Good Tuesday morning, Evanston.
Here are the latest news and feature stories from around the city.
The Evanston/Skokie District 65 School Board approved plans to build a K-8 Fifth Ward school in in a historic 7-0 vote Monday night.
Under these plans, the district will redraw elementary and middle school boundaries and move the Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies community into the new Fifth Ward school. The school board also approved issuing up to $40 million in lease certificates to fund construction.
More than 100 community members attended the school board meeting, with 24 speaking up during the public comment period. All backed the plan.
More than 200 people crowded into St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Sunday to engage in an intense and, at times, emotional discussion about plans involving an Evanston hotel that has been housing people on an emergency basis during the pandemic.
The Margarita Inn, 1566 Oak Ave., began serving as housing for homeless people at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Evanston-based nonprofit Connections for the Homeless now seeks to convert the hotel into a permanent facility that could house up to 63 people in 41 rooms.
At This Time: Monday at 6:04 p.m. Developer Mitch Goltz takes us on a tour of the old Century Theatres. AMC Theaters is just starting rehabbing 12 screens in the building at 1715 Maple Ave. “Their goal is to open as soon as possible, but open right.” He expects the new theater to launch before the summer blockbuster movie push that starts around Memorial Day. Goltz, of GW Properties, says this is his neighborhood theater, but – like many of us – he cannot remember that last movie he saw here. (Photo by Richard Cahan)
Elsewhere on the RoundTable website
Trattoria Demi, woman-owned for almost 30 years. COVID-19 closed the doors of many businesses in Evanston, and as hope for a new chapter has ushered in new coffee shops, zero-waste stores and bars, one place in Evanston has remained constant – Trattoria Demi.
The Wine Goddess Debuts ‘Uncorked: A Story Series.’ The topic was “Bodily Fluids” and the storytelling event, originally proposed for January but postponed because of omicron, finally took place Sunday, March 13, in the cozy confines of The Wine Goddess store on Main Street.
Larry and Mary Gavin: Some comments about the proposed new Fifth Ward school. A little over 10 years ago, the Evanston RoundTable published a lengthy editorial supporting a referendum to establish a new school in the Fifth Ward. We wrote that editorial.
Letter to the editor: How do you justify new school as enrollment drops? District 65 continues to see a drop in student enrollment, notes letter writer Mary Anne Wexler. The January 2022 Opening of Schools Report shows 6,393 K-8 students enrolled, down 536 students from 6,929 in 2020-21.
The week in photos: March 8-14. March 14 was Pi Day and the RoundTable’s Debbie-Marie Brown celebrated at Hoosier Mama.
JCC Chicago Jewish Film Festival is in theaters and online, March 10-27. The JCC Chicago’s ninth annual Spring Festival, running March 10-27, includes 18 films streaming online and in theaters that are largely about relationships.
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Around the web
It could hit nearly 70 degrees this week in chicago. Chicago will see multiple days hit 60 degrees this week, though bouts of rain are expected.
Prime ministers of three EU nations traveling to Ukraine to meet Zelensky in Kyiv. The prime minsters of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic have departed on a train bound for Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
Lightfoot addresses vaccine mandate after deadline for city workers passes. COVID-19 numbers are down and masks are coming off, but vaccine mandates remain if you work for the City of Chicago.
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