As a teacher and community member in this district, I am so completely saddened by all that is happening. I used to feel proud to work here. Now I just feel embarrassed.
Where is the accountability?????? Who will be held responsible??
This board’s one and only talking point was equitable outcomes for students. Well, great work—mission definitely not accomplished, as they LITERALLY robbed the community blind. And guess who will pay the price for this mismanagement? It will be the students who need the most support, financial and otherwise.
What a fabulous equity initiative. I’m disgusted. Shame.
I don't blame you for feeling that way, but I'm sure all the work you and other educators "in the trenches" are doing is great and matters. But it's complete and utter BS if teachers' well-deserved compensation increases are held back because some people screwed up.
You could say accountability is at the polls in Spring 2025, but I'm not sure how much that does unless we get enough candidates to really shake things up.
I think online petitions are pointless, but here's an election in like six months anyway, so just wait it out.
Also I realize everyone disagrees with me, but we shouldn't judge people based on their spouse's political statements (or else my partner would never get work!)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't this couple publicly defended/advocated for each other? That's different.
Also, there's still a board member (Sergio Hernandez) with 3 years left on his term who has been attached to 1) the hiring of Dr. Horton
2) subsequent unwavering defense of Horton and his actions as Superintendent
3) spinning the fuck out of the narrative of recent findings to come off like a victim
4) oversight (or lack thereof) that got us into this mess
This man is the PRESIDENT of the board. If the status quo got us here, short of resignation, how are we not taking "bold" measures to shake things up, like installing a new board president, vice president, and overhauling the Board's financial sub-committee. I'm not saying that change will suddenly dig us out of this, but it would at least signal that the board takes this situation seriously and are acknowledging their own respective roles in this.
The only consultant they need to hire is one to negotiate a prepayment on the bonds/lease certs. It’s done all the time in Corp America. It’s not without a cost but would save a big chunk of $$ and take away a huge financial risk as no one knows the real cost of the project.
I disagreed with you for a long time on this but I don't think they have a choice now. If they're gonna bounce teacher checks by Jan 25, how the hell are they going to finish the school. The absolute worst case, even worse than not building something is leaving an unfinished building.
(In my defense, I thought they had $20 million more in the reserves, before the last month worth of revelations that the adminstration lied / nobody was looking at the numbers and its all gone now)
I know the Board's policy is not to respond directly to the public comment portion of meetings, but does that extend to Dr. Grossi? If someone explicitly asked if all avenues were explored for halting the Foster School project through a financial lens (why he's been brought in), is it unreasonable to think he'd address such a question/inquiry?
I think in some ways it's sort of an "oh shit, don't look at the finances, just have them start the project so we can't later be asked to stop it" approach because there's too much concern about the damage if they actually did halt/abandon the project. The really crazy thing is if we get to a point of "OK we *should* stop the project but we've now done too much demo/prep work to the site it would be unjust to leave a messy construction site for the fifth ward, so we must continue regardless of cost overruns."
Yeah, especially in a case where the District is taking out short term loans in order to meet payroll. The catch with the lease certificate is that the first $40 million is definitely going to get paid out of that, but once they go over, who knows where that money comes from. I wouldn't want to be a finishing contractor here
This is a nightmare; Grossi saying that they may have to resort to short-term borrowing to meet payroll starting in January should scare the heck out of anyone that cares for the children of this district. His reaction to Omar’s call to carefully look at what to cut tells me that the situation is even more dire, if that’s even possible. These cuts will be devastating.
That wasn't an actual exchange, it was me being sarcastic! I'm sorry if that wasn't clear!! I'm going to delete that comment since I think maybe a lot of people misunderstood it.
I watched the meeting and had a rather different reaction to the financial discussion as compared to you, Tom, and most of the commenters. Regarding hiring a consultant, this was a proposal by Dr. Turner due to various factors, including lack of bandwidth and expertise within her own team. I don't think it's reasonable to expect the Board "to do this work themselves." And I don't think it's accurate that "[t]he Board, yet again, continues to abdicate their elected responsibility to voters, parents and students." Omar Salem stated, as if anticipating your objection, that while the consultant will present options and recommendations, the vote to cut $10M will be the Board's. The only option the Board had was to say to Dr. Turner: "No, we will not approve your hiring a consultant, you have to do this project internally." I thought that their reactions to Grossi's dire warnings were appropriately sober and generated decent questions. The January date for putting forward a plan for cutting $10M was not something the Board came up with. It came from Dr. Turner, presumably with Grossi's assent. The laughter at the end of the meeting was, in my opinion, anxious or, at worst, wry laughter. Lastly, there is justice or accountability of sorts in the fact that, having presided over this mess, the Board will have to take very hard and unpopular decisions next year.
This is good feedback, although, I will say .. I'm not sure how much accountability there really will be. They're going to preside over this in January but 4/7 are off the Board by April. It's the next Board that will really be cleaning up the mess.
I respect your willingness to express a different take on much of this, but a lot of what you said assumes all of this occured in a vacuum. There have been plenty of concerns raised over recent years over cost overruns, including an overreliance on expensive consultants. Furthermore, I think it's very valid people are annoyed/angry at the notion that part of hiring a consultant to make recommendations on school closures is to insulate the board/admin from tough feedback from the community.
As Tom noted, the majority of the current board won't be sticking around to face that justice/accountability you referenced. In fact, the current reality might dissuade some would-be candidates from running at a time where we really could use a wide pool to choose from.
Pablo, yes, I was reacting to this meeting and there is a long history here of the Board trusting/relying on/deferring too much to the Administration. I hope many of them get replaced and will campaign actively for challengers. I do think that Omar is willing to be honest out loud which should be commended.
This can all be traced back to Suni and co pushing out Candace Chow and then Dr. Goren. All in the name of “equity”. Give me a break. All these people have ever wanted is to further their own political ambitions. They have not had one rational thought but instead focused on land acknowledgement statements, lowering academic expectations and softening behavioral discipline. And now here we are. If people here are ever confused why someone as crazy as Trump could be so popular with conservatives, take a look at our school board and local government. To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Agree!!! All in the name of equity but where is that equity now? Now all our kids are suffering and the students that need the most intervention and resources will suffer the most. The literal opposite of what should be happening. This is such a disgrace and affects the entire fabric of Evanston!
It is entirely possible that some are willing to entertain the idea that the system seems so unjust and inequitable that it is quicker to torch the current system and start from scratch (whatever that means) than make reasonable efforts to steer the ship toward better outcomes within the guardrails of fiscal responsibility. Last six words there are critical.
I will say that there is some merit to this. Before Horton, District 65 was functional but with mild levels of corruption and very inequitable racial outcomes. Things had been slowly getting worse over the years - the budgets in the 2010s were bad and the 2017 referendum bailed them out for a few years, without actually fixing any of the underlying problems. I think of it as a smoldering fire.
Then the equity folks / Dr. Horton arrived and just poured jet fuel all over the system. I don't think it was intentional but they turned a bad situation into a much much worse one that is going to damage an entire generation of kids (they promised to help), but may ultimately result in a complete overhaul of the system.
