001[Applause] Okay, so thank you for YOUR PATIENCE. [Music] WE ARE LIVE NOW. IT IS GOING TO SHOW COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE. Our video that we usually record, unfortunately, was in a prior incident trying to come here. So, we have a contingency. We appreciate your patience and your grace. And so, with that being said, we will go after this meeting, correct it so it shows that this was the regular board meeting that we're having today, and we're going to go ahead and get started. So, first of all, just give yourselves a hand for being patient. [Music] Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I reconvene to open meeting at 6:13. Can we have the roll call? Yes. Uh today's Monday, November 17th, 2025. This is the regular board meeting for the District 65 board. Roll call, Anderson. Here.
002Pinkard. Here. Hernandez. >> Here. Opdyke. >> Here. Weimer. >> Here. Wilkins. >> Here. Uh we move We move into approval of the meeting minutes. For agenda. Agenda. Is there a second? I second. Okay. I move that the board approve tonight's meeting minutes as presented. >> Agenda. I'm getting ahead of myself. And Nicole, you second it? >> I second. Yeah, I did. Anderson. Here. Yes. Pinkard. Yes. Hernandez. Yes. Opdyke. Yes. Weimer. Yes. Wilkins. >> Yes. Uh we'll now move into the district update with comments from the board and Dr. Turner. Dr. Turner, would you like to Awesome. Yes. So, this past Saturday marked the School Board Members Day. So, I want to start by saying thank you to the District 65 School Board for the work work they do on behalf of our students and staff.
003THIS WORK IS [Applause] THIS WORK IS NOT EASY, AND I am thankful for their commitment to our district community. Your dedication to making challenging decisions and ensuring every student has the opportunity to succeed is important work. Today, we celebrate each of you. And so, again, on behalf of our district team and the families and the staff, we all say thank you, thank you, thank you. Let's give it up for them again. [Applause] Good evening, everyone. Uh I want to begin this meeting by reflecting on what truly brings us together, the vibrant, diverse, and deeply committed community of Evanston. We are neighbors, educators, parents, and taxpayers representing the unique character of our nine wards. Our strength has always been rooted in this diversity. The days leading up to this meeting have become increasingly negative and divisive.
004As board members, we are pledged to represent all D65 constituents honestly and equally. We must honor this principle to minimize the polarization the community is experiencing. A fragmented community cannot effectively support our students' future. A united community is an unstoppable force. In light of that, we also continue to reach out to the community to rebuild trust. We have the power to unite the nine wards of Evanston around building a financial foundation for D65 that will be the platform for the educational future we envision. As the board president, I am committed to elevating collaboration between the community, the board, and D and the D65 administration together for a common good. To partially quote Dr. Martin Luther King, we are faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.
005In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. There's no time for apathy or complacency. This is the time for vigorous and positive action. Thank you. As we move into the public comment portion of our meeting, I want to take a moment to clearly outline the purpose and the guidelines for the section of our meeting. The Board of Education meeting is a business meeting held in public. Members of the public are welcome and invited to address the board during open public meetings. Speakers are discouraged from using the public comment period to air specific concerns about staff members, being mindful that the public comment period is not a suitable forum for fact-finding or resolution of disputes. Rather, we encourage members of the public who have concerns about specific
006district employees to follow district communication guidelines found in the student handbook. We have Um yes, there are some scratch-offs in the middle, but let's go with 76. Uh we have 76 uh participants. So, each person will be allowed 1 minute 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 the opportunity to be heard. Also note that it is not customary for the board to respond to public comments. The best way to correspond with members of the board is by emailing [email protected]. Okay. I will start with um Kelly Post, Claudine Holloway, Elena Garfield, Kelsey Rainey Ryan, Lucia Cochon, Annie Cochon, and Erica Crother. Good evening. My name is Kelly Post, and I am the president of Deck. I want
007to begin by standing firmly with our union family. In these trustful and uncertain times, our paraprofessionals in ETAA have been working without a contract. Our children depend on their support every single day, and our paraprofessionals deserve stability, respect, and a living wage. It's time to reach a fair agreement. No one envies the position of the school board tonight. The decisions before you are difficult and will shape our community for years to come. I want to remind everyone, no matter which school your child attends, they will be protected, supported, and educated by the dedicated staff in that building. Our commitment does not waver. We will get through this together. Thank you. [Applause] My name is Elena Garfield, and I've been an occupational therapist in this district for close to 20 years. Several of us are here
