All good comments below on the difference in fund raising between D65 and ETHS. In what little work I have been a part for large fund raising, its much easier to get a large donor to support a specific project. In this case an upgraded auditorium/arts and innovation wing. I think D65 should do some of this, but to do it they would have to establish a project to fund, and inevitably this will lead to "why does this school get a $7M capital improvement, and not mine?" Still, its should be something that we consider how to do. This could be a part of the future of Foundation 65 or PTA Equity Project.
The opportunity missed during the stadium negotiations is absolutely bonkers. The fact that D65 was nowhere to be seen at that time and the City didn't bother to even throw them a bone in negotiations sucks. I understand it's different government bodies and this is ultimately on the D65 Board and Superintendent for not getting involved but Jesus, what a missed opportunity. This is something I'm going to bring up with candidates.
What frustrates me the most is that I had personal conversations with mulitple council members discussing specifically getting benefits for the school district and the mayor hid all the negotations behind the scenes and prevented any unified conversations and the schools completely lost out. It's a huge loss for tax payers and our kids/students.
We recently visited the Newport Mansions during the holidays which got me to watch The Gilded Age on HBO and take some books out from the library on it. I can’t stop pondering the complexities of how awful capitalism was in that era, but the rich folks’ charitable contributions from that era are still part of important community infrastructure & buildings today and where we would be without them. I am even more fascinated by today’s equivalent of the robber barons (Bezos, Musk) and how little they contribute to society compared to their historical counterparts. Good for those who give back at least.
Tracy I wanted to thank you again for this comment. Sam Harris today wrote a piece calling on the family that owns all the almond fields in California to step up and help rebuild LA:
It got me thinking about your comment and the relationship/obligations of wealthy people who have obtained their wealth through ethically dubious but completely legal avenues. I'm coming around ...
Most communities focus their "school spirit" on high school athletics and other departmenrs that being recognition to their school/community.....a great incentive for fund-raising and pride!
Consolidate D65 and D202 and strengthen fundamental reading/math to create improved student performance entering the 9th grade and students will take advantage of positive programs and enrichment. Ths is why the "ETHS Booster Club"and Alumni make financial commitments to the success of the high school and support the staff!!!
The entire community supports ETHS, and it has always been well run by a competent board.
The same has rarely been true for D65. I think there are several reasons, including:
- The large number of schools creates a competition for resources.
- Parents are (understandably) more emotional about how their little kids are educated.
- The D65 Board, having to deal with competing interests, is a less pleasant place to serve.
- Elementary education may be more difficult.
- The difference is self-sustaining over time. People see that ETHS largely works, and want to be associated with it. It’s less clear that many D65 programs have worked (and they’ve abolished or reduced some of the programs that did).
D65 never fundraised. They didn't even try They never have a plan in place for anything. They have proven to be horrid at financial decisions and money management. Don't blame ETHS because they have strategic planning and solid money management.
I have a lot to say about PEP and Foundation65. Neither are really crushing it with donations but the private donor model to a K-8 school is very different than a high school, which has a lot more affinity-type things like football teams and arts and such. D65 did have a pretty decent fundraising operation (in aggregate) when the individual PTAs existed but that era is over. I will still argue that the PEP approach is pretty inefficient and they should've kept individual PTAs but implemented something like a luxury tax to subsidize the less wealthy PTAs. Instead they just smashed the whole thing and broke all the incentives because they didn't want the wealthier PTAs to claim any wins.
It's funny - I totally get that desire, in a way that's kind of what I was trying to hit with this post. There's definitely an element of class resentment between the wealthy and everyone else right now. As a not rich person who can't afford a house in Evanston, I completely understand the desire to say "take your money and shove it" ... but I guess we can see what that did for PEP. Maybe the PEP founders felt better about themselves (they sure seemed like it in the NPR interview), but it created a net poorer district for all kids.
Maybe this can lead to a conversation about the tradeoffs between taking the money and not shooting ourselves in the foot?
