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District 65 opens formal conversation on future of Kingsley and Bessie Rhodes properties
Summary
District staff presented four disposition options for the Kingsley and Bessie Rhodes school properties — retain, lease, repurpose or sell — and asked the board for policy priorities and additional cost data ahead of community meetings and a June decision timeline.
District 65 leaders opened a public discussion about the future use of the Kingsley and Bessie Rhodes school properties, presenting four principal options — retain (mothball or hold as a swing school), pursue a long-term lease, repurpose for programs or administrative use, or sell the parcels. The presentation drew on the district's master facility analysis, a McKibben demography forecast and a Studio GC capital-needs estimate.
Staff said the district's Studio GC report estimates roughly $33.48 million in capital needs at Bessie Rhodes and about $25 million at Kingsley. The report also notes enrollment forecasts that decline through the early 2030s, and staff said those projections informed the recommendation to evaluate multiple disposition paths for both sites.
On process, legal counsel explained required steps under Illinois school code: prepare sale documentation, pass a board resolution to sell, then proceed either to a public auction/sealed-bid process or a negotiated sale (the latter option available when selling to another public entity). Counsel warned selling public school property can be contentious and recommended robust community engagement before final decisions.
Board members pressed staff for additional information before committing to a path. Requests included: annual holding (mothball) cost estimates, retrofit costs to move specialized programs (for example, the Park therapeutic program) into either building, the financial model for lease vs. sale, and clarity on how any sale proceeds would be allocated (staff noted $4 million in anticipated revenue was budgeted as part of next year's planning).
Staff described an outreach plan that includes districtwide survey questions and two site meetings: Kingsley on May 27 and Bessie Rhodes on May 28, with interim findings to be shared at the June 1 board meeting and an anticipated decision window by the June 22 meeting if the board wants revenue captured in the current fiscal year. Staff also said they had recorded interest from six parties for Bessie Rhodes, including the Skokie Park District and Evanston Township High School for programmatic uses; the City of Evanston has expressed interest in Kingsley for a consolidated police and fire administrative campus.
Board members repeatedly framed the discussion within a constrained fiscal timeline and said more granular cost modeling (both one-time retrofit and ongoing holding costs) and clearer options for how proceeds would support the district's Foster school commitments and capital gap are necessary before moving to sale or repurposing.
The board indicated it expects further analysis and community engagement and signaled it would revisit the topic at its June meetings.
