[11/20/25] D65 - SPECIAL BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING

001They're all Thank you. I call this meeting to order at 5:17. Adila, can we have the roll call? >> Yes. Pinker >> here. >> Hernandez >> here. >> Wymer >> here. >> Wilkins >> here. >> Anderson >> here. [clears throat] >> I move that the board approve tonight's meeting agenda as presented. >> Second. Pinker, >> hold on one second. >> I'm sorry. I was looking I should say that I move that the board approved tonight's meeting agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Pinker. >> Approved. Yes. >> Hernandez, >> yes. >> Optike, >> yes. >> Wymer, >> yes. >> Wilkins, >> yes. >> Anderson, >> yes. Welcome everyone. [clears throat] The 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

002to air specific concerns about staff members, being mindful that the public comment period is not a suitable forum for factf 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. We have 44 speakers for public comment. So, each speaker will be allowed 1 minute and 30 seconds. Please remember to state your name and that you have that amount of time to address the board. Speakers may not yield their time to someone else. Please refrain from applause between speakers, so we may respectfully allow all speakers an 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

003emailing schoolboard district 65.net. Just one second. I'll call the first five people up. Kelly Post, Mara Collins, Annie Roth, Kimberly Hyde Leonard, Thomas Weber. Good evening. My name is Kelly Post and I am the president of Deck. Deck acknowledges that the budget crisis is real and difficult decisions will need to be made. We want to reassure the community that your children's well-being and education remain our priority. Thank you. [applause] Start. Keeping Lincolnwood open is a vote for a long-standing multi-dimensional school located on a one-of-a-kind property. I make this statement having lived directly across from Lincolnwood for 30 years and as a 30-year public school teacher. Most importantly, Lincolnwood has provided over 110 years of continuous public education to a cross-section of our city's children. This consistent track record through Evston's long history stands on its

004own as a powerful reason for keeping the school open. Secondly, the school is located halfway between Green Bay Road and Crawford Avenue. This central east west location makes Lincolnwood easily adaptable and thus ideally prepared to be at the forefront of north side district student feeder scenarios both now and in the future. Third, Lincolnwood is directly adjacent to Perkinswoods, part of the Cook County Forest Preserve System. No other school in Evston has similar proximity to a comparable natural learning lab. A site where students can experience and study firsthand a thriving, accessible, and visitor-friendly wooded prairie ecology. Nature is literally in the students backyard. Fourth, Lincolnwood is surrounded only by homes and apartments. Streets are residential, so traffic congestion and related safety issues around the school are minimal. Additionally, commercial vehicle presence and density concerns for families

005are essentially non-existent. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Good evening. My name is Annie Roth and I'm a Lincolnwood parent, a daughter of and a daughter of a lifelong District 65 teacher. For months now, I've heard board members speak about facts, data, and building trust in the community. Yet, here we stand tonight, voting on the one school closure of my beloved Lincolnwood school, the school I went to in the9s, and where I proudly send my two children today. Facts, and data are not the first thing that come to mind when I think of Lincolnwood. I think of the pictures property, school field trips to the woods, learning empathy through interacting with wildlife. However, it's facts, data, and trust that should continue to lead tonight's vote. And if that's what you plan to follow, I ask that

006you please defend any reasoning behind clo voting for the closure of Lincolnwood. With a thriving STEP program, projected increased enrollment, messy redistricting boundaries, and legalities of land usage, why would this be your best move? And if you truly believe in the work of SDRP, it's been proven that closing Lincolnwood will not yield the best return. So, what it looks like to me is a few board members who didn't get their way potentially making a very wrong decision out of a desperation to close any property they can at this point. As Dr. Dr. Turner said at the last meeting, she's a little over this. While we're all more than a little over this, do we let that logic irreversibly close a historic property? And lastly, as lifelong Evstonians, my husband and I both are in disbelief

007at the level of divisiveness this has caused our community. Accusations of privilege, racism, pinning north versus south is heartbreaking and something I hope we can heal from. Thank you. [applause] Good evening. My name is Kimberly Hay Leonard. I am a lifelong Evston resident, a proud district 65 alum, and a Lincolnwood parent of two. Neighborhood schools give kids the stability they depend on. They also provide essential access to programs like STEPPP that his that serve historically underserved learners. Removing STEP from its home is a a disservice to not only STEP students, but to the peers who support them every day. Moving a child is disruptive. We know this. But for children who rely on additional assistant, that disruption is especially profound. These aren't all talking points. They're just daily realities of our kids. When you break

008their stability, the harm is real and lasting. I'm asking you to give serious, focused attention to the long overdue opening of Foster. That community deserves a strong, thoughtful launch, not chaos, not divided attention. The administration at the last meeting floated the possibility of swing schools for closed buildings without having a clear plan. that erodess trust especially when those same buildings that you're talking about are potentially slated to be used as schools. So I need to ask you directly I will will you be the one to stand in front of district 65 kids who live here who feel safe here and tell them at some point their other students can learn in their school but they cannot will you tell them their community can be uprooted but their building is still convenient enough to be used

009when the district needs it or our district is not a community it's a and it's not a backup plan. Our district is a community. It's not a backup plan. We are here because we are invested and we will keep showing up. Not to block progress, but to protect our children, our programs, and the communities that make district 65 strong. Thank you. [applause] >> Good evening. Uh my name is Thomas Weber, a future Willard parent. I'm here uh tonight to urge the board to use the only publicly defensible method to fill the board vacancy. Follow the spring 2025 election results. Board policy provides a way of accumulating uh resumeumés, but it provides no criteria for choosing among applicants. The legitimacy of this decision therefore depends on grounding it in something objective and fair. And the clearest

010standard we have is the will of the voters from seven months ago. The board has taken this approach before. In 2021, when a vacancy opened, the board appointed the runner up in the prior election. That choice made sense then, and it makes sense now. In 2025, turnout was high with over a dozen candidates running, and the fifth place finisher earned more votes than two current board members have ever received in any election. Selecting someone who never appeared on a ballot would allow six individuals to override the preferences of tens of thousands of residents. Following the 2025 election results is the only responsible path. Any other path will look like politics. Following the will of the voters will look like democracy. Thank you. [applause] Next we have Andrew Roland, Matias, Shannon Tam, Billy Garcia, Emily Garcia,

011Mark Zeski, Lizzie Turkimer, Uh, hi. I'm Andrew, proud father of three D65 students. Uh, I'm also the the graph guy. Uh, so I brought more props today. Uh, we've seen this trend before. Families want to live here. They're driving up home prices. ETHS enrollment is also up 20% this decade. Um, but D65 enrollment is down 20%. Uh, so we need to make D65 an exciting and academically strong place to be. Uh, I would love to get us back to 8,000 students someday soon. Uh, the best way to do that is by improving student achievement. So, I have a long list here of examples of proven cost-effective ways to do this. These ideas build confidence, which we really need right now because trust is really at a low. uh but instead the one extra idea shoehorned

012into the STRP scenarios is shrinking the two-way immersion program. Uh an idea that feels arbitrary, unexplained, and completely at odds with both the political climate and the data. You see, uh Spanishspeaking enrollment is rising uh even as the rest of enrollment falls precipitously. Uh and so Twe is is On top of that, it's one of the few strong academic draws bringing families to D65. So, you have a chance to build trust tonight. Let's slow down on this whole tweet thing, get real data on real Spanish speakers, uh, and find options that strengthen us. Thank you. [applause] >> Hi everyone, my name is Matias. I'm a D65 parent who immigrated from Argentina and chose Evston because of its diversity and community values. I'm also the proud parent of that rockstar that was here, the third grader

013Monday night. I want to speak about twe tonight. And this, by the way, is not anti- foster or school closings or budget reduction. It is pro- Twe. And the truth is 2 + 1 is not two. There's enough space at Foster and Willard and we should and we can continue this thriving program. The reality is that a dual immersion program as the word states is not something that should be excluded or segregated. And the real immersion becomes not only from the classroom experiences. It's actually the community and the entire school that benefits and enriches from that TWE program. So here's a question that many of us throughout the meetings and some of the committees that we all participated ask. Why is the administration proposing to close to a wheeler? Why? We have not gotten the

014responses. It's not about enrollment. It's not about capacity. It's not about the savings. Nobody showed how much money we would save. So please I ask ask the board to raise these questions and clearly state that twe at Wheeler would not be closed even in the no school scenario. Good evening. My name is Sharon Tan. I am a willer parent with a first grader um in the two-way immersion program as well. Um we also have a three-year-old. Uh we are a multi-racial family living in the six ward. Our girls are triilingual, Spanish, Chinese, and English, and we have worked hard to maintain their multilingual and multicultural identities, which is why we are very disheartened um by the unilateral decision to close Twe at Willer in every school closure scenario. This seems to be done without clear

015explanation or supporting data and without feedback from the Twe community being impacted. We have seen contrary data to suggest there is room and need for twe at both Foster and Willard. Willard twe program has helped my daughter um normalize speaking Spanish outside of the home and more importantly see that she is not the only one. With many impending changes ahead, I urge the board to please take closing will tweet out of the current voting scenario. reassess after a thorough review of updated data based on actual program utilization and do it with engagement from the impacted tweet community. Thank you. [applause] Buenosardes. Good evening. My first grader who corrects my English pronunciation and who was shy to speak Spanish because none of her the other kids at her preschool did now confidently chats with her family

016in Guatemala in Spanish. This is very meaningful to me, but even more significant it is that she is part of a thriving community of bilingual by and bicultural families in our neighborhood school. Wellard, I can see that she is proud and comfortable being of a mixed race bilingual um and bilingual and feels firmly a part of the Willer family community. This is not luck or an accident. It is because Willard Twe is an established program at the at the school and has been able to develop over time and is supported by a group of dedicated and high-erforming teachers. I too feel fully a part of the Willer community. And when just a few weeks ago I did not feel safe going to pick her up at school because of ICE's presence, I knew that my

017fellow community members would take care of my daughter and her friends in my absence. Thank you, District 65, for this very special opportunity for our family. Please give this program at Willard the consideration it fully deserves and remove it from the closure scenarios. Thank you. [applause] Hi, I'm Emily Garcia and I'm also here to speak in support of Twe at Willard. I am not Latina, but my daughter is. She and our family have been fully accepted and embraced by the Willard community, and this is something I am personally thankful for and don't take lightly. My own elementary school experience was defined by being one of three Jewish kids in my district. And I always felt not fully a part of the community. It affected how I felt about school and how I felt about myself

