Good Monday morning, Evanston.
The District 65 School Board entered into a new five-year contract with Superintendent Devon Horton on March 14. An analysis shows the new contract significantly reduces the board’s expectations for Black and Latinx students.
The 2022 contract abandons the goal to significantly reduce the achievement gap related to college and career readiness. The new goal is: “At the end of each school year, there will be at least a 3% increase in the number of Black and Latinx students making expected gains in Reading and Math on MAP,” the Measures of Academic Progress state test.
For MAP, making “expected gains” means making the average growth of one’s academic peers. But to move the needle, the district needs to accelerate the academic growth of Black and Latinx students, not tread water with average growth.
Last Friday the Booked children’s bookstore in Evanston celebrated Trans Day of Visibility by hosting a TDOV party, as well as a Queer Lit Book Club meeting where Skokie-based graphic novelist Vincent Kao, aka The Kao, distributed free copies of their book, Magical Boy.
Booked supplied various Celebrate Trans Lives and Non-Binary is Beautiful stickers and pins, alongside snacks and drinks.
To kick off Earth Month, five local organizations collaborated to host a celebration for the whole community last Friday.
The Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse, a nonprofit that collects and sells used building materials, partnered with Citizens’ Greener Evanston, the WasteShed Evanston, Evanston Made and the Art Maker’s Outpost to promote sustainability while offering the community art-making, games, music and drinks.
Week in Photos: In Tuesday’s newsletter we’ll share a roundup of photos taken throughout the past week. What were you up to in the last seven days? Send your photos to news@evanstonroundtable.com.
Elsewhere on the RoundTable website
Greg Klaiber – professionalism, tradition and service. In our fifth episode from Season 2 of the Evanston Rules podcast, we talk with Greg Klaiber, a native Evanstonian who rose through the ranks of the Evanston Fire Department to become Chief. Klaiber has paid it forward in terms of the equity and diversity that we at the RoundTable so cherish.
YWCA Culinary Program gets future professional cooks into the kitchen. Mmapultia Miller said she loves to share her experience as a student at the YWCA Evanston/North Shore’s culinary program to encourage others to take part.
Evanston nonprofit offers free native plants to Fifth Ward residents. Spring has officially arrived and Natural Habitat Evanston aims to be ahead of the game, recently announcing an offer of free native trees, shrubs and wildflowers to interested Fifth Ward residents.
At This Time. Atmarama Das chants and plays the harmonium in Fountain Square. He and about 10 members of Chicago’s Hare Krishna Temple in Rogers Park plan to chant at the square most Sundays. “Chanting the Hare Krishna mantra is our highest spiritual activity,” said Lila Manjari. “It benefits all living entities.” Nevean Khatib is in the background. (Photo by Richard Cahan)
Is my daughter bullying her teammate? Dear Gabby, There is one girl on my daughter’s high school tennis team who was not vaccinated last year. She wasn’t going to be allowed to try out for the team this year, but now the rules have changed for people who have an exemption (her parents lied and said it was for religious reasons. It’s not.).
Picturing Evanston. One of the many signs of solidarity with Ukraine in Evanston on Florence Avenue, just north of Greenleaf Street. (Photo by Joerg Metzner)
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Around the web
The Food Guy: Evanston Bakery’s expansion. Shortly after COVID-19 lockdowns began, Hewn bakery made a difficult decision to move across town and into a space twice as large.
EPL, other community resources expanded as a result of the pandemic. When the pandemic started, Evanston Public Library’s Communications and Marketing Director Jenette Sturges found herself struggling to digitize the library’s large catalog of in-person resources with very little notice.
Northwestern COVID-19 positivity rate and case numbers continue to climb after spring break. The number of new positive COVID-19 cases reported increased 3.56 times compared to last week after a week of mandated testing.
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