Which Evanston Schools Are Still Celebrating Halloween

EVANSTON, IL — In the wake of last month's reports that some parents in Evanston/Skokie School District 65 were unhappy with the decision by principals in the district to end Halloween celebrations as part of a commitment to equity and an inclusive environment, Evanston Patch sought to determine which schools were marking the holiday and which had already stopped.

While some parents complained that eliminating in-school Halloween celebrations denied an opportunity for students who would otherwise not get a chance to mark the holiday, supporters of the administrators' decisions said it was important for the district to make sure events that are fun for some children are not especially painful for others.

District 65 Communications Director Melissa Messinger told Patch there is no district-wide Halloween policy in place, and the school board has not discussed the matter or taken any action on the matter. Building administrators at each school make their own decisions, she said.

"Since these are school-based decisions, we do not track or monitor this information at the district level," Messinger said.

To find out what those decisions were, Patch sent written questions to 16 principals in the 7,800-student district about their policies and when they were adopted. None of them responded.

Earlier: Parents Respond To End Of Halloween Parties At Evanston Schools

So Patch sought copies of all communications sent by district principals in the last year to mailing lists of parents and staff containing the words "Halloween," "Thanksgiving" or "Christmas." The district's board secretary responded, saying its search resulted in more than 5,000 emails and declining to answer questions about whether that included duplicates or whether it had been limited to mailing lists.

Patch then sent another public records request limited to messages to parents sent since August that include the word "Halloween." This turned up information from seven of the district's schools — but nothing from Chute Middle School, Dewey Elementary School, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Literary and Fine Arts School, Haven Middle School, Kingsley Elementary School, Oakton Elementary School, Park School, Rice Education Center, Walker Elementary School or Washington Elementary School.

Of the seven schools whose communication was provided, principals of two of them planned to mark Halloween at school this year. One of them, Orrington Elementary School, is celebrating it for the final year in its current format. Lincolnwood Elementary is celebrating it as it did last year. Families have contributed costumes and items from a wish list to support the community, according to its principal, who said staff would review how to proceed in the future.

Three of the five District 65 school principals who told parents this fall they would not be celebrating Halloween used identical wording in their messages. It was not clear who was the original author of the repeated passages. See their communications below:

Dawes Elementary School — Principal Marlene Aponte-Mathews

I wanted to check in with you all about our practices when it comes to holidays at Dawes. As we shared last year, we will no longer be celebrating Halloween. We know that Halloween can be a fun and exciting time for many. We also know that this is not a holiday that is celebrated by all members of the school community. While this is the primary reason for the change, we also know that there is a burden created of having a costume and we believe that this can create exclusive conditions that work against the community that we are building within Dawes. We know that change can be welcomed and change can be challenging. Acknowledging this, we believe that this is a needed shift and we look forward to our upcoming community celebrations.

While we are happy to have our children share their excitement and talk about family holiday traditions and celebrations, we do not actively celebrate these holidays at school. Because we serve such a diverse population with different cultural and religious beliefs around holidays, we see holidays to be family-based, to be celebrated according to the traditions and beliefs of each family. As such we do not have celebrations for holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Valentine’s Day, etc. District 65 is striving to provide the most inclusive and equitable learning environments possible, and shifting away from commercial and religious holiday celebrations is part of that process

Bessie Rhodes Magnet School — Principal Keri Mendez

We will not be including costumes during our fall celebrations. Each grade will communicate with homeroom parents regarding their plan for structure and timing of celebrations on October 31st. We know that Halloween can be a fun and exciting time for many. We also know that this is not a holiday that is celebrated by all members of the school community. Thank you for adhering to this commitment at Rhodes. We look forward to celebrating in different ways as a community!
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As a school, we do not celebrate Halloween. This means that students will not be in costume and the day will function as normal. We want to encourage all families/students to participate in our school spirit day on Friday, October 26. The theme is: 80’s. Please reach out to your child’s teacher if you have additional questions about Halloween.

Joseph E. Hill Center for Early Childhood Education — Director Sharon Sprague

I wanted to check in with you all about our practices when it comes to holidays at JEH. While we are happy to have our children share their excitement and talk about family holiday traditions celebrations, we do not actively celebrate these holidays at school. Because we serve such a diverse population with different cultural and religious beliefs around holidays, we see holidays to be family-based, to be celebrated according to the traditions and beliefs of each family. As such we do not have celebrations for holidays such as Halloween, Day of the Dead, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Valentine’s Day, etc. District 65 is striving to provide the most inclusive and equitable learning environments possible, and shifting away from commercial and religious holiday celebrations is part of that process.

Lincoln Elementary School — Principal Michelle Cooney

As we shared last year, we will not be including costumes during our fall celebrations this year. Each grade will communicate with homeroom parents regarding their plan for structure and timing of celebrations on October 31st. We know that Halloween can be a fun and exciting time for many. We also know that this is not a holiday that is celebrated by all members of the school community. While this is the primary reason for the change, we also know that there is a burden created of having a costume and we believe that this can create exclusive conditions that work against the community that we are building within Lincoln. We know that change can be welcomed and change can be challenging. Acknowledging this, we believe that this is a needed shift and we look forward to our upcoming community celebrations.
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This year, our fall classroom celebrations will be held on Friday, November 1st. Knowing that this is the first year where costumes will not be included in the celebrations, we received requests to consider holding the celebration on a different day from October 31st. Following conversations with teams of educators, the decision was made to shift these to Friday, November 1st. Each team will work with room parents to plan for the time and structure of the classroom/grade level celebration. ...