018growing up. Thankfully, this has not been the case for my daughter. She has never expressed seeing herself as an outsider because at Willard, she is not. There are many other bilingual and bicultural kids just like her. The tweet program at Willard, like many of the other special programs like STEP and ACC, are bright spots. These programs are the district's crown jewels and should be treated as such. They offer the district and our community a very compelling path forward if we are open to exploring it. a path out of falling enrollment and and discontent. They offer us a way to rebuild our district's brand as a center for educational excellence and innovation, uprooting them. Thank you. [applause] Good evening. My name is Mark Zurfki and as a Willard Twe parent, I keep coming back to this

019quote. We are the only industrialized nation that does not train our students to learn more than one language. Evston can be the lighthouse district that can show the country that we have the capacity to forge a new path in multiculturalism in our nation. I would like to see it, referring to tweet, expand across the district. It's a framework that our children need in the 21st century in regards to acknowledging other perspectives and working collaboratively. It's more than necessary to teach our children with a framework that encourages critical thinking and collaborative work. Mr. Hernandez, you said those words in 2017 when the school board unanimously decided to add two twee to the district. Now, with no clear explanation why, you and the rest of this board are voting to reduce the number of tweeon's elementary school

020students are in twe this year. That's something to be proud of. That's being the lighthouse that Mr. Hernandez spoke about in 2017 and that many of our district leaders continue to speak of today. So why are you now turning the back on the Twe community? Why are we reducing Twi Strands? Help Evston continue to be that lighthouse. Please remove TWE programming from any school closure vote. Thank you. [applause] Hello, my name is Lizzie and my job is going to Lincolnwood. I have tons of questions and this is one of them. Why are people saying they want to close two more schools? You are the boss and I'm just a substitute for Gla Harris. We are your clients and you can't work without us. The step program is used to their role models and they can't

021work without them. Black girl Magic Book Club is at different schools. If you shut down a school that can affect Black Girl Magic Book Club and Black Girl Magic Book Club is important to everyone. We need to lift everyone up. We shouldn't have to make all these meetings and rallies just to make you understand. Why do you want to close Lincolnwood so badly? It just doesn't click. Thank you. [applause] We have Lisa Weiss, Marlo Vic Filipino or Vic Filipini, Robin Telader, Kie Egan, Brad Kennedy, Shaska Dice, Zaki, Tazic, My name is Lisa Weiss. My family moved to Evston in 1977. I attended Dwey, Nichols, and ETHS. I have two kids in the district now. A land use attorney informed the board that deed restrictions prevent the sale or repurposing of Lincolnwood. The district's assessment failed

022to address this legal barrier. Closing a school under these circumstances risks litigation, draining resources from our classrooms. We want District 65 to be what ETHS is, a district families choose. We have the teachers. Five were Golden Apple finalists in 2023. But democratic governance is being disregarded. Four board members were elected seven months ago. Some want to hand select the fifth. Other schools got multiple scenarios. Lingwood stands alone tonight. Lingenwood houses step serving students with autism instead of moving our children. Rightsize the administration. Lease part of JH for revenue. Celebrate the opening of Foster. Don't close another school through a flaw flawed process that disrupts essential services and wastes money in court. Vote no tonight. Then honor the public election results and name a tiebreaking board member. Thank you. [applause] Hi, I'm Marlo Delpersio. I'm a

023district 65 parent. You say this process has been data driven, but every meeting has a new scenario of schools to close. You say this process has been data driven, but when questioned on the data, you don't respond with clarifying data. You respond with silence or misdirection or platitudes about the difficulty of the process. You say this process has been data driven, but now you're voting to close only one school that you can't redevelop and will cost the district money with no benefit to the students. This process has been many things, but it has not been data driven. You say you're proud of this process, but you're voting to close a whole school with two days notice at a special meeting at 5:15 when most people aren't even off work. Our district believes in restorative practices.

024Our students are expected to admit their mistakes, apologize, and work to fix the damage done. How can we expect our children to do that when some of the leadership refuses to model that behavior? Our children deserve better. [applause] My name is Vic Filipini. First, to close Lincolnwood while leaving Kingsley open makes a mockery of your purported goal of walkable neighborhood schools as Kingsley is at the far eastern edge of the feeder area, not centrally located like Lincolnwood. The district keeps saying that the STP is a datadriven process, but the district never even examined the title of the properties in question. With such an obvious gap in your data, I'm shocked that you have not realized that the datadriven process is flawed and requires re-examination. I get the sense that you all feel that the district's

025financial condition requires bold action. Don't mistake bold action for smart action. Jumping from a plane with a defective parachute is most certainly bold. It is also most certainly not smart. Your paramount challenge right now is a successful opening of Foster. Some of you somehow think that opening Foster, closing Bessie Roads, and then closing two more schools is a good idea. But the more plates you juggle, the more likelihood is that they all will fall and break. With such momentous decisions before you, showing wisdom is far more valuable than making ambitious plans. Think about that. [applause] Hi, my name is Robin Telander and I serve on the SDP facilities committee. I'm a former special education teacher, a child and family therapist, and a single mom of three, two of whom attend Kingsley, a school and community

026we deeply love. I believe there's no such thing as someone else's child or someone else's school when we all live in that same city. We've we've lost sight of that. Our schools are our health and our wealth, which means you hold the most important jobs in Evston. To whom much power is given, much is required. You haven't heard protests from Kingsley families. Not because we don't love our school, but because with the opening of Foster and a shifting of a third of our beloved students, we knew our enrollment would drop and it wouldn't make sense to stay open. But tonight, I'm asking for more thoughtful planning, creative solutions, and a long-term vision. As a committee, we spent countless hours on boundaries, and walkability. But we did not spend time on scenario 1B, which you are

027voting on tonight. If you approve 1B, please include a caveat to renovate Lincolnwood to serve as a single elementary school in the northwest corner, closing it for a year to renovate, then combining Kingsley and Willard there in 2728. I also urge you to consider 1A with a caveat to renovate Kingsley to give Park School the state-of-the-art building it deserves and or move JH there. Park and JH students are already bust in Kingsley's location near Green Bay McCormick makes sense. Here's the key point. Either 1A or 1B done thoughtfully allows the district to close two buildings over time. A phased approach is a far healthier approach. Indecision is harming everyone. Please make a decision that does not leave us pitted against each other for another year. We're more aligned than you think. Let's move forward together.

028[applause] >> Hi, I'm a Fifth Word resident and a parent of a child who attends Lincolnwood Elementary. I would like to sincerely thank the Willard Kingsley Washington King Arts and other families for sharing their thoughtful stories of community and inclusivity. While the school board advocates for unity and transparency, it seems, and I want to put an emphasis on seams, at least one board member is using their position to turn some in our community against fifth, sixth, and seventh ward schools and families. This contentious behavior only drives us further apart and deepens our mistrust in the school board's supposed objectivity. How can we heal as a whole community when some are actively working to divide us? Separately, everyone must remember that District 65's financial deficit was worsened under the leadership of one sitting board member who

029is yet to resign. More in the community need to ask that Sergio Hernandez finally do what's in the best interest of D65 and resign from the school board. [applause] Good evening. My name is Shaska Dice. I'm a district 65 parent and I also served on this facility subcommittee. The committee worked for months for now what seems like nothing. Scenario 1A was fetted. Scenarios 2D and 2F in all of their various iterations were reviewed. Scenarios 3B, 3D, 3X painstakingly assessed. 4F reluctantly evaluated, but scenario 1B was never fully analyzed. Boundaries never examined, feedback not collected. Virtually no time was spent on scenario 1B. And now we are here. So, so much for this process, so much for the data, so much for any of it. If 1 A and 1B had been on the agenda Monday,

030maybe there would be some semblance of propriety luck. But now it just feels like everything is a share. For those who voted no to 1A on Monday, but who will vote yes to 1B today, the only transparent thing remaining is how personal politics have ruined this process and decimated what remaining trust I have in you. [applause] Uh, sorry. Before you start the clock, can I request a special accommodation under the ADA? I forgot to send you an email about it earlier. I have a stutter, everyone. So, I can't speak as fast as most of the people in this room. Well, I on some days I can. So, um, we'll see what happens tonight. >> Run it twice. >> I'll run the timer twice. >> Thank you so much. I just have a sheet of paper,

031so it shouldn't be too long. There are a lot of things I could say about Monday's meeting. Um, but I don't want to engage in any personal attacks here, and I'm just sad. Um, I'm sad because there's a rumor now that tonight you all will close Lincolnwood when that's not the option that anybody wants on the board. The things I'm about to say may not be completely accurate, so check with a lawyer after I speak, please. Okay. On Monday, all six of you voted to close Kingsley. Three of you with a two school closing and three of you with a one school closing. We know the will of the board on that. In terms of deadlines for this, December 1st is not the deadline to shut down a school. Next week is not the deadline,

032at least not according to any law, you know, statute or regulation that I've seen. So, while I want zero schools to be shut down, there's agreement on Kingsley. You can hold a special meeting next Monday or the Monday after that, or you can do this at the regular meeting on December tonight. Vote no. Put Kingsley back on the agenda. Regular business can be conducted at a special meeting. You can look at the district policy manual on that. Again, if you're not sure you're able to do this, check with a lawyer before you cast a vote. Check with the district's lawyer. There's not much trust in the board left. I'm almost done. You can begin to fix that if you vote no tonight. Put Kingsley closing back on the agenda and then vote unanimously to close

033it. That's not what I want. But you all agreed that Kingsley should be closed on Monday. That's the will of the board. Thank you so much for your time. And as I said, if you're not sure you can do any of these things, I urge you to consult the district's attorney before you vote. Thank you for your time. [applause] NEXT we have Maliah Gertzma, Lindseay White, Dave Stewart, Mike Ball, Lewis Gerba, Angelica Williams, Bruce Williams, Chris Ben Newandr, Josie Ano Oh. Um, I have Malia as first. >> Good evening. My name is Malia Gertzma and I'm a D65 parent and I thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. Um, first because I'm both trained as a lawyer and I work with data a lot myself and because folks have been talking a lot about

034both tonight, I just wanted to say a few things. First, um, in terms of the Akran community schools that were cited in a footnote to the INS proposal, I asked how did Akran pay to keep its schools its community schools open? And I was told if you want that information, look it up yourself. So, I did. Um, Akran spent committed $800 million to fix its schools. Nearly 60% of that was paid for by the state. The remainder was paid for by an income tax increase voted on by the municipality. In addition, Akran decid had to close nearly 30% of its schools in order to go ahead with this proposal. So, I think it's really important to know they did not do that without those numbers. Um, secondly, I'm already taking more time than I meant

035to. I've also read the assertion that there are deed restrictions on the property. There are in fact deed restrictions, but by my reading, there are plenty of options by which that property could still be used for uses other than schools. So, to present it as an absolute restriction, I think is um misleading and inaccurate. I'll leave it at that. other to say I don't think there is any right decision here and I don't envy any of you your votes. >> Hi, I'm Lindsay White. I'm going to repeat my comments that I made five meetings ago. I'm in a position of privilege to be standing here at 5:15 tonight addressing the board. There's parents who work, parents who are at home scared of ICE, parents who don't have child care to attend a meeting like this.