I also think part of the disgust comes from watching Northwestern's fundraising apparatus, which to observers seems totally feckless. They'd name a building after Hitler if he gave enough money.
As with most of the equity efforts that fail, the people who suffer the most are the kids.
If we could go back to individual PTA models with a 60/40 or 70/30 model to go towards the struggling schools, everyone would benefit. Plus, we would see a sense of community building back in our schools again like pre-Covid days.
Do you have a link to their NPR interview by chance? I haven't heard it. Thanks.
ETHS has worked hard to secure private donations to fund programs for which there is not enough public funding. The improvements to ETHS benefit the D65 kids since it is their public high school. D65 is welcome to secure private donations-it does not appear that they ever have tried. I think consolidation of the districts is a terrible idea. Consolation of the districts would make ETHS responsible for the egregious money management and debts of D65.
Come on - no millionaire wants to donate money to their middle school. I'm sorry, but when it comes to private donations D65 is at a major structural disadvantage. Rich people love donating to big arts programs, football teams, etc. I can't think of very many super rich alum that want a middle school gym named after them. It's great that they've built a private donations program and sustained it but it's at the cost of the K-8 students in the District. That money should benefit all kids, not just the high schoolers.
It does benefit all kids. It just doesn’t benefit them until 9th grade. I don’t have an issue with this. It’s so whiny. The guy wanted to donate to that particular thing. That should be ok. It’s his money, not public money. He isn’t going all PEP with his donation. People who give money to specific causes shouldn’t be castigated. We don’t bitch about the breast cancer donations and insist that lung cancer get a share of the money a pink ribbon fun run raised…
Sorry to hijack the thread, but I just received an e-mail blast from a middle school assistant principal with the following text:
“School Board Candidate Forum: Today, I had the opportunity to attend the D65 school board candidate forum at Evanston Township High School. There are 17 candidates running for the school board, and I had the chance to hear from 12 of them. One quote that stood out was from a candidate who quoted Barack Obama: “We are the change that we have been waiting on.” As we discussed with our students back in November, it’s important to be responsible citizens and understand the role of elections in shaping our community.
I’d also like to share that one of our very own 6th grade parents, Daniel Lyonsmith, is running for the school board! It’s exciting to see our community members stepping up to be part of the change. I encourage you to take some time to learn more about the candidates and their platforms, as there will be an important election in April to elect four new members to the school board.
Get Informed Before the Election: For those of you looking to learn more about the candidates, please visit Kuumba Evanston’s website after January 31st. There, you will find responses to questions that the community has asked the potential school board members. This will be a great resource to help you make an informed decision when voting in April.”
This seems utterly inappropriate for a school administrator to use school resources to a) talk about the election, b) mention ONE candidate and exclude the others, c) offer a link to some private advocacy group to “learn more about the candidates.”
It seems to me that it may even be illegal—or at least against the school board’s ethics code. Electioneering using school district resources was
an issue a few years ago when Candance Chow was running for state rep.
Why are they pushing this Kumba group and not, say, Foiagras?
It just seems out of line for a district employee to be even be talking about the election.
I know the organizers of the event and was at the event. I will absolutely be sharing some of the stuff that Kuumba is going to post. I'm a big fan of the organizers, this was probably the most well run forum I've been to in a while.
Yeah, staff definitely should not send emails like this. I wrote about something like this that happened in Skokie, where a staff member promoted a specific slate of candidates:
Ultimately, it is technically "election interference" which makes me feel nuts to say but the recourse for staff is mostly administrative because this is small fry to the state. This AP should get a warning from HR not to do it, for sure, though. If you got this email, you should forward to D65 Admin and suggest as much. They might want to blanket warn their staff not to do this with District resources!
I'm going to email the board and admin about this because they really should warn staff not to do this. This one is pretty innocuous but if they end up promoting various forums, it gets problematic and god knows D65 spend too much on lawyers as it is. Niles HS had to spend a ton of money and ended up doing a lengthy investigation of the issue.
