001The public hearing will commence. >> You want to drop your mic. >> There we go. All right. The the public hearing is going to commence at 9:31 a.m. Roll call, please. >> Yes. Today's Thursday, January 22nd, 9:31 a.m. Roll call. Pinker >> here. >> Hernandez >> here. >> Wymer >> here. >> Anderson >> here. And I just want to inform the public that uh Miss Updike and Miss Wilkins have professional obligations this morning, so they will not be here. And Dr. Turner is on her way. She's stuck in traffic. So, is there anyone here needing Spanish translation? Please raise your hand and Mr. Alam will assist you. Thank you. Um, at this time at 9:32 a.m., the District 65 Board of Education, pursuant to Illinois School Code, will convene a public hearing on the proposed
002closure of Kingsley Elementary School at the end of the 2025 2026 school year. We will first have a brief presentation followed by input from the community. So, I'll turn this over to Dr. Beardsley. >> All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Um, so first off, let's see if we get this going as usual. There we go. >> It should just be raised to the top. >> I know. We're getting there. All right. So, good morning and we thank you for being here. Today, we're hearing public comment on the potential school closure of Kingsley Elementary School. This closure scenario is one of the scenarios generated and processed by the facility subcommittee during the SDRP3 process and part of our discussions this fall. Before we kind of jump into a few of the details and some maps today,
003we're trying to bring information to the Kingsley community to understand the closure and the potential boundaries that would be associated with any closure. And I just want to thank the Kingsley community for being here and acknowledge that school closure is difficult. As an administration, we are working to make a plan that can be as um smooth as possible and supportive of staff and school communities should we move forward with this closure. Um we're starting this morning with the summary slide. Uh this is the scenario that moved through our SDRP3 process. One thing to note is that we've removed the program placement decisions from this slide because the closure hearing today is about the closure of Kingsley School. And so we're focused solely on that piece of this um in our conversations today. With the closure,
004potential closure of Kingsley School, we need to adjust district boundaries. It's important to understand that district 65 was already moving into new board approved boundaries for next school year with the opening of Foster School and the closure of Bessie Roads. So what we have here are essentially the district-wide boundaries that would be proposed for next year should the closure of that would be set for next year should the Kingsley closure go forward. It is important to know that there are boundary changes for the vast majority of the schools in the district with these boundaries. Many of these were going to be in place with the new with the previously approved board boundaries. All of the schools in the Haven feed the pattern and all of the schools in the Nicholls feeder pattern would have adjusted
005boundaries with this map and Walker School has adjusted boundaries. The boundaries do impact over 800 students with new school assignments. We zoom in in this slide to really isolate the Kingsley community and the Haven feeder pattern. Here we have the Haven feeder pattern. The black line is the overlay of essent of the Kingsley boundaries. And what we can see is that after getting feedback in the fall survey from the Kingsley community, we really tried to use um hazards or busy streets that the community identified as natural barriers to draw boundaries. And so we see that east of Green Bay has been assigned would be assigned to Warrington School. North of Central would be assigned to Willard. The area north of McCormack and south of Central is assigned to Lincolnwood and then south of McCormack is
006assigned to Foster. This is a further zoom in on our district website. we'll have access to a Google map where you can zoom in to your you can put in your particular address and see what the potential assignments would be or zoom in to just get a much more detailed view of the kind of a street level uh view of the proposed boundaries with boundaries. We've also been talking about this fall just exceptions that either were previously approved or requested by this board. What would be attached to this resolution would essentially be the codification of these exceptions, some of which have already been communicated and approved. There is a foster exception that when Foster opens, the board in 2022 recommended and committed to the fact that those foster families could continue in the school they
007are in if they chose to do so. A family would need to complete a permissive transfer. And what we've highlighted here in the condition that we would attach to this resolution is that we would honor that until the grade le as long as the grade level enrollment is not at capacity. Okay. So we want to be able to honor as many permissive transfers as we can, but there are some physical barriers around classrooms and school sizes that could limit some permissive transfers. This school board also asked that with new boundaries we consider a seventh and eighth grade legacy. What this would mean is with the new boundaries that students could finish at their current middle schools if they are in sixth or seventh grade currently. So they could finish up and graduate from their current
008middle schools. And then the school board in 2024 also passed a resolution for Bessie Roads to allow those students to continue at Foster should they desire to do so. they will be assigned with these boundaries to foster and would complete a return to homeschool if they chose not to do so. So these exceptions would also be attached to any resolution. I'm going to hand to Dr. Spth to talk about some of the transition should we be moving forward with the closure of Kingsley School. >> So given the number of transitions, we're currently planning to support students and their families in a number of ways. And just as a reminder as I'm talking about the ways we're um supporting families as the academics department um we include climate and safety, multilingual, IEES, schools management, programs and