036And I'll remind you that you represent those parents, too. This was our first chance at an equity-driven school closure process, and we have failed. All because a loud section of our community didn't like the results when it was their school that was named. What they're not saying is they thought it should be our schools. Closing two schools was the compromise and the direction the board was heading as of two and a half weeks ago. So, what changed? You owe the public answers, Pat. Moving forward with no solid financial plan puts everyone at risk. Running away from this doesn't cut $3.67 million dollars from next year's school budget. To Pat, I feel a sense of betrayal from you that may never be resolved. Voting this way means you have left behind black, brown, and low-income students

037who you claim to care about during your campaign. If the board ignores all of the data and the consultant recommendations from this long process only to put our community through it again, it's on you, Pat. You're prioritizing empty buildings over students. Students who that we've said over and over is the most important thing. Maria, Nicole, and Pat, you should be ashamed. Hi, good evening. I'm Dave Stewart. I uh moved here this past summer from Gross Point, Michigan. I've got a first, a fourth, a uh sixth, and an eighth grader in the school district. Um where I moved from, uh they had similar declining, um attendance in the schools. They had closed Trombli School. When I went to my daughter's elementary school graduation, um I heard talk after talk as these young, beautiful students got up

038and they talked about how hard it was to change schools. Um they also talked with pride and resilience about about getting through it. Um I am really happy with our local schools. I love it. I would fight to protect it. I think literally all of us would fight to protect our local schools. Um but budgets are budgets. Um there's choices that have to be made. Um, I am really grateful to be here. When we were trying to find a place to go, a school counselor said I would be happy to have my student go to my child go to any school in the district. And I believed her and I still do. Um, I urge you to know that not making choices is a choice in and of itself and that there are hard choices

039to be made. I don't envy the situation that you're in, but I hope that you can act and that we can maintain unity as a community and that we can support the students, particularly those um who will end up be redistricting. Thank you. >> Hi, Mike Bowl. I'm a parent of three Willard students. Um, I was here on Monday and spoke about the lack of trust, the lack of honesty by members of this board, by some of the administration. Um, and the more I read, the more I hear other people speaking, the less and less and less trust I have. I don't I don't understand some of these decisions that are being made. Um, as somebody said, how do you vote to close Lincolnwood and Kingsley and then turn around and not vote to close

040Kingsley? I don't understand that decision. Um, I think you if whatever decision you're going to make, you have to really justify this and make it make sense to people because like somebody was saying before the whiplash and all the scenarios and things, I think the board at some point needs to put out a statement and say this is why we did what we did because it's not making sense. [applause] Hi, I'm Luca, an Oakton and shootute parent. When the school closure options dropped in September, I said I couldn't believe the district could handle one additional thing on top of Foster and Bessie Roads. Going through these meetings, reading the committee recommendations, reading the alternate plans from the INS uh Legion and even the Suswaters of Reddit made one thing clear. We all agree any scenario

041including the default zero school closure will cause a lot of work and pain for D65 families. Whether you want zero, one or two additional school closures, the vote process we saw ensuring the zero school closure scenario is our most likely fate. We are going to required to tell the Illinois state at December 1st. That the legal council stated we had to put the remaining options on the agenda. Doesn't make sense. The one time you guys tried to vote was on 10:27 and at 4 hours in they said you could not vote to limit the options to one in school closures at that time. So the voting has been a mess and Lincolnwood may now pay the price and you guys have to vote on that. So I propose we set another board meeting before the

042first so we can get through this and try and have a better vote process. None of our holidays invitations are more important than this vote. Two, have the board jointly and publicly select the scenarios to vote on. Three, randomize the orders because we don't want any gaming or bias for the last option playing chicken with a zero default. And four, cancel tonight's vote or all everyone vote no. This is not about one or two school closures. It's just because this vote doesn't have conf confidence. This is not fair to you or us or the district or Lincoln. Thank you. [applause] Angelica Williams. Willard. Wheeler. Good afternoon members. My name is Angelica Sanchez Williams. I have a son in Willard and I live in W 7. One Sunday in October, I walked to the new foster

043school and it took me 13 minutes. That day, we started the conversation with our son that he can probably go to foster to finish the [music] program. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Okay. And good evening and uh board administration. We appreciate y all that you do. I know it's tough. Thank you for your thoughtful deliberation. We want tweet to continue at Willard because Spanish speaking families exist in WS six and seven. But we know it's not our decision. We have the following questions. Why weren't Willard Tweet families invited to meet with Principal Bur Burko in September? Why was Twe only a single point in a presentation, a day in the life of a foster student at page slide number 19? Why were we being informed about the curriculum of the new foster school? We want

044to know more why. Um, why didn't ward six and seven receive a survey? Ward five received a survey, but we did not. Is it tweet and and you want to confirm? We understand, but is it true that Willard Twe is going to Foster? We believe they are, but just want to confirm that u the Hispanic people in WS, seven, and five deserve to be part of the conversation. And I want to stay in Willard. We do exist. we are present and let's make a positive contribution to the Willard community in this D65 community. Thank you. [applause] >> Hi, my name is Josie Ano and I am a fifth grader at Lincolnwood Elementary. I'm here to support the Lincolnwood families and community. Why should Lincolnwood get closed down if the kids are growing and learning more

045and more every day? Not to mention the step program which is thriving and you cannot find more trained and profess professional staff. What will Lincolnwood even be if it's not a school? All I'm trying to say is don't close down Lincolnwood because you won't be just closing down a school. You'll be closing down a community that the teachers and kids have been building for years. Thank you. [applause] Hello, I'm Chris Van Norinrin. Nice to see you all again. Um, I just have a recommendation uh potentially for framing the discussion tonight around Lincolnwood, which is we've heard some uh different data points and different concerns. One of them is about what happens to STEPP. Uh the other is about the potential deed restrictions. And then we know from past modeling that it is possible that closing

046a school doesn't actually save any money. in the worst case scenario. So, I would recommend tonight that as part of your deliberations, we think a step ahead and potentially start to answer those questions in advance of the vote so that if the vote does take place, the public already has a little bit of a sense of what the contingency plans are again for programs like STEP. Um, we have a clearer sense of what's happening on the legal front. uh and potentially uh you're all capable as well of sharing more data around the uh expense reduction model within uh Lincolnwood and and particularly any revenue potential for that building given that as far as we know it can't be sold uh or leased. So again, I would just ask that potentially from a transparency and legitimacy

047standpoint um the board try to address some of these questions that have come up today uh in the context of its deliberations. Thank you. [applause] Thank you. My name is Jeff Smith and I'm sorry if I'm out of order. I couldn't hear the actual names being called. Uh thank you for your service and I respect the tough challen that was a quick clock. Can I can I start over? Um thank you for your service and I respect the tough challenges you face. Um, at home I still have two entire bankers boxes from the 1990s stuffed with materials related to two years of resident efforts to reopen what became Bessie Roads of which we are very proud. My heart aches for the families disrupted by that closure decision and I echo a speaker from a few

048nights ago who emphasized that every scenario being considered is for closing not one but two or three schools. Also, I ache for the closing of Foster in the 1970s when I first came here as a student. The difference being that that decision was communitydriven and it did not result from a misrepresentation that it wouldn't cost anything. It didn't result from a misrepresentation that nobody would be displaced to another school involuntarily. It didn't result from a misrepresentation that no schools would be closed. I detest the idea of putting neighborhoods or wards or people against each other. But having failed to vote for additionally closing only Kingsley, which I remember being reopened, it's not logical to vote without vetting to close Lincolnwood, which has less average overlap with other schools and whose closure would result in thousands

049more crossings of busy streets annually and significantly greater average distance. When Lincolnwood was first built, designed by Dwight Perkins, most lots in Northwest Evston were vacant. The neighborhood was literally built around it. Central Street was only paved to about Lincolnwood Avenue and was dirt road out to Gross Point Road. I ask you to rebuild not just attendance but trust. Thank you. [applause] >> Liz Wins, Russ Shoen, Jessica Treyo, Estabban, Jacob Carlin, Scott Campbell, John Brady, Kelly McCabe, Jean Clipperton. >> Hi, I'm Liz Wens. I'm a D65 parent of three and a member of Invest in Neighborhood Schools. I'm here tonight to advocate for a vision. The SDRP process has focused heavily on the buildings in our district, on deferred maintenance, square footage, and geographic location, but there's been far less attention on what actually happens

050inside those buildings. and even less on the people in them. Our students, teachers, and support staff, their needs, their programs, and their futures must be centered in every decision that we make. I'm asking that we get clear on the learning environments we want, the supports our educators need, and the opportunities that we are committed to providing every child. Buildings matter, but only if they reflect a vision for what happens inside them. I urge the board to center that vision as the foundation of all future planning. Thank you for your time. [applause] >> Hi, Russ Shonne. I'm a Willard parent. First of all, I'd like to thank the board members that stood to uh close as few schools as possible on Monday. Um I'm here to advocate a no vote on Lincolnwood. doesn't make any sense

