This is so disturbing on so many levels. The architects fees are so ridiculously high relative to the budget for the school and reflects total mismanagement of the process. Find a commercial project with accountable fiduciaries where $6.5M has been spent for a $40M project that HASN’T BROKEN GROUND!
Regarding the legal fees to the attorney for the teacher, this is 100% and needs to be investigated. Her lawsuit had nothing to do with D65. She brought a lawsuit against an organization for defamation and lost. It had nothing to do with D65 and there is no way they can use taxpayer money to do this.
I'm investigating the legal fees thing. I reached out to D65 and submitted a FOIA request this morning related to this. There was a student who filed an OCR complaint with the District in 2023, so this may be related to that, I don't know. More to come.
Regarding the architects and financial advisors I do believe that the costs are getting a little out of hand but nobody is really looking at it besides me. D65 still doesn't even have a CFO.
The fact that CC is still getting work from the District is mind blowing given that they were obviously privy to the budget being blown long before Horton skipped town and never blew the whistle on the lies he was telling about the project. And yes, $6.5 million is crazy considering that there is another 2 years to go on this project.
I have a love/hate relationship with FOIA Gras. I love reading it, but I hate how my blood boils thinking about what this current BoA is doing to our district and city. I saw an old classmate on the riff list last time. We are not at an age where you want to be looking to start over in your career, but looking towards winding it down. They will land somewhere and be ok, I am sure. But I find it so aggravating that while Rome burns, architects get fat paychecks, and the admin continues so say “Let them eat cake (or gyros).” The Board spends other people’s money and it shows. Where is the edict from on high to stop any and all non-essential spending? If your latest tax bill wasn’t a wake up call, wait until the next assessment. Our district is in shambles financially. Where do you all think the shortfalls will come from? Your pockets, and at the expense of your kids. When the other schools start closing, prepare for your kids to get bussed because there is no neighborhood school. (Which is NOT a big deal. I took a school bus in this city across town and lived to tell the tale. That’s not my point.) It’s the irony of ending up needing bussing because your plan to end bussing caused more bussing. So much avoidable waste and expense, all so those ridiculous people could get their backs slapped by a conman and self-righteously believe they fixed racism in our horrible city. They’ve illegally finagled funds to build a school we didn’t need in order to “fix” something that happened 60 years ago, to help one segment of the population that isn’t even the majority of the ward anymore. Meanwhile, the fastest-growing segment in the area gets screwed because their beloved TWI school got demolished, and they can’t even have the new school in their ward house it. And at least two other schools will have to go to pay for this civil rights win, and the remaining schools will still not get the infrastructure repairs they need funding for. Teachers will be axed (maybe they can reapply at the new Devon Horton Elementary school??), student-facing potions will be eliminated, they will ask for money via a referendum (DON’T YOU DARE VOTE YES- YOU CANNOT TRUST THESE PEOPLE TO SPEND IT WISELY). I don’t want to be all doom and gloom, but despite many kids having a great year and things for most (white) students going swimmingly, the fact is this district has many, many problems. Chief among them is no matter how much money they throw at whatever butterfly flits by and distracts them, they cannot seem to properly educate the minority student population, and in fact are sending kids unprepared educationally for the rigors of high school and beyond AND who are undisciplined and causing havoc in the halls of ETHS. There needs to be a housecleaning in district 65. What is it going to take for this city to realize it?
They should name it after Lorraine Morton. There was talk about renaming Haven after her about 12 years back. That would be appropriate. If these bozos do name it after that absolute wreck of a superintendent, I will personally make it my life’s goal to never let the citizenry forget the names of the delusional people who themselves ruined the district financially for decades to come. And I will call them by name. I don’t find humor or take glee in this Board’s utter failures. It’s a real shame for the kids and a shame for the tax payers. VOTE!!!
If I were one of her family members, I wouldn’t want anything to do with this. She was a wonderful educator and her opening of school speeches during her time as Mayor were always entertaining and inspiring.
Really? Even after he conned this town with his fake numbers? Don't you think the board is angry that he left them in such a bad place? Or are they THAT delusional?
They absolutely adore the guy.. but I am half joking. I don't think they will but it's definitely something I am sure is being considered and who knows what they've promised him behind closed doors.
They love him so much they let him get away with not paying the loan they owe the District and then refused to collect the penalties he incurred for not doing so. Yes, they are THAT delusional.
I spent over 30 years in D65 and have never seen a more out-of-touch board. When the financial advisor made his presentation that basically told them they were screwed, he pointed out the huge bill due for the neglected repairs. The Board Pres. flippantly responded by saying they can just ask for a referendum for those expenses…just clueless.
