Please do not stop this work. The fact the District wants to stymie attempts at gathering information and will go to the extent of paying attorneys to do this on their behalf underscores just how important shining the light in the dark corners is.
The way I see it there are two camps in this city: the extremist minority and their sycophants who use Trumpian tactics to silence dissenters, and the silent majority, cowering in fear of being doxxed (it has 100% happened online in Evanston social media), called racist, lambasted publicly, and intimidated. All in the name of “equity”.
It’s time for rational, sane citizens to stand up to these bullies and tell THEM to sit down. We need transparency. We need to eliminate the financial missteps the district takes- at taxpayer expense. We need to stop trying to solve all societal issues and get back to the job of public schools: to EDUCATE. We can’t even do that to any modicum of overall success; I don’t need the district veering into any aspect of my student’s life that isn’t direct associated with reading, writing, math, and science.
When we can truthfully state that we are educating to true standards every child, every day, maybe we won’t need people like you who provide such a valuable service. You present information to the public in a way that is easy to grasp and alert us to the FACTS that D65 is engaging in questionable at best, unethical/illegal at worst doings. On our dime.
There is an election coming up. It’s time to clean house on the Board of Education and right the ship and go back to a path of excellence education while maintaining fiscal solvency. Thank you again for your work.
I'm going to be honest in my comment here. Please don't unsubscribe :)
I think your comment here is part of the problem and not the solution. Telling them to "sit down" and calling them extremist minorities and sycophants is unkind and just as unkind as they've said to you.
The solution to this bitterness and resentment is to stick to the facts and try to find compromise and middle ground, even in the face of bad behavior on social media.
Some things I think are truths.
1) 95%+ of student time in the district is reading/writing/math/science and spent in traditional education. This is mandated by the state and I've seen no evidence to indicate otherwise.
2) The district spends extra resources to try to find ways to accomplish #1 for minority kids, I don't think this is defacto bad. We should spend extra resources to help our neighbors struggling.
3) Test scores are not great but not miserable either. Larry Gavin has great reporting on this over at Evanston Roundtable. "We can’t even do that to any modicum of overall success" I believe to be a false statement.
4) Social Media in Evanston/America is a toxic cesspool.
5) The District's FOIA challenges may just be part of the game. While personally frustrating, I suspect most of it is just typical "send it to the lawyers" stuff that happens anytime you interact with local government.
6) I have no evidence of anyone doing anything "illegal" - perhaps unethical things but ethics are subjective. I think we should stop accusing people of that unless we have evidence.
Everyone needs to slow down, be fearless to social media shitposting, and try as much as possible to stick to the truths.
Thanks for the reply and I’m not going to unsubscribe because I already stated your willingness to dive into numbers is important. We can agree to disagree about the bitterness, but I think your view on the perception of how things are going in the district does not align with many others’. Its not unkind to call people out for the damaging things they do. And to ignore this is to allow this to perpetuate. As far as unethical/illegal- you yourself have pointed out that there have been contracts signed after the fact, that board members may be profiting from work done in that capacity in their work lives. You have pointed out many things going on at the JEH level that are questionable. Are they ethics or legal matters? It depends on which questionable matter we are talking about and the intent/impact of them. If the district is merely passing you on to their law firm as a matter of course, why are you concerned about this? You say they are thwarting your efforts at discovery. Why? Why are citizens not able to look at everything and anything (save for personnel matters)? I feel like you are stepping back. That’s ok, I don’t blame you for any reticence- this is a toxic environment. Perhaps it was slightly hyperbolic of me to say the district doesn’t educate children successfully. That does a disservice to all the teachers I personally know who go to their jobs and kick ass daily. However, we have huge problems other similar districts don’t seem to have, and the answer lying in the lowering of standards to artificially inflate statistics is horrifying and if d202 doesn’t see the coming ahitstorm…it is zero surprise people are leaving the town and state in droves and/or going to private schools. I cannot tell you how many teachers have told me that Covid has severely impacted students and classroom learning and behavior and is so very challenging. Teachers have left the district with zero notice because their classrooms are so unmanageable. (Walker.) Yet, I have neighbors whose children attend parochial schools in Evanston who just look puzzled about all this. “I don’t understand why there are all these problems because our kids were only out of the classroom for about 8 weeks and they are doing just fine.” Telling people to kumbaya when Rome is burning downplays the severity of the issues in the district. If anything, people need to become more involved and work hard toward righting the ship. As parents, we desperately need this. As taxpayers, we demand this. I don’t want to look back in another two years and wonder how things got even worse. I see a post on LinkedIn where Horton brags that he has a select group of parents that he gives access to. How Donald Trump of him. Who gets selected to get “access”? Is this access public? What happens during this access? Enquiring minds want to know.
Again, I appreciate your work and urge you not to stop. It’s a big service. I still contend you would have been a great person to have on the BoE but I understand your reluctance to run in this environment. I hope ya paying residents pay attention to the upcoming election and vote.