051given the scorecards. Uh after Monday, my 8-year-old asked, "How could the PE board members that voted to close two schools then just turn around and not vote to close the one school that the scorecards indicated?" And I tried to explain the budget, etc. And then I said instead of 180 million budget, which is hard for kids and adults to to understand, I said if the district needs $100 to run everything, some board members want to close an additional school to save a dollar or 1%. He said, quote, "That's dumb. There has to be a better way." And I agree. I would really ask the board to ask your financial consultant if they went through the budget line by line and cut things that don't add value to student achievement, rebid non-bid contracts, could you find

052at least 1%. The answer is yes. It's called recapture and reallocate. Now, I'm also the guy that wrote that your biggest problem is the trust deficit. I believe the board member who served under Dr. Horton did not do enough to just leave the presidency. He should step off or recuse himself from picking the next board member. Thank you. [applause] >> My name is Jessica Trillo. Um I'm a district 65 parent. I have four children. We've been part of the King Arts Oakton shoot and now ETHS community. Um, I want to state first of all, I'm not here to say I am voting I would vote for any particular school to be closed, but I want to ask why this board is willing to waste our time and our resources to demonstrate no fiscal responsibility in

053the end. To me, keeping all schools open at this moment is a a flaunt of wealth and resources and a flippant disregard of the time and district funds already sunk into this years's long process. This process has revealed that the most financially viable option to stop this district from falling off a known financial cliff is to close at least one more school beyond Bessie Roads. Not acting will result in losing educational staff and supports in all of our current schools going forward. I want to be clear, I don't have a particular school as a target and I don't want to see our own schools close. I've seen Kingsley families being very gracious about the circumstances and it has been clear that TUI is vital to our school communities. But please don't allow the education and

054student supports to be the sacrifice. protect jobs, promote student success, preserve our district's financial viability, and uphold the integrity we demand from this process. Can we stop this now and move on to the next steps, which is focusing on the educational outcomes for our children? Thank you. [applause] Unlike CPS's December 1st deadline for school closure decisions, Evston only requires 10 days notice for public hearings and adequate time to execute the process properly. With that in mind, I'm asking you to step back and reimagine this process in a way that respects SDRP principles and repositions you to break the current deadlock. It may be unpopular, but here's what I propose. First, settle the everchanging financial projections. agree on how much actually needs to be saved. That seems to change at every meeting. Second, clearly lay out

055the tradeoffs between revenue and cost cutting options. Third, armed with shared knowledge, deliberate and vote on the number of schools to close, not which ones yet, find a way to an agreement about the scale of the right sizing that is merited. Finally, only after agreeing on the number, evaluate the three most promising scenarios, focusing on options that maximize impact while minimizing disruption. Then vote following randomized scenario and voter order. As suggested earlier, the proposed process gives everyone an alternative path to settling this impass. It gives everyone a better chance of getting this right, letting you build agreement and trust step by step. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Hi, my name is Jacob Carlin with the Legion of Nerds. As a Stavon mentioned in his comment last week, the narrative of shutter schools or cut programs

056is a false choice. We have an opportunity to think creatively to improve the district rather than perpetuate a race to contract it. The community has identified many financial levers on the expenditure side and the revenue side. In order for some of these revenue levers to be available, we have to have community trust and buyin. At the last meeting, Dr. Pinker pointed out that there are ample fundraising opportunities if the district has a vision. At this point, I urge you to put the politics aside and act in a way that will earn the public trust. Scrutinize the scare tactics. Consider all the available information. Explore every option. Look under every rock. And you you owe it to your students. You must if [clears throat] you must close one school, sorry. If you must close a school,

057make sure it's the right one. [applause] Hi, my name is uh Scott Campbell. I'm also with uh the Legion of Nerds. Um so we've spent months of discussion on school closures. Yet none of this the discussion has really focused on waiting the benefit and harm of of the one school scenarios. And yet here we are. Um, you know, we have a single school ballot that really hasn't even been considered by the facilities committee. Um, and because of that, the website data are out of date. Um, and that scenario just really hasn't been updated like others have. Um, so we're really, you know, we're at a place where this is not a choice of really which school to close. It's choice between a school and really the fear of the unknown. You know, what is the

058choice of not choosing a school? and families and kids really need the information on why their school is a school that needs to close. And we have reached the point where this process has broken and we really need to figure out how to fix that. And I hope that we can move past this vote and have a real discussion on the future of the district. Thank you. [applause] >> Good evening. Uh my name is Kelly McCabe. I'm a proud member of the Legion of Data Nerds and I'm also a twe mom. As we've said before, if nobody knows, you shouldn't close. There are still too many unknowns to justify closing more than one school. In addition to Bessie Rhodess, we're concerned that politics and egos are driving this decision-making process rather than a true desire

059to strengthen our district across all schools. Feardriven political tactics like claiming Title One schools or programs will be cut simply aren't backed by the facts and they are designed to create unhealthy rifts within Evston. Our research shows that we can achieve financial balance with just one closure. Closing schools should be a last resort and not the first. We need to cut administrative waste, saving at least $ 1.5 million without affecting students or increasing class sizes. It's concerning that this option was not explored by the consultant. We would like the board to remember that the consultant and the administration answer to them and not the other way around. This board should question the inconsistent, non-transparent, and flawed data that you are being provided. In the end, Evston is all in this together. This is not a

060zero- sum game. And ultimately, we all do better when the district restores its reputation. All of our kids will end up together in classes at ETHS, all playing for the same team. Let's show our kids what real teamwork looks like. [applause] Hello, I'm Gene Clipperton, also a data nerd, and I'm asking for us to reenter our focus and be sure we get it right. Monday, we were informed that this was a uniquely clear and transparent process. But later in the same meeting, a board member was confused about the agenda, what was on the agenda, and what could or should not be on it. Tonight's agenda has a scenario that has not been considered by the facilities committee and which has unclear restrictions present regarding its viability as an option. If the scenario has been carefully

061considered by the board, data have been updated and evaluated, and all cost and legal implications have been considered, then yes, the board should vote tonight. However, this is not the case. It is unclear what tonight's vote would mean, whether future closure discussions could occur, or if we need to again stop a meeting. We would need to again stop a meeting because we do not know what the process should be. Perhaps this is a sign to first get our facts straight. Measure twice, cut once. Thank you. [applause] >> Hi, my name is Jamie and I'm a D65 parent and a tweet [clears throat] parent, I should say. Uh, I want to thank uh Pat, Nicole, and Maria for voting no on the two school closures. Um, as much as I don't want to close any schools,

062I'm a proponent for just closing Kingsley. Um, I'd like to see D65 go back and get an estimate on moving preK. And how about into Lincolnwood? My daughter attended an old Chicago building for preK. Um, not nearly as nice as Lincolnwood. Um, but she did fine. All that's needed really are some bathroom updates, a small playground area, and maybe some entry door, secure doors. But that can be funded by selling this building. This large expensive JH building has major capital needs. Remaining administration after we rightsize administration. Remaining administration can relocate into existing schools or the maintenance building. I'm not really sure why the SDRP uh facilities and finance committees didn't look into this building more. And maybe you did, but I didn't see the data. Finally, I still don't understand why non-UN admin requested a

0634 and a.5% raise in August totaling more than half a million dollars. If the district really is in such financial distress that you have to tear apart communities by closing our neighborhood schools, the solutions are clear. Move prek into Lincolnwood. Sell GH instead of closing neighborhood schools. Um, that concludes public comments for tonight. That's up to you. >> Do board members have statements they want to make? >> Oh, that's a it's a it's just a letter. It's Well, we can read it out loud. It's a letter from the principles. We received it via email as well. >> Question. >> What's the will of the board regarding miscommunication? >> Fine. >> Okay, >> I'll read it. Why don't you read it? I'm losing my voice. >> That's why I asked. So, I'm going to read this

064on behalf of >> I apologize. >> The the board uh president is losing her voice. Um this letter is a letter that was written by the principles of district 65. It reads um and they wanted to submit this um for public comment to the school board. Dear members of the district 65 board of education, we write to you today with deep disappointment and growing concern. As building leaders who are responsible for the daily safety, academic growth, and well-being of every student and staff member in our care, we must express that the board's ongoing inability to reach a decision on the school district re the structural deficit reduction process is actively undermining the stability of our schools. For more than 12 months, the SCP has engaged all stakeholders, families, educators, community members, consultants, and district leaders.

065The process has produced an extraordinary amount of data, clear analysis, and multiple thoughtful recommendations. Your board approved consultant provided measured research-based guidance. District leadership has repeatedly delivered detailed information, maps, models, and projections. The community has participated in good faith. School leaders have remained publicly silent, trusting that the board will honor the process it initiated. Yet, despite all of this, no consensus has been reached at a time when a decision is not only overdue, but absolutely essential for the 2627 school year. This school year alone, the district has sustained significant staffing reductions at the central office, resulting in extremely limited capacity for school-based support. Despite these constraints, district staff members have repeatedly diverted what little professional bandwidth remains to produce yet more reports, analysis, and presentations. Often because board members arrive at meetings without clear, pointed

066datadriven questions. Instead, time is spent on hypotheticals and scenarios untethered to the facts or to the professional recommendations already provided. This pattern has placed an enormous bur burden on our strained systems and has pulled critical support away from school leaders and the studentf facing work we must prioritize. Ultimately the board's inaction is failing our schools and the consequences are not abstract. If the board reaches the point of of state intervention as becomes more likely with continued indecision, the impacts will be devastating and immediate. Schools will be reduced to the bare minimum required for operation. The positions that make our schools whole and responsive to students needs librarians, interventionists, instructional coaches, assistant principles, fine arts teachers, PE teachers, clinicians, and more are at risk. These are not luxuries. They are essential components of equitable, well-rounded in

067education. Their loss will limit our ability to provide rich learning experiences, individualized support, and safe, sustainable school environments for all learners. This is the cost of continued delay. As principles, we are accustomed to leading through through turbulence. Just as pilots pilots rely on air traffic control to make timely, informed decisions that keep everyone safe, we rely on the board to provide clear direction and provide a stable course. We can reassure our communities, steady our staff, and keep instruction moving forward. But we cannot do so if the designation keeps shifting or if guidance never arrives. When that happens, the entire system becomes vulnerable. That is the moment we are now approaching. We implore the board to make a timely final decision grounded in the integrity of the SDRP process, the extensive data that has been gathered,

