[5/18/26] D65 - REGULAR BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING

001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Good evening everyone. I'm going to bring this meeting to order at 6:01. Can we have the roll call? Weimer Here. Wilkens Here. Pinkerton Here. Hernandez [clears throat] Here. Oppedijk Here. Van Nieuwenhuizen Here. Anderson Here. Approval of the meeting agenda. I move the Board of Education approve today's meeting agenda as presented. Second. Weimer Yes. Wilkens >> Yes. Pinkerton Yes. Hernandez >> Yes. Oppedijk Yes. Van Nieuwenhuizen Yes. Anderson Yes. Uh next we have superintendent comments. This evening, I would like to congratulate the entire Dawes school community on being invited to apply for the >> [applause] >> for the 2026 Governor's Blue Ribbon School designation. Out of nearly 4,000 schools across Illinois, Dawes was selected as one of just 50 schools invited to apply for this recognition. A couple A couple of weeks ago,

002I was able to visit Dawes to con- congratulate their staff in person. This is a truly dedicated group led by Principal Teresa Quinn. They bring their heart to work every day and care deeply about their students in growing in the classroom and feeling safe and supported in their school community. I am so proud of our students for their hard work, our incredible educators and staff who go the extra mile, and to our Dawes families for their continued partnership. Join me in congratulating them again on this awesome honor. >> [applause] [applause] >> So, Teresa Tere- Teresa's not here. That's Erica Brunson from the top. It looks like Teresa. Okay. All right. I also want to thank the school leaders, educators, and support staff who have helped welcome students transitioning to new schools next year. Hundreds of

003students recently participated in school visits all across um the district designed to help them feel comfortable and connected to their new school communities. These visits happened during the school day, so all kids had the opportunity to participate. They were able to meet teachers and peers, tour the building, and get to know their new school community a bit better. I especially want to give a shout-out to our fifth grade ambassadors and student leaders who showed such kindness and leadership in helping students feel welcome during these visits. While change hasn't been easy, it was really special to see students helping other students feel included and building excitement for what's to come. This was a great example of the J-factor and the kind of community we want our schools to be. So, thank you and thank you again,

004fifth grade ambassadors and student leaders. >> [applause] >> That concludes my comments. Thank you, Dr. Turner, and congratulations to all. Daws, we're rooting for you. Um we're going to move on to public comments. >> [clears throat] >> Members of the public are welcome and invited to address the board during open public meetings. Speakers are discouraged from using the public comment period to air specific concerns about staff members, being mindful that the public comment period is not a suitable forum for fact-finding or resolution of disputes. Rather, we encourage members of the public who have concerns about specific district employees to follow district communication guidelines found in the student handbook. Please remember to state your name and that you have 2 minutes to address the board. Speakers may not yield their time to someone else. Please refrain

005from applause between speakers so we may respectfully allow all speakers the opportunity to be heard. Also, note that it is not customary for the board to respond to public comments. The best way to correspond with members of the board is by emailing [email protected]. Okay, I'll start off by calling a few names. Kelly Post, Natalie Copper, Chris Lading, Nicole Fishman, Stacy Earnhardt, Jess Plaza, Rebecca Callaway, Chris Robinson, Chloe Battle. Good evening. My name is Kelly Post and I am the president of Deck. As the school year comes to a close, I would like to take a moment to highlight a few important things. Throughout this turbulent school year, our educators maintained calm, consistent classrooms where learning continued to take place for our children each and every day. This year we implemented a new track movement procedure

006for educators moving on the salary schedule. This process was lengthy and required many additional meetings and board approvals. Deck would like to thank the HR team for partnering with us throughout this work. We are already seeing the system become more seamless. Thank you to the members of the board who met with educators and continued to ask questions to better understand what is happening in our schools and teaching spaces. We hope to continue strengthening these relationships. We also want to thank you for reconsidering the elimination of our middle school librarians and for reinstating the majority of our school counselors. Those decisions matter deeply to our students, staff, and school communities. Next week, our retiring educators will be celebrated. Together, they represent more than 300 combined years of service. District 65 used to be a place where

007educators spent their entire careers dedicating themselves to generations of students and families in this community. We know there will continue to be changes within our schools and across the district, but we hope District 65 remains a place where educators choose to put down roots, build their careers, and stay. Our future and and of our children depend on it. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Good evening, Nicole Fishman, principal at Nichols Middle School. We write collectively as Evanston-Skokie School District 65 leaders with deep care for students we serve, appreciation for our staff members, and the work happening in our schools each day, and concern regarding the ongoing impact of instability and indecision at the governance level. First, we want to publicly acknowledge and express appreciation for Superintendent Dr. Angel Turner and the members of the district office

008team at JAH. Throughout an extraordinarily difficult period marked by shifting expectations, delayed decisions, and changing direction, they have continued to lead and support and communicate with school administrators in an effort to maintain stability for students and staff. Dr. Turner stepped into this role as interim superintendent with a goal to create clear systems, structures, and processes. At the onset of her superintendency, she prioritized building a strong team to support the ongoing success of the district. Under her leadership, the new financial services team that she built worked diligently to uncover the financial state of the district and the Foster School construction project. Despite inheriting and uncovering impossible realities for any leader to face, Dr. Turner made the choice to remain steadfast in her commitment to improving the outcomes of the district, knowing the impact on every student's

009future if things do not change. Throughout her tenure, she has consistently prioritized our students, staff, and community. Dr. Turner is surrounded by experienced, highly qualified, and committed leaders, many of whom are lifelong educators, who help guide the work of this district and make important decisions. They do so with a student-centered approach, relying on data, research, and evidence-based practices. We want to recognize them all for their expertise, dedication, and leadership. We also want to publicly acknowledge and uplift the leadership of the principals and assistant principals at Kingsley and Bessie Rhodes. These leaders have continued to show up each day for students, families, and staff while navigating immense uncertainty, repeated changes in direction, and emotional strain. They have remained steady and resilient despite navigating a process that has frequently changed course and prolonged uncertainty for their communities.

010Their professionalism, compassion, and commitment to students deserve recognition and gratitude. Thank you, David, Charlise, Tiffany, and Sarah. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Hello, my name is Chris Leding and I'm the principal at Haven Middle School. As administrators in Evanston/Skokie District 65, we recognize that ongoing uncertainty and changes in governance have a have had a growing impact across the district. The fatigue at the principal and administrative level is palpable. School leaders are being asked to lead through continual uncertainty while simultaneously ensuring strong instructional systems, safe and supportive learning environments, staffing continuity, family communication, operational management, as well as student achievement outcomes. This is our profession. And it's our call. We are proud to come to service and support students and staff who need our support. But when expectations repeatedly shift the major and major district decisions

011remain unresolved, it creates ripple effects throughout every level of our organization. Research consistently demonstrates that principal stability matters deeply for schools and students. Studies from organizations including the Wallace Foundation and Learning Policy Institute have found that principal turnover negatively impacts teacher retention, school culture, and student achievement outcomes, particularly in schools already navigating significant challenges. Leadership instability disrupts improvement efforts, erodes organizational trust, and adds strain on both staff and students. As school leaders, we remain committed to being student-centered, solutions-oriented, and collaborative in our work. As we close this school year, however, we believe that there's an urgent need for reflection and recalibration at the governance level to ensure that next year does not mirror the instability and uncertainty that characterized much of this one. Our district is in a very difficult situation where hard decisions have

012to be made. We know that as We know that as the board, you all have to make the hard decisions. The operational and emotional impact of prolonged indecision has been significant across our schools and departments. While disagreement is natural while disagreement is a natural and healthy part of governance, extended delays, shifting direction, and repeated revisiting of previously communicated decisions have created challenges that ripple throughout the organization. >> [applause] >> Dr. Christopher Robinson, principal at Oakton. So, what is our ask? This summer presents an important opportunity for the board to intentionally reset and move forward differently to prevent next school year from looking like this year through the following actions. Number one, review and recommit to the board agreements, honoring the leadership and guidance of the district administration. Number two, stay centered in humanity. Communicate and

013engage in a manner that conveys mutual respect and regard, even when we don't agree on the challenges and solutions. And what does mutual respect mean in the board agreements? The superintendent and staff will treat the board members with respect. The board members will treat each other and the staff with respect. And the board members will treat the superintendent and administration with respect. The third ask is to deepen the board's collective understanding of all the essential information to guide us through these difficult and timely decisions, including but not limited to the financial realities, deadlines, community feedback, and equity considerations presented through the SDRP process. And our fourth ask, be open to considering and remain curious about the information being shared by administrators who have dedicated their entire life to the field of education. Our schools function

014best when leadership at every level is aligned around a shared direction, vision, and are able to make decisions efficiently and transparently. Students, staff, educators, families deserve stability. They deserve leaders who can focus their energy on instruction, relationships, student success, rather than holding together systems and supporting the emotional needs of our school communities during this prolonged period of uncertainty and organizational direction. As District 65 leaders, we remain deeply committed to this district and to the well-being success of every student and family we serve. We hope the coming months provide an opportunity for renewed focus, strengthened governance practices, and a collective commitment to entering the next school year with greater unity, clarity, and purpose. >> [applause] >> Good evening. My name is Chloe Battle, and I'm the principal of Willard Elementary. Um as a collec- collective commitment,

015we sign this yours in education. And Rus- Russian, sorry, and uh principal at Shoot Middle School, Ebony Dickson, assistant principal at Shoot Middle School, Charlise Burchell, principal Bessie Rhodes, Teresa Quinn, principal at Dawes Elementary. Ann Marie Newsom, principal at Dewey Elementary. Susana Yepes, assistant principal of Dewey Elementary. Rebecca Calloway, principal of King Arts. Erica Brunson, assistant principal of King Arts. Chris Latting, principal of Haven Middle School. Thomas Smith, assistant principal of Haven Middle School. Nerissa Parham, director of early childhood programs. Jessica Block, assistant director of operations J.H. Early Childhood. David Davis, principal Kingsley Elementary. Tiffany Chapman, assistant principal Kingsley Elementary. Alexis Waley, assistant principal Lincoln Elementary. Laura Pentoff, principal Lincolnwood Elementary. Nicole Fishman, Nichols Middle School. Shawn Woody, Nichols Middle School. Dr. Christopher Robinson, principal Oakton Elementary. Michelle Renee Thomas, assistant principal Oakton Elementary. Dr.

016Allison Coffman, Orrington Elementary. Jill Anderson, principal Park School. Alyssa Holfield, assistant principal Park School. Dr. Elizabeth Cardenas Lopez, principal Washington Elementary. Chloe Battle, principal Willard Elementary. Stacy Earnbaugh, assistant principal Willard Elementary. Dr. Jess Plaza, director of MTSS and SEL. Dr. Deborah Osher, director of programs and partnerships. Regina Colquitt, director of humanities. Dr. Sharmeka McCoy, director of schools management. Kimberly Kelly, compliance coordinator multilingual department. Cecilio Romero, multilingual coordinator. Sandra Sorry. I apologize on that. Um, director of STEAM. Amy Correra, director of multilingual department. Brian Harris, director of climate and safety. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Um Hi there. Rebecca Calloway, principal King Arts. We would just like to submit that for a public record. So, Adela, we'll get that to you. Thank you. >> [applause and cheering] [applause] >> GOOD EVENING. SO, ON MAY 5TH OR

017MAY 4TH, SORRY. My name is Natalie Copper president of the SACC, which is the school-age child care program in our district 625. Also, on May 4th, you were given a presentation of the school-age child care program by the D 625 director of programs and partnership. Don't want to go over all that. You had all that. Just want to go over some points. So, the operation at Kingsley School only house 3 to 5-year-olds until it's full opening as a school. That's where the early childhood center was. Our district was a leader in recognizing that we should all be should be here for all children. SACC commitment was endorsed by the superintendent at the time and the legendary Warren Cherry, who both saw the district's commitment to all children. The SACC model was financially sustainable. SACC used

018to be used to financially assist another early childhood program in D 625. What happened? The SACC admin tends to send out vague emails that serve to confuse us as staff. Sometimes we're unsure which direction we're to go in and I've communicated that with you all. Enrollment has been low at Washington, but please tell me what has been done to assist in improving those numbers. Absolutely nothing. Systems and processes were said to have been put in place to ensure more efficient and sustainable and high-quality delivery of our program. We would like to know what those are because we hear that term a lot, but have no idea what is being referenced. We hear system and processes. Once we do not execute them, but then again, we were never told about them in the first place. SACC

019staff continues to deliver quality service in spite of the lack of support from the SAC admin team. Short of subs. No one wants to come and help on a day they're working from home. Please keep in mind that the SACC staff does not work from home, so this is not in reference to us. We do not have that luxury. We are there every day in person for our children. This concern has been shared numerous times to no avail. Yes, enrollment is capped at certain schools. Spaces Enrollment is based on that space, but that can be communicated DCFS and be modified. While SACC is not the only choice for for before and after child care in D65, please know that it is the only one that has D65 employees as its staff. This leads to productivity,

020attendance, >> [music] >> I will be submitting this to you in its entirety and I would like to sincerely hope that it is put in the board records as it is. And you received information from me earlier as well. Thank you. >> [applause] [cheering] >> Next we have Fatima Perez, Danny Orrick, Kristen Anderson, Zaki Tazik, Lori Orloff, Peter Shank, Jean Clipperton, Kelly McCabe. I don't see the first person on that list. I'm the second person, so I'll go ahead. My name is Danny Orrick. I'm a Kingsley parent of two. Longtime listener, first-time comment commenter. I want to thank all the board members for your energy and your time that you put into this. I I don't think it gets said enough, right? Um what I have to say today is about the tool you need