Joey’s statement at the end about running for Board suggests to me that he is probably not running for re-election. I can’t imagine that Biz or Su will run either given the mess they have created.
Who in their right mind would want to be school board member right now?
You could see a scenario where nobody runs. We are in the middle of signature gathering for the ballot and I haven’t seen any candidate committees established yet for new candidates.
I hope someone sensible like Steve Hagerty throws his hat in as we really need some experienced leadership at the moment.
Are you talking about the same Candance Chow who voted for Horton as superintendent and then wrote a letter to the roundtable saying that the closed-door, exclusionary process that brought him here had "great merit"?
Yeah would be interesting to ultimately hear why directly from her. Probably quite complicated. Wonder if there is anyway to FOIA communication between board members leading up to her resignation to see if there were any off dynamics going on.
Candance announced today she's running for Alderman, so I'll probably give her some space on a future blog post to answer these questions. Probably not until after the new year, though, nobody wants a 6 month election season. So stay tuned.
Not sure if it's in Suffredin's interest or wheelhouse, but I'd be interested in him for BoE if he raised his hand. 6th ward will be OK...D65, I'm not sure.
Thank you again for revealing more alarming numbers. Many teachers were shocked this September when we saw our basic HMO policy go up between $150-$200/month. We had no advanced warning nor were we given the option to switch/cancel plans. As reported, "Health Insurance premiums rose 7-9%, increasing budgeted costs more than $1.1 million." I am wondering how much they have just passed on to us teachers with no notice. We have no contract. No raise. Less take home pay than last year.
The saddest aspect of this problem is that nobody in Evanston pays any attention to school or city governance. We must have thousands of finance professionals who live here, many with kids in D65, who either have no idea this is happening or simply don’t care. Perhaps because most of them can afford to pull their kids and put them into privates? Bad news for them - the closest private schools are pretty much full.
Sorry, but I think it’s time to stop construction on the fifth ward school. Unfortunately, it seems that the D65 school board is stretching out the financial planning until it’s too late to stop. They think Foster School is going to be their legacy, but driving D65 into bankruptcy is what people will remember them for.
I do feel badly for Dr. Turner. She inherited this mess and is trying to fix it. I would feel even more sympathetic if she stopped D65 staff from ordering in Grecian Kitchen.
It’s time to consolidate the two districts. Anyone who has/had a kid in our high school knows that ETHS runs like clockwork while District 65 is a dumpster fire. That is why the high school‘s enrollment numbers have not declined while District 65’s have gone down 20%.
Yeah, I think even a referendum in 2025 would probably pass because most Evanston voters are just roughly in favor of schools and don't pay attention to all the drama. Maybe I'm wrong - my subscriber base grows every day.
They have to figure out something with Foster School because if they won't have enough cash to make payroll and need to take loans in Jan 2025, I don't know how they're going to get the money later in the year to finish construction. The lease certificate isn't going to cover 100% of the construction and costs for things inside the school. Maybe they'll finish it but not have money to put anything inside the building. We promised the Fifth Ward a robotics lab and they get a barebones building with no furniture, if they're lucky.
I've been supportive of Turner but I think last night was a demonstration that she doesn't have a clear plan. Jan 2025 is *four months* from now and Grossi was like "you have to do something right now"
The board is so derelict in their governance. The hiring of Turner never made any sense. It has been clear for more than a year that we needed a financial expert with turnaround experience.
Instead they have a non-public search that yields an inexperienced Horton crony who is on the do-not-hire list at CPS?
I don’t think a referendum would pass when you’ve had this much enrollment decline. We wore pins in support, attended town halls, had yard signs last time around. If this group of people is still running the show there is a 0% chance we would vote in favor of giving them any additional funding to waste. I don’t think we would be in the minority with this mindset.
If the 2013 referendum didn't pass, what makes you think one in 2025 will? I don't think it's going to be possible to successfully hide the fifth ward school element of why there's a bail out needed. Other reasons that might drive pushback:
-lower % of Evanston residents with D65 eligible kids using our public schools=less invested in their success
-parents of current high schoolers who had a negative experience around the handling of pandemic reopening
-the most recent tax hike from our triennial reassessment was a doozy based on elevated property values, so people are even more conscious of their taxes
To your point, one of my very first posts on this blog when I started was about enrollment and the crisis of legitimacy it will create when the voters are no longer receiving the services of the public body. Especially in the Horton years, they were outright encouraging families to leave ("If you want your kid to get attention, go the private schools" Horton says)
So maybe you're right that it will be more like the 2012 referendum.
They clearly don't have a plan and are lurching from one disaster to another like Mr. Toad's wild ride. Personal thanks to Duncan Agnew for the great metaphor.
This district is in no financial condition and has no competence to be launching construction of a new school. Board members were already discussing the closure of 4-5 schools even before the latest financial bombshells. Proceeding with the 5th Ward school, under current conditions, would lead to an unfinished school (The Pit), debt service costing the equivalent of 30 educators annually at current run rates, no money to complete even a severely compromised underfunded school with a litany of cut corners leading to, among other things, unhealthy breathing conditions which are downright dangerous in our new post-pandemic world (Loss of LEED certification and indoor EQ), completely unequipped and unfurnished and, given impact to funding, no money for teachers. All while impacting even more children district-wide with reduced teachers, programs and likely the closing of an additional school beyond the aforementioned 4-5. How many children will suffer from the financial dislocations of this incompetence? I agree that the legacy of this board and administration will be one of financial malfeasance and not a victory lap around a new school. It will never be built and every penny spent will be wasted. The prudent thing to do would be to negotiate a return of capital to lease certificate holders under a forbearance agreement. They’re already comically and demonstrably in violation of almost every single one of their debt covenants and certainly all the major ones. Better to negotiate it now while the principal is still intact and available. The disaster scenario is the fall-out of inevitable litigation when the district is unable to make debt service. Which is in 90 days.
I agree with their decision to move forward with an external consultant to handle what would've been the SAP3 process and to figure out the nasty job of "right-sizing" this mess, if only to remove authority from a body that has created a complete crisis of confidence and never ceases to outdo themselves in establishing new standards of financial and educational mismanagement. Why give these people the authority to completely disrupt the lives of 5-6 schools worth of children and teachers and community all for the sake of their vanity project?
Two things are urgently necessary:
1. The guidance and inputs given to the external consultant must be completely public and with absolutely no preconditions. How can a brand-new school be set in stone when the district obviously can’t afford it and it will have a further devastating impact on the finances of the district? All options for closure and cost savings must be on the table and there can be no sacred cows other than the highest standards of academic achievement under current constraints.
2. A complete and thorough external audit. The removal of the existing auditing firm with potential for litigation for malpractice. Given the likelihood taxes will need to go up +20% in an atmosphere of drastically reduced services, the taxpayers and parents have a right to know where the money went. Given the heavy financial burden and impact to children’s lives and education, not having complete accountability would be a miscarriage of justice and an abnegation of responsibility. There must be accountability. The board and administration can be expected to balk at this…for all too obvious reasons. All the more reason to push for it.