068and the professional guidance already provided. The district cannot continue in a state of uncertainty. Our schools, our students, and our educators deserve stability, clarity, and responsible governance. The SCP has built the SCP was built to guide this decision. The information is complete. The recommendations are clear. The only only remaining step is for the board to act decisively and without further delay. We urge you to uphold the process you initiated and make a decision now in the best interest of all schools and all students. Sincerely, the principles of district 65. >> Can you please share which principles? >> The principles of district 65. the principles of district 65. >> Let's bring this back to order. >> Out of order. >> If the quorum cannot be maintained, you will be asked to leave. Thank you. The next

069item on the agenda is the action item regarding the one school closure scenario of Lincolnwood school. >> Stacy, will you provide us with a brief >> Sure. >> summary. >> Are we just one second and welcome? So just as Adila is bringing this up, I will walk through some data for scenario 1B. Um the data tables were essentially developed based on the updated data that we have been using for the scenarios that the board has looked at in the last two meetings. To speak to the board comments, because of the timing of this scenario, we did not follow our traditional process for this. Normally we would prepare it with the updated data and then we would redo the analysis of strengths and challenges with the feedback from feedback support from our subcommittee. The you will

070get strengths and challenges tonight but it did not come out of the regular process. All right, let's see. I'm always not good at driving this. >> We have to turn it on. That's always step number one. >> I got it. You got it. Cool. Thank you, Adila. All right. Um, so just grounding us again. Um, essentially District 65 is scheduled to implement the board approved boundaries for 2627 as we bring foster school online for students and families. And as we close Bessie Roads, the baseline, which we have used for data modeling throughout the process, is built on 18 schools in the feeder patterns on this slide. Should the board take no action on school closing, the district will move forward with the schools on this slide for the 2627 school year. And I'm simply saying

071if you don't take action, not necess, you know. So that's it. Moving to the next slide. And for the baseline should we move forward into the 26 27 boundaries essentially what would we would be looking at for K5 utilization same slide from last time would be 73% in the chute feeder pattern shootute feeder pattern consists entirely of title one schools haven feeder pattern the K5 elementarymentaries would be at 50% and that would be five schools Kingsley Lincolnwood and Foster with Foster projected to be title one and the Nichols feeder pattern at 68% with Washington being title one. Adila. All right. Now, I'm going to move into scenario 1B. And scenario 1B is go ahead with the next. There we go. So, what you see here is if the board were to move forward with scenario

0721B, that utilization rate average in the K5s moves to 59%. In the scenarios you will see tonight, we do have program movement, which is why the Nickels number does shift from 68 to 77 because as we explained in the last board meeting, what we've shifted to doing when we model STEP is removing six classrooms. Because if we're going to move STEP, we want to make sure that we're setting up a long-term space for them. And that would allow for potential program growth or classrooms for RA related service providers or a little bit of both. And so we essentially removed a full strand from Lincoln in this particular scenario. We stayed consistent with the modeling from Monday which is why that utilization rate goes up to 77% for nickels. So if we can go on to

073the next slide please. Here we see the map for scenario 1BR and we attached the R because we did update it with the October one enrollment data. And what we continue to show here and it is be we continue to show that the eighth twe section which is in fact we have eight sections in first through fifth grade this year. We close that twe section at Willard. We open two strands at Foster. We do close two strands at roads districtwide. We have an average classroom size of 16 in tweet. Moving for all the way to seven strands would move us to 19 students as an average class size districtwide. Um, so it so one we consistently show that to a section at Willard closing and number two here we do move step to Lincoln because

074we're trying to make sure that we get that long-term home for a program and again that could either be Dwey or Lincoln. We'd continue to work with student services to find the right location and that could happen prior to any final closing vote. Strengths and challenges for this particular scenario. Um when we look at the remaining schools, you are distributed fairly well geographically east to west. Kingsley does sit on two hazards, however, was point as was pointed out earlier tonight. Um the closure and reassignment can be achieved with minimal hazard crossings and creates transportation savings. Um and actually I'm going to I meant to edit that down. I think we're at the 100 to 300 range. So, please consider that as $100,000 because I think that's consistent with the pre next with a slide further

075down. Um, and then we maintain boundaries similar to the board approved 2627 boundaries, which is important because there are families that have been considering those boundaries for the last couple of years and in some cases have permissive transfers into some of those schools. Um, challenges. Yes, we absolutely have some uncertainty about the ability to lease Lincolnwood as was stated in the previous meeting. Um, there is uncertainty. Um, and should the board be interested in leasing, we are working with our legal in order to take a look at Mr. Filipini's memo, which we have received to do the analysis required to determine what options would be available. That is underway, but we do not have the outcomes of that at this time. So that shows as a challenge uncertainty about the ability to lease that building.

076Um, additional challenges are that Kingsley and Foster are geographically very close to each other. So we're maintaining two schools that are very close to each other. We noted in Monday night's board meeting that the utilization rate should students from the Haven feeder pattern that live in Foster attend Foster and the road students attend that utilization rate gets pretty full. But that is a essentially a four-year agree agreement with roads families which means that utilization rate would get smaller again which means which is why we recommended reviewing boundaries again in five years at a max because that means you could potentially adjust and be able to get some of those families into a walkable distance of foster. Um and then we have five schools and this is districtwide five K5 schools that would have a utilization

077rate of 65% or lower if we move forward in this particular scenario. That is similar to 1A. Um and then in comparison to 1A um this scenario has an increased number of students that are traveling more than 3/4 of a mile to school. So over the 1A scenario, >> that is it from me tonight. Dr. Turner. >> Yep. So um Dr. Harkin and Tamara couldn't be here tonight. Click the next slide, please. So I'm not going to go through these slides again because we've already gone through them. Here's D1 for the financial model projections that um was recommended. Click the next slide, please. Here's D1. Again, you'll see 1 A and 1B. this slide you've seen it already um it's there click to the next slide Adila and then here's uh the financial model D2

078um which is the same slide that has been presented and I think that is it for the slides is that correct >> that is correct that's it that's it that's correct >> okay >> let's open it up for discussion Click Stacy. Um um one question around um step. Up to this point we thought about step staying in the Haven feeder pattern and now step moves to the Nickels feeder pattern because it's in Lincoln and um Lincoln um Nickels as the data says is 95% full. What does step moving to Lincoln mean for Nicholls in terms of my assumption is adding another step um cohort to Lincoln while Lincoln might be able to handle it. How how we thought about Nicholls being able to handle >> that increased population. >> Yep. The particular utilization rate for

079this scenario Nickels would be at 88%. And Nicholls has decreasing enrollment in its K5 elementarymentaries. It's largely gone from a four section feeder to a three section feeder. And so the 88% is 1B. We did talk to uh student services about that. So I'm going to rewind a couple things. We put a good amount of detail in that Monday night memo that spoke to the thinking and the deliberation that's been happening with STEP. Um we want to make sure we're considering facilities. We want to make sure we're considering long-term options for growth. We want to make sure that we're considering related services. Um, and we had a discussion about is it better to have it dispersed across feeder patterns or within a feeder pattern. And one of the things from the specialized services department was

080that they noted that STEPPP was already in Nickels and that they felt that that being able to move do that transition into Nickels and have all of them in that the same feeder pattern was not a detriment was actually a potential strength because again we can concentrate the expertise of our professionals to be able to serve that population well. And similar to like what we've done at King Arts with RISE, we want to train all of our educators to be able to serve that population well because we want to b with the benefits of inclusion and so it concentrates that ability for capacity building. So one utilization rate is closer to 88%. We see that as being manageable going forward and we are carving out spaces because we will also have a dual language program

081coming into sixth grade at Nichols next year as well. And so we've been trying to manage for those things. And two, the benefit was concentration of expertise and resources in professional learning rather than dispersing. And the kids can then stay with their cohort K8 just >> so the 88% is the new utilization of nickels is with the second addition of step added to it. >> The we have we do move numbers out. I am looking specifically at the utilization table for scenario 1B when I state 88%. >> Okay. >> A question about the zero um baseline scenario. Um we've heard uh from many people about how that still eliminates Willard Twe. Um but then if you look at the financial implications, there's no savings indicated from that. And so I'm just I'm I'm I think

082part of us owning where we are at a board as a board is that we haven't looked at zero. >> Um and then by defaulting to zero immediately eliminating Twi at Willard with no financial benefit that is indicated here. Can you just help me piece through that? >> Yeah. So there are a couple things that we're looking at here. Um when we as when we began modeling scenarios, we started with one school closures and then two school closures. And what was beginning to consistently come up in our utilization charts were twe classrooms that were very underutilized. And so that's actually where we kind of had the initial flag. What I should say as a precursor, we did also when we did our section review in August this year as part of our section reduction procedures,

083we noted low enrollment and we did close a kindergarten twe section. Now, we really work not to close twe sections in single section schools once they're beyond K because if we do that, what we're either doing, we're essentially saying to a family, you have to move schools. And the last thing any one of us wants to do in a single strand scenario is say potentially a third grader or fourth grader or fifth grader to stay in their program needs to move schools. And so we did this fall realized because we had an opportunity. We didn't have enroll enough enrollment in one of our K sections. We closed that K section. So we have seven sections in K. We have eight in the other grades, but we have several that are we have a couple that

084are below 10. And what the memo stated on Monday was that we have 17 of the 40 classes in the district that have enrollment of 15 or below are TW sections. So um when the utilization rate started coming back I met with the multilingual department and I said this is what we're noticing. What would you think about this possibility? We worked it through and I've been working with the multilingual department throughout. And so they were supportive of shifting to the seven strands. Now that is you know when we look at it they date also in the memo stated that we would average class size goes from 16 to 19. Our twe classrooms we try to do 90% of our general education population. So if we take 90% of our deck guidelines 23 would be 21

085in a twe classroom. So we're still in a good position there. And for third through fifth grade is 25 which would put us at 23. And so you know that so that we had that. Then we also had from the program subcommittee we had the guidance that essentially said if you're moving strands try to double them up and try to move them into the schools closest where to where the TWWS students live. So we expanded that to TWWS and TWWX. Um, and I do understand, you know, Willard community has said they feel like we made them invisible in our scorecards. Our scorecards in July included the Willard Twe families in the Willard scorecard. It was when we got around when we moved into September and that we began modeling with the seven strands and not