021to succeed, and that's proper governance. I was astounded to learn at the April 20th board meeting about an April 1st deadline for central office staff reductions that had not been communicated to the board or to the public until that date. Because the vital point was communicated on the 20th rather than say last year, the first quarter of this year, it was nothing more than a history lesson about missed opportunities. It's a clear example that the administration is failing in a core component of its job, which is providing you, the hardworking board members, the information that you need to do your job. And this is an administration that's grown while our student population has decreased. Look, I know we have serious financial um concerns. You have tough choices to make. We all know that. The members,

022you members of this board, and each and every D65 family deserve to understand and be fully informed about these big decisions that our community faces. But if the administration cannot keep you informed, then they are robbing you of the ability to make those choices. Pardon the civics 101 lesson, right? But the voters elect the board to oversee the administration. If the administration is taking action without authority or it's being obstructionist providing vital information to the board, then the board must use its power to hold the administration accountable. I come to you to please ask you to ensure that we have administrators who are acting in the best interest of the families and the children of the district. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Good evening. My name is Kristen Anderson and I'm a D65 elementary school

023librarian and a Haven parent. A few weeks ago, a second grader came to open checkout and proclaimed passionately, "Mrs. Anderson, I want a book that is 100% facts." This is what we need right now. Facts, information, knowledge. We need Illinois School Code. I want to thank you for the decision to bring about an HR audit. Please also lift the hood on the district's many joint committees. These are not foilable. These committees have a direct impact on employees and students. These include, just a couple, the joint reduction in force committee, the joint educator evaluation committee. I would ask, is Illinois School Code guiding their purpose and existence? I'm afraid that facts get hidden in the work and the decisions of these committees. Thank you. I've requested additional time uh for disability if I could have 4

024minutes instead of 2, please. I'll run the timer twice. Sounds great. Thank you. Hi everyone. My name is Zokit uh Tosic and I have three children at Washington Elementary. Uh one of the items on tonight's agenda is the election of the board leadership. Uh in that context, I'm here with a few comments about leadership, honesty, and trust. The district is uh facing at least 188 million of deferred maintenance uh for all of its aging all of its aging buildings. And while I appreciate all of the recent efforts to have a balanced budget, no amount of cuts can generate the 188 million uh million dollars that is needed in the near term. A bond referendum is necessary, and the sooner such a referendum is passed, the uh better it will be for not only the district's

025finances, but for essentially everybody in the district. Yet, I have heard no serious conversation about this issue by anybody on the board. Instead, what I've seen is avoidance of this and other looming problems um and in part through uh perpetuating a false narrative, including that the district's financial problems are structural as though they are the result of a natural disaster, and attempts to blame uh budget cuts on the vote not to close Lincolnwood. Reality check. The budget cuts are not happening because Lincolnwood. They're happening because of countless irresponsible uh decisions big and small over the last decade. The list is way too long to go over here, so I'll just highlight a couple of items. The basic uh controls on the finances were only implemented in September 20 24, less than 2 years ago. Then

026there's the elephant in the room, the decision in 20 22 to build Foster without passing a bond with without passing a bond referendum. Because of the magical way that Foster was financed, the district now has to spend over $3 million a year um on the building lease. That money comes directly out of operating the operating the operating educational uh funds. The funds that are supposed to be used for counselors, librarians, transportation, crossing crossing guards, etc. Again, the list goes on and on. So, I would just say this, anyone seeking to be a leader on this board needs to at a bare minimum start an honest public dialogue about a bond the a bond referendum that is necessary to uh finance all of the deferred maintenance. And be honest about how we got here, and it

027ain't Lincolnwood. Thank you for your time. >> [applause] >> Peter Shank, Bessie Rhodes parents, parent. Uh there was a meeting that was held this week that included over 20 principals and assistant principals, three senior District 65 administrators, and consumed 2 hours spent on drafting a letter demanding more respect from the board. The fully burdened hourly cost of this meeting was over $7,000. The demeanor of this board is, if anything, mild. Given the disappointing academic performance of our schools and the massive budgetary challenges, frankly, they're much more polite than what the voters and parents are saying behind closed doors. In upcoming elections, financial accountability and the demand for academic performance will only increase. The meeting and the over 50 staff hours that it consumed did not focus on academic excellence, much less financial prudence. Quite the

028contrary, kept principals away from their students and wasted hours and money. If you wish for the support and admiration of this community and the board that they elect, become the highest achieving academic institution of the state, that is what we expect of you. THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> GOOD EVENING. JEAN CLIPPERTON, I'M LEGION OF Data Nerds. I'm out of uniform tonight, though. Um our latest enrollment numbers show that most of our schools are below projections from just last fall. Even accounting for the 87 kindergartners still awaiting tweet placement, and uh district-wide we're tracking approximately 500 students below our projections. I believe some of this reflects the uncertainties families have felt about our district's direction. I want to thank Pat for her steady leadership during these challenging months. I'm hopeful we can build on that momentum

029with strong board leadership moving forward. The community values board members who are deeply committed to their responsibilities, genuinely engaged in their community, and who take this work seriously. On a related note, New York City just passed a balanced budget, one that permanently funds its libraries. Part of how it did that is through streamlining their savings administratively. As we face our own budget decisions, I want to highlight a piece from the round table this week that made a compelling case for looking within D65 administration for safe cost savings. We have scorecards for our schools and for repurposing buildings. Why not for positions in administration? We are on the right path. Tonight is an opportunity to show those nearly 500 students and their families that District 65 is where they want to be. Thank you. >> [applause]

030>> Uh good evening. My name is Kelly McCabe. I'm a Washington parent and a and a data nerd. Uh tonight I'd like to talk about what I call death by a thousand administrators. As the Legion of Data Nerds recently posted, our central office administrative structure represents a real opportunity to save millions of dollars without touching student-facing roles, including the principals. Since 2016, the subcabinet, not including principals, has grown to seven times its baseline, while student enrollment declined 25%. Death by a thousand administrators affects not only our budget, but also community trust. Counselors were cut. Librarians faced reassignment. Neighborhood schools were on the chopping block. Racial inequities in scores remain persistent and unaddressed. Why were student-facing services threatened before administrative bloat was kept in check? Death by a thousand administrators is more than just a budget

031issue, it is a trust issue. Families repeatedly come to meetings begging for smaller class sizes, stronger student supports, and investment closest to the classrooms. Our principals make the most with what they have, oftentimes juggling impossible choices. And this administration consistently insulates themselves from cuts, delivering large class sizes and attempting to cut student services. Teachers are evaluated, schools face scorecards and closure metrics. Why hasn't every administrative position faced that same scrutiny? Pat has done a commendable job at trying to recenter students and focus on community engagement, and I'm hopeful that this trajectory continues with new board leadership that engages with community, views school liaison positions as the honored responsibility that they are, and continues to move us forward in a student and not admin-centered manner. >> [applause] >> Next, we have Kristen I apologize in advance,

032Krotch- Krotchlik. Mary Ann Kendall, Greer Beckman, Mary Ann Miller, Meredith Aponte, Liz Wollens, Katie Armstead, Lindsay White. Hello. My name is Kristen Granchalek, and I'm a parent of three children in District 65. Earlier today, I sent a memo to the board outlining specific recommendations to rein in technology spending and align tech usage with student outcomes and district goals. I'm reading these recommendations now so that they are on the public record and so that the broader community is aware of opportunities I do not believe the district has adequately explored or implemented. I have five specific requests for this board. First, audit every technology platform this district is paying for. Publish usage data. How many students use each tool, how often, and what the evidence for learning outcomes is. This costs nothing and if we cannot answer

033these questions, we should not be renewing contracts. Second, put the next device purchase out for competitive bid. Do not default to Apple. Chromebooks hold 60% of the K-12 market because they are actually designed for education and they cost a third of the price. Switching could save an estimated 1.75 million over a 4-year cycle. That is 2 years of the counselor budget this board spent three meetings trying to protect. Third, stop issuing individual devices to kindergarten, first, and second graders. The research does not support it. Los Angeles just acted on this. Removing devices from our youngest learners aligns with the science, responds directly to what our parents are asking for, and saves money we do not have. Shared classroom carts are sufficient and standard practice in districts that have actually reviewed the evidence. Fourth, require evidence

034before buying. No platform should be purchased or renewed without documented proof it improves student learning. This is called the ESSA evidence tier standard and it is already used by well-run districts. It should be written into board procurement policy tonight. Fifth, if the district moves forward with the board's recommendation to develop a technology strategic plan, it must include parents at the table from the beginning. We have been raising concerns about screen time, data privacy, and platform efficacy for years and the student experience needs to start taking precedence. To close, this district is risking teachers, counselors, librarians, and child care to close budget gaps while renewing technology contracts that have never been competitively bid and platforms that are now the subject of federal litigation. The The deserves a district administration that cuts strategically and spends with evidence.

035>> [applause] >> Hello. My name is Miriam Kendall and I'm here tonight on behalf of Screen Sense Evanston. Recently, the federal lawsuit against the district's core math curriculum, i-Ready, has received a lot of attention. In addition to local journalist Tom Hayden's latest article outlining many of the issues of the program, NBC National News has also covered the story with parents from around the country sharing concerns about the online curriculum. The lawsuit contends that private equity-backed Curriculum Associates, the company that makes i-Ready, collects vast amounts of our students' data and creates profiles of our kids. This information is then shared with third parties, including advertising and analytics companies like Google. To my knowledge, parental consent was not obtained from E265 caregivers for this data collection and sharing. Several federal laws protect parental rights as it relates

036to the personal information of minors online, including COPPA and FERPA. How does the district plan to address Curriculum Associates' alleged violation of federal law? In light of these allegations, can the district point to any independent research data that demonstrates the effectiveness of i-Ready as a learning tool in order to justify its continued use? In addition to a broader strategic revisiting of our technology plan, it is now imperative that the district begin a review of all of the online programs used by students. Information about privacy violations and the selling of student data needs to be shared with parents and then written consent obtained in order to continue using each program. For example, does the Beijing-owned TAL Education Group that produces our heavily used reading app Epic or the private equity backed Francisco partners group that owns

037ST Math also sell our students personal information and data. We sincerely hope the district formalizes a technology parent opt-out option for the 2026-27 school year and seeks consent from concerned parents. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Hi, my name is Grew Beckman. I'm a D65 parent and member of Screen Sense Evanston. We are grateful for the recent technology expenditure cuts and the update to summer device procedures. By allowing parents to opt in to devices coming home over the summer, the district is taking a big step towards helping parents reduce screen time outside of school. We hope the district will continue taking steps to reduce screen time within the school day as well. I shared in my May 4th board comment about the federal lawsuit against I ready which Miriam just shared about. I have contacted Curriculum

038Associates multiple times via email and phone requesting the data they have collected on my children, but have received no response. As a parent, I find this concerning and I'd imagine as board members and district administrators who are devoted to student safety, you find this concerning. So, what can we do? Parents can request their child's data from Curriculum Associates. Parents can contact EdTech Law Center to join the class action lawsuit against I ready and we hope given the safety and privacy violations I ready has been accused of that parents will be allowed to opt their children out of the digital version of this curriculum and use the analog version of the curriculum instead. By giving parents the option to use I ready workbooks instead of the iPads, you'll greatly reduce the risk of privacy violations. As

039a district, we can audit i-Ready. I shared last board meeting about LAUSD, they launched an i-Ready audit last month following extensive complaints. The VP of the LAUSD school board said, "I've yet to hear a positive comment about i-Ready." There's zero meaningful evidence of i-Ready's impact on student learning. No randomized controlled trials, and Curriculum Associates has no plan to do one. It doesn't work, it's violating privacy rights, and it's costing us money we don't have. D65 is ready to be done with i-Ready. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Hi, my name is Mary Ann Miller. I have two kids in D65, and I'm also a member of Screen Sense Evanston. I'm here to advocate also for continued tech reform. We heard from teachers that it would be harder for them and more time-consuming to reduce device use

040in their classrooms. I believe them. I also believe our teachers, with appropriate support from the district, are more than capable of working through the challenges. We also heard the one-to-one device model is more cost-efficient. However, what is the long-term term economic impact of engaging in an academic model that has been shown to be damaging to a to achievement? To the administration and school board, I ask, when it comes to caring for our children, when is it not okay when is it okay not to do the right thing because it's hard? In our homes, parents are doing the hard work to foster readiness to learn at school. We are fighting the attention fragmentation, gamified learning experiences, social deprivation, and emotional dysregulation that come with screen use, only to send our kids to public school where you

041say it's too hard to do the same. We have presented the educational research to you about screen-based learning, and you have undoubtedly read about it in the news. It's exploding, and we saw it coming. We are grateful for school districts like LAUSD, who after months of persistent activism have passed a resolution to prohibit device use in younger grades, develop opt-out policies for pen and paper, and scrutinize edtech curriculum. We are not surprised that our private equity-backed screen-based i-Ready curriculum has insufficient evidence for learning. Shout out to Tom Hayden for his breakdown of the research. We are not surprised about the lawsuit as Curriculum Associates, like many other big tech-owned programs, are exploiting our personal data for profit. Like LAUSD, we need more impactful tech reform. We need a policy to opt out based on evidence

042that learning with pen and paper, though perhaps harder for teachers, is better for our kids. We need support for our teachers so that they can do the work this reform requires. Please partner with us and do what's best for our children. >> [applause] >> Hi, my name is Meredith Copeman Apante. I feel like my kids are the youngest ones, uh, you know, here, maybe. I'm I have a 2-year-old, I have a 8-month-old. Um, I think we're all here for the same reason. We want to create the best possible learning environment for our kids. Like most people, I believe it's important for our children to learn and feel comfortable with iPads and computers, but I think this raises three questions. The data shows, I think, that uh, iPads and Chromebooks, um, they're more passive learning versus

