As a former teacher in District 65, I am distressed to hear the continuing news coming from the district.
In talking with Evanston residents, I am hearing that there are a number of teachers, principals and department heads that have left the district because of the lack of respect for their professionalism. I have also heard that parents feel the board is unresponsive to their concerns, and the board is making impactful decisions without public discourse. Parents have spoken of trying to engage in dialogue with administrators and are called racists because they are questioning protocols. They are reluctant to speak.
Students in the schools are breaking out in fights which certainly adds to the angst spoken of by staff and parents alike.
I taught in District 65 at the time of desegregation. We were proud of our developing abilities to discuss and listen to issues together. The Martin Luther King Lab School was formed at Foster School as a collaboration between the Black and white parents.
Our superintendents, Dr. Coffin and Dr. Hill, knew all the teachers, visited the schools often and were invested in the staff and educational growth of the community. They listened to the staff. Bob Dawkins, head of pupil services and vice principal, and Dr. Corrine Schumacher, principal, were there to guide us. It helped us all to work hard for all the children in our care. There certainly were problems, but we solved them together. I loved working in District 65.
I don’t hear much about this collegial spirit. What could be more important than working together? What could be more important than gathering together to ask questions about the stresses in our school system?
Evanston can do much better than this.
Judy Baumann
Former Teacher at Martin Luther King Laboratory School
“I taught in District 65 at the time of desegregation. We were proud of our developing abilities to discuss and listen to issues together. The Martin Luther King Lab School was formed at Foster School as a collaboration between the Black and white parents.”
Judy Baumann
These statements sound nice – but they run counter to the facts and data regarding Black student performance. Have Black families ever been satisfied regarding Black student performance in District 65? No. Never.
We are witnessing a dissatisfaction by many powerful white families that Black students are finally being prioritized at District 65. Some people have real problems about that. Some people have real issues with Black administrators caring about Black families. People don’t want to explore the roots of that discomfort.
We don’t like to discuss such things in Evanston, or many places in America for that matter. Can’t we all just get along? No, we can’t and we won’t as long as these inequities exist.
There are many good people here in our community that want to explore the roots of that discomfort. But, it will never happen without some education and honesty about how we arrived at this place.
I salute the District 65 Board President, Board, Superintendent and administration for confronting these issues head on. They deserve our support and admiration for turning their attention to “the least of these.”
This former teacher speaks about a reality and perspective that is foreign in many Black Evanston households. Evanston has as much racism as anywhere else – maybe even more than some places. But this open wishful nostalgia in letters to the Roundtable affirms the problem that the Board and administration are attempting to address. This letter is written with a comfort with decades of Black student underperformance in District 65.
I have also believed that real change will occur in every school district in America when the best and most skilled teachers are instructing the most underperformed students. Something tells me that is a bridge too far for most white parents.
The light is out in the Lighthouse of District 65. Shocking. Oh for the good leadership of Dr. Hill, Dr. Schumacher, Annette Grubman, Barb Hiller, JoAnn Wilkin, Dolores Holmes and more. We integrated Evanston with our parents and students. Now I guess teachers should wear whistles when trouble happens. We need a new light in the Lighthouse. Clean house.
Thank you for speaking up about your concerns. I have the impression that dissent from community members is not welcomed by the current board and administration and increasingly those hired to lead the district do not have a knowledge of the community, the existing curriculum, the physical plants, the needs of the students and their families and they don’t do their homework before making changes.