With all 72 precincts reporting, challengers Jonathan Baum and Scott Rochelle and incumbent Mark Metz have won the race for three seats on the Evanston Township High School board.
Unofficial results from the Cook County Clerk’s office show Baum with 27 percent of the total vote and Metz and Rochelle each with 24 percent.
Incumbent Jane Colleton, with 20 percent of the vote, lost her bid for a sixth term on the board.
Challenger Cherie Hansen, although she withdrew from the campaign, won nearly 5 percent of the vote.
The vote totals were:
- Baum 3,359.
- Rochelle 3,014.
- Metz 3,003.
- Colleton 2,485.
- Hansen 602.
(Updated 10:04 p.m.)
Yay Baum! Now do us proud
Yay Baum! Now do us proud and bring back Honors English for Freshmen!
Bringing back honors
Bringing back honors English alone will not solve some of the systemic racial inequity problems in District 202. This is an important issue with which to wrestle if Evanston truly values a thriving diverse community.
Honors
eliminating pure honors does nothing to close the acheivement gap. Of the 8th graders from D65 who score a '4' on the ISAT reading section, 75% of them are white. Anyone (like Martha Burns) who is acting surprised to see a similar proportion of freshman English honors students being white is either not paying attention to relevant facts, or not being honest.
It will be the same as it ever was at D202 and D65
Please explain with details the systematic racial inequality at D202 or D65?
While you explain it, don't forget to address the African-American Curriculum at Oakton, the PEG consultants, the D202 Board's decision to eliminate true freshmen honor courses because there were "too many white faces" in these advanced courses and all the other minority programs in the school districts.
As for the newly elected D202 Board members – Baum, Rochelle and Metz – I highly doubt they recognize the hot button issues that got them elected. I speak of course of the Board's recent unanimous vote to water down freshmen honor courses that angered the community. Metz of course voted for it but lucked out that there was not another new challenger (Colleton, the only loser in the race, was also an incumbent).
I doubt much will change with Baum or Rochelle and we will have the PEG consultants telling the Board and school district staff about the racial inequity and institutionalized racism in Evanston, and the watered down freshmen honor courses will eventually spread to the sophomore level. I say this because Baum and Rochelle did not campaign that they would bring back true honor courses or vote to fire PEG.
And Katie Bailey who voted for Hardy Murphy's FIRST contract extension is leading the charge along with Jerome Summers to construct a new Fifth Ward school that will cost the city tens of millions to build and operate – money we don't have in an area with a population decline.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. We got fooled again.
What will prove the teachers/administration are doing their job
Instead of all the 'diversity' training, getting 'in touch with their inner self', study after study on why there are problems, I will probably only be satisfied that the teachers and administration have passed mustard, if Teach for America or some other group like them can certify that they are up to standard.
There will always be a number of students who succeed not matter how bad the teachers or courses are. I'm sure there are some very good teachers but they are tarred by the reputation of the schools and their failure to provide a high quality education [scores, admissions to high level universities, etc.]. The schools need to be examined by a group like Teach for America [instead of some pre-selected group the administration knows ahead will say "you are doing great, it is just society and their discriminaton"] and action taken to implement their recommendations—-instead of the Board, administration and teachers making excuses.
“Pass Mustard”?
I think you might mean "pass muster" –as in muster being an inspection of military troops…..
And how is Teach for America qualified to certify teachers and administrators?
Honors classes aren’t the problem
Racial inequities in D202 will not be eliminated by the elimination of honors classes. The racial achievement gap exists in D65 and moves into D202 when the students enter the school. If D202 hasn't closed the gap it is not for want of trying. What are programs like SOS, AVID, STAE, EXCEL, etc. for except to address this issue? Why should students who are achieving at high levels (of all races) be held back because there isn't racial parity in honors classes?
I look forward to the input of Jonathan Baum and Scott Rochelle as these issues move forward. I hope they wlll bring a critical eye to the upcoming discussions of Honors Biology.
District 202 Results
It seems perfectly reasonable to me to continue to press District 202 to provide the highest quality honors humanities program for incoming freshmen, and I am sure the new board will do that. What I don't understand is enthusiasm for going back to limiting that opportunity to the small number of kids who score well on a test given them in middle school. I felt proud when the former board decided that a larger number of young people should have the opportunity to prove that they can perform at a higher level, and then giving them the opportunity and the support they will need to succeed. I'd be happier yet if larger numbers of kids came out of District 65 ready to perform well in the ETHS honors program, a good topic for joint discussion by the two boards.