I agree that it is innocuous, but when you announce the candidacy of someone and then say "It’s exciting to see our community members stepping up to be part of the change": that's about as close to an "endorsement without endorsing" as you can get.
Yeah just to be clear I only think it’s innocuous because all the candidates were there. If that wasn’t the case, the excluded one could have a case this was biased against them
I emailed the District about this and they sent out an email to staff with some guidelines. I bet if you were to ask the lawyers, they would tell you to remove Dan's name for sure but otherwise it's okay.
Wait, Ms. Brunson... Is she related to Tierre Brunson, the former D65 Chief of Culture and an old Horton friend?
ETHS can thank the foundation for the Literacy Lab and the Health Sciences lab which allows students to leave high school as a certified nurse assistant. Fine Arts is not only an extra curricular but an academic program.
All good comments below on the difference in fund raising between D65 and ETHS. In what little work I have been a part for large fund raising, its much easier to get a large donor to support a specific project. In this case an upgraded auditorium/arts and innovation wing. I think D65 should do some of this, but to do it they would have to establish a project to fund, and inevitably this will lead to "why does this school get a $7M capital improvement, and not mine?" Still, its should be something that we consider how to do. This could be a part of the future of Foundation 65 or PTA Equity Project.
Should've done this with Foster School and beat up Northwestern until they donated!!
Northwestern missed a big chance to have Foster painted purple, like the fire truck it donated.
Let's remember, this is on Mayor Biss for completely dropping the ball at the negotiating table. He has let us down in so many ways.
The opportunity missed during the stadium negotiations is absolutely bonkers. The fact that D65 was nowhere to be seen at that time and the City didn't bother to even throw them a bone in negotiations sucks. I understand it's different government bodies and this is ultimately on the D65 Board and Superintendent for not getting involved but Jesus, what a missed opportunity. This is something I'm going to bring up with candidates.
What frustrates me the most is that I had personal conversations with mulitple council members discussing specifically getting benefits for the school district and the mayor hid all the negotations behind the scenes and prevented any unified conversations and the schools completely lost out. It's a huge loss for tax payers and our kids/students.
Is this your real name? would you be willing to go on the record with this!? if so tom@foiagras.com !!
What school do the children of Mayor Biss attend? Are they in a District 65 school? (Linda Steiner).
We recently visited the Newport Mansions during the holidays which got me to watch The Gilded Age on HBO and take some books out from the library on it. I can’t stop pondering the complexities of how awful capitalism was in that era, but the rich folks’ charitable contributions from that era are still part of important community infrastructure & buildings today and where we would be without them. I am even more fascinated by today’s equivalent of the robber barons (Bezos, Musk) and how little they contribute to society compared to their historical counterparts. Good for those who give back at least.
This is a very good point
Billionaires (and those close to it) benefit mightily from donating -- read here for more. This is why tax rates matter read more here: https://ips-dc.org/the-true-cost-of-billionaire-philanthropy-how-the-taxpayer-subsidizes-stockpiled-wealth/#:~:text=For%20every%20dollar%20a%20billionaire,gains%2C%20estate%20and%20gift%20taxes.
Tracy I wanted to thank you again for this comment. Sam Harris today wrote a piece calling on the family that owns all the almond fields in California to step up and help rebuild LA:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-154700828
It got me thinking about your comment and the relationship/obligations of wealthy people who have obtained their wealth through ethically dubious but completely legal avenues. I'm coming around ...
The last line says everything about how the educational hierarchy works in Evanston.
Most communities focus their "school spirit" on high school athletics and other departmenrs that being recognition to their school/community.....a great incentive for fund-raising and pride!
Consolidate D65 and D202 and strengthen fundamental reading/math to create improved student performance entering the 9th grade and students will take advantage of positive programs and enrichment. Ths is why the "ETHS Booster Club"and Alumni make financial commitments to the success of the high school and support the staff!!!
Somehow the album cover of Nirvana's "Nevermind" comes to mind here.
Thoughts about your footnote:
The entire community supports ETHS, and it has always been well run by a competent board.