086at Willard that we started reflecting them at Foster. So, they've always been in our data. The initial scorecard versions that we brought forward September 29th had them in the willer piece and then after that they've been reflected in Foster. Okay. So there's that we were looking at utilization. We were looking at class size numbers and we were looking at the program guidance ultimately to land where we are now. As far as cost savings, um I would what I we are still very much once we get a decision, our very next step is to create essentially our seats and sections for next year. And so we have done preliminary work on that to reflect some of the savings in Susan's diagrams. But it is at that point we've got a number of decisions about exceptions, things

087along those lines that we need to be able to say, okay, that would mean a reduction of six classrooms. It could be that we have a up to a reduction of six classrooms because we've consolidated a twe. It could also be that if we see, for instance, maybe some students don't move that we don't net all of those savings. And so what we are trying to do is be very conservative about our section savings. On the surface, it seems like we could save up to six sections. We may not net that kind of savings just because of the tweak going from 8 to seven. Okay. So we're trying to be conservative. I think we'll see some of that, but we may not see all of it because we may need to see some section adjustments

088in other places because of families with permissive transfer options and other things like that. >> I just have a followup on that. Um, wasn't the reduction of the kindergarten section at Bessie Roads? >> It was. Do we think that the reason that there was less enrollment in Bessie roads is because families knew it was closing >> the So registration really works with families. We do have a footprint map. We say that we are placing folks in the twe program that is in their feeder pattern. If it's their home school, that's easy. If it's not, we have certain schools mapped. But what they do is they they work to place the family. if it comes up and they say, "Hey, we have an objection to roads." If we could, we generally would then say, "We don't

089have a space available right now." But I know a couple families came in around towards the end, we were able to offer a seat at a different program when we knew we had space. So, some of those families, if they felt like they didn't want to go to roads, may very well be reflected in other programs numbers because they were given essentially a permissive transfer entrance to the program. We only wait to do that last minute because we want to make sure that we have space and we're not eliminating and we always keep them in the feeder pattern as well. I guess my question is really around um you know we haven't had the conversation about twe so I'm happy to table that for now or we can have it now um because it's kind

090of not the the topic of conversation but but I'm curious about um the applications for for twe and the chart that we saw today and I haven't validated that. I don't know what it looks like. Andrew is a nice guy. um if we have seen an increase in Spanish population and if so are we seeing a decline in English student population and that's why we're seeing a decline in twe enrollment are we turning twe twwe students away like it doesn't it's sort of I don't know if you can speak to that >> it's certainly if this is something that the board had a desire to know more about I would certainly be willing to bring back a memo and come back with multilingual leadership and we can certainly share the numbers that we have looking

091at I have worked very closely with the multilingual team. I know that they are they're comfortable with the current recommendations that are here and I think we what we also see is a lot of variability in the in the population and unfortunately the political climate is not really good for us right now. >> Yeah. I think I just I'm reflecting on the fact that we had COVID kind of in the middle of this. So we had a decline in twe enrollment in English during those years and so we're kind of coming out of that now. Those kids are in fifth grade. I want to say now >> the Yep. sixth grade is was in kindergarten, >> right? And so I'm wondering if by restricting the number of sections, if we have a growing population of

092Spanish students, then we're going to end up in a scenario where the mix is not ideal. Anyway, we don't have to answer. >> And I'll answer that and then certainly if the board's will is that that we pick up that conversation another time, we can. um the students don't enter twe after first grade >> and so like we can see number wise that we're okay at seven strands in the upper grades and one of the nice things potentially about double strands also is that if we get the you know the kids coming in we're in a good shape if we don't we can also manage sections and we're not having to move kids out of out of schools and this is something like where we want to get to is to be respons responsive to

093what we see. We always want to have we shoot for a 50/50, but the multilingual the department has set a range of native an native Spanish versus native English speakers. So sometimes we may say to a TWWA family, we don't have a space because we're holding a balance. Um and so numbers wise, if we had an influx, we would be able to add another section. But we have given we have parameters that we're trying to model with here in order to execute closures to plan buildings and right now the current number of students could be well served with seven strands. >> Yeah. So, and anecdotally what I've heard and this was years back and I don't know if this is still a continuing pattern but what happens what's at times what will happen is TWE

094families will sign their kids up to two-way immersion programs but around third fifth grade they start getting nervous right because they have to start testing and trying to place into maybe not ETHS but maybe a private high school or something whatever uh anecdotally that's what I've heard across the state that that's kind of what happens. Um so you know if you can ask Stace um Amy our multilingual director to kind of look into that and how that's impacting that balance because I think again I've seen that at at u working as a multilingual teacher in different school districts but also um um again again folks kind of are excited about their kid learning language TWW folks but again they they start getting to the point well and especially like in schools like CPS where you're

095you're you're competing to get into like some really great high schools. Um yeah, then they start pulling their kids out and then that starts impacting, you know, the numbers and and and the ideal composition of a two-way emerging classroom. So, but just again something to ask about. Again, we're not CPS, but but it is something that again if you ask Amy to look into. >> Yeah. And and I would just add I want to remind folks if they want to explore further what Sergio is saying last year the joint board meeting we collaborated with ETHS and district 65 and we did an extensive presentation I'm sure it's in the archives. So if you want to learn more about it, how it different, it looks different, how when they transition from here to 202, like all

096the things that he just described and and even they even had a student who was a district 65 student who spoke of her experience, which is one of the reasons in terms of before we expanded dual language into middle school, she would just take uh once she finished out in in fifth grade, the she would drop off the program going to middle school. Now that we are expanding dual language out to our middle schools, we're making the transition for kids going into ETHS much more seamless and we're getting much more aligned. I don't want to go into detail because that's not what tonight's conversation is about, but you can catch it on the archive. >> And just a quick just a quick add on to that as well. The vision for for two-way immersion uh

097students, right, is that across that that we want all of them to end up with a um seal of biiteracy. So again, our multilingual department has been working with the multilingual folks at ETHS because again, the seal of bioliteracy is just a well wellrespected seal and it can save you thousands of dollars in college uh you know tuition and then and again just something to to really have a vision and and a goal as in regards to two-way immersion uh programming. Stacy, let me ask you about um the the the proposal that's before us in terms of closing Lincolnwood and the restrictions around that. Um, at the last meeting there was talk of the repair and replace model and possibly uh using Lincolnwood would be a location that would be prime for that because we

098because we're still investigating what the title and leasing possibilities are. So is that can you talk to that a little more? So, I think the first thing I would want to do is wait for our legal to come back and let us know what the parameters are that we would need to operate within both in any kind of renovation or all the way through to leasing. So, you know, I I don't think I want to go on record before we have answer from our council because I think that's the best place to start. >> Okay. I want to just u make sure that my colleagues I'd written um rouchier attorney today. I don't know because you guys were at conference if you had a chance to see it. It was late in the day. Um

099two questions that I asked. One, what is the statutory timing for the board to vote to close a school? Because I was under the impression before it was December 1st. It's not. I know we backed up and there was a memo potentially from from our attorney about um backing up the sort of you know last last chance date from when we would need to provide notice to our bargaining units but I'm unclear of what that date is. Um and it referenced the conversation or an email that I couldn't find. So I'm hoping we can find that so we understand kind of what our timeline looks like. Um, and then if we are planning on reassigning students to a new school but do not plan to sell or lease a school building, are we required to

100vote to close it? And then on the flip side, um if we are if we are going to put students in a building at a later date or for a swing space, does closing does voting to close that building then present any issues for us in putting students in it subsequently? Um like do we have to go ahead and vote to open it again? I don't know. Um the answer to that and I think the she didn't have an opportunity to to respond to both of those. Um, so go ahead. >> Are you saying that you did not get a response? >> I got a response. I was going to read the response. >> Okay, good. You just said that she didn't get a opportunity to respond to both of those and I'm looking at

101the email where she did. So that's why I was asking for clarification. >> What I what I meant to say was that the answer wasn't complete. So like she didn't have answers. So the first one is I think we talked about I I mentioned um labor council recently wrote to you Dr. Turner in an email regarding the timing implications with respect to various labor agreements. Um I think the rest of the board hasn't seen that yet. Um I think leadership may have seen it. Uh and then the second question about the meaning of closing a school. The statute doesn't define what a school closure means. To best answer your question, I would want to do some research and per perhaps ask is for guidance. The only statutory definition I know of is in article 34

102of the school code, which only applies to Chicago public schools. In article 34, which again does not apply to Evston, school closure is defined as the closing of a school, the effect of which is the assignment and transfer of all students enrolled at that school to one or more designated receiving schools. So, it still doesn't answer the question of if we vote to close Lincolnwood and then we want to put students in it, do we then have to vote to open it again or how does that work? So, if we are going to use it as a swing space to renovate other schools and we vote to close it, does that have downstream implications? So, um I was just going to flag. So the date that you're talking about is April 15th. So we have

103to back in educators would have to be notified by April 15th. And she talked about two other things in that email. If it's a certain amount like based off of the last three years, if it's over five layoffs over 150% then we actually have to do we have to notify deck and have a hearing. She also and she being um our attorney, the last thing she flagged was just the good faith bargaining conversation. So, we actually have to talk about the impacts of um potential layoffs for educators with deck well in advance of that. >> Yeah, I'm not advocating for drawing this out any longer than necessary, but I just want to make sure that we understand the things. >> I just wanted to lay out the information that you shared. Okay. >> Thank you,

104Tiffany. >> Go ahead. Um so can I also ask practically Dr. Turner of timeline here um if uh and so let me start with uh Maria I'm hearing also like openness right to keep conversation going is that what I'm hearing or >> I guess what I'm wondering right is I just don't really understand why we're here. So, um I think what I would have preferred to happen is that you know PAD has almost you know unanimous control over the over the over the agenda. I think we're trying to be careful about making sure that all things are heard. You Andrew wanted us to have this um proposal brought up and have this special meeting today. Um and again on the other hand it is true that we all voted to close Kingsley which is was

105a one school solution that was presented on on Monday and so I'm really trying to grapple with this choice today and on the one hand I firmly believe that we need to close the school and on the other hand I feel like Lincolnwood isn't the best choice and so I'm really conflicted about that and I'm just being totally transparent. and I've talked to some of you about it. And so, is there an opportunity for us to come back at a near later date and potentially have a revote of the Kingsley scenario and see if we can do the right thing? [applause] If we meet again, I would want to do a revote on all the scenarios. >> All of them. all of them. [applause] Not just the king scenario, but just get it right and

106get them all on there and we all vote on it. I mean that that so I'm I'm [cheering] >> Can you define all >> Well, again, the um the two school closures, right, as well as the one school closures that we've already talked about in the past. >> Yeah. So 2 D, 2 R, 2 F, 2 R, 1 A and 1 B. Do we need to put is 1 B? >> Yes, Andrew, you wanted to vote on one B. >> So process-wise, right, uh we're we may not find a will of the board, so we probably should just include it right um right at this moment. So it would make sense to follow the recommendations of the administration um unless we can make another decision. >> And I think we need to be observant of

107the timelines that we need to follow. Um, we have this comment letter for public comment from the principles and I can tell that that's that's the reality that we're dealing with. I can say this is one of the other than having a baby, this is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. >> Having a baby's quicker. >> Not for me. It wasn't >> quicker than this. So anyway, um this is not an easy decision and I want to make sure that our community can heal from this. Um as a new board president, I have worked diligently to build consensus, but the process is become mired in indecision. And looking at this proposal with not having assurityity of use of what we can actually do with the building would be a difficult decision to close.