043experiential, multimodal learning. Therefore, I think it raises an important question. How old should kids be before introducing them to iPads in schools? I think, for example, 6 years old feels young to me. I know with my own kid, uh, when he looks at a screen, he's just glued to the screen, and, um, at first they thought he had ADHD but he didn't. He just responds better to more physical hands-on learning, interacting with teachers, interacting with other kids, uh using his body, being self-regulated with his body. I'm the same way. Um next I think how much time uh number two should be spent on the iPads in classrooms as a tool um for each grade and um number three, uh what do we do with the portion of our students who knows with will but for

044sure with me, um who wouldn't respond uh to iPads or res- you know, respond better to multimodal um forms of learning in a environment like that in school. Um I think if we stay the post-COVID course, we'll continue to lose a lot of fine motor skills and um we'll have a generation of learned incompetency due to passive learning. I think until these questions are answered and circulated amongst the Evanston community with respect to all these decisions uh with the iPads are premature AT BEST. >> [applause] >> HI, MY NAME IS LIZ WOLLENS. I'M A D65 parent and co-founder of investin neighborhoodschools at investinevanston.com. First, I want to thank Pat for stepping up and leading the district through some very difficult decisions this past fall. While there are still hard choices ahead, I truly believe that

045your leadership helped put D65 on a path to become an exceptional district in the coming years. As we look ahead to a transition in leadership and the opening of a new school next year, I would encourage the board to develop and clearly communicate a consistent decision-making framework to guide future choices. The community understands that not every decision will make everyone happy, but people do want to understand how decisions are being made and what factors are being prioritized. There's no single right model, but I would encourage the board to consider factors such as the following. How many students are directly impacted? The cost per student impacted. Are there legal requirements? The impact on marginalized or high-needs populations. How long a program or practice has been in place. Whether there is evidence it improves student outcomes. And

046finally, how District 65 compares to peer districts. Having a transparent framework will help build trust, create consistency across decisions, and provide clear direction for both the administration and the community during this time of significant change. Thank you for all that you do. >> [applause] >> Hi, my name is Katie Armistad. I'm a District 65 parent and co-founder of Invest in Neighborhood Schools. I am making a public comment tonight on three things. Uh first, Right at School revenue, two, kindergarten enrollment, and three, uh board leadership. Uh first, Right at School revenue. Um at recent board meetings it's been it's been discussed that Right at School pays District 65 a facilities fee to run before and after school programming, and there may be an opportunity to increase revenue. There's over 25 public school districts in the state

047of Illinois that partner with Right at School. Since the last board meeting, I've submitted FOIAs to each one, requesting their district's current contract with Right at School and all pricing information. The vast majority are structured as a revenue share model where Right at School returns a single-digit percentage of parent fees to the district in the form of a facilities fee. These percentages vary greatly and they don't seem to correlate with increased cost to parents as far as I can tell. District 65 has shifted to a flat fee structure last fall, which is a little bit unique. I'll email you all more details this week and to the extent you don't already have this data, uh hopefully it's helpful benchmarking to support your negotiations for FY27 in future years. Um second, kindergarten enrollment. Um one area

048where I think we can better leverage our school communities is kindergarten enrollment. It's clear the administration puts a tremendous amount of work into getting the word out about about registration, but we have 13 kindergarteners registered for my school next year and I can give you the names on the top of my head of two to three times as many sitting here tonight who will be there. Um we plan to explore a parent-led initiative I'm calling future families of D65. We'll place parent liaisons at each elementary school, partner with realtors to deliver new neighbor welcome kits as families move into the district, which can be as simple as a folder with best kept neighborhood secrets and contact information for their school, and host toddler gym days to get families into our buildings and on school grounds.

049The first time that families enter into our building should not be an open house a few months before kindergarten. I think this personal grassroots connection will ensure that every incoming kindergartner feels at home from day one and it's a tangible way we can address declining enrollment and encourage earlier kindergarten registration. Finally, board leadership. Thank you all so much for being on this board. Um I also want to particularly thank Pat for serving as the board president for the past six months. Um I hope you have a great meeting. Thank you. IT'S CUT OFF. >> [applause] >> HI, MY NAME IS LINDSEY WHITE. I CAN'T BELIEVE that I'm up here yet again advocating for this board to take this financial crisis seriously and the fact that we're electing new board leadership tonight and in their statements

050of why they're applying for the roles, Nicole and Chris do not even mention the almost $10 million that we'll need to cut by 2030, $5 million of which is in this very next school budget. Instead, in Nicole's statement, she talks again about a city-wide vision for learning, partnering with parks, libraries, the city. This was the same message that we heard over and over again last fall about creative ideas, and yet here we stand again waiting for any update. Where is the fundraising? Where are the updates on these creative partnerships? Where's the money that this will bring into our district? These were proposed last fall as ways to avoid further school closures, and now we sit just over 4 months away from the October deadline without any update. In October, hopefully before, this board needs to

051start talking about this additional 5 million dollars in cuts for 2027-28, 2030, we need 10 million dollars in cuts. This is a budget crisis, and we need to start treating it that way. What this community does not want is more student-facing cuts. You hear it all the time. And cutting almost 10 million dollars cannot be accomplished through administrative cuts alone. I agree with the data nerds, there does need to be cuts to admin, but we have to be honest about what can be saved by those cuts in 1 year, as well as how quickly the cuts can be rolled out so as not to disrupt our student-facing staff and our remaining admin. It appears to me with no progress being made in 5 months, all of this has been a delay tactic to force us

052into a referendum. All to balance a school budget and not even get close to solving for the ongoing 6 million dollars in capital expenditures. All four board members who won in this last election, Andrew, Pat, Nicole, Maria, when you campaigned for the seats that you're now sitting in, you said you were up to the task of balancing this budget and right-sizing our district, closing schools if necessary. And now we sit here tonight with board new incoming board leadership who can't even address the uh financial crisis. Thank you. >> [applause] [applause] >> Jamie Hopkey, Peter Boger, and Kelly Farley. Good evening. I'm Jamie Hopkey. I'm a Washington parent. I'm talking about a the fun topic of taxes, unlike others. Uh despite taxing residents more and more, despite having more money per student than ever before, this

053Horton executive team now wants even more of our property tax dollars by intervening in residents property tax appeals before the state [clears throat] of Illinois property tax appeal board. And honestly, this is exactly why there's some families that were really offended by the constant school closure threats, and why somebody like me won't go away quietly. You've raised our taxes astronomically, the board had this board has, over the last 6 years or so. Yet, instead of looking inward at administrative console consolidation, or eliminating non-mandated spending, or seriously focusing on attracting and retaining students, admin's one and only thought is to close our neighborhood schools. Meanwhile, Governor Pritzker himself has had to field questions from angry voters about the rising property taxes. Property taxes in Illinois have risen faster than inflation and wage growth for decades. And

054despite the state increasing annual K-through-12 funding by more than 2 and 1/2 billion dollars a year, the governor said, "But you know what? School boards didn't take the hint, and so they've continued to ratchet up property taxes over and over and over again." And that has led to a continued very high property tax burden on homeowners across the state. Ironically, even the city of Evanston encourages residents to appeal their property taxes and will help home homeowners do it. So, I'm asking this board to vote no on allowing this administration to intervene against taxpayers appealing their assessments. Uh this administration itself even admits this was a Horton era policy from October 22. And frankly, doing the opposite of what that alleged criminal normalized would probably be a good start. So please, vote no on on that.

055And can I I have this article with the the governor that with him talking about the school district hiking up property taxes. >> [applause] >> Hello. You got it. Hello. My name is Peter Bogiera, and I'm [clears throat] a Kingsley parent for a few more weeks before we close its doors. Future considerations for Kingsley and Bessie Rhodes are on the agenda tonight. And I wanted to zoom out because this connects to a broader issue that I think needs urgent attention. Our ability to afford the buildings that will remain in our district. I've yet to hear this board hold a clear, realistic discussion about how many future facilities can configuration works without passing a capital referendum in the next 2 years. Such a measure could go on the ballot this November, April 2027, or spring 2028.

056And we've barely heard this board suggest which time frame we're actually planning against. The district's own commissioned data from Studio GC identifies 230 million in capital needs in the next 6 years alone. Against that number, any realistic non-referendum tools fall dramatically short. Health and life safety bonds would top out around 31 million and are restricted to compliance items. And the Bussy Road sale? The district's own FY27 model already assumes those proceeds go towards completing Foster School. That leaves a gap of roughly 190 million in urgent, near-term needs with no identified funding source. And the only other no-vote borrowing tool we have doesn't open until 2031. None of this math works without a referendum. And every year of delay makes the ask larger. So, what I'd ask this board, what is the plan timing? And are

057the decisions that you're making right now on closures, on community trust, and on fiscal credibility building the coalition to pass it? >> [applause] >> Hello, my name is Rita Schleeman and I have been employed with SACC program for 26 years. I have dedicated my career to serving the students and families of this community and I am deeply concerned about the direction of this program and what it means to the families we serve. For many years, it has been clearly communicated that SACC operates as a self-sustaining program. Hysterically historically, when SACC was a primary before and after school option in in the district, it remained stable and consistently met the needs of families. Based on my experience, the program has historically generated a strong revenue in addition to state child care reimbursement funds. Despite changes in

058the child care landscape, SACC has continued to adapt while remaining committed to serving families with continued care. To meet evolving needs, SACC introduced summer care, three-day enrollments, and flex care programs, all staffed by trusted district employees. However, it is now understood that summer care, flex care, and option care are being discontinued leaving only regular child care as an option. These are not minor adjustments. These are significantly reductions that directly affect how families access care. With multiple changes happening in a short period of time, it raises serious concerns about the long-term stability of SACC and what assurances exist that the program itself will continue, especially as other providers such as Right At School remain on site while charging families more for their extended before and after care services. Their program only contributes 7,500 a year per

059school for use of facility. That is $22 a day or roughly the cost of a Domino's Pizza per day. This is the rate the district is currently charging them for access. In contrast, our district SACC program pays substantially more for the use of these same school facilities. I believe this comparison highlights how our district benefits from their own program. Most importantly, families trust SACC with their children. The consistency, relationships, and sense of stability we provide are not easily replaced, even with advanced notice or alternatives. Please reconsider and bring our program back to the glorious program it used to be. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Kelly Farley Okay, back. Excuse me. All right. So, I'm going to talk fast cuz less time than I thought. Um I want everyone to think about how hard the past

060month of cuts have been to our students and families, to our student facing staff, the principals, to the admin, and to the board. Think about the fact that we have to do that every year for the next 3 years to find $10 million more in recurring cuts. If we do all those on time, we'll still have barely 90 days cash on hand at hand at the end of it. We need to also negotiate with our unions in the coming months and years to make sure that we have retain our amazing educators and student-facing staff. So many in the people in this community have rightfully criticized the boards of the past, including some current members, for not holding the admin and our financials to a strategy or to the scrutiny that they deserved. Yet now half

061of the applicants for officer positions tonight didn't even mention the financial crisis as the reason of why they want to lead in an officer role. All post-Horton board members campaigned on making the hard decisions. Right now it's abundantly clear that hard decision you're going to choose is ask for another referendum reasons we did 9 years ago, except since then our student population has consistently declined. The New York Times recently reported the number of kids born in the US peaked in 2007 and has dropped 24% since. Our own K-5 reflects this. Our year enrollment peaked in 2017 and this year is almost 29% lower. The census studies our district procured in '21 and '24 show this trend is continuing for at least the next 10 years. Who knows how much we spent on consultants, facilitators, etc.

062And when we don't like the results, we continue to pursue the panacea that no one can define, which ultimately means another referendum not to address cap backs or improve student experience, but to again push this structural problem to future families. There is a wealth of talent and creative ideas in our community and you should lean on us to help. However, you should not let any of us pressure you to make choices that make us personally happy today at the expense of the long-term future of this district. Please put students and student-facing staff before structures. You are obligated to make choices that preserve and improve this district for the future in a financially sustainable way that prioritizes enriched learning environments, thriving kids, reduced opportunity gaps, and satisfied, valued educators. >> [applause] >> That concludes the public

063comments for tonight. Thank you, community, for your voice. Always appreciate it. Uh next we have >> [clears throat] >> discussion of SDRP phase two expenditure reduction plan with a presentation regarding district property disposition. All right, we'll go ahead and get started. Um, good evening. Excuse me, can we have quiet, please? Thank you. Thank you. All right, good evening. Tonight, I will begin a conversation focused on the next steps or future uses of the Bessie Rhodes and Kingsley school properties. I want to start by acknowledging that this may feel perhaps a little insensitive to start this conversation while the schools are still open, educating students, making memories. Um, I want to be clear that Kingsley and Bessie Rhodes have been beloved schools and beloved school communities. And as we go through this process, the team uh

064this process, the teams, the school and administration are working to celebrate these schools and to support smooth transitions to new schools for next year. As we look forward, it's important for us to start a discussion that will only ultimately provide the administration with clear guidance from the school board on how we should proceed with each of these properties once the school year has closed. Tonight, we will discuss the process, general considerations, and we will outline specific areas where we need board input. Our thinking is that tonight is an opening conversation with an opportunity to return to the topic again on June 1st and if needed the second meeting in June which I believe is June 22nd. I think I need to grab this one. There we go. All right. To begin our conversation tonight, we'll

065share the possible options that are available to the school board for both Kingsley and the Bessie Rhodes properties. Two at the same time is not my talent. All right, the four options that essentially we see as being available for these properties are first retaining the property. This could look like mothballing the building to buy time to monitor enrollment to see if there if it could be reopened at a later date as a school. This could also include using the building as a swing school. The way we define a swing school is a building that essentially we could transfer a school population to should the district take on a major renovation or repair or updating of a school building. When districts do that, it it points one allows you to shorten the timeline line on a

