Hernandez's letter is insane. The obsession with busing is so weird. There is no evidence that busing negatively impacts student learning. In fact, bus availability makes truancy less likely according to some studies I have seen.
He says "children were bused disproportionately than their peers and forced to leave their community." This really ignores the reality of Evanston's geography. The furthest a bused student has to go would be from Ashland and Church St to Willard, which is 2.5 miles and takes a whopping 9 minute drive. For the Lincolnwood students the furthest trip would be 1.7 miles. Some addresses in the First Ward--which also doesn't have a school--are 1.6 miles away to their school, Dewey. Nobody seems to care about First Ward students.
We are not talking a rural county in Texas or something. Evanston is a compact, small city. According to google maps you can drive from the extreme southeast section of the city to the extreme Northwest in less than 20 minutes.
Sure, it would be great to have a school within walking distance of every address in Evanston, but that is not financially feasible.
Under the new scenario we are going to have more schools than we need under conditions of declining enrollment and the whole thing is going be funded through the operating budget so every student throughout the district will see bigger classes, less extracurriculars and deferred maintenance on buildings.
And for what? No educational reason, just so a few kids don't have to take the bus!
The community worked very hard to help pass the District 65 referendum in 2017. Many of us spent countless volunteer hours to educate the community about the referendum. The community stepped up and passed it.
It is a huge slap in the face for Sergio Hernandez and Mr. Khelghati to lie about the passage of this referendum.
So Sergio is bragging about getting the lease certs while mentioning a failed 2012 referendum? I mean I knew he was not the sharpest knife in the drawer but bragging about bypassing a required shareholder vote? Why aren’t they being sued? This is atrocious.
While we’re on the topic of the board lying about stuff let’s remember then-Board president Suni Kartha’s statement in early Nov 2019 to parents that they had identified Horton as a finalist but declined to report his name publicly because the board was ‘respecting the confidentiality requested by the candidates in order to remain in our search process.’
There is no way this is true since it is impossible to believe that Horton—who had been a finalist in at least three public searches that s same year—would have requested anonymity to stay in the search.
Had his name been publicized before his hire, his lack of experience and troubled financial liabilities made it pretty clear that people would have been up in arms with the board that they were seriously considering Horton for the job.
Better for them to lie and make the selection a fait accompli.
Which, not coincidentally, is what they have done with the lease certificate fiasco.
I suspect the last five years have been rife with open meetings act violations but it's basically impossible to prove with someone on the board bringing it up. For instance, I heard they discussed *me* in a closed session - which is allowed in some contexts but is a pretty rampant violation of the OMA. The distrust that the board has for the voters and the general public is just absolutely wild. I've never seen anything like it.
Thank you for doing this extensive research and uncovered this mess. D65 Admin/Board think they could continue to hide the sun with their finger forever?!? Now that the clowns have gotten their "fake" awards and bounced to other districts, I wouldn't be surprised if they pull that nonsense at their new school district. I'm wondering what their take is on this mess. hmm...
It is such a strange email. This jumped out to me: “ It is important to both the Board and to this administration that we engage in a public discussion about this important project in a spirit of transparency and collaboration.”
You don’t schedule a board meeting to give updates, etc…. You can hold an open house for that.
You hold a board meeting because you need board action. Are they trying to borrow more money? That’s the only thing I can think of. I don’t see them abandoning the project and as you know the numbers for the school right now don’t add up.
Email sent to parents at about 4:30pm. There is a flimsy agenda posted on the board book site. Here is the text of the email:
Dear District 65 Community -
As we head into the weekend, I wanted to ensure our community is aware that a Special Board Meeting has been called for Monday, October 16, 2023. This meeting will follow the scheduled Personnel, Buildings and Grounds, and Finance Committee Meeting.
Recently there have been conversations in the community about our new school in the 5th Ward and the status of our student assignment planning process overall. It is important to both the Board and to this administration that we engage in a public discussion about this important project in a spirit of transparency and collaboration.
