Good morning, Evanston.
How does District 65 plan to spend $10.6 million in federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding? Preliminary discussions about where these dollars would have the greatest impact were started at Monday night’s Finance Committee meeting. Superintendent Devon Horton said his vision would not just be about reimbursing costs for expenses such as ventilation systems: “We want to be sure that we can put our students and our teachers in a better position to accelerate the learning when we return in the fall.”
Evanston youth will facilitate two nights of conversation about the history of school segregation in Evanston and future visions for educational opportunities in the 5th Ward. The first night of the event, “Investigating Our History From Different Perspectives,” hosted by Shorefront Legacy Center Founder Dino Robinson, Mary Barr, author of Friends Disappear: The Battle for Racial Equality in Evanston, and Evanston youth organizers, will take place 7 p.m. Thursday, May 13.
The second night, “Visions for a Community School in the 5th Ward,” will take place 7 p.m. Thursday, May 20. District 65 Manager of Student Assignment Sarita Smith, STEM School Evanston Founder Henry Wilkins II, and EPL Executive Director Karen Danczak Lyons will engage in a panel discussion about future plans for creating a new educational experience in the Fifth Ward.
Students of the Gus Giordano Dance School will appear in the 2021 production of their annual “That’s Entertainment,” live streamed from Chicago’s Edge Theater on May 8. Five Evanston girls will be performing onstage in person after a year of workarounds necessitated by COVID-19. In addition to jazz dance, for which Mr. Giordano was known, there will be Hip Hop, Contemporary, Musical Theater, and Tap pieces. The performers’ fellow dancers, masked and distanced, will be their audience.
Elsewhere on the RoundTable Website
COVID-19 Update on May 5: Six New Cases in Evanston, 2,410 in the State. As of May 3, 54.7% of Evanston residents 16 and older were fully vaccinated, compared to 48.2% one week earlier.
Rank and File | Kemeny, Godinho Win at Evanston Scholastic Chess Championships. In the Evanston Scholastic Chess final tournament, the Evanston Championships, the Sixth-Eighth Grade Championship was decided in a last-round matchup between the last two undefeated players. Sam Kemeny, an eighth grader at Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies, played white in a tactical game, with opposite side castling and attacking chances for both players.
COVID-19 by the numbers: We are checking in with many sources to keep you updated on COVID-19 cases and vaccine information.
- Six new cases were reported yesterday in Evanston; the seven-day average is seven.
- Our City’s positive test rate for the past seven days is 0.8%; in suburban Cook County it is 5.1%, and in Illinois it is 3.3%.
- The number of cases per 100,000 population over the past seven days is 67 in Evanston, 145 in suburban Cook County, and 141 in Illinois.
- Some 4.2 million or 33.1% of total Illinois residents are fully vaccinated, including 313,600 in the past seven days.
Evanston Vax Facts: According to City figures, 78% of Evanston residents 16 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 55% of residents 16 and older are fully vaccinated. Nearly 100% of residents 65 and older have received at least one dose and 92% are fully vaccinated. More details are available on the City’s Vaccine Dashboard.
Around the Web
- Six Northwestern female faculty members sent an open letter yesterday to Provost Kathleen Hagerty saying they’re “alarmed” and “embarrassed” by Athletic Director Mike Polisky’s hiring. Mr. Polisky is one of four defendants along with the university in a lawsuit filed by a cheerleader who said she and others were sexually exploited and harassed. Demanding greater transparency, the faculty members are planning a picket Friday afternoon that will march from campus to NU President Morton Schapiro’s house.
- The Daily Northwestern talks to students about equity work going on in the classroom at ETHS. Many students notice greater equity and diversity within the ETHS curriculum and hope that even more teachers and administrators will commit to updating their curricula.
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