the decades have brought the school’s total square footage to more than 1.2 million square feet. That’s roughly the same as the Chrysler Building in New York City.
With a building that large, upkeep can be expensive. The school board has already tentatively budgeted $600,000 for infrastructure improvements for the 2024-2025 school year. For larger updates that help students excel, though, public school funding can be limited. The ETHS Foundation works to bridge that financial gap.
“The school doesn’t have the capacity to fund those kinds of innovative spaces,” said Joanne Bertsche, executive director of the foundation. “They rely a lot on philanthropic support of alumni, families, foundations and grants.”
Foundation fundraising
“People are really proud to be associated with ETHS. It’s our one high school in town. It’s really kind of the center of all things in Evanston in many ways,” said Casey Varella, chair of the foundation’s board for the last two years.
Varella attributes the success of the foundation to working with school leadership to tap into this network of pride.
Alumni contribute 80% of the donations made to the foundation, and events like reunions bring in large amounts of cash. The Class of 1967 and the Class of 1974 both raised more than $100,000 for their respective 50th reunions.
“In order to really create 21st century and beyond facilities,” Varella said, “it’s going to take more than just traditional means of funding.”
Foundations for public schools have become more popular in the last decade or so, Varella explained, but the ETHS Foundation has made uniquely strong financial strides.
“The ETHS Foundation has been fairly successful in raising larger dollars than some other foundations,” Varella said. “Other foundations have wanted to learn from us, and learn about best practices.”
The foundation provides advice to schools in other North Shore suburbs and as far away as New York. Typically, these foundations raise a few hundred thousand dollars a year, and they’re looking for guidance that could help them reach the levels of success the ETHS Foundation has seen.
Impactful projects
“We have so many different types of students,” said Sarah Schmidt, associate executive director of the foundation. “We’re trying to do the most for the most, and provide something for everybody.”
Those efforts include providing skills and experiences that help students identify their path in life after graduation. That journey may take them directly into a career, or to postsecondary education.
With spaces designed to help them sample a variety of fields, students can find what they love – or cross off what they don’t.
Students entering ETHS don’t all start from the same point, though, and the foundation takes that fact into consideration. Projects that the foundation suggests to the school board undergo an impact and equity assessment to make sure they reach the largest number of students possible.
That process helps the board identify which ideas will have the biggest impact, and it can help the school narrow down its list of priorities.
Varella described several projects completed during her time as board president that stood out as particularly impactful.
In April, the school unveiled its new Health Science Center, which features five patient beds, mannequins and industry-grade medical equipment for students to practice with.
“I think the impact it’s going to have is really going to be substantial,” Varella said. “It’s both a traditional classroom space and a lab space, where students are able to do hands-on work.”
Coming this fall, the space will be used for a Certified Nursing Assistant course. Once completed, this certification lets students start working right away.
“We’re creating a new opportunity and a new office of early college and career experiences,” ETHS Superintendent Marcus Campbell said at the center’s opening. “We are committed to making sure that when kids graduate from ETHS, it doesn’t matter if they go straight to a career or if they go to college – they’re well prepared.”
ETHS couldn’t have built the center without the foundation. The $700,000 project was the most expensive undertaking on the foundation’s docket in the 2022-2023 year.
“That, by far, is the project that I’m most excited about that we’ve completed during my time as chair,” Varella said. “We couldn’t have done it without the Cless Family Foundation support.”
The Cless Family Foundation contributed more than $250,000 to the ETHS Foundation in the 2022-2023 school year, helping to fund the Health Science Center and other projects.
Varella also highlighted the school’s Literacy Lab, completed in 2021. This lab helps provide individualized instruction to students who need extra support with reading comprehension.
“Especially after COVID, there are a number of students coming into the high school not reading at grade level, and really need that extra one-on-one support in order to get up to speed,” Varella said. “This space allows for that to happen, and it really welcomes students.”
Not every student qualifies for specialized support through 504 or individualized education plans. Still, some need individualized attention that the Literacy Lab has helped provide.
The foundation funded physical items for the lab, like furniture that helps facilitate reading support, and it also contributed to scholarship programs housed in the space.
What’s next
Upcoming renovations and projects will focus on interdisciplinary spaces that merge the school’s previous Career and Technical Education department with the Fine Arts Department. These multi-use courses and spaces aim to allow students to develop a modern skill set that gives them the tools to succeed after graduation.
The school board voted last year to create a new Arts and Innovation Department that houses this curriculum. It will feature new and existing hands-on electives available to students.
Construction on spaces for these courses has already begun, housed in the renamed arts and innovation wing (previously known as the arts wing). In the next five years, a number of improvements will be made to this wing to provide improved interdisciplinary work spaces for students.
“This wing is very dated,” said Bertsche. “In order to be relevant, you need state of the art facilities.”
One of these spaces already in the works is the soon-to-be-dedicated Alumni Hall. It will offer classroom space that has more flexibility group seating conducive for collaboration, and it can meet the needs of different course curricula.
Bertsche described a few other projects slated for the next five years, including a full commercial culinary kitchen.
This new room will let students learn about cooking, but it will also offer a space where students can learn about hospitality, the service industry and owning their own business.
The kitchen will sit in a small new wing that will also include a black box theater. More updates will be made to the current auditorium lobby area and little theater space, as well.
The foundation will continue to identify other needed upgrades to create student impact in the coming years.
“It’s not about bricks and mortar,” Bertsche said. “It’s really about making a difference for students in terms of giving them opportunities.”
ETHS Foundation supports school when tax funding falls short is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.