4-5 schools would be so extreme...even trying to close 1-2 more than BR, which seems like all but a certainty at this point, is going to be extremely hard for them to do. Even counting BR, I do not know how you close that many schools here AND build a new Foster school.
1. Is that transparency to the public something a consultancy typically provides? I think Foster School is "set in stone" unless actual clear evidence is presented laying out the process and financial implications of pulling the plug, and it's clear that it would have a major impact in the projected financial picture. I don't think Foster School construction cost overruns are factored into the current year budget, or there would be more pushback (scary). The real question is WHY, other than it not being financially beneficial during a time of financial crisis, would there be zero talk whatsoever about what would happen if we halted the project.
2. I think Tom FOIA'ed Baker Tilly audits from recent years, so we should have some idea of what's been looked at pretty soon. Either they flagged things that were missed/ignored (Board's fault) or they missed/ignored red flags (BT's fault for missing, responsibility of Board for hiring them).
3. Would you speak at one of the next board meetings to push for the above? If not, what's the best channel to actually exert this kind of pressure? The IL OIG?
So to finish the project, you need about $8 million buckazoids. Where they getting that from? Maybe Bessie Rhodes building will throw in a couple million. The rest???
They have $4m for contingencies in the budget (see above doc) and if everything goes perfect, maybe they can use that. But it's still not enough and that's the only room for error they really have. If something like HVAC goes way over budget, they're screwed.
I think in order for this to continue, the administration needs to prove to the board that the project can be fully funded. I just don't see how that's possible given the existing circumstances.
Also, it is inarguable that the project is still being funded at the expense of other things we can no longer afford. There's a $2.5M gap between the bus savings the project was approved on and the actual projected savings (which btw, we can still achieve by continuing with new student assignment mapping even if the new school is not built in the near future). This means not only the $8m you referenced, but an ongoing $2.5M of the existing budget that's needing to be pulled in from elsewhere to make our annual $3.3M payment.
We could literally buy Grecian Kitchen with one year of that $2.5M and lock in the D65 Admin free lunches for good.
Ahh, thanks for sharing the link to the audited financials. Seems like it was insufficient then?
re: Bessie sale closing the gap, how does that work? BR is still planned to be open through probably early June 2026. If the Foster School is slated for completion, and we're relying on proceeds from BR sale, we'd need a buyer lined up to close almost immediately after the conclusion of SY25-26 and the funds to clear. Not sure that's something you can bank on.
I haven't seen any of them in the most recent Roundtable article yet. Regarding the algorithm changes, are you saying that we aren't able to see their comments at all? I checked and I haven't seen anything from them on FB. I can't imagine how they could continue to spin this, but I am sure they have their angle. Which is insane at this point.
Actually, silence might be a strategy here. Avoid bringing it up, let the early phases of construction crawl along, enough that having to undo contracts, negotiate prepayment, and also budget for replacing everything that's been demoed at the site thus far is prohibitive and keeping the project going is the "best" option.
It is truly sad that the forum treated as the broader place for D65 parents and caregivers to discuss important and relevant issues has been so stifled that NOBODY is willing to discuss the five-alarm fire that's going on right now.
I wish people would stop advocating for combining the districts. I know that is a pet issue of this substack, but the reason ETHS works is because it isn’t saddled with D65.
And if D65 had proper governance it would work better.
As someone who works in public education, I really wish this scary proposal would go away (or not happen until my kids are safely through ETHS).
With all due respect — I couldn’t disagree more. Get rid of all the d65 administration & the d65 BOE, pay 202 Admin more and let them hire extra people sparingly but where needed/targeted —and critically, allow the community to elect a new school board. There are hybrid ways of doing this so as not to impact the unions/teachers pay/etc. and this is done all over the country in communities far larger than Evanston.
Plus, in the end, if we’re honest, 202 is getting pummeled with ill prepared 65 kids —and I think we all know that that is likely only going to get worse. We need to realize that no joint goals exist between districts. Also their perfunctory joint meetings are for show and only highlight how inadequate the d65 BOE & Admin is. Imagine if there were clear metrics and deliverables identified for all Evanston kids preK-12 and we had one set of administrators and one BOE all working to meet those goals—and gasp!, reporting regularly to the community.
I know it’s different and change is hard to get one’s head around. But I really think we could do this & it wouldn’t ruin ETHS. Good grief —do we care about those kids most at risk or don’t we? Come on Evanston —this is doable. Two districts for a town our size is unnecessary, fiscally irresponsible and critically —our current set up is resulting in a massive failure of the very kids it’s supposed to academically nurture.
It crazy we paying 2 sets of administrators our 2 superintendent make almost 600000 dollars this is outrageous.
Turner can’t make a decision without a consultant that’s just a waste of tax dollars that don’t go to actually educating our kids. Let’s not pretend that Evanston high school is great it full of D65 kids
The non-union non-principal administrative apparatus (ie curriculum, superintendents) costs taxpayers around $6.3m per year in salaries alone. I have a comp speadsheet I shared at one point. Thats 2x what it was in 2021.
I have written to school board members about this and recently to Dr Turner. They really do not feel accountable to constituents to justify how they are spending the money. BTW, I love how you phrased it “non-union non-principal administrative apparatus.” That’s perfect.
This is true Tom but I’d go further. This town voted years ago to put people on the board that were very upfront about their stances/desires. This is all just a culmination of being guilted/bullied into going so far left in our schools that we are now realizing no one was considering the financial (real) cost of doing so. So yes, the board protected Horton in an insane, irrational manner. But we cannot give the broader public a free pass here. Maybe now people will wake up and stop voting for school board members based on their political ideology and stances on BLM/LGBTQ+ but instead will focus on a candidates actual skill set and desire to EDUCATE (reading/writing/math/science) our kids.
I think part of this is timely because DeKalb begins its “SAP” process tonight with its first committee meeting. To be fair, DeKalb hired consultants for 2 master plans before that. At least the last one was good (I read it), but it had no political will behind it because board members did not like what they said so it went on a shelf. There are firms that specialize in this and the cost to DeKalb was $2M. The fact that someone on the board said “maybe Northwestern can help” is incredible evidence that they are out of their depth.
Committee, consultant… it makes no difference if the elected officials don’t follow through.
Whoever runs for school board should run on implementing a forensic audit of the last 5 years as a key campaign platform issue.
They basically admitted this in the meeting - at one point someone said something like, “We don’t want the community bothering staff members about school closings”
Oh those pesky community members. First they are trying to talk to the Superintendent and now this! The audacity! Thank goodness we did away with the Superintendent residency requirement! Oh, bother!
Everyone on this blog needs to email the board to ask them to let go all the high priced and unnecessary administrators (Horton's friends) and to cancel the school to save public education in this town. If they are really serious about saving money and this district then these two things need to happen. Then we all need to email the Dept of Education per Tom's suggestion from earlier. Complain to the DoE OIG: https://oig.ed.gov/ - this is the federal agency with oversight power over D65.