The same has rarely been true for D65. I think there are several reasons, including:
- The large number of schools creates a competition for resources.
- Parents are (understandably) more emotional about how their little kids are educated.
- The D65 Board, having to deal with competing interests, is a less pleasant place to serve.
- Elementary education may be more difficult.
- The difference is self-sustaining over time. People see that ETHS largely works, and want to be associated with it. It’s less clear that many D65 programs have worked (and they’ve abolished or reduced some of the programs that did).
That is an incredibly unkind and unfair statement
It is VERY unfair!
Fair. I will delete
D65 never fundraised. They didn't even try They never have a plan in place for anything. They have proven to be horrid at financial decisions and money management. Don't blame ETHS because they have strategic planning and solid money management.
And PEP is actually raising less money for D65 than previous fundraising efforts.
I have a lot to say about PEP and Foundation65. Neither are really crushing it with donations but the private donor model to a K-8 school is very different than a high school, which has a lot more affinity-type things like football teams and arts and such. D65 did have a pretty decent fundraising operation (in aggregate) when the individual PTAs existed but that era is over. I will still argue that the PEP approach is pretty inefficient and they should've kept individual PTAs but implemented something like a luxury tax to subsidize the less wealthy PTAs. Instead they just smashed the whole thing and broke all the incentives because they didn't want the wealthier PTAs to claim any wins.
I completely agree.
It's funny - I totally get that desire, in a way that's kind of what I was trying to hit with this post. There's definitely an element of class resentment between the wealthy and everyone else right now. As a not rich person who can't afford a house in Evanston, I completely understand the desire to say "take your money and shove it" ... but I guess we can see what that did for PEP. Maybe the PEP founders felt better about themselves (they sure seemed like it in the NPR interview), but it created a net poorer district for all kids.
Maybe this can lead to a conversation about the tradeoffs between taking the money and not shooting ourselves in the foot?
I also think part of the disgust comes from watching Northwestern's fundraising apparatus, which to observers seems totally feckless. They'd name a building after Hitler if he gave enough money.
As with most of the equity efforts that fail, the people who suffer the most are the kids.
If we could go back to individual PTA models with a 60/40 or 70/30 model to go towards the struggling schools, everyone would benefit. Plus, we would see a sense of community building back in our schools again like pre-Covid days.
Do you have a link to their NPR interview by chance? I haven't heard it. Thanks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TgRJLA3ZtM
ETHS has worked hard to secure private donations to fund programs for which there is not enough public funding. The improvements to ETHS benefit the D65 kids since it is their public high school. D65 is welcome to secure private donations-it does not appear that they ever have tried. I think consolidation of the districts is a terrible idea. Consolation of the districts would make ETHS responsible for the egregious money management and debts of D65.
Come on - no millionaire wants to donate money to their middle school. I'm sorry, but when it comes to private donations D65 is at a major structural disadvantage. Rich people love donating to big arts programs, football teams, etc. I can't think of very many super rich alum that want a middle school gym named after them. It's great that they've built a private donations program and sustained it but it's at the cost of the K-8 students in the District. That money should benefit all kids, not just the high schoolers.
It does benefit all kids. It just doesn’t benefit them until 9th grade. I don’t have an issue with this. It’s so whiny. The guy wanted to donate to that particular thing. That should be ok. It’s his money, not public money. He isn’t going all PEP with his donation. People who give money to specific causes shouldn’t be castigated. We don’t bitch about the breast cancer donations and insist that lung cancer get a share of the money a pink ribbon fun run raised…
I get the sentiment of D65 made their own bed, why should D202 bail them out?
On the other hand the 2 districts in the end serve the same community, same taxpayers ...
children who have awful middle school experiences are not saved at or by ETHS by any means
Sorry to hijack the thread, but I just received an e-mail blast from a middle school assistant principal with the following text:
“School Board Candidate Forum: Today, I had the opportunity to attend the D65 school board candidate forum at Evanston Township High School. There are 17 candidates running for the school board, and I had the chance to hear from 12 of them. One quote that stood out was from a candidate who quoted Barack Obama: “We are the change that we have been waiting on.” As we discussed with our students back in November, it’s important to be responsible citizens and understand the role of elections in shaping our community.
