I’ve worked on prepayment of several types of bonds including tax exempt municipals. There are always ways to prepay with costs. You’d have to approach the note holders (I am sure the district knows who holds them) and offer them something to compensate them for the lost interest. It would be messy and a shitshow just like the district! …
I’ve worked on prepayment of several types of bonds including tax exempt municipals. There are always ways to prepay with costs. You’d have to approach the note holders (I am sure the district knows who holds them) and offer them something to compensate them for the lost interest. It would be messy and a shitshow just like the district! I think the District should be sued for doing this without a referendum. They clearly have been flaunting that they avoided one (hey Sergio - looking at you) as well as last night’s proclamation that the building of the school is “educational reparations” - again, illegal. The board views themselves as decision makers - not the voters and taxpayers - and they are willing to go as far as to use taxpayer money to redistribute educational opportunities based on race. Now one can be for that and that’s fine but it’s not lawful and should then be a private school. It’s also a slippery slope. Reparations for this school - what’s next? Last - there are studies that show busing has zero impact on academic success. It’s a weak argument for blowing up a school district budget.
Sergio was talking about affordable housing in the last campaign for crying out loud. So who knows what hare brained schemes he would be up for?
I appreciate your last point about bussing and the lack of impact on student outcomes. I’ve made the argument in other threads that theoretically the District should be able to show data on the academic performance of bussed students vs non bussed students. Is there a difference in performance when you control for demographic variables, free lunch eligibility, etc….?
Likely not if results from studies done in other states holds for Evanston. There are actually lots of studies that show bus travel helps with things like absenteeism.
At the very least we need the board to set some performance goals to evaluate the effectiveness of the decision.
There's an old quote about Donald Trump, "take him seriously but not literally" - that's how I interpret 2-3 of the current board members. Sergio said a lot of stuff at the beginning of the last meeting that was probably bullshit - he was on a hunger strike as a kid to fight against Daley and get a high school? Please. The "educational reparations" line was delivered in such a way that he was testing how the audience responded.
Sergio clearly has his eyes on higher office and is just saying things to see what lands. If you watch him, he's carefully surveying how the crowd responds to what he says. Also, two weeks ago, he had a plant in the audience (sitting next to me) who was taking notes for him on how people responded to what he said.
He's a savvy politician, you can't deny him that. He won the last election even though he is responsible for the whole mess!
I don't think we're used to this style of politician in Evanston but it's the era we live in.
"Not the sharpest knife if the drawer" was how someone who knows him well described him (!!!). A career with the ISBE - wow, such a great background for a political career. YAWN!
Interesting. I wonder if we will see a trickle of resignations after the dust settles. They certainly won’t take responsibility for the finances, but it seems like the normal way these people leave is to quit mid-term so the board can nominate a replacement. We haven’t had a resignation in a year (is that a record?) so we’re due for a couple in the next six months. Maybe Joey or Biz or Soo?
Nah, I think Joey, Biz, and Soo are all in. Donna seems like she's had enough and I think has a lot of professional commitments. I hope she doesn't resign though, because she's kind of been a voice of reason on the board. I think Mya and Omar are improvements over the previous board members 1000% though.
We are in a much better situation than this time in 2022, when Anya and Weatherspoon (personal friends of Horton) were on the Board.
Academic performance. Showing up to school on time. None of this matters to the board, it’s only the “perception” that matters. If we were truly talking about academic performance why would a new school even be on the agenda? Smoke and mirrors.
I’ve worked on prepayment of several types of bonds including tax exempt municipals. There are always ways to prepay with costs. You’d have to approach the note holders (I am sure the district knows who holds them) and offer them something to compensate them for the lost interest. It would be messy and a shitshow just like the district! I think the District should be sued for doing this without a referendum. They clearly have been flaunting that they avoided one (hey Sergio - looking at you) as well as last night’s proclamation that the building of the school is “educational reparations” - again, illegal. The board views themselves as decision makers - not the voters and taxpayers - and they are willing to go as far as to use taxpayer money to redistribute educational opportunities based on race. Now one can be for that and that’s fine but it’s not lawful and should then be a private school. It’s also a slippery slope. Reparations for this school - what’s next? Last - there are studies that show busing has zero impact on academic success. It’s a weak argument for blowing up a school district budget.
Sergio was talking about affordable housing in the last campaign for crying out loud. So who knows what hare brained schemes he would be up for?
I appreciate your last point about bussing and the lack of impact on student outcomes. I’ve made the argument in other threads that theoretically the District should be able to show data on the academic performance of bussed students vs non bussed students. Is there a difference in performance when you control for demographic variables, free lunch eligibility, etc….?
Likely not if results from studies done in other states holds for Evanston. There are actually lots of studies that show bus travel helps with things like absenteeism.
At the very least we need the board to set some performance goals to evaluate the effectiveness of the decision.
There's an old quote about Donald Trump, "take him seriously but not literally" - that's how I interpret 2-3 of the current board members. Sergio said a lot of stuff at the beginning of the last meeting that was probably bullshit - he was on a hunger strike as a kid to fight against Daley and get a high school? Please. The "educational reparations" line was delivered in such a way that he was testing how the audience responded.
Sergio clearly has his eyes on higher office and is just saying things to see what lands. If you watch him, he's carefully surveying how the crowd responds to what he says. Also, two weeks ago, he had a plant in the audience (sitting next to me) who was taking notes for him on how people responded to what he said.
He's a savvy politician, you can't deny him that. He won the last election even though he is responsible for the whole mess!
I don't think we're used to this style of politician in Evanston but it's the era we live in.
"Not the sharpest knife if the drawer" was how someone who knows him well described him (!!!). A career with the ISBE - wow, such a great background for a political career. YAWN!
Interesting. I wonder if we will see a trickle of resignations after the dust settles. They certainly won’t take responsibility for the finances, but it seems like the normal way these people leave is to quit mid-term so the board can nominate a replacement. We haven’t had a resignation in a year (is that a record?) so we’re due for a couple in the next six months. Maybe Joey or Biz or Soo?
Nah, I think Joey, Biz, and Soo are all in. Donna seems like she's had enough and I think has a lot of professional commitments. I hope she doesn't resign though, because she's kind of been a voice of reason on the board. I think Mya and Omar are improvements over the previous board members 1000% though.
We are in a much better situation than this time in 2022, when Anya and Weatherspoon (personal friends of Horton) were on the Board.
Academic performance. Showing up to school on time. None of this matters to the board, it’s only the “perception” that matters. If we were truly talking about academic performance why would a new school even be on the agenda? Smoke and mirrors.