I'll probably be chased out of town for expressing this but as they say "you reap what you sow". This entire situation (complete mess!) with District 65 is in large part (as seen from the 50,000 ft perspective) the fallout that comes when the viewpoints and philosophy about education, specifically, and society, generally, are driven as it seems to be in Evanston by essentially one social/political view concerning 1) what are the "right" and "good" values and ideas we should have, and 2) what are the "acceptable" ways of thinking about the various social/political/economic issues facing the city. Those who run our schools (administration, school board, etc.) don't exist in a vacuum. They come from within the community or, at least, were voted in or hired or indirectly "supported' by the community through voting for certain opinions about how life should be lived and what our priorities are or are not. Wouldn't it be great if other political viewpoints could have a real say in how this town is run. There are lots of great ideas by good and well intentioned people out there from all stripes. To some degree I have a feeling that had we Evanstonians really allowed and (truly) encouraged other broad points of view/philosophies we wouldn't be in the situation we're now facing.
Yes! This! I feel zero percent sorry for my fellow Evanstonians. I saw this happen. Zero surprise. Ideology that was flawed and didn’t make any financial sense but somehow really spoke the heart of the upper class, educate white women in particular. Honestly, it’s just like Trump just another end of the spectrum. Because based on real life, it made and makes no sense.
So my guess is they'll do whatever short term borrowing is necessary for this school year payroll, and close/sell two of the eastern/northeastern schools on an accelerated timeline, plus keep trying to sell Bessie Rhodes - then use all that funding to pay for shortfalls on Foster School. As I recall for SAP II, they made the decisions first and then held the required community meetings after, and presumably they'll do the same here.
Well, there are three schools in very close proximity:
- Lincolnwood is 4 blocks west of Kingsley
- Fifth Ward School is about 4 blocks south of Kingsley
So I think it one of those will have to close and they'll probably suggest relocating the staff and all the things in the building over to the Foster school.
Everyone says that Orrington is going to close and I'm sure 4 of the Board members would love to see that, but I just don't see that happening - the parents there would sue and it would blow up busing costs even worse.
I think this makes sense if just one northern school (i.e. Haven feeder) closes. However, they probably have to close a second school. Do they close a second northern one, or a school elsewhere in the city? What a mess.
Unless they converted King Arts into a neighborhood school and reassigned Walker students there, I'm not sure where else they could logically consolidate. Upon opening Foster (if/when), I'm guessing the total projected population of the four schools up north totals well below the capacity of two of those schools. It's just funny when people make such a huge deal about having a neighborhood school and then close two of them - plus a magnet school - to add one.
"It's just funny when people make such a huge deal about having a neighborhood school and then close two of them - plus a magnet school - to add one."
Good point, but I have read in previous posts that Dr. Horton was tasked with finding a way to build/finance the Fifth Ward School. Perhaps this is why he was hired? Not clear.
Thanks for the context. Why would certain board members (which ones?) specifically want to see Orrington closed? Am not familiar with the opposition to it
They view Orrington as taking resources away from black and brown kids, since it is the most wealthy and white school in the District. I shouldn't name names, since I don't have public statements, though. Just a hunch.
Please when talking about children could we not describe them as “black, brown and wealthy white”. That’s how we got into this mess. They are children who need to be educated.
Geographically, closing Kingsley or Lincolnwood make sense. Willard serves a chunk of kids NW of Gross Point and Crawford that would not have a walkable option.
Kingsley’s lot is weird, though, and Lincolnwood’s land is probably super valuable. Those kids could split between Willard and Kingsley.
All that said, they don’t really make decisions based on rational reasons, so who knows what they will do.
One question, why is King never mentioned as a possible closure?
Yeah it's too bad this whole thing is going to be rushed because I think there are smart long-term plans they could've come up with that involve transitioning Kingsley into something else (like relocating Park School to a more central location). I think they waited too long to come up with a buildings plan and now just have to do whatever to not go bankrupt.
The insincere laughter when someone brought up running for the board was disgusting and shameful.
I love a good rage rant but what if anything can be done from a community-wide point of view to denounce this bullshit? Turn up en masse to the next board meeting with protest signs? Put weird flyers in mailboxes letting folks know what is going on?
I’ve written multiple emails to the board expressing my concerns - no response.
1) Complain to the DoE OIG: https://oig.ed.gov/ - this is the federal agency with oversight power over D65. Don't bother with the ISBE, they suck and are probably working up another award for D65 right now.
2) Run for board or find people who want to run and send them to me, and I'll forward to some organizers.
3) Email schoolboard@ with your complaints and just keep it going - I think this is more effective than going to a meeting, to be honest.
I mean, ultimately, this is the issue. The “miraculous” financing and bussing savings were all lies and need to be investigated. The timeline you lay out in this post is just spot on.
As a teacher and community member in this district, I am so completely saddened by all that is happening. I used to feel proud to work here. Now I just feel embarrassed.
Where is the accountability?????? Who will be held responsible??
This board’s one and only talking point was equitable outcomes for students. Well, great work—mission definitely not accomplished, as they LITERALLY robbed the community blind. And guess who will pay the price for this mismanagement? It will be the students who need the most support, financial and otherwise.
What a fabulous equity initiative. I’m disgusted. Shame.
I don't blame you for feeling that way, but I'm sure all the work you and other educators "in the trenches" are doing is great and matters. But it's complete and utter BS if teachers' well-deserved compensation increases are held back because some people screwed up.
You could say accountability is at the polls in Spring 2025, but I'm not sure how much that does unless we get enough candidates to really shake things up.
I should clarify that I don’t feel embarrassed when I’m in my classroom teaching. I feel embarrassed when I read the news…
I think online petitions are pointless, but here's an election in like six months anyway, so just wait it out.
Also I realize everyone disagrees with me, but we shouldn't judge people based on their spouse's political statements (or else my partner would never get work!)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't this couple publicly defended/advocated for each other? That's different.
Also, there's still a board member (Sergio Hernandez) with 3 years left on his term who has been attached to 1) the hiring of Dr. Horton
2) subsequent unwavering defense of Horton and his actions as Superintendent
3) spinning the fuck out of the narrative of recent findings to come off like a victim
4) oversight (or lack thereof) that got us into this mess
This man is the PRESIDENT of the board. If the status quo got us here, short of resignation, how are we not taking "bold" measures to shake things up, like installing a new board president, vice president, and overhauling the Board's financial sub-committee. I'm not saying that change will suddenly dig us out of this, but it would at least signal that the board takes this situation seriously and are acknowledging their own respective roles in this.
The only consultant they need to hire is one to negotiate a prepayment on the bonds/lease certs. It’s done all the time in Corp America. It’s not without a cost but would save a big chunk of $$ and take away a huge financial risk as no one knows the real cost of the project.