066major construction project and two sometimes can access better prices for work because you're working during the winter months and other times when there is not as such a great a demand for the trades. The second option and I'm going to go in a clockwise direction is to look at securing a long-term lease for these properties. Um we've seen that in the past with the Kingsley property. Uh one of the things that our property assessment report did caution us on is with the current capital needs in our buildings, their initial analysis which is at a high level was that we wouldn't we would still be running a deficit on those buildings with lease dollars coming in if we were to continue to make repairs at the recommended pace. So, the cost of maintaining the building and

067taking on the necessary repairs could potentially outpace lease dollars coming in, but that would be something that would, you know, could be further we could dig into in greater depth if that's something that the board is interested in looking at or pursuing more deeply. The third option would be to repurpose one or both of these buildings. Repurposing this building would buildings would mean moving a different program or administration into one of these two buildings. So, this could look like moving Park or Rice into one of these buildings. Similarly, if we do something like that to repurpose or admin we would then we would have costs to retrofit the spaces to make it work for the new function or purpose, and we would also need to make sure that that building meets the needs and functions

068of the programs. And we can talk about that a little bit later. And then the last option specifically would be selling the properties, and we'll talk a little bit more about this as we move further into the presentation. This clearly brings in revenue in the short term, but removes flexibility and the property from the district long term. As we move into this process, I think the as the board shifts to considering options for these buildings, it's important to consider our context. The board recently received the combined master facility health health life safety report, which is a helpful learn for learning about the needs of the buildings. And we have the McKibben demography report, and this is a visual from the McKibben report, which forecasts a decrease in district enrollment that flattens out by 2033-34. Specifically,

069total district enrollment was forecast to decrease by 401 students or 7.3% from academic year 24-25 through 29-30. Total enrollment is expected to further decrease by 55 students, or another 1% from from 29-30 through 34-35. The demography report includes all enrollment with the exception of birth to three, pre-K, and includes park students that are kindergarten through eighth grade and live in District 65. And I raised that because there was a question in a previous meeting. Enrollment can be tricky because there are different parameters that are assigned to the data reported to the state than there are to the enrollment report as there are to our enrollment report that we bring to bring to the board annually. As a note, the McKibben report forecasted 5,706 students using that particular subgroup of students, and our actual enrollment this

070year was 5,765. So, we were essentially 59 higher, generally pretty close when we take apples to apples. I'm also making of just a brief reference here to the New York Times article from May 8th, which also echoes the concern about declining birth rates and enrollments. One of the things they noted particularly in this graph is that since it is a an impact around birth rates, it is hitting elementary schools in districts earlier than high schools. And so, just bringing this up to ground that you know, from what we're hearing in Illinois and nationally, that this is a concern and something that is impacting districts much more widely than ourselves. Should the board decide that it wants to sell one or both of these properties, there's a specific process that needs to be followed per Illinois

071school code. I have Brian Crowley from Franczek Radelet if there are specific process questions, please ask them at the end of the presentation and he can support as needed. The process breaks down into three basic steps. The first step is essentially to prepare for sale, which essentially asks the district to prepare all the necessary documents for potential sale. Um, and should the district be interested in potentially putting a property up for sale, it requires an approved board resolution. The next step would essentially be moving into the sales process. And at that point, we would move forward, we would need information from the board to understand how the board wishes to sell the property. If the board if the property property is sold to a government entity, it can be sold through a negotiated bid. If

072it is sold to a part either a government entity or a non-government entity, you could also access either using an a public auction or a sealed bid. So, there are limited set of ways in which the board could move forward with selling and there are two different pathways depending on the type of entity that you're looking to engage with potentially or is who is interested. At the point that the property goes up for sale, should a bid come in that the board wishes to accept, the board then decides ultimately to accept that bid or offer and moves through the closing process. It does require board approval for that sale. All right. So, now I'm going to walk through the specific properties and today will be kept fairly high level. The memo does break down essentially

073kind of the four buckets that we've talked about and some pros and cons, but we're not going to go super deep into the weeds today. One of the questions that we'll get to would be what additional information does the board feel like they need to be able to consider these decisions. All right, first we kind of just give you some basic background information on Bessie Roads. Essentially, what you're going to see is Bessie Roads and Kingsley are actually fairly similar to each other in regard to property foot foot footprint, square footage, things along those lines and zoning as well. Um, the when we take a and just kind of holding that, one thing that is different between these two properties is Bessie Roads does have a larger um capital cost associated with it from our

074Studio GC report, which is 33.48 million. Another thing that we want to call out about the Bessie Roads property is that um there's a park to the southeast side of the school. And so we own some of that property, but not not all of that property, which is why we've put this plat of survey up just to help understand which pieces of property do belong to District 65 and what would be included potentially in a sale, and we'll return to that again. When we talk about Bessie Roads specifically, um you know, I'm just going to walk through a couple of the unique pieces of each of these. Retaining the property for future needs, you know, if we're going to take think about Bessie Roads and Kingsley, Bessie Roads is located in very close proximity to

075Walker. And so that is a factor potentially to consider when considering retaining that property. Additionally, if we were thinking about retaining you know, and that would be if you're considering mothballing because you were going to reopen, you do have a school in very close proximity. Second, if you're considering Bessie Roads for retaining for a mothball school, it is in the far western side of the district, so it is not as central. And if you were to use something as a swing school, you don't know what school necessarily you might be doing larger renovations on. So it could be in closer for but it could also be further away because it is not as central for the general district footprint. We thinking of, you know, leasing, I think the same for both these properties, very similar

076considerations. The kind of question is really what kind of entity would be interested in leasing, whether it's an educational institution or whether it's a business. And so, this could be a property that would be attractive for an educational institution to lease with the proximity to the park, but it may not have as much commercial draw as another property. Um repurposing the property. Um this could potentially be used as an admin space. It has been used as an administrative space in the past at one point, as far as I've been told. Um the other thing would be to repurpose it around Rice or Park. We have a essentially like a rubric or set of criteria around the essentially needs and wants for a park program. One of the things that comes in that's important for a

077park program is to have some accessibility for life school skills training, stores, things along those lines. This is it that is not necessarily associated with every uh school similar to park, but it is an an important part of the park program today. And being located at Bessie Roads would really limit the access to that, the ease of access that park has today. Um and then the final option would be to sell the property. Uh because of the fact that Roads, the announcement of the closure of Roads has been in the community for a longer period of time, we have had groups reach out to us and communicate interest in Bessie Roads. At this point, we have six groups that have reached out to us to communicate potential interest in the property. Um we have kind

078of kept their contact information and kept them in the loop. We communicated with them to let them know that this conversation would begin tonight. Um the range of interests are from private school um to potential redevelopment, and then also ETHS has communicated interest in the school for potential use for day school or other programming. And so, that would and then the additional organization that has communicated potential interest is also the Skokie Park District as they evaluate you know, what would be the impact on the park there and what might they want to use that property for? Would they expand their park footprint? Things along those lines. So, the government entities that have communicated interest this property are the Skokie Park District and Evanston Township High School, and then the other four are private entities. All

079right, Kingsley property. Um you know, about 10 years newer, but very similar square feet, same zoning, almost the same acreage, smaller amount of capital needs right now in this property. Um but still 25 million. The options are still very much the same here and I'll just kind of lightly hit on them again. Um the holding the property, that could be a swing school, it could be mothballing. The swing school a little more central and you're on major major thoroughfares for transportation. Leasing the property, we mentioned that Kingsley has been leased in the past as a theater. Re-purposing the property, um for park, you have closer proximity to storefronts and things along those lines to support some of the life skills programming within the park school. Um you would also have the possibility for admin offices.

080The something to consider um is Park School currently has significantly fewer classrooms and square footage than both Rhodes and Kingsley. And in talking to Park School leadership, they don't support the park program itself, which is students for low incidence disabilities, they don't foresee additional demand for that program where they would need to grow into an extra six four to six classrooms. So, there that footprint at King at Kingsley, we wouldn't necessarily need all of that space. What we do have to hold is my understanding of the ISBE requirements around therapeutic schools is they do need to be stand-alone institutions. So, you couldn't take two schools and put them together in one place and hold that access to that therapeutic funding. So, again, maybe there are questions that come up from that for further investigation, but

081just considerations there. Um Park and I can certainly that maybe giving you guys the square footage and classrooms would be information we put together. You've got that in the master facility plan, but we can call that out. Um and then the last option for this one also is selling property. Clearly, we only got to the Kingsley decision in January and we've been busy with a lot of other things. So, this is really kind of our first significant socialization of the fact that Kingsley's closing and there'll need to be a decision around how we want to use this property going forward. We have, however, been approached by the city of Evanston and the city of Evanston has interest in potentially purchasing this property. They are seeking to build a new police and fire headquarters and believe

082that this parcel could be an excellent location for them. Now, one thing that I will say because I know they they correct it for me, too. This is more the administrative function. This doesn't mean moving the fire trucks in next to Haven. There's still the fire houses, but this is the police and fire headquarters. So, just from that point of view, okay? So, it's separate of the fire houses themselves. All right. Um I'm going to walk you through the areas of information that I believe we're going to need from the board over the next couple meetings, then I'll stop, we'll take process questions around sale. So, if Brian needs to sound in on anything on the legal side of the house, so I don't have to wear that hat, we'll do that and then move

083into the I'll walk you back to the beginning of these questions. Uh the first thing that I think we're going to really want to know from you guys is what is the other information that you think you're going to need to be able to truly consider making some decisions about how you what you potentially want to do with these properties moving forward. The second thing that we want to challenge you to think about is to come to these decisions about whether you want to sell, lease, repurpose, you know, keep. What are the values or priorities that you want to provide you that you want to hold to make these decisions? Because at the end of the day, you need to center around a set of values or priorities to be able to say, I think

084these are the this is the right decision then for this property and that property. And we are intentionally bringing both of these forward at the same time, so that you can kind of hold these possibilities together. Um this is just a list of essentially kind of types of values or priorities that come up in other districts, in other places when having these types of conversation. You know, educational stewardship, keeping them for academic programs is really what's there. Financial responsibility, we heard tonight about like how many building footprints does this district really want, need, or can afford? Um community benefit. These are properties that are in the public domain right now. Should they stay in the public domain? How could they, you know, should they continue to benefit the community and in so what ways? Um

085is there anything around neighborhood preservation that matters? Um that needs to be considered. Open space and environmental sustainability. We know that as a community, there's value for parks, there's value for open spaces. Like how does that factor into to priorities or values? Is there anything around historic community or legacy? You know, I know as we've been working with some of the leaders, like, they have interest in making sure as they're moving out, like, I want to try to take these murals. I want to try to take these things. But, is there something else that has to be considered? Should we be considering economic and civic development? Is at the end of the day, like, if it's economic development, does it help the tax base? And does that end up putting more money into the district

086over time? That could also be I'm trying to see if it's there. In here, the one that is, I think, missing right now would be a community priority also around housing, which would fit under economic and civic development potentially. But, you know, there is a community value right now around thinking about accessibility to affordable housing. Is there anything that if this isn't going to stay within the district, can it contribute to a community value in some sort of way? It might fit a little bit under equity and accessibility, but we might need to call housing out separately. But, you know, how do we consider equity and accessibility? If we take this property out of the public domain, that does mean that it isn't potentially no longer accessible to portions of this community. Future flexibility. I

087showed you the demography report. That being said, nobody has a perfect crystal ball. Okay? So, future flexibility, you know, whether it's programs, whether whether it's enrollments, whatever it may be. Whether it's referendum and it says, "Hey, we really want to go in and you know, really renovate this particular school or program and it's helpful to have a swing school. Transparent community decision-making. The and then timely resolution. As the speaker mentioned tonight, you know, we have 4 million in you know, in our budgets for next year to potentially to start making payments towards Foster. So, there is a time element in this. Um Speaking to this, these this grid is also going to go out in a community survey to the Bessie Roads community, to the Kingsley community, and to our staff at those schools to

088gather their input. We will also be kind of circulating some flyers with QR codes, so folks that live adjacent to the schools that may not have school-age kids have an opportunity to sound in on that. Um and you'll see some information in the end about essentially an opportunity to engage in a public meeting at both of these schools to sound in on values as well as ideas. All right. So, that was question number two. It was kind of a long one. The third one is does the board wish to sell either or both properties? Like once we do all this work, ultimately you're going to have to say, do we want to sell one or both of these properties? If yes, how do you want to sell that property? If no, what's the what which

089one of the other three directions are you asking administration to go and pursue and really, you know, execute? Um and then the last one would be for Bessie Roads. With that property, we overlap on the green space in the park. We also have an odd open lot and there's some discontinuous land there. Um if we decide to if you decide to have us move forward with selling the Bessie Roads property, are you open to the idea of potentially breaking up a little bit should it one be financially reasonable, but two also respectful of the adjacent park? So, these tend to be the big questions that I think over the next couple meetings we need to work our way through with the goal of getting to some forms of decision by that June 22nd meeting. Okay?