They're going to have *have* to ask for a referendum for that, the dollar amount is so large. If I remember correctly, it's near $100 million dollars in repairs. It probably didn't help that the last head of facilities, was a guy who was old friends with Dr. Horton (Mr. Brunson) and didn't have any experience in facilities.
We ordered a very large catered order this past weekend for a family event. I'm helping to make it right. Great food, too. I just don't want to pay for it for other people.
That actually did make me laugh out loud. Do the receipts show what people are ordering there that is so popular? I went in there and had gyros which were .... fine. Actually liked Dengeos better. I feel like I am missing out on something.
We must merge the two districts into one. We’re too small a town to justify a relic like a school district for a high school….if we had one, admin costs could be reduced across the board, we’d be dealing with one school board, and there would be one set of goals & maybe (??) some accountability for a student from preK to 12. Yeah —there are Union/contracting issues to deal with…but there are hybrid models of consolidation that could be looked at. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get this done. Enough with the excuses.
If you're interested in helping, drop me an email: tom@foiagras.com - I'm going to write a story to pitch this and setup some advocacy infrastructure to support.
The downside is that you probably have to get the ETHS board to agree to this and I can't imagine how that would happen.
OK I did some research on this; this can be done one of two ways 1) a ballot measure or 2) both boards agree. If done via #1 it can be put on the ballot with a petition that has: 10% of the legal resident voters
Hard disagre with this. The separation has helped keep ETHS what it is. Merging would be, in my view, disastrous in terms of academic outcomes for kids.
I know for a fact that previous d65 boards have looked into this. Actually commissioned something with northwestern to explore options.
As for Tim’s comment, I guess my question is: disastrous in terms of academic outcomes for what kids exactly? As I see it, academic outcomes can’t get much worse for the most at risk kids, k-12…
I find it quite sad that the Board was patting itself on the back for cutting 12 admin positions. Equally sad is the fact that my first thought when they celebrated being able to cut more than asked for was are those numbers legit or partially pulled from the ether.
The District is possibly paying the legal fees for an employee who, IN HER PERSONAL CAPACITY, filed a lawsuit against someone with whom they had a dispute that had nothing to do with her work!?!?
The only way the District was involved is that the defendant sent a letter about Sebaggala to the School Board. The letter had nothing to do with her work at D65 and the District is not even part of the lawsuit. Sebaggala's co-plaintiff is something called "Abolition Coalition."
Is this some sort of variant of a Trump-esque defense--The Assistant Principal Immunity Doctrine?
I can do whatever I want as an Assistant Principal and the District will fund it?
The lawsuit was so frivolous to begin with--when you read the complaint, it amounts to nothing more than Sebaggla being upset that someone was commenting on her Facebook posts with stuff she didn't like (ever hear of the delete button?) and reposting things Sebaggla said in public comment at school board meetings in another district.
Looking forward to see what your FOIA on this comes up with.
Yeah, this story really caught my eye too, so I both reached out to the District this morning and submitted a FOIA request for this. I am aware (and I've written about) a different case involving a student alleging discrimination in 2023, so this could be the settlement related to that. More to come.
Presumably, this settlement payment would be for a lawsuit filed on behalf of someone against the District, where the District settled and is now paying out to the plaintiff via the attorney's trust account. I don't think there's any smoke or fire here, and the link to the District employee via the same attorney is just happenstance.
I've been thinking about this all morning and trying to wrap my head around what the implications are if this is a donation. In general, can a public body finance *any* legal cause? Like, suppose a teacher got hit by a car on the way to school and sued the car owner. Can a public body donate money to the teacher's legal cause? I think the answer is no but I don't know why...
Wasn’t there also a gofundme set up (yes, it’s the Evanston way) for this Evanston assistant principal related to the situation in a neighboring town??! Good grief. Talk about jumping the shark.
This is so disturbing on so many levels. The architects fees are so ridiculously high relative to the budget for the school and reflects total mismanagement of the process. Find a commercial project with accountable fiduciaries where $6.5M has been spent for a $40M project that HASN’T BROKEN GROUND!
Regarding the legal fees to the attorney for the teacher, this is 100% and needs to be investigated. Her lawsuit had nothing to do with D65. She brought a lawsuit against an organization for defamation and lost. It had nothing to do with D65 and there is no way they can use taxpayer money to do this.
Grecian Kitchen….sigh.
I'm investigating the legal fees thing. I reached out to D65 and submitted a FOIA request this morning related to this. There was a student who filed an OCR complaint with the District in 2023, so this may be related to that, I don't know. More to come.
