Community leaders discussed the possibility of opening a STEM school in the 5th Ward during an Evanston Township High School Closet Committee workshop Wednesday afternoon.
Though the committee usually focuses on providing clothing to students in need, Evanston residents shared updates on Wednesday about the longtime movement to open a 5th Ward school.
The Foster School used to serve the area that would be the 5th Ward until the 1970s, when the school closed due to Evanston/Skokie School District 65’s desegregation plan, according to local Black historian Dino Robinson.
In the wake of school integration, Foster School reestablished as a laboratory school, where White students were bussed to the building. The program grew until it was reestablished as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Laboratory School, now known as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Literary & Fine Arts School, or King Arts.