090I am going to stop and just kind of facilitate now with a few questions. Opening up questions for you folks. But first and foremost, are there questions about the the process that you would need to take if you're moving forward if you want to move forward selling a property? I I have one question around the bid process. Can you just clarify um with the different bid options, does that mean that for the closed bids, we have to take the lowest bid or like do we have options around that? This is why we invite Brian Crowley to make sure we get the right answer. So, he'll take he'll go ahead and take these questions. Board member, can you repeat that again, Board member Wilkins? >> to understand for the different bid options that we have, does

091do do any of them mean that we have to take the highest bidder and just can you just talk a little bit about >> No, you can be creative on that. So, so what you have to do if you are going to sell to a private entity or even if you think you might sell to a public entity, you can open it up for auction or bid, okay? In that auction or bid, you can provide uh ultimately what's what's in the best interest of the district and we can provide other parameters in there. It doesn't have to be the highest bid. Usually it is. Okay. And and one other thing you can do, we can get creative with it too as far as what you can do. So, for example, we've done it with some

092clients where we'll do an auction or we'll do a bid initially, a sealed bid and then you say, "Okay, after that sealed bid where we'll open it up, we'll see who the two top bidders are and then we're going to open up for auction from there." So, those are those are different tactics you can take. If though you know for sure you're going to sell to another public body and you're satisfied with the price they're going to pay, we don't have to do the bid or auction at all. Okay, thank you. Um Questions with respect to I guess the process given one building that's in Skokie, another building that's in Evanston. So, um can we speak to what it might mean in terms of Skokie has a you know, we're not their school district for

093all of them. Speak to what we might think that process would be. You speak of the potential zoning process? >> Yeah, the process of working with um Skokie to sell a school building that might not be used as a school building. >> the sales process is driven by Illinois school code. Yeah, it's not driven by the it's not driven by municipal law at all. But the approval of the What role does this Let me ask it another way. Can you speak to the role of um of the city and the two different cities in the process of >> So, let me I'll start with and before everyone gasps, from our perspective initially it doesn't matter. But if we think we're going to sell to a private developer, say, say we're going to then these the

094city would certainly interject itself and the private developer would be interested in probably having a a period of time before officially closing to make sure they get all their zoning approvals from the from Skokie or or the city and such. Now, there is that we could also put That's up to us though. So, we could put in our bid private developer, you buy it at your own risk and you deal with the zoning or give them added time and say we're going to give you a certain due diligence period before we actually close. Does that make sense? Right. And all of that would probably most likely extend the time for a sale, right? Because you would For the close, you have to get >> our perspective and other school districts' perspective, if you want to

095enhance the price you're going to get many times you'll add a decent due diligence period where a reasonable developer say, "I'm interested, but I need to have that assurance that I can get my zoning approvals before I actually close." Thank you. Okay. This is about the duration of the process and let me just kind of show my cards so I can get all the information I want. Um for instance, I I it was named that Evanston Township High School is an interested party. I immediately my mind goes to the academic year. Um are we're not going to make a decision till June 22nd. Does that shape things? Um so, length of process, would that shape interest? Um just curious. The No, you first. Go ahead. Yeah. So, timing um this is once you once you

096pass a resolution to sell, if so, let's take Evans let's take the high school out of it for a moment. If you're doing the auction or bid, you have to advertise that for 3 weeks and you have 60 days from the date of approval to the date of doing the auction or bid. If you're going to sell to another public entity where we don't have to do that at all, that's up to the parties. Now, realistically it takes time to get title, close, negotiate, but there there's no definitive time frame on that. Stacy, how does the um proposed community decision-making? How does What What time frame does that add to the total picture? Are you talking about like the community engagement piece of it? So, those dates are May 27th and May 28th. And so,

097our intention is to close the survey um it's a couple days before our next board meeting and to have at least actually it stays open into the next board meeting, but it's only about 2 days. So, we'll have interim findings for you at the June 1st board meeting. Can you go to your slide, the one we had the green phenomenal? Thank you for those sets of things to discuss. Discuss. Uh it's uh the questions? Yeah. Are there things that we should consider? This one? So, I think for me one of the um I think it's important to discuss um thinking about selling to I think of in Evanston 202 is a separate district in many places the high school and the um and the um elementary are one. And so, I think in trying to

098understand what's in the best interests for um our community. It'd be interesting to um have an understanding of what what the needs are of 202 and uh for me to see how that is, you know, of course we need to sell and we need resources. We can't give away buildings free, but staying within our ecosystem, our learning landscape seems the most healthy, at least I'm saying for uh Bessie Rhodes in essence. And the same thing I would say for um you know, our police and fire. Those are all civic and these are civic lands. Um dollars and ways in which we can be good partners, but at the same time we have to make sure that we receive dollars that help us address our particular issues as well. Before we move too deeply into those

099aspects of the conversation, are there any additional process questions for Brian Crowley on the legal side of a sales transaction? Where um where are the where are the places in the process that you've observed that have been the most challenging for boards and potential um buyers? Um I would say the initial decision. You know, you you are giving I mean it's one thing when you sell property, you're not getting it back. So, that is a significant significant choice for a school district to make. Um from there it completely depends on completely if you do if you go to bidder auction, um it depends on the issues with title, etc. There could be a myriad of of issues and concerns. And I would say actually one other thought is I I would be very mindful of

100and I commend you for having community meetings beforehand. If there's any desire to shift the use from say a school use, um that can be very contentious to a local community. So, that's that's something to highly consider and and engage that group as much as you can if that's one thing you're considering. Thank you. Anything else for Brian? Because otherwise I know he's on a tighter timeline tonight and we'll let him go. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Now, Nicole had taken us into talking about question number two. Does the board want to stay there for a few minutes or do you want to give me some information on question one about >> information you would want to help you to be able to think about this these types of decisions. I apologize

101for moving us ahead. We can go back to one. >> Just seeing where we're going. Just a question kind of tangentially related to one. Thinking about Bessie Rhodes as a magnet school. Right, so it dispersed attendance. We won't get quite the same feedback from that community in a neighborhood sense as we would from Kingsley community. I'm just wondering if you've considered also reaching out to the Walker assignment boundaries in order to ensure that we're really getting a broader kind of neighborhood feel. Yep. So, the communications on my right hand side is reminding me that it's actually going out to everybody in the district, too. >> Oh, okay. So, it's going out out to the staff at Rhodes at Rhodes and Kingsley, but it's going out district-wide. So, that's good. And we are also going to

102go and kind of probably find a few telephone poles and other things, but we'll also make sure we circulate and put up at the door of Walker and things along those lines. It's a good idea. What kind of other information does the board feel like you might need to help you think about this or you can shift into that conversation and see what comes up? One um I think it's sort of history cuz our buildings, I mean, if you go back through all the maps, So, had a lot of schools schools have changed, come back over. Even Kingsley. And I know our demographics tell us we're going down, but at least for both of these schools, um have they always Have they been closed and open? Or I know Kingsley has, but for Both of

103these buildings have had different uses at different points in their their history. Okay. One one of the questions I'd like more information on would be, let's say we choose either Kingsley Let's say Kingsley or or Bessie Rhodes to be a swing, right? And let's say again the hypothetical that was put out there was around Park School. Uh and then just making sure that that building or maybe that program gets transferred over, but just what the costs that will incur on those. I mean, and and just kind of what what what what would be what the How much would it cost to move the program and then retrofit, you know, either Kingsley or Bessie Rhodes for for Park School or or whatever other program that we decide to, right? So, that the one I'm interested in

104is in Park, but I don't know if there's any other programs. Um colleagues may want maybe thinking, okay, is it some Is there If we have a swing school, is that a place we would want to move a program there or or just temporarily, right? As we um continue to work on our maintenance for schools, right? So, So, what Let me just say it. So, Sergio, what I heard were a couple things were the potential costs of moving a Park program. Right. And then I think what I heard there, too, also was like potential costs that would be the ongoing costs if we were holding it as a swing school. Right. And the positive thing is if it was a K-5, we wouldn't have to do any significant retrofitting, but we would need to continue

105to maintain that it would feel like you know, a good place to be for the year. Not shiny, but a good place to be for the year. Yep. Okay. Thanks. Is there a Pardon me. Is [clears throat] there a process for potentially getting uh feedback beyond the D65 community as well. Do we have any uh experience or past practice with just reaching out to residents or um uh ward members. I'm just I'm just curious uh what that might look like. So, we'll typically partner and we'll do that the same with this. So, with the city of Evanston and also with the village of Skokie. Um so, we have a great relationship with their communications team. So, often if there is items of interest to the broader community outside of just families, they'll include it in

106like their city newsletter blast that goes out or the city council members will include it in their ward blast as well. Um as well as reaching out to community partners to help promote the information. So, that's our plan with this is to reach out broader than just our families because we know that there's probably residents who live nearby both of these buildings who will likely have interest as well. So, yes, we plan to do that. You mentioned this, but I'd want to be just make sure we fully understand the cost of retaining. So, just having a you know, a good understanding of if we did retain or even lease, I guess, what sort of repairs would be needed in, you know, in the upcoming years. Um to just have a better understanding about the actual

107impact of cost. So, trying to kind of trying to do some modeling around whether it's mothballed. You know, if it's mothballed, what would be the annual cost of holding it and keeping it at an operating operational enough space because regardless, we've got to care for it. We've got to heat it. We've got to keep utilities on, all those things. My major concern, one of my major concerns is regards to the financial responsibility because we've already had conversations around using the proceeds excuse me from the sale of Bessie Rhodes to help for the cost for Foster. Um and Um another question I have is around the timing. Are we attempting to make decisions about the disposition of both buildings by the end of June? Is that the Is that the ask? The I would say that

108based on the board's plan to have $4 million worth of revenue coming in for expenses next year, you need to decide on at least one property by that June 22nd meeting. And my thinking really on that is that gives us then time to take the next round of necessary steps and try to get that property on the market as we go through summer and into fall because you know, for you know, you want to make sure that you've executed it and gotten the revenue that you need by the end of the fiscal year. Um the reason I'm bringing both right now is I just think it's a very inter dependent inter dependent decision. And I would say that from the folks that have communicated interest right now, all do have a timetable that would um

109I would say would benefit from a decision sooner than later. So, back to the Bessie Rhodes property, one of the um options is to dis pos dispose of it as a whole property. How how would the how would cutting it up into the different lot sizes, how would that What's the difference between that approach and So, I don't think we would go down to in I we we're not suggesting go to the individual lots. There are a fair number of lots in there, but what we are suggesting is that um when we did engage with the Skokie Park District, you know, they said, "Hey, there are a couple different ways in which we would be interested in in this property." Like A number one, we'd like that single standalone lot that happens to be where

110one of the park district buildings is on. You know, so they would be potentially interested in buying that lot. One of the lots they own is actually where the driveway for one of our parking lots goes out. And so we discussed that trying to set up an easement so that if it remains a school, they could continue to use that driveway. And so there are things that would need to get worked out. The other thing would be that if the property was going to become something other than a school, the park district may be interested in trying to purchase the grass area in order to retain the footprint of the park. Because we we have owned that property, but we have benefited from the larger park space for recess, all of those things. And I

111think any future school would want to have some would have a similar kind of setup. But if it was going to be something other than a park, the park district may have specific interest in trying to retain some of that land. And are you saying in the the first around the two areas, we should probably clean that up? Swapping the land such that >> That is I think one thing that would make a lot of sense and would be respectful of the park district. Because that would make it easier for whatever we do, we've already addressed where we're both over each other's each other's space. Okay. This might go into additional information on one. Um so as we're considering So generally I echo what Dr. Pinkert said about the high school. Um I think Kingsley

112is to me just such an obvious choice for a um a sorry, it is flew my mind. A swing school. Um and I wonder we we did all this measurement between schools for the SJP process. It seems to me, is there a way of measuring like cuz it seems like it's proximate to the Haven feeder pattern. Uh do we I mean it just seems ideally situated as we're dreaming about the future? Uh do we have any way of like calculating that? Are you asking if there's a way to show the proximities of Kingsley to other schools or what it is? >> Yeah, I mean would we if we made a choice to sell Kingsley it can we demonstrably be giving up our most ideal swing school site? Um there has to be some way of

113calculating that proximity sort of measuring that. But visually on a map it just seems to be an ideal swing school site as we're dreaming about future um Is the question essentially what would be the most central location for a swing school? Maybe maybe that's the question. Yeah, just on this topic of swing schools, I think it would be good to understand I know this is like impossible to answer but to just consider what the likelihood is of us needing a swing school. Um you know, I know we've got additional properties and decisions to consider and you know, I know originally our SDRP 3 recommendation was four schools and you know, so I just I don't want to just take into account any thoughts around you know, how likely we think it is to need a

114swing school. So um I think it's important to understand and think about space for future build out if we need to close schools but also understand we need resources and not um selling buildings. I think most of our conversations at least for me about closing buildings has also been in relationship to potentially selling them or repositioning them. Um and even why some of the conversations around Lincoln will were problematic cuz we weren't clear what it is that we can do. So, for me, I think understanding if we're going to hold a building, we need to be really clear about what the implication is of the amount of money we're going to have to cut in other ways. So, if we if we were to hold both schools, we're at 5 million or 6 million we

115need in budget and cuts to address what we are already responsible for for the opening of of of Foster and any other work cuz we also still need money to uh close the budget. So, um I think we need to get clearer on the role of school clo- school cells in this first couple of years as part of our as part of our process or if not, we need to expedite um some other decisions to be able to find other funds cuz I don't think anyone is up for $4 million of um staffing cuts or even in administration and other cuts. So, I'm not just forward-facing. So, what I hear you raising is the financial responsibility piece. It is also holding though that when we sell, it's a one-time hit. Yep. Yep. Right. One more

116question about um about the Kingsley site. Um if we go with um a civic partner, how will the how will that occupancy impact Haven? And will will it have any impact on what happens at Haven? I mean, so, Are you asking essentially if it went to like a police and fire headquarters, what the impact would be on the school? Mhm. Um we certainly can have the city give us more information about kind of what the ebb and flow would look like. I know they've communicated up front. They very much want to be a good partner and they can see some really good opportunities for partnership in the adjacency to Haven. Um, and so but that's a question we could take and just kind of get a What I hear is like if it were to

117go to a police and fire headquarters, what would be the kind of the the pros and the cons with its adjacency to Haven. Yes. Okay. Can you also add um to Sergio's ask uh on the potential cost of a retrofitting of Kingsley to serve Park students? Also the feelings or thoughts of the administration and staff and potentially families of Park uh and what impact that would have on uh them moving? Maybe it's good. And along with that, Maria, because it's a joint agreement Oh, yes. two two is going to have to be included in that conversation. And we did um one way or the other. We So we did a we engaged with ETHS maybe a month or so ago just around the joint agreement because one way or the other there are capital improvements