Regarding the architects and financial advisors I do believe that the costs are getting a little out of hand but nobody is really looking at it besides me. D65 still doesn't even have a CFO.
The fact that CC is still getting work from the District is mind blowing given that they were obviously privy to the budget being blown long before Horton skipped town and never blew the whistle on the lies he was telling about the project. And yes, $6.5 million is crazy considering that there is another 2 years to go on this project.
I have a love/hate relationship with FOIA Gras. I love reading it, but I hate how my blood boils thinking about what this current BoA is doing to our district and city. I saw an old classmate on the riff list last time. We are not at an age where you want to be looking to start over in your career, but looking towards winding it down. They will land somewhere and be ok, I am sure. But I find it so aggravating that while Rome burns, architects get fat paychecks, and the admin continues so say “Let them eat cake (or gyros).” The Board spends other people’s money and it shows. Where is the edict from on high to stop any and all non-essential spending? If your latest tax bill wasn’t a wake up call, wait until the next assessment. Our district is in shambles financially. Where do you all think the shortfalls will come from? Your pockets, and at the expense of your kids. When the other schools start closing, prepare for your kids to get bussed because there is no neighborhood school. (Which is NOT a big deal. I took a school bus in this city across town and lived to tell the tale. That’s not my point.) It’s the irony of ending up needing bussing because your plan to end bussing caused more bussing. So much avoidable waste and expense, all so those ridiculous people could get their backs slapped by a conman and self-righteously believe they fixed racism in our horrible city. They’ve illegally finagled funds to build a school we didn’t need in order to “fix” something that happened 60 years ago, to help one segment of the population that isn’t even the majority of the ward anymore. Meanwhile, the fastest-growing segment in the area gets screwed because their beloved TWI school got demolished, and they can’t even have the new school in their ward house it. And at least two other schools will have to go to pay for this civil rights win, and the remaining schools will still not get the infrastructure repairs they need funding for. Teachers will be axed (maybe they can reapply at the new Devon Horton Elementary school??), student-facing potions will be eliminated, they will ask for money via a referendum (DON’T YOU DARE VOTE YES- YOU CANNOT TRUST THESE PEOPLE TO SPEND IT WISELY). I don’t want to be all doom and gloom, but despite many kids having a great year and things for most (white) students going swimmingly, the fact is this district has many, many problems. Chief among them is no matter how much money they throw at whatever butterfly flits by and distracts them, they cannot seem to properly educate the minority student population, and in fact are sending kids unprepared educationally for the rigors of high school and beyond AND who are undisciplined and causing havoc in the halls of ETHS. There needs to be a housecleaning in district 65. What is it going to take for this city to realize it?
They are 1000% going to name the new school after him. I've never been more confident of anything in my life.
They should name it after Lorraine Morton. There was talk about renaming Haven after her about 12 years back. That would be appropriate. If these bozos do name it after that absolute wreck of a superintendent, I will personally make it my life’s goal to never let the citizenry forget the names of the delusional people who themselves ruined the district financially for decades to come. And I will call them by name. I don’t find humor or take glee in this Board’s utter failures. It’s a real shame for the kids and a shame for the tax payers. VOTE!!!
If I were one of her family members, I wouldn’t want anything to do with this. She was a wonderful educator and her opening of school speeches during her time as Mayor were always entertaining and inspiring.
Really? Even after he conned this town with his fake numbers? Don't you think the board is angry that he left them in such a bad place? Or are they THAT delusional?
They absolutely adore the guy.. but I am half joking. I don't think they will but it's definitely something I am sure is being considered and who knows what they've promised him behind closed doors.
They love him so much they let him get away with not paying the loan they owe the District and then refused to collect the penalties he incurred for not doing so. Yes, they are THAT delusional.
I spent over 30 years in D65 and have never seen a more out-of-touch board. When the financial advisor made his presentation that basically told them they were screwed, he pointed out the huge bill due for the neglected repairs. The Board Pres. flippantly responded by saying they can just ask for a referendum for those expenses…just clueless.
They're going to have *have* to ask for a referendum for that, the dollar amount is so large. If I remember correctly, it's near $100 million dollars in repairs. It probably didn't help that the last head of facilities, was a guy who was old friends with Dr. Horton (Mr. Brunson) and didn't have any experience in facilities.
The last figure I heard was 180M and that was months ago although it might be a bit lower if they sell a couple of buildings.