The Special Board Meeting will be held in-person and will begin at 5pm in the BoardRoom of the Joseph E. Hill Education Center (1500 McDaniel Avenue, Evanston). We encourage our community to tune into the livestream which will be available on the District 65 website. The recording of the meeting will also be posted within 24 hours.
We appreciate the continued support and engagement of our community and wish you a restful weekend.
Only in the field of education is mediocrity allowed. That actually is a very generous term. Other professions require certain demonstrated skills. An electrician better know how to wire a building after a five year apprenticeship program. Doctors and nurses better pass a strict exam after long periods in training. You don’t want a pilot flying you without being certified and padding a rigorous flight school training. The only requirement to be an educational administrator is the ability to speak gibberish and gobbledygook. Currently that means the progressive gospel of equity and social justice I am glad my doctor and his surgical team had real skills to do my hip replacement. I am glad the electrician who rewired my house had a five year apprenticeship.
Is there a process by which Board members who breach their fiduciary duties can be removed? I know in the past you said a recall is not possible, but what happens when malfeasance is involved? Both our city and school district are heading to dire financial straits and all we can think to do is spend even more money on non-essentials. It’s time to start searching for candidates.
I believe it would be ISBE. But if enough signatures and evidence of malfeasance, school fianace mismanagement, data tampering...along with media coverage could be the thing to get this going.
Hernandez's letter is insane. The obsession with busing is so weird. There is no evidence that busing negatively impacts student learning. In fact, bus availability makes truancy less likely according to some studies I have seen.
He says "children were bused disproportionately than their peers and forced to leave their community." This really ignores the reality of Evanston's geography. The furthest a bused student has to go would be from Ashland and Church St to Willard, which is 2.5 miles and takes a whopping 9 minute drive. For the Lincolnwood students the furthest trip would be 1.7 miles. Some addresses in the First Ward--which also doesn't have a school--are 1.6 miles away to their school, Dewey. Nobody seems to care about First Ward students.
We are not talking a rural county in Texas or something. Evanston is a compact, small city. According to google maps you can drive from the extreme southeast section of the city to the extreme Northwest in less than 20 minutes.
Sure, it would be great to have a school within walking distance of every address in Evanston, but that is not financially feasible.
Under the new scenario we are going to have more schools than we need under conditions of declining enrollment and the whole thing is going be funded through the operating budget so every student throughout the district will see bigger classes, less extracurriculars and deferred maintenance on buildings.
And for what? No educational reason, just so a few kids don't have to take the bus!
The community worked very hard to help pass the District 65 referendum in 2017. Many of us spent countless volunteer hours to educate the community about the referendum. The community stepped up and passed it.
It is a huge slap in the face for Sergio Hernandez and Mr. Khelghati to lie about the passage of this referendum.
These letters just seethe with disdain for the very community that elected him.
So Sergio is bragging about getting the lease certs while mentioning a failed 2012 referendum? I mean I knew he was not the sharpest knife in the drawer but bragging about bypassing a required shareholder vote? Why aren’t they being sued? This is atrocious.
Problem is that nobody wants to be the one to sue and get cancelled into orbit by the District and facebook mobs
IWhy can’t it be a class action type of suit brought by multiple voters? Better yet why isn’t the ISBE being sued for allowing this.
While we’re on the topic of the board lying about stuff let’s remember then-Board president Suni Kartha’s statement in early Nov 2019 to parents that they had identified Horton as a finalist but declined to report his name publicly because the board was ‘respecting the confidentiality requested by the candidates in order to remain in our search process.’
There is no way this is true since it is impossible to believe that Horton—who had been a finalist in at least three public searches that s same year—would have requested anonymity to stay in the search.
Had his name been publicized before his hire, his lack of experience and troubled financial liabilities made it pretty clear that people would have been up in arms with the board that they were seriously considering Horton for the job.