I disagreed with you for a long time on this but I don't think they have a choice now. If they're gonna bounce teacher checks by Jan 25, how the hell are they going to finish the school. The absolute worst case, even worse than not building something is leaving an unfinished building.
(In my defense, I thought they had $20 million more in the reserves, before the last month worth of revelations that the adminstration lied / nobody was looking at the numbers and its all gone now)
I know the Board's policy is not to respond directly to the public comment portion of meetings, but does that extend to Dr. Grossi? If someone explicitly asked if all avenues were explored for halting the Foster School project through a financial lens (why he's been brought in), is it unreasonable to think he'd address such a question/inquiry?
I don't think he would and I think that's probably outside of his skillset
Are they digging the foundation?
Yeah, it's underway now.
I think in some ways it's sort of an "oh shit, don't look at the finances, just have them start the project so we can't later be asked to stop it" approach because there's too much concern about the damage if they actually did halt/abandon the project. The really crazy thing is if we get to a point of "OK we *should* stop the project but we've now done too much demo/prep work to the site it would be unjust to leave a messy construction site for the fifth ward, so we must continue regardless of cost overruns."
The worst case is if it reaches a point where the contractors fear they won't get paid so they stop work.
Which…. seems possible
Yeah, especially in a case where the District is taking out short term loans in order to meet payroll. The catch with the lease certificate is that the first $40 million is definitely going to get paid out of that, but once they go over, who knows where that money comes from. I wouldn't want to be a finishing contractor here
That point was reached the day they borrowed the money without having plans or a budget for the building.
This is a nightmare; Grossi saying that they may have to resort to short-term borrowing to meet payroll starting in January should scare the heck out of anyone that cares for the children of this district. His reaction to Omar’s call to carefully look at what to cut tells me that the situation is even more dire, if that’s even possible. These cuts will be devastating.
This is the scariest exchange of all. Indeed, they think the money is limitless.
That wasn't an actual exchange, it was me being sarcastic! I'm sorry if that wasn't clear!! I'm going to delete that comment since I think maybe a lot of people misunderstood it.
Shoot, is was so "truthy" and perfect satire that it perfectly synthesized their attitude. Like a good Onion article it exposed the ridiculousness.
I watched the meeting and had a rather different reaction to the financial discussion as compared to you, Tom, and most of the commenters. Regarding hiring a consultant, this was a proposal by Dr. Turner due to various factors, including lack of bandwidth and expertise within her own team. I don't think it's reasonable to expect the Board "to do this work themselves." And I don't think it's accurate that "[t]he Board, yet again, continues to abdicate their elected responsibility to voters, parents and students." Omar Salem stated, as if anticipating your objection, that while the consultant will present options and recommendations, the vote to cut $10M will be the Board's. The only option the Board had was to say to Dr. Turner: "No, we will not approve your hiring a consultant, you have to do this project internally." I thought that their reactions to Grossi's dire warnings were appropriately sober and generated decent questions. The January date for putting forward a plan for cutting $10M was not something the Board came up with. It came from Dr. Turner, presumably with Grossi's assent. The laughter at the end of the meeting was, in my opinion, anxious or, at worst, wry laughter. Lastly, there is justice or accountability of sorts in the fact that, having presided over this mess, the Board will have to take very hard and unpopular decisions next year.
This is good feedback, although, I will say .. I'm not sure how much accountability there really will be. They're going to preside over this in January but 4/7 are off the Board by April. It's the next Board that will really be cleaning up the mess.
I respect your willingness to express a different take on much of this, but a lot of what you said assumes all of this occured in a vacuum. There have been plenty of concerns raised over recent years over cost overruns, including an overreliance on expensive consultants. Furthermore, I think it's very valid people are annoyed/angry at the notion that part of hiring a consultant to make recommendations on school closures is to insulate the board/admin from tough feedback from the community.
As Tom noted, the majority of the current board won't be sticking around to face that justice/accountability you referenced. In fact, the current reality might dissuade some would-be candidates from running at a time where we really could use a wide pool to choose from.
Pablo, yes, I was reacting to this meeting and there is a long history here of the Board trusting/relying on/deferring too much to the Administration. I hope many of them get replaced and will campaign actively for challengers. I do think that Omar is willing to be honest out loud which should be commended.
This can all be traced back to Suni and co pushing out Candace Chow and then Dr. Goren. All in the name of “equity”. Give me a break. All these people have ever wanted is to further their own political ambitions. They have not had one rational thought but instead focused on land acknowledgement statements, lowering academic expectations and softening behavioral discipline. And now here we are. If people here are ever confused why someone as crazy as Trump could be so popular with conservatives, take a look at our school board and local government. To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Agree!!! All in the name of equity but where is that equity now? Now all our kids are suffering and the students that need the most intervention and resources will suffer the most. The literal opposite of what should be happening. This is such a disgrace and affects the entire fabric of Evanston!
It is entirely possible that some are willing to entertain the idea that the system seems so unjust and inequitable that it is quicker to torch the current system and start from scratch (whatever that means) than make reasonable efforts to steer the ship toward better outcomes within the guardrails of fiscal responsibility. Last six words there are critical.
I will say that there is some merit to this. Before Horton, District 65 was functional but with mild levels of corruption and very inequitable racial outcomes. Things had been slowly getting worse over the years - the budgets in the 2010s were bad and the 2017 referendum bailed them out for a few years, without actually fixing any of the underlying problems. I think of it as a smoldering fire.
Then the equity folks / Dr. Horton arrived and just poured jet fuel all over the system. I don't think it was intentional but they turned a bad situation into a much much worse one that is going to damage an entire generation of kids (they promised to help), but may ultimately result in a complete overhaul of the system.
This is not good policy!
Joey’s statement at the end about running for Board suggests to me that he is probably not running for re-election. I can’t imagine that Biz or Su will run either given the mess they have created.
Who in their right mind would want to be school board member right now?
You could see a scenario where nobody runs. We are in the middle of signature gathering for the ballot and I haven’t seen any candidate committees established yet for new candidates.
I hope someone sensible like Steve Hagerty throws his hat in as we really need some experienced leadership at the moment.
Considering past candidates were verbally assaulted, called racist, etc. it is not a surprise why no one is stepping up.
The cynical laughter that followed that statement tells me that none of them plan to stick around after they burn it down.
Are you talking about the same Candance Chow who voted for Horton as superintendent and then wrote a letter to the roundtable saying that the closed-door, exclusionary process that brought him here had "great merit"?
https://evanstonroundtable.com/2020/11/06/reader-calls-for-consideration-of-the-negative-impacts-of-making-personnel-preferences-in-public-meeting/
Yeah not a good look. But look back on how she was ousted from the president role and the dominoes that fell after.
I don’t understand why she quit the board mid term? Maybe she could have been one voice keeping Horton in check.
She’s not the only one to quit in mid-term. I suspect SuniBizCo make it unbearable for anybody with an alternate view.
Yeah would be interesting to ultimately hear why directly from her. Probably quite complicated. Wonder if there is anyway to FOIA communication between board members leading up to her resignation to see if there were any off dynamics going on.
