While I understand Grossi’s point about inaccurate info being presented, the board didn’t ask for a public update on the budget on a major construction project during a time of unprecedented cost increases in construction? Huh? I think it’s 100% clear this board should resign / ISBE needs to step in immediately. The board particular idiots like Biz, Sergio, Joey and Soo La might have waived their middle fingers at tax payers when they paraded around all their equity BS (the results of which are dismal) and support for Horton (their job was to police him and the CFO not create a fan club). This is only going to get worse when the teachers contract is inked.
I agree this board needs to go. What would trigger ISBE's intervention? Voter turnout in 2023 was abysmal which gives the impression that Evanston residents just don't care.
Given the lack of inaction and oversight by the city and state, residents need to hold them all accountable! We a need flyers of this information (a summary of this Board’s incompetence) so that voters are informed… in case the Board thought the Bessie Rhodes families are over what they’ve done to us on top of all the outrageous financial problems , well then they continue to underestimate us
1) The total deficit number that Evanstonnow used was 19.97M, which included the capital projects. Which number matches the 10M deficits each of the last two years - did those include capital deficits or not?
2) It appears that the surprise 10M from the end of last fiscal year was due to the phony accounting finally being stopped.
3) I find the following statements infuriating in light of Dr. Turner's statement that "However, this is transparent and honest as it relates to the district’s financial outlook"
a) Dr. Turner stating "Unfortunately, we do not believe our staff, board, or community had been provided with a complete picture up to this point"
b) Dr. Grossi stated "In our short time working with the District, the most troubling matter we have come across is that the Board of Education seemed to have been regularly provided with information that understated the financial impact of the major financial decisions they were asked to support....
These actions are irregular and not consistent with best practices...This administration and its support team is committed to ending these practices and have already begun to take the necessary actions."
Neither of them appear willing to point a finger at how these practices were happening, who is responsible, if the responsible parties still remain and if they do, why; the list goes on. The last year of updates from the Board/Superintendent have been a constant drip of somber pronouncements that someone, somewhere, messed with the finances to the tune of a surprise $40M deficit in 3 years, for a district with a ~160M yearly budget. An 8% miss over that term, which would have been a 9.5% miss without their 6M in cuts for this year. Yep the culprit(s) appear to be elves and gnomes for all we're told.
They seem to realize that trust has evaporated but cannot get themselves out of their secretive processes (closed door SAP III), and appear to have no plan going forward for how to properly compensate teachers.
And my personal belief is that the ballooning budget in areas like private school payments + cab rides show that the administration 'solved' difficult problems by paying for them to go away, without ever taking action and solving it. Not much different than a charter school simply expelling kids with behavior disorders in order to raise average scores, except here the admin just threw tax revenue at the problem so they didn't have to think about it.
The lack of shame by the long time board members + admin is truly deplorable.
With regard to 3(a) and 3(b), the lack of accountability here is so ridiculous. Turner calling herself the "new" superintendent--even though she has been in charge for over a year--is so weasely.
And she was on Horton’s leadership team prior yo being named interim Superintendent so she can’t pretend that she just didn’t know! A leadership team is always looped in AND a competent leaders holds the organization accountable.
Absolutely correct about the private school placements and the cab rides But these aren’t that difficult. The Special Education Team has the capacity to be aware when students need really special services. These students don’t just pop out of nowhere. They can be identified as early as first grade and services put in place and updated very frequently. You can put an aide on a bus to ride with anyone who needs it.
I can’t believe what has happened to the place I gave 31 years of my life. This Board simply refuses to take any responsibility for this when the entire saga begins with their secret hiring of Horton. I fear that Mr. Grossi is being set up as the scapegoat when the collapse comes and the State gets involved.
