The Skokie Park District wants to buy the closed Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies building and fold its grounds into neighboring Timber Ridge Park, but it isn't the only public agency with its eye on the property. Evanston Township High School has also emerged as a prospective buyer, setting up a competition between two government bodies for a parcel that Evanston/Skokie School District 65 must first agree to sell.
District 65 shuttered the Bessie Rhodes school on June 5, 2026, closing out its final year before students and staff moved to the district's new $48.4 million Foster School in Evanston's 5th Ward, according to The Daily Northwestern. The closure ended the district's only wall-to-wall Two-Way Immersion bilingual program, a school where 90 percent of students identified as people of color, as CBS News reported when the board voted 5-2 in June 2024 to close it. Per the Chicago Tribune, the school closed permanently because of staffing shortages and District 65 budget cuts.
The Bessie Rhodes site sits at 9040 Lawndale Avenue, directly adjacent to Timber Ridge Park, which already has an outdoor shelter, playground, basketball and tennis courts, a baseball/softball field, and a perimeter walking path, according to the Skokie Park District. Under a preliminary design outlined in the Tribune's reporting, the expanded park could add a recreation center, soccer field, additional basketball court, playground, walking path, public restrooms, and more seating — though the final layout depends on how much state grant money the district secures.
A Petition, a Price Tag, and a Rival Bidder
Nathan Lichtenstein organized an online petition supporting the sale to the park district, and it had gathered more than 800 signatures as of Wednesday, per the Tribune's reporting. Lichtenstein said land adjacent to an existing park is extraordinarily difficult to assemble and preserve, and he told the paper he believes eastern Skokie lacks a comparable community gathering space or cultural facility. He also said he believes the property is unlikely to return to public ownership if it's sold privately.
Park district trustee Michelle Tuft said residents asked the park district to acquire the property and repurpose it, according to the same Tribune report. The park district hosted public information sessions on the potential Timber Ridge extension, and its board voted on August 18 to apply for a state-funded Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development grant to help cover the purchase.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources caps OSLAD land acquisition grants at $1.125 million per project for the FY2027 cycle, drawing from a $37.5 million statewide pool, and standard awards require a 50 percent local match. The park district also plans to seek an additional $600,000 matching OSLAD development grant in the 2027 cycle, on top of state legislative funding and private donations it intends to pursue, per the Tribune.
Competing Estimates and a Ballooning Bill
Figures on the building's value diverge depending on the source. The Tribune's reporting put the Bessie Rhodes building's estimated cost at around $4.7 million, while a District 65 financial memo from May 2026 pegged the property's likely sale value between $3.5 million and $4.5 million, according to The Daily Northwestern. That same district facility report calculated $9.2 million in near-term deferred maintenance needed for the building through 2033 — a liability District 65 would shed by selling.
Beyond the purchase price, park officials estimated the broader redevelopment would cost roughly $7.7 million on top of the acquisition itself. Altogether, the Bessie Rhodes purchase and Timber Ridge expansion amount to a separate $12.4 million project, distinct from the park district's other major capital push this fall.
That distinction matters because Skokie voters will also decide a $53 million, 20-year bond referendum on the November 3 ballot, which would fund the new Channelside Park South and improvements at an existing park — not the Bessie Rhodes purchase. If approved, that referendum would cost the owner of a $400,000 home an estimated $137 more per year in property taxes starting in 2027, according to reporting cited by the Tribune. The Timber Ridge expansion could still move forward even if that referendum fails, provided District 65 agrees to sell the school property to the park district.
District 65's Financial Calculus
District 65's board has directed staff to negotiate with governmental agencies over the property, and district rules allow it to sell directly to another public body rather than list the site on the open market. That leaves the Skokie Park District and Evanston Township High School's District 202 as competing public suitors, though District 65 trustees also retain the option of a public auction. The property could go up for sale within several months, per the Tribune's reporting.
The stakes for District 65's budget are substantial. Selling Bessie Rhodes alongside the closed Kingsley Elementary School is projected to eliminate roughly $37 million in deferred building capital maintenance across the district, according to Thrive65. The closures stemmed from a structural deficit District 65 previously estimated at $10 million to $15 million, a crisis Hoodline covered in December as the board weighed closing multiple neighborhood campuses.
The building originally opened in 1957 as Timber Ridge Elementary School, later reopening as a magnet school in 1995 before being renamed in 2005 to honor Dr. Bessie Rhodes, District 65's first Black female central administrator. Whether that history ends in a park expansion, a sale to another school district, or a private auction now hinges on negotiations that neither District 65 nor the Skokie Park District has resolved.
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