The District 202 School board meeting was hosted on November 12, taking place at Evanston Township High School. The meeting unleashed a lot of new ideas and events coming to ETHS while also looking back on the past month.
The meeting started by recognizing the Boys Golf team, who made outstanding history this past season.
“It turned out to be probably the greatest state boys golf tournament ever,” ETHS Athletic Director Christopher Livatino said. Livatino also discusses how far they got in the tournament and how proud they all should be. The board then went on to congratulate Head Coach Jed Curtis and every member of the Boys Varsity Golf Team for their hard work.
Moving forward, Superintendent Dr. Marcus Campbell then welcomed Amit Thaker from Referral GPS. Campbell shared how he wants all students at ETHS to have access to mental health support, and how he and Thaker have found a way to make this happen. Thaker discussed his life as a teenager, he describes himself and the troubles he faced during different time periods of his life. He continued to share how the reason he got back on track and ripped away from the kid he was is because of the social workers and supporters he had at his school, and the tremendous effect they had on him. His story inspired him to want all schools to also have a support system for mental health. Thaker wants all families to have all the practices they need, and his program brings that to the table. This program launched November 18th and will be found in flyers, postcards, the District website and press releases.
The next topic was the opening school report and year review of year 24-25. They first addressed the enrollment status with a total of 2570 kids, which is slightly lower than total enrollment in the last five years. Then they moved on to talking about data they have collected from surveys that ETHS gives to students every year. As they get more and more data back, they would like to find ways to have more kids find their space and the school. These surveys give an idea to the Board of what the kids of ETHS would like to see and how they feel about certain things.
“So we can understand what are the needs, what are we not doing, and what [can] we do better,” Principal Taya Kinzie said as they reviewed. ETHS has a very complex and thought-out tardy policy. Earlier before the meeting, the discipline committee had a meeting to discuss certain things, such as the tardy policy at ETHS. Looking at rates along the day they notice when students are more often to be tardy compared to when students aren’t. They also brought up how a lot of students say the tardy system can be defeated. This meeting was held so they could discuss if changes should be made in the next few years.
Following this was the student board report. The Student Union successfully held a student voice forum on October 21st where hundreds of students from all grades went over important issues related to ETHS.
“It was fantastic, and they all ran a great program that was so organized,” Campbell said. They plan on addressing the topics over the next year and hope to figure out as many as they can. They are currently compiling data to see what they need to address sooner rather than later.
ETHS has had so many highlights over the past month, such as the YAMO show, Orchestra and Choir concert, regional and sectional championships, with many Wildkits advancing to state.
“There is a lot to celebrate,” Campbell concluded. He went on to recognize staff, where he highlighted two excellent coaches, Don Michelin Sr and Carlton Rosemond. These skillful coaches have made amazing impressions on Wildkit athletes and have led our teams victories. The next board meeting will be held on December 9th 2024.