Candance announced today she's running for Alderman, so I'll probably give her some space on a future blog post to answer these questions. Probably not until after the new year, though, nobody wants a 6 month election season. So stay tuned.
I'd be really curious to hear that (in six months). Tom Suffredin was a vocal / on the record John Martin supporter.
Not sure if it's in Suffredin's interest or wheelhouse, but I'd be interested in him for BoE if he raised his hand. 6th ward will be OK...D65, I'm not sure.
Thank you again for revealing more alarming numbers. Many teachers were shocked this September when we saw our basic HMO policy go up between $150-$200/month. We had no advanced warning nor were we given the option to switch/cancel plans. As reported, "Health Insurance premiums rose 7-9%, increasing budgeted costs more than $1.1 million." I am wondering how much they have just passed on to us teachers with no notice. We have no contract. No raise. Less take home pay than last year.
The saddest aspect of this problem is that nobody in Evanston pays any attention to school or city governance. We must have thousands of finance professionals who live here, many with kids in D65, who either have no idea this is happening or simply don’t care. Perhaps because most of them can afford to pull their kids and put them into privates? Bad news for them - the closest private schools are pretty much full.
Sorry, but I think it’s time to stop construction on the fifth ward school. Unfortunately, it seems that the D65 school board is stretching out the financial planning until it’s too late to stop. They think Foster School is going to be their legacy, but driving D65 into bankruptcy is what people will remember them for.
I do feel badly for Dr. Turner. She inherited this mess and is trying to fix it. I would feel even more sympathetic if she stopped D65 staff from ordering in Grecian Kitchen.
It’s time to consolidate the two districts. Anyone who has/had a kid in our high school knows that ETHS runs like clockwork while District 65 is a dumpster fire. That is why the high school‘s enrollment numbers have not declined while District 65’s have gone down 20%.
Yeah, I think even a referendum in 2025 would probably pass because most Evanston voters are just roughly in favor of schools and don't pay attention to all the drama. Maybe I'm wrong - my subscriber base grows every day.
They have to figure out something with Foster School because if they won't have enough cash to make payroll and need to take loans in Jan 2025, I don't know how they're going to get the money later in the year to finish construction. The lease certificate isn't going to cover 100% of the construction and costs for things inside the school. Maybe they'll finish it but not have money to put anything inside the building. We promised the Fifth Ward a robotics lab and they get a barebones building with no furniture, if they're lucky.
I've been supportive of Turner but I think last night was a demonstration that she doesn't have a clear plan. Jan 2025 is *four months* from now and Grossi was like "you have to do something right now"
The board is so derelict in their governance. The hiring of Turner never made any sense. It has been clear for more than a year that we needed a financial expert with turnaround experience.
Instead they have a non-public search that yields an inexperienced Horton crony who is on the do-not-hire list at CPS?
I don’t think a referendum would pass when you’ve had this much enrollment decline. We wore pins in support, attended town halls, had yard signs last time around. If this group of people is still running the show there is a 0% chance we would vote in favor of giving them any additional funding to waste. I don’t think we would be in the minority with this mindset.
Yeah, maybe the outcome will be more like 2012 referendum. We really only have a sample of N=2
If the 2013 referendum didn't pass, what makes you think one in 2025 will? I don't think it's going to be possible to successfully hide the fifth ward school element of why there's a bail out needed. Other reasons that might drive pushback:
-lower % of Evanston residents with D65 eligible kids using our public schools=less invested in their success
-parents of current high schoolers who had a negative experience around the handling of pandemic reopening
-the most recent tax hike from our triennial reassessment was a doozy based on elevated property values, so people are even more conscious of their taxes
To your point, one of my very first posts on this blog when I started was about enrollment and the crisis of legitimacy it will create when the voters are no longer receiving the services of the public body. Especially in the Horton years, they were outright encouraging families to leave ("If you want your kid to get attention, go the private schools" Horton says)
So maybe you're right that it will be more like the 2012 referendum.
They clearly don't have a plan and are lurching from one disaster to another like Mr. Toad's wild ride. Personal thanks to Duncan Agnew for the great metaphor.
This district is in no financial condition and has no competence to be launching construction of a new school. Board members were already discussing the closure of 4-5 schools even before the latest financial bombshells. Proceeding with the 5th Ward school, under current conditions, would lead to an unfinished school (The Pit), debt service costing the equivalent of 30 educators annually at current run rates, no money to complete even a severely compromised underfunded school with a litany of cut corners leading to, among other things, unhealthy breathing conditions which are downright dangerous in our new post-pandemic world (Loss of LEED certification and indoor EQ), completely unequipped and unfurnished and, given impact to funding, no money for teachers. All while impacting even more children district-wide with reduced teachers, programs and likely the closing of an additional school beyond the aforementioned 4-5. How many children will suffer from the financial dislocations of this incompetence? I agree that the legacy of this board and administration will be one of financial malfeasance and not a victory lap around a new school. It will never be built and every penny spent will be wasted. The prudent thing to do would be to negotiate a return of capital to lease certificate holders under a forbearance agreement. They’re already comically and demonstrably in violation of almost every single one of their debt covenants and certainly all the major ones. Better to negotiate it now while the principal is still intact and available. The disaster scenario is the fall-out of inevitable litigation when the district is unable to make debt service. Which is in 90 days.
I agree with their decision to move forward with an external consultant to handle what would've been the SAP3 process and to figure out the nasty job of "right-sizing" this mess, if only to remove authority from a body that has created a complete crisis of confidence and never ceases to outdo themselves in establishing new standards of financial and educational mismanagement. Why give these people the authority to completely disrupt the lives of 5-6 schools worth of children and teachers and community all for the sake of their vanity project?
Two things are urgently necessary:
1. The guidance and inputs given to the external consultant must be completely public and with absolutely no preconditions. How can a brand-new school be set in stone when the district obviously can’t afford it and it will have a further devastating impact on the finances of the district? All options for closure and cost savings must be on the table and there can be no sacred cows other than the highest standards of academic achievement under current constraints.
2. A complete and thorough external audit. The removal of the existing auditing firm with potential for litigation for malpractice. Given the likelihood taxes will need to go up +20% in an atmosphere of drastically reduced services, the taxpayers and parents have a right to know where the money went. Given the heavy financial burden and impact to children’s lives and education, not having complete accountability would be a miscarriage of justice and an abnegation of responsibility. There must be accountability. The board and administration can be expected to balk at this…for all too obvious reasons. All the more reason to push for it.
"How did you go bankrupt?"
"Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly."
BTW - where did you get the "closure of 4-5 schools" from?
From a discussion with a board member.
4-5 schools would be so extreme...even trying to close 1-2 more than BR, which seems like all but a certainty at this point, is going to be extremely hard for them to do. Even counting BR, I do not know how you close that many schools here AND build a new Foster school.
