At last: District 65 breaks ground on Fifth Ward school

“Victory” and “hallelujah” were the words of the afternoon on Monday at Foster Field.

After a decades-long campaign to bring a neighborhood school back to the Fifth Ward, the community celebrated in unison with a groundbreaking ceremony for the $48.4 million, two-story K-5 school that is expected to open for the 2026-27 school year. Construction starts this week with site clearing and ground improvements.

“Thank God we have a rebirth, and for that I am so grateful,” said Delores Holmes, former council member for the Fifth Ward and longtime director of Family Focus Evanston, the youth education and family outreach nonprofit that operates out of the building that housed the old Foster School, which closed some 57 years ago and which Holmes herself attended.

“I always say to people: They can talk about Foster School as much as they want, but we could all read. Black or white teachers, it didn’t matter. So I’m grateful, and congratulations to District 65 for keeping your word.”

Hundreds of kids and adults alike braved the 90-degree heat and sunshine for the occasion, enjoying free ice cream dished out by Clarence Weaver of C&W Market and Ice Cream Parlor.

Monday’s groundbreaking was more than two years in the making. The District 65 school board approved a plan to build a K-8 neighborhood school at the site of Foster Field in March 2022. The district hosted a site dedication in June 2023, just days before former Superintendent Devon Horton (who helped spearhead the school initiative) departed to take the same job at a district outside Atlanta. Construction ultimately was delayed when the board discovered in fall 2023 that the previously approved plan would cost $25 million over budget, which forced the board to switch to a two-story K-5 school building instead.

But this week, at long last, represents the true start of two-year journey in making the building a reality. Shortly before the groundbreaking celebration, the school board held a special meeting to approve the first two bids on the project, one for site clearing, demolition and enabling work, and the other for ground improvements. The district’s Fifth Ward school team had budgeted $1.5 million for this first round of bids; the actual expense came in at about $1.3 million, administrator Kirby Callam announced.

At that meeting, the board also hired the firm Turner & Townsend to act as an “owner’s representative” throughout the construction process, essentially serving as the district’s eyes and ears in meetings with the architect and companies contracted for building work. Initially, Turner & Townsend will complete a review of existing project plans for $18,000. That review includes evaluating design development drawings and the project description, budget, schedule and LEED certification and sustainability elements.

Also, the board additionally made the name and mascot for the new school official: Foster School and the phoenix, the mythological bird that is reborn from its own ashes after it dies. A committee of Fifth Ward community members and school officials had endorsed both the name and mascot last month.

“I know everybody that has campaigned for this over the years would agree that one word really sums it up, which is victory. Victory, victory, victory, and there’s a lot more to come,” said Fifth Ward Council Member Bobby Burns. “I’m most excited about a school in the Fifth Ward for all these young people behind us. Just so y’all know, this is going to be your school. They’re young enough to where they’re going to be part of the first class that attends this school.”

Burns added that his daughter will likely be part of that first class of attendees, too, and he joked that he’d be “circulating a sign-up sheet for PTA.”

Mayor Daniel Biss made an appearance, as well, telling the crowd that “this is what a successful partnership between the city and the school district can look like.

“Nothing brings a neighborhood together, builds community, strengthens bonds like having a school in the neighborhood that people walk to together. It makes a community strong,” Biss said. “This is long overdue. It is the right thing for the neighborhood, and I am so excited to see what this will bring to this neighborhood and the Fifth Ward on every level for every generation.”

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