118that are going to be needed and it's a question of whether they will be in the Park building or whether it would be in a different location for the Park program. And so they do have that on their radar as something that you know we framed it as not today but sometime in the next several years because there's several Megan issues that we've got to address in that Park building. You also mentioned that uh to be a therapeutic day school it has to only contain that school. Does that also preclude administrative space? That is something we would need to clarify and find out. So not for you, Dr. Beardsley, just reflecting for us uh on this you know, again reminding it's a one-time um addition of cash. And um I just feels like we need

119more I'd I'd agree on maybe I thought it was saying it a different way, but if I'm not I'm not trying to steal your thunder, Dr. Beardsley, but we really need clarity on what we want to do with that money. Um obviously we have the foster commitments. We've already planned on the sale of Bessie Roads, which I appreciate you raising, Pat. Um but what I really am worried about is we we can't stop that we can't use that to delay us getting the the the the ship righted. Um so I just want to express that sentiment. I think we also discussed to that end I thought we had mentioned using uh a say or proceeds from a sale to augment the reduction in capital expenditure that we had committed to in in next year's budget,

120should that come through. The other thing to remember is that our cash on hand position is scarier at this And you know, we're making the best plans we can, but as we saw this year, there are always things that come up that are unexpected and we are in a very precarious situation. Yeah, and it would represent an opportunity for the board to possibly recalibrate to go from say 90 to 100 days cash on hand or something like that. So that's something we have to talk about. I think it might be important to um fairly soon here think about uh these two schools uh in the context of our overall school portfolio um and think about some of those schools with these same questions. So for example um you know, it it may be that uh

121we do decide we want a swing school, but Kingsley isn't the right one. Um that would make it uh I think a little bit clearer what the path might be with with that. Um so I would encourage us to to think about the uh kind of overall um schools that we the overall school plan that that we want to develop. Um and also think about how swing schools fit into this idea that's been circulating that uh you know, where we really want to get to is modernized and appropriate learning spaces for our students that lead to the best outcomes. So if we begin with that, we might have the potential to work our way backwards uh and and figure out again what are the right types of schools and the right types of learning spaces

122and the right types of facilities that we need for the foreseeable future um and then which of our current schools would be best equipped to support those goals uh and which schools would be best equipped to either serve a a special population uh or again as some kind of overflow or long-term district asset. I think a little bit of what you're saying there is you're leaning in and defining educational stewardship a little bit differently. You're starting from kind of more of kind of a longer-term direction and saying that is something important with financial responsibility for you. Yeah, I think that's right because um uh [clears throat] I think maybe a a lesson uh from the past year has been that um school closures look very differently when they're connected to a larger plan versus as

123being just a short-term decision. That's a great That's a good [snorts] point, Chris. I like that idea. So in here, I think cuz we're going to on June, we're going to have the conversations with community, then we're going to come back to a conversation with us, right? And I think is that The So, essentially, where we are, we are here on the 18th. Um we are doing engagement at Kingsley from 6:30 to 7:30 on May 27th and Bessie Rhodes from 6:30 to 7:30 on May 28th. And then the survey is open from May 18th to June 1st. Um we will make sure that you get, as I said, kind of like an an you know, an up-to-date sense of the survey by the kind of Thursday before the meeting, so you have a sense of

124what is has come in and then we'll do a final run-through of the survey after we close it on June 1st. We will be back here discussing this on June 1st. Um and then we're, you know, our press, because we do not have a regular scheduled board meeting in July, would be the hope of getting some decisions from the board on for these two properties by in the June 22nd meeting. Um and I think between now and the 1st, maybe, you know, these are the categories that are also going to be in the survey, is to continue to do that thinking about like what are those priorities that the board wants to hold in when trying to make this decision. We, you know, you've given me a list of things that you think will are

125good information to help. We'll start working on that. We'll kind of type it up and give you an update about where we are with those prior to the next meeting. Um and the goal for next meeting would be to kind of come around like what are those priorities that we want to organize our thinking on so that you can begin to say how do we want to use these two buildings and if we are going to sell, what's the approach we would like to take? Can you go back to the um the last slide you just had? Not this one, the other one with the I think with the uh particularly economic and civic development. It seems like an interesting um perfect time to have a holistic conversation at the city if we're thinking about

126that thinking about a a transaction around Kingsley around other needs we might as we're thinking about our whole needs. We're talking about transportation, crossing guards, space. Like how do we have say if they really want space, how do we have a how do we think about what our needs are and the ways in which we want to fully collaborate with the city and and put that into a conversation. People are always you know, better to have conversations when there's things that everyone needs and wants. Anything else for this tonight? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So, be prepared to vote to have a conversation to vote on the 22nd. Absolutely. Um if you get there sooner, great. But 22nd we can So. Yep. So, the next meeting though, I think processing through this and trying to

127push a little bit further into where you want to go. Well, so sorry. Um We've had a conversation about types of potential buyers. Is there anything more we can you know, cuz I think part of the decision also might be related to potential buyers. If we can know more about whatever you can share that with us in meetings before the 22nd. So, if the if the you know, ETHS is a real potential buyer for So, I can certainly look into that and see if there's more. I you know, I think the other thing you need to realize too is if you decide to put this the either of these properties on the market, there could be interested parties that have not approached yet. So, that is one thing. Um I will say that for the

128three institutions that I've said tonight, the city, Skokie Park District, and ETHS, like we reached out in advance and said are you okay with us naming your interest? And they were fine with us naming their interest, so I would take that as an indication that they're seriously interested in pursuing the opportunity. Whether we would find a price that works for you and them, you never know, but I think there's very sincere interest in all three of those parties. And they're different processes, right? So, the government is a different process than going through the going out open bidding, right? If we go through any of those agencies. So, in that sense, that's why I'm saying do we need to know. >> that you can negotiate a private bid with are government entities. Or negotiate a private

129deal. Okay, I think we're good. That leads us into the discussion, continued discussion about alternative approaches to reducing the structural deficit. Um >> [clears throat] >> and for me personally, the segway from that to the talk about swing schools and um selling properties brings up for me the master's facilities plan and how we can look at that in light of this to deter I mean, there may be some properties there that will satisfy all of those needs. So, um one of my thoughts around this is to have further discussion from Studio CG for the board and for the community so that it kind of dovetails into this discussion about properties and the fact that if we're going to hold a prop hold a property what the cost of that is and start to come up

130with some priorities around um how we you know because I'm looking at the demography report and um it it does flatten out in the in the blue range and so I want to be realistic about how we preserve and elevate our financial standing through a realistic view of um really how how much real estate do we need and where should that real estate be located and and how it looks at uh equalizing access throughout the feeder patterns for students so that's I just wanted to start the conversation there because all through this discussion I know there's a bigger picture that we have to take into consideration and I want to make sure that um while we start to make the decision around Bessie Rhodes and Kingsley that we keep the bigger picture in mind so

131I'll just leave it there for further comment um I know when we got the preliminary report from Studio GC they were missing a few key components roofs was one of them I think so the roof numbers are pretty correct because we had a Hutchinson roofing report that was completed but they were taking a second look just to make sure everything was good but they needed to finish the exterior the sidewalks and all of that that will be finalized before the end of this month we're meeting with them at the end of this week and then we also did a follow-up meeting with them where we have asked them to really do some thinking specifically around the health, life, safety priority items. And right now they had the highest priority ones anchored in the upcoming fiscal

132year, and then the tier two ones anchored about 5 years out. And they're taking a look at those and kind of conceiving of what how you could group elements of those into projects to be able to either organize around certain schools, priority items, or cost savings. Like if we knock out everything in a all related items or related trades, can we save money on the district by doing that? So, they should be delivering something along those lines towards the end of this month, and that's, you know, that we're going to take a look at as we try to then take what they gave us to begin to develop an operational plan for the next 5 years. I have a question about uh kindergarten enrollment, and it's just as it relates to capacity. I don't know

133if now's an appropriate time to ask the question. No. Yes. Um I I anticipate that kindergarten enrollment isn't finalized. Not at all. >> Um when would you I mean, I know the first day of school is the day that it's >> Actually usually the end of September. >> Fair enough. Okay, fair enough. But um Uh when would you anticipate knowing historically the trajectory of enrollment, would you anticipate that we're, you know, hitting the a lower slope of the growth in the kindergarten enrollment line? It's actually a fairly difficult question. I think what you saw in the memo is we're about 100 registrations behind right now. Um what we are not clear on is to what was the impact of opening 2 months late. And so, you know, we are doing a set of, you know,

134we're working with communications to do some additional outreach. We're putting up some banners, we're doing some additional flyers and advertisements to see what we can do to try to kind of accelerate the pace of things coming in. So, you know, I don't have a, you know, how far off are we right now? Difficult to say. We will compare to other numbers. We'll look again mid-June and then mid-July to see how whether we're accelerating because if it's about two months late, hopefully we'll see the rate of registrations come in picking up. So, we'll give you another update mid-June and mid-July to see where we are if we're closing that gap. Okay. And might you reach out to the Invest in Neighborhood Schools? It sounded like they had some potential opportunities to leverage some of their networks

135to make sure that everyone >> Absolutely possible. Yeah, no we're certainly up for, you know, some support in getting the word out there for sure. Thank you. Just to uh to build on what Maria is saying in regards to the reach out to uh kindergarten enrollment. It is enrollments in general, right? Uh maybe thinking about Yeah, I always leveraging like Evanston's cradle to career, right? Um and and uh having them reach out and fan out to to the different institutions, right? City of Evanston's part of that. Um Kofi. Kofi, right? Kofi, right? The Kofi parents. Um and and kind of leverage those folks to kind of do door-to-door if they can, uh which is what what they're really good at. And um those are those are some really Yeah, just uh good relationships that we

136we should be leveraging as we try to continue to enhance enrollment. Yeah, and I could just add So, one of the things that we did back in January and will do again is we created a communications toolkit that we have used to support our community partners. So, we create messages in English and Spanish. We have about 25 different organizations in the community that we partner with to send it out. Additionally, specifically with kindergarten enrollment, we reach out to all of the local daycares, preschools, city to ask them, "Hey, can you pop a flyer in, you know, the kids' backpacks? Can we put something on your bulletin board?" Um so, we are reaching out to community partners and doing that already. Um and I also already hit send an email to Katie to partner with that.

137So, we're working on it. Okay. Thanks. Building on uh Pat's point about kind of the long-term thinking, um one idea potentially for kind of structuring a process and a plan is to uh look at those uh look at the demography report um and anticipate enrollments based on roughly when the trough will hit. Uh and then based on those projected enrollments, figure out the number of classrooms that we actually need. Uh and then drill that down into the types of learning spaces that we would actually need again based on population. Cuz I do think it's important that we start to lead with the visioning and not so much leading with what we own now. Um and the state of or the amount of the deferred facilities. I think it would be more productive to think about

138what we need 20 years from now or I think it was Was it 2034 was the trough? Um something like that. So, even 10 years from now, kind of what do we need? >> was the point where we level out and then it kind of go goes up by about 10 the following year. Cuz I think if you take that approach, you also could then build in some potential flexibility in the spaces that you do have um and uh think about new buildings that can accommodate a little bit of growth, which again is very different from our current facilities, which can kind of be, you know, jigsawed together maybe or retrofitted uh to allow for additional growth, but but don't really have that built into the actual uh architecture or design. Yep. Um there's a

139state requirements to do an enrollment projections report that we deliver at the beginning of November annually. And essentially that will that's another round of numbers where we forecast out 5 years and that's using our own essentially a methodology that's used widely across districts, um but kind of goes back 3 years historical and projects forward. We are essentially we need to rebuild our data set because we're in new boundaries this coming year. So we're going to do that work this summer, but that memo will be back again because it is an annual requirement in November. And what you get is the enrollment as of the October 1st count date and then essentially projections that we do by school. This last year we did not do it by school because the boundaries were changing. So that that

140will be back in play and you know, again that who's included in it is a slightly different data set than the demography, but you can kind of see if the trend lines are all moving in the same direction. So one um I guess it's not any um a proposal of what to do, but I think it's a a proposal of how we need to begin to maybe explore. Um coming into the SDRP 3, we really the primary mode uh metaphor was utilization, right? We were talking about utilization. We wanted to get to 75% utilization. And then in the middle, we sort of brought in walkability became we began to balance between well, utilization might mean closing places that increase um that have increased walkability and I think some of us, you know, thought more about

141walkability than utilization. And now looking at our numbers and where we might be in uh registration and also where we are in terms of our cost for uh fixing, I think we might need to explore some other metaphors and I think that's where Studio GC can be helpful in terms of hub models. Do we need to think about closing um hate to say it a school in every feeder pattern? As we begin to talk about this, we have to put it out there, engage in conversations to then understand what is possible. Um and so I do think the the metaphors that we're using to think about what is a vision of our district going forward, we need to be clear about what those are we want to use as we engage with uh studio and

142GC and also with um the uh administration such that we're not getting to decisions of what to do and then saying, "Well, what are the metaphors we're each individually thinking about uh in closing?" And so I think that takes conversation with community and I think that's even feeder pattern um um even having conversations within feeder patterns um because feeder patterns are a little different in terms of how they might think about um um their school. So not a solution, but want to um be honest from my perspective that what I see in the um what we got back in the facilities and master facilities plan, this is more than just a conversation about um a feeder pattern, it's a conversation about all of our feeder patterns and we need to start um acknowledging that and

143coming up with the right way to um humbly and um talk about that. I agree. I think one of the things though that we should be careful about um in understanding the demography report and the you know as you saw the graph, there was a pretty steep decline um and then it sort of has leveled out over the future future years. And art while the entire country has declined by about 10% on average, we are two and a half times that. We're vastly greater than our the surrounding communities inclusive and I think that's just a reflection of the state of our district. Um and to to to the extent that as we go to have longer term conversations and really focus on educational excellence, I would want us to be mindful of uh our ability

144to accommodate additional enrollments as we move forward cuz I think you know, while the trend in the in the demographics is likely not to change, you know, movements go up and down and I think the other thing that we've seen that's very challenging and and will remain challenging through this fall is is equalizing or or you know, structuring the classrooms and the sections so that uh there aren't schools that are too small and ones that are have sections that are above guidelines. So, it's a challenge. So, I would not just say I appreciate Dr. Pinkard for raising this. Um another way I would say it for me is that we're going to have to close more schools. I mean, that's the future, a sustainable future. We also need to right-size administration. We need to do

145other things, just to be clear. But, I just want to we we have to be honest about where we are. We had 265 days from January 9th to October 1st. And we have burned half of those days with no forward progress. Every day that goes by is restricting our options. We like to talk about visioning. Trust me, I want a vision. I'm excited for that. We have 4 months. When are we going to get going on this? When are we going to have a plan? At least a plan to have a plan. And what are your ideas about that? I would suggest that we call a special meeting in the next week or two and immediately debrief SDRP3. From board perspective, from an administration perspective, from community stakeholder perspectives, what worked well, what didn't work.