108Um, it may not provide us with the savings we need and we need to move to a place where we can minimize the impact of the closure in terms of the additional cost savings that we have to garner from this process. So, um, the board is here. We've been transparent. We put it all out in the public. you've seen the struggle with our decision. Um, and the reason we're here was is really based on an issue with the agenda. So, I would like to hear from other board members if they could bring their voice into the room and then we can uh move to the in our voice on in g or just on this particular. So, I would I'm um all of us have have um done some soularching um on what's here and

109and for me going back and looking at so many documents, I'm like, how did I get from three to two to one? Um and so I went back and um program reductions on every form means a lot to me. And the first one said program reductions while we probably were looking at three was 7.9 million. What we saw on this we just saw was 2 million. That's a very different thought of what it means to the district to cut 7.9 in programs for all kids, marginalized kids versus 2 million, right? So I just want to you know all of us can go back and look at those documents that our decisions and to say that and it's important say this all the time our reason to get to 2 million was because of the phenomenal

110work of our of the team here and so we're just not being scared to make a decision. The data is changing. would have never said three schools, thought about three schools if we knew it was $2 million. Um, and so for me, the two million um makes me feel confident that we can I still believe in closing one, but find the time for this team to come up with a real plan that we need. at 7.9 million I would have felt like okay we don't have that time to do that and so I know that's my pondering is you know to close two schools um and to make money if you will not make money but end up in the black without so many open questions with so many open questions is just um it's

111just difficult to me so I'm still a one school closure but I am um Kingsley in in that sense and so I sit here so conflicted on having to if we have to vote on Lincolnwood um because I don't think that's what the data tells us and I don't think and the facilities team did not tell us they gave us scenarios and they rated the scenarios and if there was one school closure it was Kingsley um so in that sense I would welcome the opportunity to be able for all of us to come backwards in this. Um, and I respect that we need to look at all the scenarios again and we all need to think about what it means to close too and maybe some of our minds might change on that. But I

112also think we need to think about closing Kingsley again as the one >> thoughts. Let me just say that um going from two to one was in my thinking based on the heavy load of actually closing two schools while opening Foster. We are our budget is heavily influenced by the opening of Foster and that needs and to me that needs to we need to put the work into realize the value of that. It's not to me it's not about north side. It's about doing the work and doing it completely and getting it done and seeing what the the outcome of that work is to the community. To me, it would be a vehicle to show the community that we can get the good work done. [applause] My my one school closure [clears throat] scenario is

113not based on then moving to balance the back of this work on any of the title one schools. That is not part of my consideration. [applause] That's not part of my consideration. I know we could we could close two schools and get it done. Somebody's going to be happy. Nobody's going to be happy about any of this. I don't want to close any schools. But I want to maintain financial stewardship over District 65. I am a I'm here because of Bessie Rhodess. So I have firthand experience with what school closure looks like. It's a decision that we had to make to move forward. But I know how difficult it is even for administration to make those decisions. And I know how difficult it is for families to experience that. The Bessie Roads families have a

114new school to go to, but that doesn't diminish the difficulty of their process. When we're looking at closing two schools, many people in those communities don't see the benefit of it. and that that makes it a very difficult choice. I'm also looking at this in terms of our legacy as a board. We have two board members that will be leaving us in two years. Unfortunately, we had a board member resign in the middle of the process, which may have avoided where we are now, but maybe not. Maybe not. I can't blame it on that. So, I'm looking for I mean, I have four more years here. I'm not leaving. [applause] I'm not [cheering] leaving. I I have faith in the data. I have faith in the district fist district 65 administrators. They've done a yman's

115job in putting this together, but I have to wrestle with what I know I think is best for the district. This Lincoln Wood option is not the best. [applause] So that's that's where I'm landing. This is very difficult decision. any other voices in the room? >> Well, I'll just say that, you know, obviously this is a very difficult decision. Um, it's pretty clear that we need to do something from a budget perspective because, you know, finding this within our district um without cutting schools is going to hurt all of us. Let's just be honest about that. It's going to hurt all of us. Um, I don't think that closing Lincolnwood alone makes any more sense than closing Kingsley alone because I think at the end of the day when you close one school you're in

116a position where you have to still make substantial cuts over time or end up closing another school in order to get to where we need to be which I think will just prolong the pain in the community. Um, and so, you know, I like I don't see this as being even the best out of the bad options. I think that, you know, we need to reconsider, reflect some more, and I would be for coming back and voting on all of the scenarios again as well. >> Yeah, I would support coming back and voting on the scenarios. In the meantime, we do have some time for conversation um as a board. Um I just want to name though that right there's uh stark divides still. Um the reality is 15 million794 198,000. Um if we close

117one school that has programming and staffing implications. It's roughly if you compound the school savings and this is a guesstimate and I'm doing simple math. I'm not doing compounding effects just to be clear. Um, but it's roughly $ 8.5 million of additional cuts we will need over four years um from programming and staffing. If we close two schools, it's uh just over $2 million of programming and staffing reductions when you aggregate the savings. So, this is a lot of money, >> right? >> Can you say that again? I'm sorry, I wasn't following. You said it was $15 million if we closed one school and $2 million if we closed two. So, I've run the numbers by Tamara, okay? >> And she affirmed them. I'm happy to share my document with you. >> I'm not questioning

118you. I just didn't want to hear it. you should uh um that if you aggregate savings, which we've not seen a graph of the implications of these school closures over four years to my memory, um that a one school closure off the 15794198 um using simple multiplication um would still require almost $ 8.5 million of programming and staffing cuts. A two school closure, again aggregating the cost savings without counting compounding effect, um would require 2.3 million over four years of additional programming and staffing cuts. And so what I'm trying to raise here is not to dig in deeper, but just to say these are big issues. That's a lot of money. >> We have some talking to do. >> So just to follow up. So I think one there's a lack of clarity in some

119things we've been saying. I think we've said it I think I've said it every single time I've talked. I don't mean close one school is done. We're move forward is close one school this year. Let's create the full plan which includes how we're rebuilding schools. Come back to this as a vote next year with this same board. And at that point either we have clarity around we have to close a second school in the north side or we have a plan around how not to do it. So to me it's not I agree with you if I was saying hey one school just 8 mill let's just eat the 8 million $15 million. No I wouldn't say that. I'm saying one year we've been on the board how long? Six months. We have not been

120able to fully figure out what is the holistic plan around excellence, opportunity, making sure this makes sense. We just haven't done that. And I don't think any of us can say if we voted right now that we have a plan that braids together, which we were told, programming, the financial cuts, and the and the facilities. We don't have the as we we don't have the uh special education audit. We don't have the master facilities plan. We need to have an audit of our transportation and special ed. So there's a lot of unknowns here that is money that can have impact and also our partnerships that could change this. So just want to be clear is not just close one, we're done. Figure out the cuts is close one. Let's hold ourselves accountable to having a

121plan with this board, come back, vote, be responsible, and at that point, it might still be closing a second school or it might be partnering with using a school in some other ways. So, that's I just I think that's getting lost in some sense. I just want to clarify at least from my perspective. [applause] Can I throw just two things in from the administration side for a second, Pat? Is that okay? Um, I think just something to consider, Nicole, with your comment about one and wait is that we then reintroduce the idea potentially that students are moving multiple times. And so if the board does decide to move forward with one closure, if the thinking is there's a second one later, then there would need to be some guidance about whether that should inform the

122boundaries or not because it does certainly increase the like the potential of of multiple moves for kids. Um then the second thing that I just want to say is for administration I think what we've pretty clearly communicated over time is we need a decision by winter break. We have heard a lot about the fact that we need to execute this well. We plan to execute this well. We want to execute this well. But any timets that you walk back from April 15 have a whole lot of steps and we need to know where we're going by winter break to be able to execute any closures that would be in place for the beginning of next school year. Dr. Turner. >> Yeah. >> I mean this is a huge puzzle that I know you all are

123trying to put together in terms of where students move, boundaries, staffing decisions. There are so many different implications that come from closing a school. And to do that, to make all of those changes, to move things around, and then to have to come right back and start this whole process over again, like the pain for the community, the pain for making the decisions about who goes where and how people that to me while we still have to make significant reductions because one school only one school would be closing and we have to, you know, try to keep the 90 days cash on hand at the same time as we're doing that process to me is just a recipe for more chaos and disaster. And so, like, I know we've talked a lot about, you know,

124it's hard to execute closing Bessie Roads and two schools, but I think that what we're not considering is how hard it is to execute closing Bessie Roads, closing one school, continue to try to figure this out, and then come back and do it all over again and have students have to move a second time. So I will say um you know the the the the challenge of having people move two times initially when we heard that's like yes but I have not heard the north side parents to a tea they have said we're willing we're willing for that risk. The second is the process that we've gone through the process for SDRP there is I don't believe we're saying we're going to go through this full we have the data we have the scorec cards