009partnerships, curriculum and instruction and MTSS and interventions and my team meets every week for two hours. So this is the main topic of our discussions and how we can support transitions for our students and families. So currently we're working um on surprising providing seal supports u through culture and climate. Our climate and safety team is bringing face liaison throughout the district so students can get to know who they are um and have a familiar face as they transition. An example of this is that two of our face liaison have been working with the foster transition team and principal to get to know students as they transition into foster and we can create the same model for other students making transitions. um our multilingual and IES teams will continue to coordinate their ongoing collaboration in and
010working with each other to make sure that we develop um student centered academic plans. We're working to support leaders developing student centered schedules. This means that we focus building on skating schedules that meet the needs of all students and there is a first focus on IE and multilingual students. Um, we currently have two open houses scheduled for each of our schools and this is going to give students and their families a chance to get to know their new school communities. We'll also work with school leaders to schedule meet and greets for incoming families. Um, currently there's a foster family engagement meeting scheduled for February 4th and we'll continue to provide March dates as we come up with those March dates. Um, we're going to work with registration the registration team to schedule enrollment and information
011and support sessions. Um, we're working with each receiving school to develop swag bags, kind of a welcome wagon approach to welcoming new students and new families. We'll also work with receiving schools to create a buddying system. So, as you're a new student, you've got a friend and a familiar face. Um, we'll very much so partner with our community organizations like PTAs and work with them to develop outreach plans for receiving schools. And our schools will also have end of year celebrations that will close one chapter and open up another. So, this slide shows you all of the open houses that we have scheduled. And I do want to point out the Foster Elementary does have one. We will have additional family engagement meetings. It's just that they're different because there's not building to go to.
012So, the family engagement sessions will provide opportunities. I would encourage everyone to try to make the February 4th month to get to know Principal Kell and hear some of the amazing plans for Foster. >> All right, I'm going to pick up here. Um, should we move forward with closing Kingsley School? Actually, regardless of whether we move forward with closing Kingsley School, District 65 is planning to send essentially a school assignment email to every student in the district the week of February 2nd. Uh because there will be new boundaries for next school year. Families for each student will get a letter stating next year's school assignment and then the letter will ask the following things. One, when it is opened, you will be logging into P school parent. that will acknowledge our receipt of that email
013and then the family is going to be asked to take one of three steps. One is to accept the school assignment. Should the family uh prefer something else than the def the school assignment, the family could also then request a permissive transfer or a return to home school. A permissive transfer is requested if a family wishes to attend a different neighborhood school than the one they are assigned. And again, that request will need to be evaluated based except on exceptions and capacities before it is approved. All permissive transfer requests need to be submitted by March 1st, 2026. A family, if they're assigned to a program, an ACC, a TWE, or a King Arts, could also uh complete a return to home school. So that would might be a family that uh potentially lives in an
014Orington boundary, maybe is in a twe and wants to return to Orington. They would complete that. These steps are all outlined in the communication that families would receive March 2nd. And we're also scheduling different support sessions, including being available at the most impacted schools during conference week to answer questions to support people in the process so that we can get as many people to complete this process by March 1st, 2026, whether it's confirming assignments or potentially requesting an alternate placement generally timeline because one of the questions we get is like how would that work once a permissive transfer or other request is submitted? You can see here letters out the week of February 2nd. We're trying to provide support through Q&A, videos, and being on site for family conferences the week of February 9th. Permissive
015transfers requests are due by March 1st. And this does need to be a hard deadline because we've got to be able we want to be able to respond to families. And by April 1st, we will issue our initial responses to permissive transfer requests to families. That response could look like accepting the permissive transfer request and the family gets the school that they requested. It could look like declining that request or it could look like moving a family to a wait list if we're not certain that we have the capacity at this time. And then we would continue to visit those permissive transfers all the way up into early August to try to place families. Again, we'll try to place as many as we can early because we know that's priority. those that we wait list.