Please do not stop this work. The fact the District wants to stymie attempts at gathering information and will go to the extent of paying attorneys to do this on their behalf underscores just how important shining the light in the dark corners is.
The way I see it there are two camps in this city: the extremist minority and their sycophants who use Trumpian tactics to silence dissenters, and the silent majority, cowering in fear of being doxxed (it has 100% happened online in Evanston social media), called racist, lambasted publicly, and intimidated. All in the name of “equity”.
It’s time for rational, sane citizens to stand up to these bullies and tell THEM to sit down. We need transparency. We need to eliminate the financial missteps the district takes- at taxpayer expense. We need to stop trying to solve all societal issues and get back to the job of public schools: to EDUCATE. We can’t even do that to any modicum of overall success; I don’t need the district veering into any aspect of my student’s life that isn’t direct associated with reading, writing, math, and science.
When we can truthfully state that we are educating to true standards every child, every day, maybe we won’t need people like you who provide such a valuable service. You present information to the public in a way that is easy to grasp and alert us to the FACTS that D65 is engaging in questionable at best, unethical/illegal at worst doings. On our dime.
There is an election coming up. It’s time to clean house on the Board of Education and right the ship and go back to a path of excellence education while maintaining fiscal solvency. Thank you again for your work.
I'm going to be honest in my comment here. Please don't unsubscribe :)
I think your comment here is part of the problem and not the solution. Telling them to "sit down" and calling them extremist minorities and sycophants is unkind and just as unkind as they've said to you.
The solution to this bitterness and resentment is to stick to the facts and try to find compromise and middle ground, even in the face of bad behavior on social media.
Some things I think are truths.
1) 95%+ of student time in the district is reading/writing/math/science and spent in traditional education. This is mandated by the state and I've seen no evidence to indicate otherwise.
2) The district spends extra resources to try to find ways to accomplish #1 for minority kids, I don't think this is defacto bad. We should spend extra resources to help our neighbors struggling.
3) Test scores are not great but not miserable either. Larry Gavin has great reporting on this over at Evanston Roundtable. "We can’t even do that to any modicum of overall success" I believe to be a false statement.
4) Social Media in Evanston/America is a toxic cesspool.
5) The District's FOIA challenges may just be part of the game. While personally frustrating, I suspect most of it is just typical "send it to the lawyers" stuff that happens anytime you interact with local government.
6) I have no evidence of anyone doing anything "illegal" - perhaps unethical things but ethics are subjective. I think we should stop accusing people of that unless we have evidence.
Everyone needs to slow down, be fearless to social media shitposting, and try as much as possible to stick to the truths.
Thanks for the reply and I’m not going to unsubscribe because I already stated your willingness to dive into numbers is important. We can agree to disagree about the bitterness, but I think your view on the perception of how things are going in the district does not align with many others’. Its not unkind to call people out for the damaging things they do. And to ignore this is to allow this to perpetuate. As far as unethical/illegal- you yourself have pointed out that there have been contracts signed after the fact, that board members may be profiting from work done in that capacity in their work lives. You have pointed out many things going on at the JEH level that are questionable. Are they ethics or legal matters? It depends on which questionable matter we are talking about and the intent/impact of them. If the district is merely passing you on to their law firm as a matter of course, why are you concerned about this? You say they are thwarting your efforts at discovery. Why? Why are citizens not able to look at everything and anything (save for personnel matters)? I feel like you are stepping back. That’s ok, I don’t blame you for any reticence- this is a toxic environment. Perhaps it was slightly hyperbolic of me to say the district doesn’t educate children successfully. That does a disservice to all the teachers I personally know who go to their jobs and kick ass daily. However, we have huge problems other similar districts don’t seem to have, and the answer lying in the lowering of standards to artificially inflate statistics is horrifying and if d202 doesn’t see the coming ahitstorm…it is zero surprise people are leaving the town and state in droves and/or going to private schools. I cannot tell you how many teachers have told me that Covid has severely impacted students and classroom learning and behavior and is so very challenging. Teachers have left the district with zero notice because their classrooms are so unmanageable. (Walker.) Yet, I have neighbors whose children attend parochial schools in Evanston who just look puzzled about all this. “I don’t understand why there are all these problems because our kids were only out of the classroom for about 8 weeks and they are doing just fine.” Telling people to kumbaya when Rome is burning downplays the severity of the issues in the district. If anything, people need to become more involved and work hard toward righting the ship. As parents, we desperately need this. As taxpayers, we demand this. I don’t want to look back in another two years and wonder how things got even worse. I see a post on LinkedIn where Horton brags that he has a select group of parents that he gives access to. How Donald Trump of him. Who gets selected to get “access”? Is this access public? What happens during this access? Enquiring minds want to know.
Again, I appreciate your work and urge you not to stop. It’s a big service. I still contend you would have been a great person to have on the BoE but I understand your reluctance to run in this environment. I hope ya paying residents pay attention to the upcoming election and vote.