Better for them to lie and make the selection a fait accompli.
Which, not coincidentally, is what they have done with the lease certificate fiasco.
https://dailynorthwestern.com/2019/11/12/city/district-65-narrows-search-for-superintendent/
I suspect the last five years have been rife with open meetings act violations but it's basically impossible to prove with someone on the board bringing it up. For instance, I heard they discussed *me* in a closed session - which is allowed in some contexts but is a pretty rampant violation of the OMA. The distrust that the board has for the voters and the general public is just absolutely wild. I've never seen anything like it.
Thank you for doing this extensive research and uncovered this mess. D65 Admin/Board think they could continue to hide the sun with their finger forever?!? Now that the clowns have gotten their "fake" awards and bounced to other districts, I wouldn't be surprised if they pull that nonsense at their new school district. I'm wondering what their take is on this mess. hmm...
There are a lot of my subscribers in Dekalb now!
Tom, what do you make of the late Friday announcement of a Monday meeting about the 5th Ward school?
It is cleared being done to avoid scrutiny.
Oh wow, that explains why they requested am extension to my FOIA request on the finances to next week.. Might be worthy of a story..
Wait what
It is such a strange email. This jumped out to me: “ It is important to both the Board and to this administration that we engage in a public discussion about this important project in a spirit of transparency and collaboration.”
You don’t schedule a board meeting to give updates, etc…. You can hold an open house for that.
You hold a board meeting because you need board action. Are they trying to borrow more money? That’s the only thing I can think of. I don’t see them abandoning the project and as you know the numbers for the school right now don’t add up.
I am not sure how they could get money even if they wanted to
Email sent to parents at about 4:30pm. There is a flimsy agenda posted on the board book site. Here is the text of the email:
Dear District 65 Community -
As we head into the weekend, I wanted to ensure our community is aware that a Special Board Meeting has been called for Monday, October 16, 2023. This meeting will follow the scheduled Personnel, Buildings and Grounds, and Finance Committee Meeting.
Recently there have been conversations in the community about our new school in the 5th Ward and the status of our student assignment planning process overall. It is important to both the Board and to this administration that we engage in a public discussion about this important project in a spirit of transparency and collaboration.
The Special Board Meeting will be held in-person and will begin at 5pm in the BoardRoom of the Joseph E. Hill Education Center (1500 McDaniel Avenue, Evanston). We encourage our community to tune into the livestream which will be available on the District 65 website. The recording of the meeting will also be posted within 24 hours.
We appreciate the continued support and engagement of our community and wish you a restful weekend.
Sincerely,
Dr. Angel Turner (she/her)
Interim Superintendent
Only in the field of education is mediocrity allowed. That actually is a very generous term. Other professions require certain demonstrated skills. An electrician better know how to wire a building after a five year apprenticeship program. Doctors and nurses better pass a strict exam after long periods in training. You don’t want a pilot flying you without being certified and padding a rigorous flight school training. The only requirement to be an educational administrator is the ability to speak gibberish and gobbledygook. Currently that means the progressive gospel of equity and social justice I am glad my doctor and his surgical team had real skills to do my hip replacement. I am glad the electrician who rewired my house had a five year apprenticeship.
Made a mistake. You don’t want a pilot flying you without being certified and passing a rigorous flight school training
Is there a process by which Board members who breach their fiduciary duties can be removed? I know in the past you said a recall is not possible, but what happens when malfeasance is involved? Both our city and school district are heading to dire financial straits and all we can think to do is spend even more money on non-essentials. It’s time to start searching for candidates.
No recall and the only body which has the statutory authority to remove a school board is .. the ISBE, so that's not gonna happen.
I believe it would be ISBE. But if enough signatures and evidence of malfeasance, school fianace mismanagement, data tampering...along with media coverage could be the thing to get this going.
Maybe. Democratic solution is just to hold those in power accountable with writing and vote them out next time.