016It's because we want to give the maximum chance to place families. >> Melissa, >> so this is just a reminder of the upcoming dates um for the public hearing. So, one was held last night. We have an additional opportunity um this evening at 7:15 so that the board could hear um public comment uh followed by the special board meeting that will be held at 8:45 tonight where the board will vote on the resolution for the closure of Kingsley Elementary. >> Thank you, Cabinet. Now, we're going to move into public comment. >> Okay. All right. Um I'm going to read the guidelines. um for the public comment and we will strictly adhere to them. Um members of the public are welcome and invited to address the board during a public hearing. An individual may not sign
017up other persons to speak on behalf of another person. Speakers may not yield their time to another person. In addition to the public hearings, the board will collect written comments until January 22nd, 2026 at 6 pm. Handheld posters will not be allowed in the room during a public comment public hearing as it may obstruct the view of audience members. When an individual is called to speak, the individual shall proceed promptly to the microphone area where they will have three minutes to present their remarks to the board. Given the sole purpose of the public hearing is to discuss the proposed recommendations to close Kingsley Elementary School, the board expects that speakers will limit their statements to those related to the topic at hand. The board values and welcomes courteous, respectful, and civil behavior from all speakers
018and all individuals in attendance at the public hearing. Profane language and disruptive behavior are prohibited. Individuals who are disruptive may be given a warning and or may be also removed from the public hearing. If there are any questions that arise as a part of the comments, the board and administration will attempt to answer them in future communication or a later meeting. We will call up five people at a time to give individuals an opportunity to make their way to the podium. We have Christine Pereski, Kristen Dao, Jackie Ogawa, Kate Michelle, and Liz Wins. >> May I start? >> Yes. Good morning. My name is Christine Pesky. I'm an Evident Evston resident and the parent of two children at Kingsley. I'd like to start by publicly recognizing the fantastic staff and educators at Kingsley. In particular,
019I'd like to recognize those who've gone above and beyond for the Kingsley community and my children, including Mr. Raval, Miss O' Conor, Mr. Leapitz, Miss Horton Irving, Miss Rosenberg, and Mr. Rainey. In addition to being the parent of two Kingsley kids, I'm also an associate professor at Northwestern. My area of expertise is inequality among American families and children and I have published my research extensively on inequality in many academic research journals and in public facing outlets like the New York Times. With my remaining time, I'd like to call your attention to an issue that has not not been sufficiently addressed and that is the reegregation of D65 schools. To be clear, I'm entirely in support of building an elementary school in the fifth ward. And if closing Kingsley, my children's school, will move Evston closer
020to addressing racial inequalities, I'm entirely in favor. I have serious concerns, however, about how the school attendance boundaries are shifting and the resulting reegregation of students by income and race. For example, the proposed boundary changes will result in Willard and Lincolnwood having less than 10% of their students on free and reduced price lunch, while over half of students at Oakton, Dawson, and Foster will have reduced and uh free lunch. Obviously, schools cannot single-handedly solve the problem of residential reg segregation by income, race, and ethnicity, and immigration status. But our schools can help foster integration and change. We can have a school in the fifth ward without resegregating our schools. With the changes in attendance boundaries being considered, we are going back in time and resegregating our schools. D65 is set to contribute to the nationwide
021trend of school districts becoming increasingly racially and economically segregated. And this is not a trend we should be following. Why should we be concerned with schools being resegregated by income and race? There are multiple obvious reasons, but I want to emphasize a few points, including that resegregation negatively affects all children, including children from lower and upper income families and from all racial and and ethnic groups. School resegregation is likely to contribute to further segregation and friendship circles for kids and families in Evston. We're likely to see fewer crossclass and cross-race friendships as a result of this change. School reegregation is likely to undermine support for efforts that pull resources across schools like the PTA1 fund. The current school board did not make the decisions that put us in this position, but the current school board
022is voting on attendance boundaries and future school closings. We should not double down on walkability and neighborhood schools. I urge you each to consider if there's any changes you can make to boundaries to reduce economic segregation and resource segregation. Can I start? Yeah. Hi, good morning. My name is Kristen Dao and I'm a parent of a fourth grader and a second grader at Kingsley. Um, I live east of Green Bay Road. Um, mo most of the community that we've built over the past 5 years is west of Green Bay Road. Um, after months of uncertainty and changing direction, families are now being told that our community will be split across four different schools. After so much instability, that level of disruption is especially hard on children. I'm not asking for additional boundary changes. I'm asking