I read the report and while it is good to be forward thinking, I guess, it seems the district needs an external public audit of the last few years and of special education- not just reporters analyzing data, or new staff, but certified auditors. Re: special education, to a certain extent, cutting the general budget will only do so much for a program that seems to be run financially outside of the norm of almost every district in the US (perhaps it is not, but the perception is enough to require professional outside scrutiny).
Those of you who are writing to your board members or attending the meeting should ask for that to be budgeted for.
On the idea that the bad news is being slow-rollled, consider:
1. The indication that more steps on how to address this will be presented later says to me that there is a plan, perhaps not totally polished, which is waiting to be unveiled.
2. The SAP3 process is being taken in house by District staff without public participation or even observation.
3. Part of the basis for the yes votes in favor of closing Bessie Rhodes is that it was the product of the SAP process.
Net: we will be getting handed a set of recommendations for school closures as a result of the closed SAP3 process which the Board will rubber stamp after the required 3 hearings where they will demonstrate even less regard for the affected communities than they did Bessie Rhodes.
Dr Grossi’s letter is so damning. It doesn’t quite move from an accusation of serious financial mismanagement to downright fraud, but close enough. Agree with the need to move forward, but no one is being held accountable. What will it take? Thoughts and prayers for those in the DeKalb school district.
Looking back at a recent board meeting, some of the members accused him of not “fixing things” since that was what he was hired to do. I sense a lot of CYA in his report.
Here is something really cringe worthy. Horton talked about “ bring our babies home” referring to the fifth ward school. In her letter to the Round Table Dr Turner referred to “when our babies walk through the door”
Dr Turner, and this board, need to decide if they want to just be the Superintendent and advocates of the 5th ward Students of 50 years ago or of all the D65 children of today. Their focus on problems of generations ago has led them to ignore the problems of today. This is gross negligence.
The entire board has been so derelict it is mind-boggling. We have Soo La Kim, Joey, Biz, and Donna Wang all up for reelection next year. All of them have closed their fundraising committees. These are the folks who are responsible for this financial mismanagement.
What are the odds that any of them will run again?
I haven't seen any candidate committee filings yet for D65.
August 20 is the first date candidates can circulate petitions. I'm not sure if the County Clerk has FOIA-ble records of who requests petitions, but that would be interesting to know.
Given that Steve has already been through the ringer with the equity crowd he may be more resilient in terms of dealing with the ‘any critic of the board is a racist’ attacks that will inevitably come.
For him it is ‘been there, done that.’
He can easily withstand those attacks in a race where you only need a couple of thousand votes.
Just on name recognition alone he would probably be able to earn a seat.
172,000,000 in expense my understanding is 63 % is teacher salary and benefits. The old teacher contract had max increases of 2.5 % when inflation was 7%-2021, 6%-2022, 3.4%-2023 . Inflation for just the last 3 years teacher lost 8.9% purchasing porter cause inflation if we assume they negotiate a increase salary and benifits to catchup on the pass inflation this budget is just trash the new contract will shortly use up millions what is little money left in the reserve fund it should be all gone by this time next year.
Yeah, I did the numbers somewhere in a prior post (can't find it now) but you guys definitely fell behind inflation a bit because of the cap on inflation raises in the current contract.
While I understand Grossi’s point about inaccurate info being presented, the board didn’t ask for a public update on the budget on a major construction project during a time of unprecedented cost increases in construction? Huh? I think it’s 100% clear this board should resign / ISBE needs to step in immediately. The board particular idiots like Biz, Sergio, Joey and Soo La might have waived their middle fingers at tax payers when they paraded around all their equity BS (the results of which are dismal) and support for Horton (their job was to police him and the CFO not create a fan club). This is only going to get worse when the teachers contract is inked.
I agree this board needs to go. What would trigger ISBE's intervention? Voter turnout in 2023 was abysmal which gives the impression that Evanston residents just don't care.
The threshold for ISBE involvement is so high that I don't think there's any realistic situation where they get involved. It's up to the voters!