1. Is that transparency to the public something a consultancy typically provides? I think Foster School is "set in stone" unless actual clear evidence is presented laying out the process and financial implications of pulling the plug, and it's clear that it would have a major impact in the projected financial picture. I don't think Foster School construction cost overruns are factored into the current year budget, or there would be more pushback (scary). The real question is WHY, other than it not being financially beneficial during a time of financial crisis, would there be zero talk whatsoever about what would happen if we halted the project.
2. I think Tom FOIA'ed Baker Tilly audits from recent years, so we should have some idea of what's been looked at pretty soon. Either they flagged things that were missed/ignored (Board's fault) or they missed/ignored red flags (BT's fault for missing, responsibility of Board for hiring them).
3. Would you speak at one of the next board meetings to push for the above? If not, what's the best channel to actually exert this kind of pressure? The IL OIG?
The Baker-Tilly audits are actually public! You can find them here:
https://www.district65.net/about/budget-finance (they're under the Annual Financial Report - AFR section)
As I see it, the challenge with the Foster school is this:
1) They have $40m in lease certificate money to use for construction.
2) They don't appear to have any other money they can contribute to construction now or in future years.
Cordogan Clark's 2024 estimates are here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y4Bb7jJgZlvPGquFV9aJmYko_iCsCYMK/view?usp=drive_link
Total Construction Cost: $42,097,914
Total Non Construction Cost: $6,355,827
So to finish the project, you need about $8 million buckazoids. Where they getting that from? Maybe Bessie Rhodes building will throw in a couple million. The rest???
They have $4m for contingencies in the budget (see above doc) and if everything goes perfect, maybe they can use that. But it's still not enough and that's the only room for error they really have. If something like HVAC goes way over budget, they're screwed.
I think in order for this to continue, the administration needs to prove to the board that the project can be fully funded. I just don't see how that's possible given the existing circumstances.
Also, it is inarguable that the project is still being funded at the expense of other things we can no longer afford. There's a $2.5M gap between the bus savings the project was approved on and the actual projected savings (which btw, we can still achieve by continuing with new student assignment mapping even if the new school is not built in the near future). This means not only the $8m you referenced, but an ongoing $2.5M of the existing budget that's needing to be pulled in from elsewhere to make our annual $3.3M payment.
We could literally buy Grecian Kitchen with one year of that $2.5M and lock in the D65 Admin free lunches for good.
OMG I laughed out loud at the idea of buying Grecian Kitchen
Ahh, thanks for sharing the link to the audited financials. Seems like it was insufficient then?
re: Bessie sale closing the gap, how does that work? BR is still planned to be open through probably early June 2026. If the Foster School is slated for completion, and we're relying on proceeds from BR sale, we'd need a buyer lined up to close almost immediately after the conclusion of SY25-26 and the funds to clear. Not sure that's something you can bank on.
Yeah it's cutting it really close, part of the reason why I'm a skeptic now
I haven't seen any of them in the most recent Roundtable article yet. Regarding the algorithm changes, are you saying that we aren't able to see their comments at all? I checked and I haven't seen anything from them on FB. I can't imagine how they could continue to spin this, but I am sure they have their angle. Which is insane at this point.
Actually, silence might be a strategy here. Avoid bringing it up, let the early phases of construction crawl along, enough that having to undo contracts, negotiate prepayment, and also budget for replacing everything that's been demoed at the site thus far is prohibitive and keeping the project going is the "best" option.
It is truly sad that the forum treated as the broader place for D65 parents and caregivers to discuss important and relevant issues has been so stifled that NOBODY is willing to discuss the five-alarm fire that's going on right now.
I wish people would stop advocating for combining the districts. I know that is a pet issue of this substack, but the reason ETHS works is because it isn’t saddled with D65.
And if D65 had proper governance it would work better.
As someone who works in public education, I really wish this scary proposal would go away (or not happen until my kids are safely through ETHS).
With all due respect — I couldn’t disagree more. Get rid of all the d65 administration & the d65 BOE, pay 202 Admin more and let them hire extra people sparingly but where needed/targeted —and critically, allow the community to elect a new school board. There are hybrid ways of doing this so as not to impact the unions/teachers pay/etc. and this is done all over the country in communities far larger than Evanston.
Plus, in the end, if we’re honest, 202 is getting pummeled with ill prepared 65 kids —and I think we all know that that is likely only going to get worse. We need to realize that no joint goals exist between districts. Also their perfunctory joint meetings are for show and only highlight how inadequate the d65 BOE & Admin is. Imagine if there were clear metrics and deliverables identified for all Evanston kids preK-12 and we had one set of administrators and one BOE all working to meet those goals—and gasp!, reporting regularly to the community.
I know it’s different and change is hard to get one’s head around. But I really think we could do this & it wouldn’t ruin ETHS. Good grief —do we care about those kids most at risk or don’t we? Come on Evanston —this is doable. Two districts for a town our size is unnecessary, fiscally irresponsible and critically —our current set up is resulting in a massive failure of the very kids it’s supposed to academically nurture.
It crazy we paying 2 sets of administrators our 2 superintendent make almost 600000 dollars this is outrageous.
Turner can’t make a decision without a consultant that’s just a waste of tax dollars that don’t go to actually educating our kids. Let’s not pretend that Evanston high school is great it full of D65 kids
Just so we are clear, D65 has 6 superintendents.
The non-union non-principal administrative apparatus (ie curriculum, superintendents) costs taxpayers around $6.3m per year in salaries alone. I have a comp speadsheet I shared at one point. Thats 2x what it was in 2021.
I have written to school board members about this and recently to Dr Turner. They really do not feel accountable to constituents to justify how they are spending the money. BTW, I love how you phrased it “non-union non-principal administrative apparatus.” That’s perfect.
I will admit that it was a move in the right direction to consolidate the superintendent for elementary schools and superintendent for middle schools.
The Board behaves like this is some local government cosplay session, with no actual consequences.
Meanwhile, they have - in four years - financially destroyed K-8 public education in Evanston.
And now some of them are going to just walk away, chuckling?
When the shit hits the fan, and I think it's starting to get close .. remember how strongly they protected Horton during those four years.
This is true Tom but I’d go further. This town voted years ago to put people on the board that were very upfront about their stances/desires. This is all just a culmination of being guilted/bullied into going so far left in our schools that we are now realizing no one was considering the financial (real) cost of doing so. So yes, the board protected Horton in an insane, irrational manner. But we cannot give the broader public a free pass here. Maybe now people will wake up and stop voting for school board members based on their political ideology and stances on BLM/LGBTQ+ but instead will focus on a candidates actual skill set and desire to EDUCATE (reading/writing/math/science) our kids.
I think part of this is timely because DeKalb begins its “SAP” process tonight with its first committee meeting. To be fair, DeKalb hired consultants for 2 master plans before that. At least the last one was good (I read it), but it had no political will behind it because board members did not like what they said so it went on a shelf. There are firms that specialize in this and the cost to DeKalb was $2M. The fact that someone on the board said “maybe Northwestern can help” is incredible evidence that they are out of their depth.