Watching the meeting now; the number is 188M
That's a lot of money for a district with annual revenues of $150M
"Let them eat gyros" - *chef's kiss*
At some point I'm going to have to have a FOIA GRAS meetup at the Grecian Kitchen because my reporting cost them about $20k in orders in the last year
We ordered a very large catered order this past weekend for a family event. I'm helping to make it right. Great food, too. I just don't want to pay for it for other people.
That actually did make me laugh out loud. Do the receipts show what people are ordering there that is so popular? I went in there and had gyros which were .... fine. Actually liked Dengeos better. I feel like I am missing out on something.
Same
We must merge the two districts into one. We’re too small a town to justify a relic like a school district for a high school….if we had one, admin costs could be reduced across the board, we’d be dealing with one school board, and there would be one set of goals & maybe (??) some accountability for a student from preK to 12. Yeah —there are Union/contracting issues to deal with…but there are hybrid models of consolidation that could be looked at. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get this done. Enough with the excuses.
If you're interested in helping, drop me an email: tom@foiagras.com - I'm going to write a story to pitch this and setup some advocacy infrastructure to support.
OK fun fact, the ISBE actually will pay for Districts to do a feasibility study related to a merger:
https://www.isbe.net/Pages/School-District-Reorganization-Feasibility-Studies.aspx
The downside is that you probably have to get the ETHS board to agree to this and I can't imagine how that would happen.
OK I did some research on this; this can be done one of two ways 1) a ballot measure or 2) both boards agree. If done via #1 it can be put on the ballot with a petition that has: 10% of the legal resident voters
Yeah I completely agree with this. I wonder what it would take to actually get this on the 2025 ballot..
Hard disagre with this. The separation has helped keep ETHS what it is. Merging would be, in my view, disastrous in terms of academic outcomes for kids.
Stay tuned. More to come on this. I'm about to his publish on another story relating to this!!
I know for a fact that previous d65 boards have looked into this. Actually commissioned something with northwestern to explore options.
As for Tim’s comment, I guess my question is: disastrous in terms of academic outcomes for what kids exactly? As I see it, academic outcomes can’t get much worse for the most at risk kids, k-12…
If you read my other post you'll see why boards dont want to talk about this publicly...
See the story I just posted about 30 seconds ago!! Move conversation over there
I find it quite sad that the Board was patting itself on the back for cutting 12 admin positions. Equally sad is the fact that my first thought when they celebrated being able to cut more than asked for was are those numbers legit or partially pulled from the ether.
Woah, woah, woah--wait a minute?!?!
The District is possibly paying the legal fees for an employee who, IN HER PERSONAL CAPACITY, filed a lawsuit against someone with whom they had a dispute that had nothing to do with her work!?!?
The only way the District was involved is that the defendant sent a letter about Sebaggala to the School Board. The letter had nothing to do with her work at D65 and the District is not even part of the lawsuit. Sebaggala's co-plaintiff is something called "Abolition Coalition."
Is this some sort of variant of a Trump-esque defense--The Assistant Principal Immunity Doctrine?
I can do whatever I want as an Assistant Principal and the District will fund it?
The lawsuit was so frivolous to begin with--when you read the complaint, it amounts to nothing more than Sebaggla being upset that someone was commenting on her Facebook posts with stuff she didn't like (ever hear of the delete button?) and reposting things Sebaggla said in public comment at school board meetings in another district.
Looking forward to see what your FOIA on this comes up with.
Yeah, this story really caught my eye too, so I both reached out to the District this morning and submitted a FOIA request for this. I am aware (and I've written about) a different case involving a student alleging discrimination in 2023, so this could be the settlement related to that. More to come.
Presumably, this settlement payment would be for a lawsuit filed on behalf of someone against the District, where the District settled and is now paying out to the plaintiff via the attorney's trust account. I don't think there's any smoke or fire here, and the link to the District employee via the same attorney is just happenstance.
Thats what I would think too
I've been thinking about this all morning and trying to wrap my head around what the implications are if this is a donation. In general, can a public body finance *any* legal cause? Like, suppose a teacher got hit by a car on the way to school and sued the car owner. Can a public body donate money to the teacher's legal cause? I think the answer is no but I don't know why...
Wasn’t there also a gofundme set up (yes, it’s the Evanston way) for this Evanston assistant principal related to the situation in a neighboring town??! Good grief. Talk about jumping the shark.
Update: this is a settlement payment unrelated to the lawsuit and gofundme. It's very interesting in its own right. More to come.
Yes, she raised more than $40k in the gofundme.
Again, no idea if this is related to her case - let's see what the FOIA says...
Update: this is a settlement payment unrelated to the lawsuit and gofundme. It's very interesting in its own right. More to come.