Given the lack of inaction and oversight by the city and state, residents need to hold them all accountable! We a need flyers of this information (a summary of this Board’s incompetence) so that voters are informed… in case the Board thought the Bessie Rhodes families are over what they’ve done to us on top of all the outrageous financial problems , well then they continue to underestimate us
A few thoughts/questions:
1) The total deficit number that Evanstonnow used was 19.97M, which included the capital projects. Which number matches the 10M deficits each of the last two years - did those include capital deficits or not?
2) It appears that the surprise 10M from the end of last fiscal year was due to the phony accounting finally being stopped.
3) I find the following statements infuriating in light of Dr. Turner's statement that "However, this is transparent and honest as it relates to the district’s financial outlook"
a) Dr. Turner stating "Unfortunately, we do not believe our staff, board, or community had been provided with a complete picture up to this point"
b) Dr. Grossi stated "In our short time working with the District, the most troubling matter we have come across is that the Board of Education seemed to have been regularly provided with information that understated the financial impact of the major financial decisions they were asked to support....
These actions are irregular and not consistent with best practices...This administration and its support team is committed to ending these practices and have already begun to take the necessary actions."
Neither of them appear willing to point a finger at how these practices were happening, who is responsible, if the responsible parties still remain and if they do, why; the list goes on. The last year of updates from the Board/Superintendent have been a constant drip of somber pronouncements that someone, somewhere, messed with the finances to the tune of a surprise $40M deficit in 3 years, for a district with a ~160M yearly budget. An 8% miss over that term, which would have been a 9.5% miss without their 6M in cuts for this year. Yep the culprit(s) appear to be elves and gnomes for all we're told.
They seem to realize that trust has evaporated but cannot get themselves out of their secretive processes (closed door SAP III), and appear to have no plan going forward for how to properly compensate teachers.
And my personal belief is that the ballooning budget in areas like private school payments + cab rides show that the administration 'solved' difficult problems by paying for them to go away, without ever taking action and solving it. Not much different than a charter school simply expelling kids with behavior disorders in order to raise average scores, except here the admin just threw tax revenue at the problem so they didn't have to think about it.
The lack of shame by the long time board members + admin is truly deplorable.
With regard to 3(a) and 3(b), the lack of accountability here is so ridiculous. Turner calling herself the "new" superintendent--even though she has been in charge for over a year--is so weasely.
And she was on Horton’s leadership team prior yo being named interim Superintendent so she can’t pretend that she just didn’t know! A leadership team is always looped in AND a competent leaders holds the organization accountable.
Absolutely correct about the private school placements and the cab rides But these aren’t that difficult. The Special Education Team has the capacity to be aware when students need really special services. These students don’t just pop out of nowhere. They can be identified as early as first grade and services put in place and updated very frequently. You can put an aide on a bus to ride with anyone who needs it.
Stay tuned story coming this week on this
I can’t believe what has happened to the place I gave 31 years of my life. This Board simply refuses to take any responsibility for this when the entire saga begins with their secret hiring of Horton. I fear that Mr. Grossi is being set up as the scapegoat when the collapse comes and the State gets involved.
I read the report and while it is good to be forward thinking, I guess, it seems the district needs an external public audit of the last few years and of special education- not just reporters analyzing data, or new staff, but certified auditors. Re: special education, to a certain extent, cutting the general budget will only do so much for a program that seems to be run financially outside of the norm of almost every district in the US (perhaps it is not, but the perception is enough to require professional outside scrutiny).
Those of you who are writing to your board members or attending the meeting should ask for that to be budgeted for.
On the idea that the bad news is being slow-rollled, consider:
1. The indication that more steps on how to address this will be presented later says to me that there is a plan, perhaps not totally polished, which is waiting to be unveiled.
2. The SAP3 process is being taken in house by District staff without public participation or even observation.
3. Part of the basis for the yes votes in favor of closing Bessie Rhodes is that it was the product of the SAP process.
Net: we will be getting handed a set of recommendations for school closures as a result of the closed SAP3 process which the Board will rubber stamp after the required 3 hearings where they will demonstrate even less regard for the affected communities than they did Bessie Rhodes.