I’d also like to share that one of our very own 6th grade parents, Daniel Lyonsmith, is running for the school board! It’s exciting to see our community members stepping up to be part of the change. I encourage you to take some time to learn more about the candidates and their platforms, as there will be an important election in April to elect four new members to the school board.
Get Informed Before the Election: For those of you looking to learn more about the candidates, please visit Kuumba Evanston’s website after January 31st. There, you will find responses to questions that the community has asked the potential school board members. This will be a great resource to help you make an informed decision when voting in April.”
This seems utterly inappropriate for a school administrator to use school resources to a) talk about the election, b) mention ONE candidate and exclude the others, c) offer a link to some private advocacy group to “learn more about the candidates.”
It seems to me that it may even be illegal—or at least against the school board’s ethics code. Electioneering using school district resources was
an issue a few years ago when Candance Chow was running for state rep.
Why are they pushing this Kumba group and not, say, Foiagras?
It just seems out of line for a district employee to be even be talking about the election.
Anyone else see this or similar stuff?
I know the organizers of the event and was at the event. I will absolutely be sharing some of the stuff that Kuumba is going to post. I'm a big fan of the organizers, this was probably the most well run forum I've been to in a while.
Yeah, staff definitely should not send emails like this. I wrote about something like this that happened in Skokie, where a staff member promoted a specific slate of candidates:
https://www.foiagras.com/p/niles-township-high-school-election
Ultimately, it is technically "election interference" which makes me feel nuts to say but the recourse for staff is mostly administrative because this is small fry to the state. This AP should get a warning from HR not to do it, for sure, though. If you got this email, you should forward to D65 Admin and suggest as much. They might want to blanket warn their staff not to do this with District resources!
I got that email as well. It is wildly out of line for the administration to use district resources in this way.
I would think that Dan Lyonsmith would be upset that he was name-checked by a Horton confidant.
He is on my list of preferred candidates, but if the old regime is pushing him.....
I'm going to email the board and admin about this because they really should warn staff not to do this. This one is pretty innocuous but if they end up promoting various forums, it gets problematic and god knows D65 spend too much on lawyers as it is. Niles HS had to spend a ton of money and ended up doing a lengthy investigation of the issue.
She also posted it online: https://secure.smore.com/n/gxd73k-the-sixth-scoop
I agree that it is innocuous, but when you announce the candidacy of someone and then say "It’s exciting to see our community members stepping up to be part of the change": that's about as close to an "endorsement without endorsing" as you can get.
Yeah just to be clear I only think it’s innocuous because all the candidates were there. If that wasn’t the case, the excluded one could have a case this was biased against them
You were ok with her mentioning one candidate in her email? That seems worse to me than promoting the Kumba website.
Do you know if Kumba is going to endorse candidates? I have never heard of them, but she is telling people to check their website.
We have had private groups like this hold forums and then offer endorsements, like OPAL.
If this Kumba group is endorsing candidates, that would make it 100% non-innocuous.
Interestingly, she removed Dan's name from her post after Theo shared the above link here.
In the revision she removes Dan's name but left the link to Kuumba, however.
You can see the original here to compare: https://web.archive.org/web/20250113200304/https://secure.smore.com/n/gxd73k-the-sixth-scoop
I emailed the District about this and they sent out an email to staff with some guidelines. I bet if you were to ask the lawyers, they would tell you to remove Dan's name for sure but otherwise it's okay.
Wait, Ms. Brunson... Is she related to Tierre Brunson, the former D65 Chief of Culture and an old Horton friend?
One addendum. This person who sent this has had an interesting career trajectory: Academy of Urban School Leadership -CPS-Louisville-Evanston.
Hmm….
ETHS can thank the foundation for the Literacy Lab and the Health Sciences lab which allows students to leave high school as a certified nurse assistant. Fine Arts is not only an extra curricular but an academic program.