As part of our school and district-wide commitment to equity, we are focused on building community and creating inclusive, welcoming environments for all. While we recognize that Halloween is a fun tradition for many families, it is not a holiday that is celebrated by all members of our school community and for various reasons. There are also inequities in how we have traditionally observed the holiday as part of our school day. Our goal at Lincoln is to provide space and opportunities for all students to be part of the community - not to create an environment that may feel exclusive or unwelcoming to any child.

In 2018, our leadership team made the decision that it would be the last year we would celebrate Halloween as part of the instructional day. We did this a year in advance to allow our community time and space to process this change. We acknowledge that this might feel like a loss to some. And still, we want to hold onto what, ultimately, made this experience so enjoyable - the opportunity for us to come together as a school community. We look forward to hosting classroom celebrations and providing other opportunities for celebration and engagement throughout the school year.

Lincolnwood Elementary School — Principal Max Weinberg

You may have heard a lot about how Halloween is or isn't being celebrated in District 65 schools. In collaboration with the district, I have decided to keep our Halloween celebration similar to last year. As a staff, we will review how we will proceed in future years. As with all things related to creating an equitable experience, each specific context is important.

At Lincolnwood, this celebration has been an opportunity for authentic integration of students from different backgrounds both during school and after school. Can we do better? Absolutely. Can we make everything more inclusive and equitable? Absolutely. We will continue to have a staff-wide conversation about this as time allows. Grade level teams will plan out further details which they will communicate to you in the next couple of weeks.
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We are thankful to families that have contributed costumes for Halloween and have bought items from the Amazon Wish List to support the community.

Orrington Elementary School — Principal Jess Plaza

Halloween will be celebrated as we have traditionally done for the last time this school year. I will be sharing more information about changes for the 2020-2021 school year soon. Below is information about how we will be celebrating this year. ...

• Students should bring their costumes to school. There will be time for them to change after lunch/recess. Ideally, costumes should be able to go on over clothing. Students should not be wearing their costumes when they arrive on Wednesday morning.
• Students may not wear masks or a lot of face paint. There will be time for students to do some make-up prior to the parade. As long as we can see your child’s face and they are easily identifiable, they are able to wear helmets or hats.
• No weapons are allowed in school, if a costume has a weapon it needs to stay home.
• Our parade will be at 3:15, this parade will be outdoors and families are welcome to attend. If it is raining we will not be having the parade.
• Classroom parties are planned by room parents, and will be happening in the afternoon on 10/31.
• For families who do not celebrate Halloween, there will be board games and activities available in the Library instead of participating in the parade and parties.

The morning of October 31st will be spent busy with learning in classrooms. We are committed to providing high quality instruction throughout the school year, even on days as exciting as Halloween.

Willard Elementary School — Principal Jerry Michel

Across District 65, elementary schools (and District 65) have been sharing communication about changing school practices around Halloween. As Willard joins these schools, I would like to share some quotes from those communications:

• We know that Halloween can be a fun and exciting time for many. We also know that this is not a holiday that is celebrated by all members of the school community. We know that change can be welcomed and change can be challenging. Acknowledging this, we believe that this is a needed shift and we look forward to our upcoming community celebrations.
• While we are happy to have our children share their excitement and talk about family holiday traditions celebrations, we do not actively celebrate these holidays at school. Because we serve such a diverse population with different cultural and religious beliefs, we see holidays to be family-based, to be celebrated according to the traditions and beliefs of each family.
• As part of our school and district-wide commitment to equity, we are focused on building community and creating inclusive, welcoming environments for all. While we recognize that Halloween is a fun tradition for many, it is not a holiday that is celebrated by everyone for various reasons and we want to honor that.
• In District 65, we remain committed to equity and discontinuing current and past practices that are not in alignment with our goals. Our schools are special because of the people who are a part of them. Everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, ability level, religion, spoken language, cultural beliefs and traditions, gender identity, sexual orientation, and citizenship status, should feel comfortable being their authentic selves while in our schools.

At Willard, we continue to build new traditions, focusing on celebrations and fun events that all students and families can participate in and enjoy. Our musical team is a good example; they updated their practices and protocols to respond to community concerns and are having a much more diverse, excited cast participating in this year’s production. We held our first “Community Conversations” of the year with a BBQ last week and had a huge turnout. These are just two examples; please share any ideas that you have that could help us grow as an inclusive, safe community.

This year, we will not hold Halloween parties or parades at Willard, as we continue moving towards our district and school mission of being welcoming to all students and families. Any experience that excludes members of our community hinders our growth in being inclusive. We are confident that, as a school community, we can continue to grow and change in ways that support all of our students, families, and staff members.