023for flexibility for current students during this process. Um, I have two requests. First, the opportunity for permissive transfers for all Kingsley current students with decisions made early enough for families to plan. The typical timeline with answers coming close to the start of school doesn't work here. Second, a single receiving school option for families who want to stay together without limiting families who do prefer their new neighborhood school. There's room at multiple schools for this. I also want to emphasize the importance of taking care of our teachers and staff. They are what makes this school so special and they too deserve clarity and sufficient time to plan for where they will be next year. Moving forward over the next couple of months, I am asking for clear timelines and flexible options which would go a long
024way to help students feel stable and supported during this transition as well as help gain back trust from parents that was lost in this process. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Jackie Ogawa. Good morning. I want to say thank you for your commitment to the community and um I have two children at Kingsley, a first grade and a kindergarten in Nicholson and Zuro. They're fantastic. We've benefited tremendously from having a community school. Um I do agree that diversity is a hallmark of living in Evston and the opening of foster school does put that in jeopardy. Um, I'm in the pocket of Kingsley kids that are going to be redistricted to Lincolnwood. Um, the staggered closure scenario was my my worst fear really of having my kids being moved twice both at Kingsley and then
025next year Lincolnwood. Um, in our neighborhood, people are glad they're they're adaptable to going to Lincolnwood next year. And it puts us in a hard situation with permissive transfers of, you know, do we abandon the neighbors, putting Lincolnwood in greater jeopardy of being closed next year. Um, it's something for you to think about. Um, I appreciate your time. Thank you. Hi, I hate public speaking, so this is my literal nightmare. Um, my name's Kate Reckle. I'm a mom of four, three current Kingsley students and then one who joins D65 in the 2930 school year. Um, I'm also the daughter of two lifelong public school educators in a large district similar to D65 and they each changed schools once. Um, and it was disruptive even though there was plenty of notice and it was a choice
026that they wanted. So, while watching these board meetings, I took note of Kelly Post every time there was a meeting calmly, respectfully requesting that educators and teachers be treated with humanity. And while we've heard their needs mentioned many times, we've not heard any commitments specifically from the board, but also from the administration regarding meeting those needs. And while Kingsley parents and children have a lot of our own feelings to manage, we also care deeply about advocating on behalf of these teachers. This board, who owns the delay in this closure confirmation that puts the administration in a hard situation, we all understand that, must also take ownership of ensuring the teachers are treated with respect and decency. They deserve objective, clear commitments and at a minimum one-on-one in-person engagement with Kingsley teachers regarding grade preference and
027school assignments. All possible efforts must be made to place a teacher not in just an endorsed grade and subject, but also a preferred grade and subject. Our teachers are incredible. We so far have had Miss Nicholson, Miss Aravel, Mr. Heidi. We love them all. They are incredible. our teachers. What makes a life-changing kindergarten teacher is not the same as what helps a fifth grader become an adolescent. And if we waste that talent, we're doing both our students, our teachers, and ourselves a disservice. In addition, paid time off after the last day of school to pack up the classrooms with parent volunteers. We want to help um not just Kingsley parents. I know that others are interested supportive adjustments to evaluation schedules for teachers. I know that's been mentioned already, but can you imagine this is
028stressful. Why do we need to evaluate them next year? And then the board must ensure at a bare minimum that contract decision dates for reduction enforced placements, those are AP and placements April and May are met with finality. There should not be changes in the summer. This is not this doesn't need to be an extenduating circumstance. So let's, you know, make it work. You're accountable to honor those teachers contracts without exception. By all means necessary. No excuses. The burden of the school's closure can't continue to fall on the educators. The board and the administration owe it to our teachers to figure it out as they do every day. You've got a community of parents who are begging to help in some way. We want to improve this. Please lean into that support. Thank you. >>