Dr Grossi’s letter is so damning. It doesn’t quite move from an accusation of serious financial mismanagement to downright fraud, but close enough. Agree with the need to move forward, but no one is being held accountable. What will it take? Thoughts and prayers for those in the DeKalb school district.
I get the sense that they are slow rolling the bad news to us, this is a very corporate PR strategy..
Maybe. After all, the 5pm Friday bad news dump is the oldest and shittiest trick in the book. (I, uh, work in corporate PR)
God help us if we get a Wednesday before thanksgiving news dump
They would have to be working on a day when school is not in session. The Friday before on the other hand ....
Looking back at a recent board meeting, some of the members accused him of not “fixing things” since that was what he was hired to do. I sense a lot of CYA in his report.
He was 100% hired as the CYA guy for Dr. Turner.
Oh yeah, Tom. They know exactly what they’re doing.
Hate game not the player, I guess but stop ruining my Friday nights!!
Here is something really cringe worthy. Horton talked about “ bring our babies home” referring to the fifth ward school. In her letter to the Round Table Dr Turner referred to “when our babies walk through the door”
Dr Turner, and this board, need to decide if they want to just be the Superintendent and advocates of the 5th ward Students of 50 years ago or of all the D65 children of today. Their focus on problems of generations ago has led them to ignore the problems of today. This is gross negligence.
That struck me as weird as well. Maybe that’s common parlance in the CPS castoffs world?
The entire board has been so derelict it is mind-boggling. We have Soo La Kim, Joey, Biz, and Donna Wang all up for reelection next year. All of them have closed their fundraising committees. These are the folks who are responsible for this financial mismanagement.
What are the odds that any of them will run again?
I haven't seen any candidate committee filings yet for D65.
August 20 is the first date candidates can circulate petitions. I'm not sure if the County Clerk has FOIA-ble records of who requests petitions, but that would be interesting to know.
Who would run? First, they'd have to run the election gauntlet and if they successfully navigate that, then they inherit this boondoggle.
I’ve noticed former Mayor Steve Hagerty making comments on Evanston Now and the RoundTable critical of the situation.
The Same Thirty People who complain about everything (and have substantial overlap with the Facebook Equity Army) don’t like Steve.
But I would think he would have enough name recognition to get elected. I, for one, would appreciate him running.
I am hoping his public commenting is partly an effort to test the waters. If so, please run Steve!
I saw that and was wondering the same thing. I should send him an email and see if he wants to do an interview.
That would be great.
Given that Steve has already been through the ringer with the equity crowd he may be more resilient in terms of dealing with the ‘any critic of the board is a racist’ attacks that will inevitably come.
For him it is ‘been there, done that.’
He can easily withstand those attacks in a race where you only need a couple of thousand votes.
Just on name recognition alone he would probably be able to earn a seat.
What if we don't have enough people interested in running to fill the seats up for vacancy? Isn't Biz up too?
172,000,000 in expense my understanding is 63 % is teacher salary and benefits. The old teacher contract had max increases of 2.5 % when inflation was 7%-2021, 6%-2022, 3.4%-2023 . Inflation for just the last 3 years teacher lost 8.9% purchasing porter cause inflation if we assume they negotiate a increase salary and benifits to catchup on the pass inflation this budget is just trash the new contract will shortly use up millions what is little money left in the reserve fund it should be all gone by this time next year.
Yeah, I did the numbers somewhere in a prior post (can't find it now) but you guys definitely fell behind inflation a bit because of the cap on inflation raises in the current contract.
Where does the $12 million over for bonds and capital improvements fit into this picture?
Not sure yet - I think that's lease certificate funds being used on new school plus the standard YoY maintenance work they do in the summer.