Committee, consultant… it makes no difference if the elected officials don’t follow through.
Whoever runs for school board should run on implementing a forensic audit of the last 5 years as a key campaign platform issue.
Is Sarita Smith still running the SAP process over there?
If you hire a consultant to close schools you can distance yourself from the poop storm you created. Nice work, D65 Board!
They basically admitted this in the meeting - at one point someone said something like, “We don’t want the community bothering staff members about school closings”
Oh those pesky community members. First they are trying to talk to the Superintendent and now this! The audacity! Thank goodness we did away with the Superintendent residency requirement! Oh, bother!
We elect and pay millions to people that actively hate the people of Evanston and want to skirt accountability at every avenue. This is crazy!
It’s the Evanston way —because it’s what privileged living & luxury beliefs end up facilitating.
Of course Biz supports hiring a consultant. She is one.
No sense of urgency. No shame. No ability to reflect on the fact that THEY up there on the dais are the ones who got us into this mess.
I can't believe someone didn't stand up and pull a Howard Beale.
This is perhaps a good reason why the Superintendent should live here
Everyone on this blog needs to email the board to ask them to let go all the high priced and unnecessary administrators (Horton's friends) and to cancel the school to save public education in this town. If they are really serious about saving money and this district then these two things need to happen. Then we all need to email the Dept of Education per Tom's suggestion from earlier. Complain to the DoE OIG: https://oig.ed.gov/ - this is the federal agency with oversight power over D65.
I'll probably be chased out of town for expressing this but as they say "you reap what you sow". This entire situation (complete mess!) with District 65 is in large part (as seen from the 50,000 ft perspective) the fallout that comes when the viewpoints and philosophy about education, specifically, and society, generally, are driven as it seems to be in Evanston by essentially one social/political view concerning 1) what are the "right" and "good" values and ideas we should have, and 2) what are the "acceptable" ways of thinking about the various social/political/economic issues facing the city. Those who run our schools (administration, school board, etc.) don't exist in a vacuum. They come from within the community or, at least, were voted in or hired or indirectly "supported' by the community through voting for certain opinions about how life should be lived and what our priorities are or are not. Wouldn't it be great if other political viewpoints could have a real say in how this town is run. There are lots of great ideas by good and well intentioned people out there from all stripes. To some degree I have a feeling that had we Evanstonians really allowed and (truly) encouraged other broad points of view/philosophies we wouldn't be in the situation we're now facing.
Preach
Yes! This! I feel zero percent sorry for my fellow Evanstonians. I saw this happen. Zero surprise. Ideology that was flawed and didn’t make any financial sense but somehow really spoke the heart of the upper class, educate white women in particular. Honestly, it’s just like Trump just another end of the spectrum. Because based on real life, it made and makes no sense.
Amen!
So my guess is they'll do whatever short term borrowing is necessary for this school year payroll, and close/sell two of the eastern/northeastern schools on an accelerated timeline, plus keep trying to sell Bessie Rhodes - then use all that funding to pay for shortfalls on Foster School. As I recall for SAP II, they made the decisions first and then held the required community meetings after, and presumably they'll do the same here.
I think this is probably the correct timeline
Why do you think eastern/NE schools would close? Which ones might that be?
Well, there are three schools in very close proximity:
- Lincolnwood is 4 blocks west of Kingsley
- Fifth Ward School is about 4 blocks south of Kingsley
So I think it one of those will have to close and they'll probably suggest relocating the staff and all the things in the building over to the Foster school.
Everyone says that Orrington is going to close and I'm sure 4 of the Board members would love to see that, but I just don't see that happening - the parents there would sue and it would blow up busing costs even worse.
I think this makes sense if just one northern school (i.e. Haven feeder) closes. However, they probably have to close a second school. Do they close a second northern one, or a school elsewhere in the city? What a mess.
Unless they converted King Arts into a neighborhood school and reassigned Walker students there, I'm not sure where else they could logically consolidate. Upon opening Foster (if/when), I'm guessing the total projected population of the four schools up north totals well below the capacity of two of those schools. It's just funny when people make such a huge deal about having a neighborhood school and then close two of them - plus a magnet school - to add one.
"It's just funny when people make such a huge deal about having a neighborhood school and then close two of them - plus a magnet school - to add one."
Good point, but I have read in previous posts that Dr. Horton was tasked with finding a way to build/finance the Fifth Ward School. Perhaps this is why he was hired? Not clear.
Thanks for the context. Why would certain board members (which ones?) specifically want to see Orrington closed? Am not familiar with the opposition to it
They view Orrington as taking resources away from black and brown kids, since it is the most wealthy and white school in the District. I shouldn't name names, since I don't have public statements, though. Just a hunch.
Please when talking about children could we not describe them as “black, brown and wealthy white”. That’s how we got into this mess. They are children who need to be educated.
Makes sense. Thank you for the follow up answer
Geographically, closing Kingsley or Lincolnwood make sense. Willard serves a chunk of kids NW of Gross Point and Crawford that would not have a walkable option.
Kingsley’s lot is weird, though, and Lincolnwood’s land is probably super valuable. Those kids could split between Willard and Kingsley.
All that said, they don’t really make decisions based on rational reasons, so who knows what they will do.
One question, why is King never mentioned as a possible closure?
Yeah it's too bad this whole thing is going to be rushed because I think there are smart long-term plans they could've come up with that involve transitioning Kingsley into something else (like relocating Park School to a more central location). I think they waited too long to come up with a buildings plan and now just have to do whatever to not go bankrupt.
Maybe I could be the school superintendent. I can bloviate and obfuscate as well as the Dr. Turner.
Muddy the waters. The current superintendent and administration are experts in this regard.
The insincere laughter when someone brought up running for the board was disgusting and shameful.
I love a good rage rant but what if anything can be done from a community-wide point of view to denounce this bullshit? Turn up en masse to the next board meeting with protest signs? Put weird flyers in mailboxes letting folks know what is going on?
I’ve written multiple emails to the board expressing my concerns - no response.
1) Complain to the DoE OIG: https://oig.ed.gov/ - this is the federal agency with oversight power over D65. Don't bother with the ISBE, they suck and are probably working up another award for D65 right now.
2) Run for board or find people who want to run and send them to me, and I'll forward to some organizers.
3) Email schoolboard@ with your complaints and just keep it going - I think this is more effective than going to a meeting, to be honest.
I hope Angela Blaising and John Martin run again. Please. I’ll volunteer! And I bet Steve Hagerty would donate campaign funds.
Tom - when we email the OIG, do you think it’s legit to just link them to this post:
https://open.substack.com/pub/foiagras/p/is-this-securities-fraud?r=2bu9kc&utm_medium=ios
I mean, ultimately, this is the issue. The “miraculous” financing and bussing savings were all lies and need to be investigated. The timeline you lay out in this post is just spot on.
Happy to contribute $$ and organize a coffee at my house (do they still do that or am I showing my age?).
So am I! We need to organize. That’s a first step to turning this mess around.