146From that, shape expectations, shared expectations about um how we can structure the next process, both to get the hard decisions done, but also to keep us all together as a community. And then, 2 weeks later I'd schedule schedule another special meeting where we can start to delineate exactly how we're going to fold out that process over the next 4 months. We've got to get moving because every day we burn restricts our ability to do anything other than the bare minimum of what we have to do to reach our financial targets. So, um I think those are phenomenal. I think those are phenomenal ideas and I think we should explore working on them and also believe that the data is now in our hands. The we final report for Studio GC, we're about to get the

147HR audit. Um we have a better understanding of educa- of our um our registration. And so, I think there shouldn't have to be, well, we got to wait for more information now. I think conversations can now happen and move forward because the information is in front of us. We have our special ed audit. We're, you know, that's going to be time time for that to come out in ways that can impact the funding cuz there's a 3-year plan. But, to me there's no information that we're waiting for to me which was the challenge in these conversations earlier. >> had that information for a month or two, so I mean, you know, we could be moving. We haven't been moving. And I'll I'll just say to Andrew, like I think that's a great idea. I just

148want to remind us as we go through this process to just clearly keep in mind what our role is as board members and what the administration's role is as administrators. Because I think the thing that sometimes gets lost is the fact that the administration is a lot closer to this. We've got educators who their expertise is doing, you know, it is is running school districts. It's running schools. And I think when we initially started the SDRP processes, one of the things that was really important and one of the reasons why we brought in a consultant is because we didn't just want it to be a conversation about budgets and a conversation about what we were going to cut without fully understanding the implication to the district. So, I just want to caution us as board

149members as we move forward to just remember what our role is as the board and what we should be relying on and partnering with the administration on because they really are the experts in terms of what the impact is going to be on the district and on students. Amaya, I I honor that. But, I think I think we need a session for us to get it to you know, to get to get it together. You know, we can we can be more mindful of our board agreement. Um but, I think the idea of doing some reflection about where how we got to where we are now and how we want to move forward in a better in a more improved interaction and collaboration with each other. I think that's I think we need that reset

150so that we can start to as a board set what are our priorities? What's our vision? Can we come together around that so that we can move forward. Cuz we you know, we have some big decisions to make and we need to include the community as well. But, I I would like for us to have ourselves together before we come to the community because without that, I don't think it will be a very productive conversation. And the community and it the community needs to hear from us in a productive way. So, that's that's just my take on it. So, I hear you, but I also am in agreement with something that Andrew has brought forth in terms of Yeah. I agree with that. >> Okay. That's an action plan. I have one more thing. Okay.

151Um in alternative approaches to reducing District 65 structural deficit, I wanted to um have a discussion around uh partnering with potentially WestEd um to assist us in designing a definitive plan to reduce our minimum uh our MOE. Uh I think that it is beyond the scope of the directors and administrators job every day. It's a big big ask. We saw 2 weeks ago that they were, you know, analyzing 14,000 points of data. That is a tremendous amount of work to do um along with their regular day jobs, and I think it's unrealistic for us to believe um that they will have sufficient time to to really take a step out and and put together a a longer-term plan. As we looked at the trajectory of the MOE, we saw that there was essentially a doubling

152over 2 years, um which is inconsistent with the number of students that we were serving. Um and I think that it it it behooves us to assist the administration in really finding some viable solutions uh to that to that spending. Are you asking for a consultancy? Is that what you're asking for? I mean, I I'm I'm open to considerations, but I think it it you know, WestEd that as I understood it was part of their scope. We had caught we had brought their scope down um when Jenny came on board. I think Jenny has done a tremendous job, but she's had a lot of things to do from a personnel perspective, from you know, the survey, from all of the things that she's doing. Um and I just this is a it's it's important. It's

153$45 million. Um it's $20 million above what we spent in '21-'22 uh with not uh twice as many students that were are affected, and I think that uh I I it it it warrants a look from systems experts. I agree. If it I mean, it's so much money if we're talking about spending $100-$200,000 for I mean, this is I in my mind, we can't not know. I'm I'm open to talking about this. I'd also like to hear more from the admin themselves. I don't think Dr. Surwick is here. And we don't have to hear about it now. We can It's something something to consider. Yeah, something to consider. And I think Yeah, I like to hear from the admins, too. And the other thing is like the clock is ticking for, you know, I I

154think what we need, and and this isn't a, you know, this isn't necessarily something that the board comes up with, but something that the administration comes up with, and we understand and and, you know, this isn't the administration's fault because they've given us clear timelines and deadlines in the past, and we just don't listen to them. And so, I think what we need is some some clear criteria on when we need to make decisions because I think, you know, there's always more information that we can get and it's important to be comprehensive in getting information, but at the same time, if we're not making decisions when they need to be made, then that affects things downstream. It affects how we implement. It affects um other decisions that we're able to make. So, I think we

155need to, you know, for ourselves as a board >> get some clarity, some more clarity on timing um because to Andrew's point, a lot of time has already gone by and and I feel like the clock just continues to run out. And I'm worried about adding another audit No, we don't need an audit. We have that. >> Yeah, but or it just just uh or a consultation, some report that then we use in October to delay hard decisions. What? Um I think we're going to have to explore this no matter what because we're looking at cuts the next year and the next year. Um but I would just raise up we're we're up in it right now on 136 days to October 1st. So. So, let's use the action item of planning a meeting to

156get to a decision framework that we can adhere to and honor within our role as board members. And we can continue the conversation. You know, there was there was some things that were delayed because we had six board members. And we remained with six board members until well into January. So, I think that that could have been avoided. We could have avoided that. Um the outcome was clear at that time before it happened and and we could have avoided that delay. I don't think six board members is necessarily an excuse for not being able to make decisions. I mean, I think we can we can talk about this in board discussions, but I think that we need to find a way to be able to make decisions in a more timely fashion. All right, and

157I want to I want board members to retain all of that information so that we can then have a serious discussion about it during our closed session. Because that's that's where we need to talk to each other. Okay. Uh next item is approval of resolution. Maya? I move that the board approve the resolution authorizing intervention in proceedings before the state of Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board. Thoughts or questions on that one? So I I I guess I wanted to call out um just based on the speaker that came up that it was my understanding that the that the um district was really primarily targeting appeals in large commercial projects. Um not necessarily going to argue every homeowner's assessment uh questions. Can you speak to that, Tamara? Yes, that's correct. The um intervention that's provided by

158Franczek in which Franczek has been providing these services since at least 2000, so they have been um providing the intervention services to the district for much longer than 2022. Um and it would be primarily larger commercial um property owners, not individual homeowners, that would be that we would be intervening in and protesting their appeals. Thank you. Second. I'll take the vote. Weimer? Yes. Wilkins? Yes. Pinkert? Yes. Hernandez? Yes. Uptegrove? Yes. Van Nieuwstraten? Yes. Anderson? Yes. I move that the board approve the SY26 2026-2027 nutrition services satellite meal agreement. Second. No questions. Vote. Weimer? Yes. Wilkins? Yes. Pinkert? Yes. Hernandez? Yes. Uptegrove? Yes. Van Nieuwstraten? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Most action items are items that are part of the consent agenda. I move that the board approve the following items online as part of the consent agenda.

159Personnel, appointments, leaves, and separations. The April 2026 Board of Education meeting minutes. May 2026 bills payable. Extension of easement agreements with Metropolitan Water Reclamation District at JEH. The FY27 consolidated district plan. And the FY27 Title 1 school wide status for foster. Second. Take the vote. Weimer? Yes. Wilkins? Yes. Pinkert? Yes. Hernandez? Yes. Uptegrove? Yes. Van Nieuwstraten? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Next we have approval of dismissal of educational support as noted. I move to approve the resolution for the dismissal of educational support, Thomas Taylor. Second. >> Second here. Weimer? Wilkins? Yes. Pinkard? Yes. Hernandez? Yes. Oktay? Yes. Van Nieuwenhuizen? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Motion passes 6-0. I move to approve the resolution for the dismissal of educational support, Carl Dumas. Second. Weimer? Wilkins? Yes. Pinkard? Yes. Hernandez? >> Yes. Oktay? Yes. Van Nieuwenhuizen? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Motion passes

1606-0. I move to approve the resolution for the dismissal of educational support, Tania Garcia. Second. Weimer? Yes. Wilkins? >> Yes. Pinkard? Yes. Hernandez? Yes. Oktay? Yes. Van Nieuwenhuizen? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Motion passes 7-0. I move to approve the resolution for the dismissal of educational support, Pamela Flores. Second. Weimer? Yes. Wilkins? Yes. Pinkard? Oh, Hernandez? Yes. Oktay? Yes. Van Nieuwenhuizen? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Motion passes 6-0. >> Uh approval of contracts above 25,000. I move that the board approve the contracts above 25,000 for May 2026 as outlined in the memo. Does anyone have any questions? Discussion about contracts? I need a second. >> Second. Weimer? Yes. Wilkins? Yes. Pinkard? Hernandez? Yes. Oktavec? Yes. Van Nieuwenhuysen? Yes. Anderson? Yes. I move that the Board of Education appoint Dr. Angel Turner as President pro tem and Adeela Qureshi as

161Secretary pro tem. Second. Weimer? Yes. Wilkins? Yes. Pinkard? Hernandez? Yes. Oktavec? Yes. Van Nieuwenhuysen? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Motion passes 6-0. All right, we're transitioning to the vote for Board President. Nicole Pinkard and Dr. Nicole and Dr. Andrew Weimer have both submitted a letter of interest in serving as the President of the District 65 School Board. Are there any other nominations including self nominations for this position at this time? If If there's none at this time, any further discussion or questions? I have some things say. Um I'm hopeful that we can talk a moment here about leadership. Um as a board, um I have the letter I wrote, but that's online. Everyone can see that. I have some reflections. Um may I give them all in one piece? If what can I get my colleagues' patience

162while I share my thoughts? Okay. Um so first, I I want to thank Pat for her service to the district over the past 6 months. Um and I think it's important to name that Pat entered as board president when we faced at least three layered crises. Um the likes of which I suspect most school board presidents probably won't ever face one of them. Um while we disagreed quite a bit, I saw the toll on her managing all this, and I saw her working very hard as we faced horrible challenges. So I want to thank you, Pat, for your service. So um I think as we we see what's unfolded over the past year, we need to be self-critical, uh reflective, and just honest about where we are. Hold ourselves accountable. Um I think the best

163way to approach board leadership is to ask, um what do we need to accomplish? Start from that question and then ask who will help us get us there. Who has the skills to best take us there? But in reality, I think some of the dynamics on this board is that there are there is still distrust. And there is strong disagreement. And um I'm concerned that that may stop us from asking that question. Uh you know, it's pretty clear the emperor has no clothes. We are a dysfunctional school board. We have things to work on. Um you know, as we keep acknowledging that, we can keep moving forward. Our spring has been chaos. Before that, we were deadlocked. To be fair, we only had six members and we were in a very difficult position. We delayed.