029Hi, my name is Liz Woolen and I'm a founding member of Invest in Neighborhood Schools and a D65 parent. I know there's a lot of work ahead for the administration and a lot on their plates and I appreciate the timelines that were presented today. But I formally want to ask that you remember that at the end of the day, the hardest tasks ahead of us are the conversations parents in this community have to have with their children. Conversations about which teachers and staff will be in their school next year, what school they will be attending, and what schools their friends will be attending. While our friends at Kingsley will carry the brunt of these conversations, every family and staff member in this district is impacted. Please prioritize the decisions for Kingsley families. ensure that they
030have answers on boundaries that won't change, that incoming fifth graders can stay with their friends, and their ability to permissive transfer um that they understand their permissive transfer decisions going into summer break. Do not make them wait. Please, as much as possible, give the staff in the district a seat at the table when it comes to placement decisions and ensure they have time and support in closing and moving classrooms. Also, as soon as possible, please reach out to our PTAs. All of the PTAs are very willing and eager to help and they are having very similar conversations and I think it would be good to coordinate with them um on next steps. Thanks for your time and empathy over the coming months. >> Next, we have Katie Armstead and Peter Buggera. >> Hi everyone. Uh
031Katie Armistad from Invest in Neighborhood Schools. Um you know, I have a a laundry list of reasons why we should be reintroducing the residency requirement for our superintendent. I did not have traffic on my list, but I will put that back on our list. Um, I'm not a Kingsley parent, but I did want to make a short comment in support of the Kingsley uh community and families. Um, if you are a family in D65 who is returning to your school next year, which includes myself, specifically Lincolnwood, Willard, and Orington families, now is our chance to step up. It's not fair to the Kingsley community to leave this on their shoulders to support their kids, their teachers. Um, I think if we leave it up to the people in this building, no matter how exceptional you
032are at your jobs, we're setting ourselves up for failure. we have to step up and support them. I sat on a Lincolnwood PTA Zoom earlier this week and for like over an hour ideas flowing about how we can support the Kingsley community. So reach out to your PTA because uh they're all there to support. Um my second point is uh for the administration and the board. Um the the nerds ran a really exceptional survey that you guys are going to be hearing about uh later today. I think we should really be listening to the Kingsley communities. I think we should be revisiting the permissive transfer schedule and timeline here. Um, they're asking for guaranteed placement. We spent, I don't know, the last six months shouting how empty the schools are in the Haven feeder pattern.
033There's capacity. You know, let's take care of these families. Um, and give them some finality. Um, and then lastly, I just want to say I think we can be using the next 8, nine months not just as something to kind of get through and slog through, but really an opportunity to transform this district and bring families closer together, bring staff closer together. Um, so I am looking forward to that. Thank you. >> Morning. Uh, I admittedly wasn't necessarily planning to come here, so furiously dotting jotting down some things to say, trying to take inspiration from my third grader bravely stood up here last night. Um, the good news is I'm not going to ask to be hauled out in front of the cameras. Um, I did like I think it's really important here to address
034um something from a scheduling standpoint. Um, last night, for those who don't know, up here, there was an orchestra concert that that impacted the ability for Kingsley community members and other members of the community to attend. Um, I think it would have gone a long way when announcing the scheduling of these to at least acknowledge the the awareness that that existed and that we, you know, simply have to manage a lot of schedules. it would have made it feel a lot more humanizing and um honoring the the ability for community engagement. And then today's morning hearing, I think uh absence speaks volumes. So we have a third of the board unable to attend. Um recognize that some pe for some people daytime uh is better for these opportunities, but it also poses an obstacle for
035many as well. Um, it's a privilege to be here for any of us who were able to make it. You know, not everybody has that flexibility. Um, I strive to be here to speak up for people who can't. Uh, I think community engagement can take on many different forms. This is just one of them. Um, you should hear the voices present and absorb everything that everybody is saying to you, but also acknowledge what the absence says as well. And that means that you all have work to do. You have to roll up your sleeves. You have to get through to the people who you're not hearing from today and make sure that their voices are being heard. Um, and then I think it's another thing that's really important is to figure out in earnest over
