Magnet Schools Seek 'Re-branding'

District 65 Magnet Schools Bessie Rhodes and King Lab may soon be known instead as the Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Literary and Fine Arts School, as part of a re-vamping effort led by the District School Board.

At a meeting on Tuesday night, committees composed of the schools’ respective Principals, teachers and PTA representatives gave "re-branding" presentations that gave a glimpse of the new directions the two K-8 schools hope to be taking in the near future, and that included a variety of possible new curriculum and initiatives along with catchy nomenclature.

The presentations were the result of a district effort to, in the board’s words, “re-magnetize the magnet schools,” further develop their educational missions and increase their ability to draw students from around the Evanston/Skokie and Chicago area.

“A magnet school is supposed to be magnetic, and we need to be able to answer those parents’ questions when they ask what your focus is,” said Wendy Woodward King, a presenter for the Bessie Rhodes committee and PTA President for the school.

During the meeting, both committees implored the school board to give a "green light" by approving their new educational themes. The committees sought the general support of the board in their new endeavors, and specifics on funding on the new initiatives were not discussed.

The Bessie Rhodes committee, which has centered its new school-wide theme around an increasingly interconnected world, stated an underlying goal of “equipping young people with the skills to become good global citizens, who will contribute to and thrive in a dynamic and diverse world.” In the short-term, the committee stated plans of launching a Model United Nations program in partnership with District 202 and Northwestern University and creating ‘international classrooms’ via Skype and email. The committee also hoped to add a Mandarin Chinese language track as a second option along with the already existing Spanish track.

“This is in line with the high school, which is currently developing their own Mandarin program, so we thought it would also help them prepare for high-school,” said PTA member Tamar Fogel. “Mandarin Chinese is being adopted by surrounding area schools in Chicago and in Barrington,” she added.

A new underlying mission for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ‘Literary and Fine-Arts School’ would be to “produce students who look at the world through the eyes of an artist,” said Principal Jeffrey Brown. At a school with an already exemplary reputation for fine-arts programs, some of the new curricular aspirations stated by the committee included a professionally published literary journal, radio/broadcast media coursework, songwriting and recording coursework and a wheel throwing and ceramics studio.

After a preliminary hearing on the magnet schools that took place over a year ago in February 2010, the committees have since gathered research and community input in order to create the new school mission and branding changes presented at the meeting.

“If you look at Rhodes Magnet School, we already have a tight-knit culture that draws from a variety of ethnicities and thought processes and religions,” said King of the committee’s choice to pursue a global studies curriculum. “When we did our research and looked at the variety of magnet school options that exist, global studies is one that’s very popular and up and coming and so it’s something that seems to make a lot of sense.”

While the presentations were received with enthusiasm, full approval of the new themes for each school was postponed until the next regular school board meeting.

“I think we got a light-green light tonight,” said King of the school board’s reception on Tuesday.