164We put administration into an impossible spot. You know, this spring we've made no progress setting ourselves up for the almost 10,000 Excuse me, the 10 million dollars in recurring costs that we need to make through 2030. We um have instead focused instead of focusing really where we should be, which is policy vision. Um we've been in the minutia. Um line item by line item. Sometimes disclosing sensitive information about employees. And we've really been stuck in short-term thinking. Um I think that a healthy future for this district um will require the board and the administration to work together to serve the community. But our reality is that in this environment sometimes grandstanding and throwing administration under the bus gets more political points and positive emails and public comments than doing the really hard work of establishing

165healthy relationships of trust, support, and accountability. For instance, the board did know about the April 1st deadline before it passed. But the public was listening in a broader context of distrust. They reasonably believed that information that information that was shared and then in public comment they directed some undeserved anger at the administration. That's dysfunctional. That's failed leadership on our part as a board. We have to do better. I'm also concerned about continuing to concentrate board leadership power in the hands of one sides of the spectrums of this board. The public has repeatedly asked us to work together. The The has repeatedly asked us to work together. Yet here we are quite possibly about to concentrate power once more on one side of the spectrum of the board. You know, my experience through SDRP 3 was

166that board leadership too often used its power in ways that I felt advanced a certain agenda rather than the good of the entire board. There were times, multiple times, where I said, "Please be my board leaders, too." This is not good for us as a collective. It's not good for our district. We need collaborative board leadership that will work for the good of the entire board. When only Dr. Pinkard and I knew that we were the ones who'd expressed interest in president president, I asked chat GPT about how two strong personalities could work together in the president and vice president relationship amidst a severely divided severely divided board. I'm not endorsing AI here, but it suggested a situation in which board president and vice president mutually share control of the agenda and have to work

167out disagreements prior to board meetings. And I want you to know that I offered to run for vice president where we codified mutual control of the agenda. And there just wasn't support for that. We need collaborative board leadership that will find consensus on process. We may never agree on outcomes and decisions, but we should always agree on process. I've already mentioned the days that have passed, 200 uh 129 days, I think it was. We have no plan. We don't have a plan to have a plan. The The reason this came before the board in March as a topic was because Myra Virgin and I procedurally said, "We're going to call a special meeting if we don't add it to the agenda." We need board leadership that will rise to this moment. We need to get

168moving. I think we can do that together. Employee morale is cratering. We had folk go through the brutal process of SRP 1, SRP 2 thinking that there was going to be the end, and now we don't see the end. We have no end to the process. We're losing some fantastic fantastic employees whose expertise we've disregarded. We're losing some of the best candidates for positions because they see the mess we're in. And we're going backwards um when we lose these folk. And we have 5 million in this year, 3 million next year, 2 million next year. The only healthy way forward here is to ensure that board leadership includes, represents, and is thinking of the good of the whole board. I'm afraid that there's so much at stake here, and I really want to name there

169is so much at stake for all of us in our community that we might just not be ready to look past our disagreements, indifference, to center a mutually shared process, and letting outcomes fall where they may. I'm committed if I'm board president to ensure that we will all agree on process. We will not agree on outcomes or decisions. It didn't have to be this way. It doesn't have to be this way moving forward. Thank you. >> I didn't have to be this You know, when I joined the board, I don't think myself felt that I was going to be have to be board a vice president. That was not a desire to step into leadership. Um I think I asked um I know I asked and held conversations with those who were prior on the

170board and expecting and hoping that they would step up in leadership. But, that wasn't an option that folks chose. And so, I had to step into that role. And I made mistakes. I have I've always I think I've stood up to y'all and said that I've made some mistakes. But, what I've learned as vice pres- president has deepened my understanding of how we should work together, where we are strong, and I actually believe we're stronger and more connected, and don't disagree as much as we believe um people think we do. If you go back and look at our votes, our votes aren't always that different. We might have voted different on Lincolnwood, but Andrew, we don't disagree all the time. Um my commitment to when I stepped on board was to ask the questions. I'm

171going to ask the questions. I respect the administration. I respect the cabinet. But, I also feel that what the community asked for us was to be more transparent, ask hard questions, and then make decisions and move on. And I don't believe I've tried to hold decisions back. So, I leave this year with a clearer sense of what it is for take us take for us to lead with coherence. And the word trust, I actually trust everyone on this board. I've never used the word trust with anyone on this board. I assume everyone has positive intent and we might vote the same way and still get there for different reasons and we might vote differently and still very much believe in the same things. I don't distrust you. I respect all of you and I lead

172and I lead and and move from a sense of positive intent. So, I hope that trust um is something we can use the word, but we all have to do the work uh to make that happen. And part of that trust is being willing to have hard conversations. Andrew, I would say you are. We have we talk all the time, but all of us need to talk beyond just being on the dais. We need to begin to talk um with other um We need to find the time to meet with each other monthly to have the hard conversations. So, for me when I look ahead, I see several priorities that will guide our leadership. One is strengthen strategic alignment between the board and administration. Um and part of that has to do with our data

173systems. I now understand more so when we're asking questions about data, the assumption is that the systems are there just to be clear. And understanding through this year is like, "No, the systems sometimes aren't there." And that is not because of the cabinet and even the superintendent. These things have been inherited over time. But it doesn't mean we don't ask the questions. And then over time we calibrate what our expectations are. Tamara, want to call you out for the phenomenal work that you've done to give us the right fiscal systems with the um that we need. Um and we're definitely um going to miss you. But in that sense, I think we still have to focus on measuring, coming up with measures of progress, and understand how governance and administration work together. And to do

174that, we have to be able to say, "Hey, we disagree. Okay, you give more clarity." And that doesn't mean that there's a disrespect or a lack of trust um or lack of a pre- appreciation. For us, long-term res- for me, um long-term responsibilities, financial responsibilities in our in our district very much is related to facility decisions, but they're also related to transportation decisions. Um and all of these must work together. Um right now we only have one transportation model. I think we can think about are there other ways of um exploring different transportation models. So, for me all situations have to be thought about in the collective whole systems approach. And I know some might say that doesn't happen yet, but I truly believe we actually have the data in our hands that we can

175actually do this. We have partners in the community, and we actually have partners at Northwestern University who have been um partnering working with Dr. Turner, and they uh appreciate and definitely respect Dr. Turner a lot, and we can do more of that. We live in a unique city with a unique set of resources in the people in the community that are here. And having worked at a university that had its own charter school, when you use those resources that are available to you, they can allow us to take a unique and different approach to decisions we have in front of us. Um so, we as a board have a responsibility to model the cult the kind of culture we want to see throughout District 65. And to your point, we haven't done that. I don't

176think to a person we can say we've done that. But I think with the year underneath our belts, more understanding, and more guidance, and and ability to communicate, I think we can move forward in one grounded in respect, transparency, and accountability. And I have never used this word before, but I have felt in listening to the having used it here before and listening to the administrators, um healing. We need healing. Healing from board members to board members, from administration to um board members, to um staff. We need to do that healing, but that is not just because of this board. These things have happened because of multitude of boards, but it's in we're in the seat now to move that uh move that forward. So, to your point about um and the last thing I'll

177say, we have to main remain relentlessly focused on instructional excellence. We're talking about buildings, but buildings are there to educate our kids and we haven't been able to weave those conversations together in the ways in which they need to be and I think that's yes, my role in as a leader in this but I think it's also one of our roles and leaders of committees and how we're responsible for bringing these things up. So, as one of four new board members, I think this year was a year of hazing and learning and understanding more so the roles and responsibilities that are put in place for us and to respect the roles and responsibilities for administration. But um I believe that I did that from a sense of responsibility, a sense of curiosity and a sense

178of love for our kids and our community and with the goal of trying to make sure we're making our decisions for the best interest of kids and that necessarily which is hard because most of our decisions are going to impact adults. So, how do we make decisions that are best interest in kids understanding that they're impacting moving impacting the lives of adults. Um I think we're doing that and I think we can do more of that and I look forward to working for all of us. And finally, I don't view us as a split board. I mean I I view us and I don't view we have to stay that way. I don't believe Pat has always voted with everyone. I don't believe that's who we are and I refuse to accept that because we

179voted one way that that means that Myra and I can't find a way to vote together. Andrew, we can't find a way to vote together. So, I think when you put that out into the world that that's the way we're going to stay, that's the way we're going to stay. I just refuse to accept that. Are there any further discussion or questions? You know, I'll just say I know this has been an incredibly difficult year um and for any board member, being a board member is a tough job. Being a board member and a board leader under these circumstances, I don't think anyone has had to face this. I know I certainly didn't expect this when I was running. Um but with that being said, I do think that you know, some of our challenges

180this year um I'm hoping in the future having more transparency and having more engagement, um reaching out to board members who may not agree on different issues. I think that will help us move forward and I know Pat that that you tried to do that in a lot of cases, um but I think that a lot of the problems that we've had over the past year have been because of that lack of transparency and engagement members and then also with just really not understanding clearly the roles and responsibilities of what a board is supposed to do and what an administration is supposed to do. And so, you know, those are the things that I just I I feel like we have to do better and I'm just not sure if, you know, we're there yet.

181I think it's one thing to say that we respect the administration and it's another way to demonstrate it through our actions and I feel like we still have a great deal of work to do there. Um so that we can partner with the administration in a way that gets us to the best outcomes. Um and so that is something that I'm hoping, you know, as a board we can accomplish better in the upcoming year. I same I just want to express having been here for so long as a as a board member. I think the Watching you all as veterans, right? I think the the issues that's been a learning curve and this has been the hardest it's been a trial of fire for for the four of you. And what I've observed is that

182I know you want to make up where we maybe didn't we fell short in regards to making the administration work. How do I get that? But there's there's one there's a way there's doing that and then there's overstepping and trying to do the job of the administration, right? And make those decisions for them, right? Again, they are they are the administration is here to do that work, right? That's their role. Is to handle the business of what our our vision is. We we we we are we are the ones who have to create the vision and the only employee that we have is the superintendent. And it's through the superintendent that we have to make everybody else accountable, right? And so so so I think again, I'll notch this up this really difficult year. And

183again, I I want to thank our current leaders who again stepped up and were again have been trying to deal with this. But again, I think it's it's just it's been a a very very very tough tough learning curve for folks and again, it's just us recognizing what our responsibilities are, what we are how we what we are responsible for as board members is something that we still have to continue to work through, right? So, I look forward to having, you know, our our our our board conversations in closed session to kind of continue to work that out. Um But at the same time, we don't have time, right? And then and then there there there's these pending matters that we we are just way overdue in making these very very tough decisions. Uh and

184it's very easy to get swayed um by the public, right? Um It's not nice getting yelled at all the time or being told, you know, off and cussed out in public here in the in the days or in emails, but that's the work, right? And that's what we signed up for. Uh and I think I I I trust that all of us at the end of the day care about kids, we care about the educators, we care about all the folks who are doing all the stakeholders that are helping us do this work to try to create better outcomes for all students. But again, it's you know, we just have to again continue on this journey together, right? Uh really find ways for us to think all all stakeholders to collaborate uh uh to ultimately

185center children's outcomes and specifically the most marginalized students in our in our community. Are there any other discussions or questions? If none, we will now take a vote to elect a board president for the duration of 1 year. For the vote, please indicate Pinkard or Weimer as your name is called for your selection. Adela. Okay. Um Weimer. Weimer. Wilkins, Weimer. Pinkard. Pinkard. Hernandez. Weimer. Uptag. Pinkard. Van Austrand. Pinkard. Anderson, Pinkard. The vote is four for Pinkard and three for Weimer. Um I guess that's me. Okay. Um Chris Van Austrand and Maya Wilkins have both submitted a letter of interest in serving as as the vice president of District 65 school board. Are there any other nominations, including self-nominations for this position? Any further discussions, questions? I have a brief little statement. Uh first, I'd like

186to acknowledge Pat. She stepped up during an extraordinarily difficult time to lead with grace, humility, and a student-first mindset. Thank you, Pat. Uh as dictated by D65 policy, the vice president performs the duties of the president if the office of president is vacant, the president is absent, or the president is unable to perform the office's duty. That's the entire job. But as they say in the theater, there are no small parts, only small actors. Good team member embraces their role and finds ways to add value. In that spirit, I'm happy to support the president to ensure continuity of board operations. Uh I think I can also bring my experience with shared governance from my university career uh by working with my colleagues to recommend improvements to uh strategic agenda setting, information flow amongst board members

187and administrators, uh and the efficiency of our meetings and decision-making processes. Uh this last one's really important. We have limited time together in board meetings and a lot of work to do, so we need to use our time well. Uh finally, I don't feel like I'm part of a side or a voting bloc. I enjoy all my colleagues and work hard to make independent decisions, uh and I'm optimistic. Uh if we can collaborate effectively, remain aligned on our key work streams, and respect our differences, we have the opportunity to positively impact all D65 students for generations to come. Let's get it done. All right. I'll just say I felt compelled to put my name into the hat for vice president and not because of anything personally and you know, I look forward to working continuing

188to work in in any capacity with all of my board members as well. Um, I think Chris is a very nice guy and you know, appreciate his work on the board. Um, but I felt compelled to put my name into the hat just because I think that experience really matters here and I think that we are facing so many issues and so many challenges over the next year. Um, and I know how difficult it is not just to be a new board member, but then also to have to have a leadership role on the board. I think that the next year is going to take um, a high level of expertise, experience, um, and understanding of managing organizations, about how this school district works, about how public education works and I just think that it

189is, you know, I think that it's almost unfair to put someone in that role, um, who has not had a chance to really experience what it means to be on the board. Um, so, you know, again, this isn't personal and um, I think that uh, Chris Chris is being a, you know, a good board member and and you know, I look forward to working with the rest of the team no matter what, um, but I do feel a responsibility given all of the challenges that we have uh, to step up and try to help guide this district uh, into a better place because I know that the year ahead is going to be difficult. Any other questions? If not, we will now take a vote to elect a board um Sorry. Now, we will take

190a vote to elect a uh board vice president. Okay. For the duration of 1 year. For the vote, please indicate Van Nostrand or Wilkins as your selection. Weimer. Wilkins. Wilkins. Wilkins. Pinkert. Van Nostrand. Hernandez. Wilkins. Hopkins. Van Nostrand. Van Nostrand. Anderson. Van Nostrand. Vote is four for Van Nostrand and three for Wilkins. Next, we have board secretary. I move that the Board of Education accept the recommendation and elect Adeela Qureshi as secretary for the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Board of Education until its next reorganization meeting in 2027. Orderly second. Weimer. Yes. Wilkins. Yes. Pinkert. Yes. Hernandez. Yes. Hopkins. Yes. Van Nostrand. Yes. Anderson. Yes. I move that the Board of Education enter into closed session on May 20th, 2026, located at the Joseph E. Hill Education Center at 5:00 p.m. to discuss the appointment, employment,

191compensation, and performance of specific employees. Second. Weimer. Yes. Wilkins. Yes. Pinkert. Yes. Hernandez. Yes. Hopkins. Yes. Van Nostrand. Yes. Anderson. Yes. Any other business? Please note the FYIs. No. Okay. With no further business, I adjourn this meeting at Oh, my eyesight is bad. We need We need the gavel. We need the gavel. >> [laughter] >> Can you tell me what time it is? 8:54. 8:54. At 8:54. >> Mhm.