125we have all that it's it's not going through this full process again is using the information doing some updates so I think it is a different thing but I to a te um the north side families have said take the time we are we're willing to to deal with that now that doesn't mean and and and I am not um and given most of the closures the closures will um happen to them. I think that's something to take into consideration. We do have to take into consideration the effort and the and what it means on the administration. Uh and I'm not putting I'm not limiting that. But I don't think I think the process of SDRP to create all this materials is is this process. I do not expect that we have to go through

126all of that again. if we were in in six months to say here's what we learned now, how do we think about that? I think that's important to put in the in the >> Yeah. And I I just want to add the process we're referring to is the process of closing a school. >> Yeah. >> That is that is not a that's not going to be uh an easy lift. No, in any which way. So, so I I don't want to um underestimate that or or say that we're talking about the SDRP process because for me is specifically that process of engaging in closing a school. That that was the process. This that's the process. That's what is in each school. But each school is an individual school that has to be closed. And so

127whether we close three right now, there's some things that are but it's still still a in each individual school adds a magnitude of that. So I definitely understand um doing three at one time is going to have some efficiencies but at the same time doing three at one time has some complexities as well. So it just it is it own school needs to be treated in its own um in its own unique way as we think through closures. I don't know. It's just confusing to me because if we feel confident enough in the data to close one school and we feel confident enough like in the SDP process and what the plan is to close one school, then why wouldn't we feel confident in it enough to close two? To me, it's confusing that it's

128like, you know, we're willing to go this far, but we don't want to see how all the pieces work together because we need more information. I feel like we either need information or we don't >> I can jump in there. >> Um I think I think what I'm facing when I'm looking at the different scenarios and moving from one school to two schools, what I see there is an an uncertainty in transportation and I see a plummeting of walkability in the north >> and um and so what does that do to our to our transportation costs? So that's a level of uncertainty that I see moving one to two. The next thing is, you know, I just want to name that the north side of Evston has decreased their enrollment at a greater rate than

129the C than the central section or the southern section of Evston. Um, and a lot of those kids have gone to private schools. They haven't moved. Um, they're coming back to HHS. And so my question is around if we close two schools, are we cutting off our opportunity? And I know you and I disagree on this, Maya, so that's okay. Um, but you asked for why. >> Uh, we're cutting off our opportunity to um to win those students back in future generations, if you will. Um, because there is no neighborhood school for them to go to. Um and then and then after that when I look at the boundaries and I think about the movement of people in the hours in which school starts and ends you know there's a lot of people that are

130going to be traversing Green Bay Road at Lincoln or Green Bay Road at Central and those intersections are really problematic as they stand today at those times. And so the and then when I when I turn around and look at the increase in cost that that will that that's that closing just one school is it doesn't feel like it's enough for me to say we have to do this right now because it isn't it's a million dollars that's the delta for for one year and so as I think through you know we sit on a board with an expert in social, school, and city systems. She just got here. But every time I talk to her, she says something brilliant. And I think we should give our board an opportunity to think more long term

131about how we structure our schools and how we can deliver an excellent education. And I believe that closing two school now two schools now undermines our ability to do that without much benefit. [applause] Um I'm wondering just how we're spending the evening here. Um um my I'm wanting to stay as open as possible to ongoing conversation and so I have responses but I'm also wondering if maybe I should hold those. >> I'd like to hear them and >> we keep talking. >> Um because if we are going to come back to reviewing all the scenarios then um I guess I'm seeking some direction about the nature of our conversation now. So I think if board members have comments for five more minutes, we can entertain that because I'm si sensing unsurity if that's the word

132or they're looking for the opportunity to explore more with each other in terms of coming to a consensus. Um and we can work on that. So I that's my recommendation is that >> okay >> so at 7:30 we will bring this discussion to a close. >> Do you love the timer please? >> Yes. And then we need to talk about when we will reconvene. So, let's take it one step at a time. >> Any additional discussion? >> You wanted to say something. >> Andrew, did you want to say just I think we're going to go down the rabbit trail kind of where we stand now, which I don't know what good that does us except for So, I just think uh Do you want me to go? I can go. But, >> um I also

133feel like I think it's more fruitful >> to um >> your call. um have these conversations in ways that um >> can be more productive. >> Yeah. Can be more productive. >> Okay. Then I will go ahead and read the motion for the approval for the commencement of the required school code public hearings to consider a one school closure scenario of Lincolnwood school. Just a point of clarification. I move that the board of education approve holding three public hearings in accordance with section 10-22.13 of the Illinois school code to consider the closure of Lincolnwood Elementary School. The dates for these hearings will be determined by the superintendent and board president. The superintendent is directed to provide the required notice for these public hearings at least 10 days prior to the first public hearing by publication

134on the district's website. >> We have a second. >> Second. >> Oh, sorry. I thought we were voting. Okay, take that away. >> Can we call a vote? I'm sure. Yeah, it has to be second. >> Yeah. >> Or do we not vote on it? Is that the other option? >> Let's Let's vote on it. >> Okay. Second, >> Pinker. Second. I second it. >> So, I'm just confused. We're voting on this, but we're coming >> trying to come back to a decision. >> No. Hernandez, >> no >> Oakteg. >> No. >> Wymer, >> no. >> Wilkins, >> no. >> Anderson, >> no. >> 07. >> The motion fails. Now, we need to bring thought about when we're going to reconvene to move to the recommendation to revisit the four scenarios. >> We have a

135meeting on the ETH. We we still need the we need 10 days notice before we do the so the timeline because we're when's the how do we work backwards from can we do dates back to back to back can we >> I I so I think what Dr. Dr. Beersley alluded to earlier, >> the timeline, the timeline that we presented to you all is the timeline for any enactment for the 2526 school year. >> That timeline because you have made these votes, the timeline is is gone at this point. If you want to come back and revisit these scenarios, essentially what you would be coming back to revisit is potential and and again you can consult with your with the board council is consideration for this for the 2627 school year. We're in the 2526

136school year. So bringing this but because the timeline has gone for the school closure hearings and how we have to back this up with all of the other labor timelines we have as well. >> Can I ask a point of clarification? >> Yeah. >> Did you said for the 2627 school year? Do you mean for the 2728? Because we were planning on the 2627 at the end of the 2627 school year. >> At the end. Yes. Thank you. >> Yes. at the end of the 2627 school year to then go into effect for the 2728 school year. >> Can someone put up the calendar the from the last presentation of when we were going to have the three um the three meetings because I'm trying to understand the date. So >> they were going to

137be the third of December was one going to be one hearing. The second or the third hearing was going to be the 10th and the second hearing was the eth. So we had the third, the eth, and the tenth. So, couldn't we do the 10th, the 9th, and the eighth? I mean, I'm trying to say how do we because understand the 10 days that you have to have if we came back here on Monday where we have 45. I'm just trying to understand the work backwards in the dates. We have to have three hearings. The last day is we're out of here on the >> the 19th is the last day before break. >> Okay. The 19th, right? We have to have three hearings. We could do the 19th, 18th, and the 17th. We might

138not want to, but there's three hearings, right? So, how do we >> 10 days notice for a hearing? Is that >> Yes. >> 10 days notice. >> Right. >> But but depending on how many schools you closed, you would also have to conduct three hearings for each school that you decide to close. >> Right. Two on the same day. I think it's already designed that we would do. The problem is if we did to three, then you would we wouldn't do three. So, we can pick three days. >> Two closings here each day. >> Two closings. Three days. We do if we do two schools, they're all on the same day. I'm leaving open all options. >> Just as a clarification, it's 10 days, not 10 business days. >> Notice >> it's 10 school days.

139>> Okay. So, so go with 10 school days. >> So, can I ask that puts us at the 19th? Is that what you said, Dr. >> Send the last day? They're send the what's our last date here? So I'm you know I'm trying to say when is the last day the school's open that we can actually have the the hearing or the vote working backwards from that >> December 19th vote >> right >> u so that oh >> I think what we're saying is we want you want to have the hearings before we go out on winter break is that what I'm >> in the vote all of it all of it all of it >> I haven't said anything >> no >> and that's what I was going to ask is the 19th we've

140then pushed all the dates back significantly right Um, >> that's what that's what Dr. Pinker was proposing was to push the dates. >> I'm saying that we have to get to 10 days. So, we have to find a if we came in Monday, right, we could go ahead, >> right? >> Okay. So, conceivably you could vote on the 19th, vote on the 18th. We just need three days of meetings before that. You couldn't meet 15th, 16th, 17th. I'm not saying we should. I'm just trying to get to this point. 10 days before the 15th is December 1st. 10 working days, 10 business days. It's December 1st, which is when we have to be able to say to the community, we're going to have school closings, which means we have next week to have meetings to

141get to a consensus of what to do. Am I is that am I understanding that wrong? >> We just need a meeting day. >> But it's Thanksgiving. So that means Monday or Tuesday is when we would have to meet Monday preferably if we could because we are >> I just want to also clarify and speak on behalf of the district team. So no one on the district team is is we're off as well like everybody else. Mhm. >> Um and so you would have to convene um >> open up the district office like like do all of the things cuz no no one will be here. >> So I just want to just say that particular piece. >> Can I ask that we um >> can we meet on the first meet on the first

142and then send out on the first? It's a it's a first could happen. because your first meeting could be the 15th. Yeah. >> I'm going to need time to check these dates. So, can we determine these um through OMA compliant way like email? >> I'm good on the first. >> I'm good. I'll be good on the first. I think we have a choice but to be >> and I just got texted 10 working days. >> We have to get it done. >> I cannot read that. >> I think I should be okay by the first >> Andrew. If it's if if it's a work related thing, would you be able to join us virtually? You're available. >> Thank you. >> Not a guest. >> And it might only be 10 days, right? It might not

143be 10 work days. It might be 10 days, which would change the I'm seeing 10 days. Okay. >> 10 days. Okay. >> Okay. >> So, the plan is we will return on December 1st. >> The legal council said 10 days is 10 calendar days. >> 10 calendar days. And we will reconvene to have a thorough discussion and vote and vote. And that's 2D, 2 R, 2F, 2 R, 1 A. And can we take 1B off or do we we are voted no on that one? >> Well, we voted no on on let's let's stay the course. Let's be consistent. >> Let's be clear about the message. >> Um, >> do we need a motion? Do we need a a motion or anything dealer to call a meeting or anything? >> No, just >> Okay. >>

144Thank you for being here, community. We understand what this process entails. I move to adjourn the meeting at 7:33. All in favor? Hi. >> Hi.