036the next couple weeks, and this is maybe something that you're already working on, um, what are those minimum capacities at these other haven feeders. You know, we saw the slide that showed kind of what the asurances um, are that have been given in the past based on closures and openings for Foster and Bessie Roads communities, respectively. what are the equivalents for uh Kingsley? How can we evaluate these things? Because ev everybody's had this lingering uncertainty hanging over their heads for I don't know six eight months. Um so a final vote gives some level of finality but the what ne what's next is equally um equally important and specifically I also wanted to note that there's a pocket of people who are reassigned to foster next year who don't have have the option to say return
037to home school because their home school is Kingsley right now. So I think we need to like explicitly call out what options they have as well. Um and then lastly one thing I think that's been absent class size. Please talk about class size whenever you're talking about consolidation. It's really important. Thank you. That is the end of the uh public comment for people who signed up. But we have time to entertain uh speakers who were not able to complete the signup list. You will have three minutes as well to speak. I see a hand in the back. Come on down. >> Just please state your name when you get to >> Yes. >> actually have a handout as well that I'll pass around afterwards. >> Good morning. My name is Malia Gertzma and I'm a
038current Haven and former Kingsley parent with several decades of experience in environmental land use and civil rights legal and policy advocacy. Quote, "This is a mediocre district of small housing adversely affected by its proximity to the railroad and the Chicago drainage canal on the south. The southeast corner is the least desirable as it now houses a number of negro families. These families, however, are being slowly eliminated, and the properties are coming into somewhat stronger hands. A new school um east of Prairie between Lincoln and Kfax ridded the area of part of them as the housing was condemned for the use. This is a direct quote of a description of my Kingsley neighborhood from the 1940 maps developed by the Homeowners Loan Corporation, which are widely recognized as a foundation of red lining. The map graded
039my neighborhood as C residential compared to the rest of North Evston north of the canal that was graded A and B residential and the fifth ward that was graded D residential. 15 years before this map was created in 1925, there were upwards of 20 black households living in this neighborhood. These individuals and families live primarily along the railroad tracks in single and multifamily housing because the land along the tracks was considered less valuable on a number of levels. But over the next several decades, those families were systematically cleared from this land to build First Haven Middle School and then Kingsley. This is the history of my Kingsley neighborhood and our school. It wasn't until earlier this year when I saw a 1925 photo of two black children standing in the middle of what was to
040become McCormack Boulevard with houses to their right. So on the land that became Kingsley that I fully realized and acknowledged the that black families had lived here 100 years ago and that they were forced out to build our school. Today, my Kingsley neighborhood faces deep housing affordability and racial segregation challenges that are reflected in the school itself. And so, as we once again move forward with closing Kingsley, I asked the board to consider why is it Kingsley is the only North Evston school currently slated for closure? Why are we now only closing the last of today's four North Evston schools to be built and the school that has served the most disadvantaged part of North Evston outside of the fifth ward from a historic zoning perspective? And on the flip side, is there a positive
041lesson we can draw from the community that Kingsley did built given this origin and its character? I am not asking that the board keep Kingsley open. Instead, I'm asking us to dig deep to think why it is relatively easy to close Kingsley and whether it is the only step we need to take towards equity today and tomorrow. Thank you. And the handout I have is um a photo, the photo that I referenced. It includes a map of the black families that were noted in the 1925 directory. And it includes um the zoning map from 1940 from my neighborhood, which is the area immediately surrounding Kingsley. Good morning. My name is Jess Loftess. I am the current PTA president at Kingsley. And I just wanted to reiterate the request to work together on moving forward. As
042you notice, some of our friends have Lincolnwood Love Kingsley shirts. I am almost brought to tears by that. But we have big parent communities. We are working closely across the PTA council. It's not just north side, it's north side, it's southside. We're all being impacted. We are also talking about swag bags. My phone is also ringing off the hook with how we can be welcomed. So, I please ask that you engage even with a small group of the PTA leaders um so we can get back with our communities and let them know that we are working together on how we're going to do this. Thank you all. Thank you. >> With the uh culmination of public comment, I want to thank everyone for their participation at today's meeting. The third and final public hearing will
043be held today, January 22nd, 2026 at 7:15 p.m. After the public hearing, the board will be voting for the closure of Kingsley Elementary School at this evening special board meeting scheduled to begin at 8:45 p.m. I move to close this public hearing at 10:08. >> Pinkard, >> yes. Hernandez. >> Yes. >> Wymer. >> Yes. >> Anderson. >> Yes. >> Thank you.