008to represent the occupational therapists, physical therapists, and traveling educators department. This includes 15 full-time and one part-time occupational therapist, two full-time physical therapists, and several traveling specialists. We serve every school in the district and support more than 700 students with individualized education programs, as well as many others through 504 plans and the district's multi-tiered system of supports. Our work is grounded in data, trauma-informed care, and individualized intervention design. We collaborate daily with teachers, families, and school staff, and we deliver therapy across the full continuum of services as required by IDEA, including in classrooms, small group areas, gyms, playgrounds, and community-based sites. However, in many buildings, space is extremely limited. Students often receive services in converted storage rooms, shared sensory areas, My name is Kelsey Rainey Ryan. I'm also an occupational therapist. Um however, in many
009buildings, space is extremely limited. Students often receive services in converted storage rooms, shared sensory areas, or even hallways, conditions that compromise privacy, interrupt instruction, and make it difficult to provide consistent evidence-based care. As the district continues evaluating school utilization and potential consolidation, we respectfully ask that specialized service and small groups and small group instruction spaces be included in all planning. At the recent community conversation at Chute Middle School, it was shared that the district's utilization percentage does not include therapy rooms, sensory spaces, or other non-general education learning environments. We urge the district to consider these spaces now while decisions are still being shaped. This is more than about ADA compliance. Accessibility allows a student to enter the building, but true inclusion ensures that the environment supports the learning, regulation, and therapy needs. These spaces are
010not extras. They are teaching environments. I'm Claudine Holloway. I'm also an occupational therapist in the district. These spaces are not extras. They are teaching environments that allow students to develop motor, sensory, and self-regulation skills needed for participation and engagement. As student needs increase in both number and complexity across the district, the demand for these environments has grown and will continue to grow. Without purposeful planning, consolidation could strain our ability to provide legally mandated services and uphold equitable access. Our work directly advances all five of the district's strategic goals. First is equity and achievement. OT and PT remove barriers that prevent students from accessing learning, helping close opportunity gaps for students with disabilities and neurodiverse learners. Second, curriculum and instruction. We build the foundational motor, sensory, and regulation skills that student needs students need to engage
011in high-quality, rigorous curriculum. Rebecca Russell, occupational therapist. Third, workforce and operations. We collaborate with educators and provide training that strengthens inclusive instructional practices and integrated support models. Fourth, school climate and sustainability. Our trauma-informed and regulation-based services support positive school climates and help students return to class ready to learn. Fifth, strategic resource allocation practices. We partner with organizations like Foundation 65, Northwestern University's design and engineering program, and Takunalam Makers on innovative projects that align equitable resources align equitable resource use with student needs, such as 3D printed tactile schedules for students with visual impairments, offering affordable and accessible tools that enhance independence. These strategic goals reinforce why dedicated service spaces are essential for our students to succeed. We respectfully ask that the district one, include therapy, sensory, and small group instructional spaces in the building utilization percentage
012calculations. Hi, Morgan Hinton. I'm the vision itinerant teacher for District 65. Preserve adequate storage for OT, PT, and sensory equipment, including therapy supplies, sensory motor tools, handwriting and fine motor materials, daily living skills equipment, and adaptive devices, such as specialized seating, wheelchairs, walkers, gait trainers, standers, and Hoyer lifts. Number three, ensure each remaining school includes a dedicated regulation or sensory space. Number four, affirm that ADA compliance and specialized service environments are foundational to equitable education. We recognize the complexity of facility planning and appreciate the district's commitment to equity, inclusion, and student-centered decision-making. Our goal is to collaborate to ensure that as plans move forward, the needs of students receiving special education and related services are thoughtfully integrated from the beginning. Thank you for your time. [Applause] Hola a todos. Hi everyone. My name is Lucia.
013My friends and I think it's a really bad idea to close Willard TWI. TWIs are what make our school special. If you take it away, it's like taking away people's cultures, families, and friendships. Because of TWI, we can speak Spanish to our grandparents and cousins in other countries and stay connected to who we are. This is a petition my class created. We got signatures from kids and teachers all over the school. Our whole school says the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish and English. We celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month together. We do Girl Scouts, aftercare, sports, and recess together. We are not numbers. We are kids with real relationships. And when scary things happened, like when ICE was outside our schools, it was this community that helped our families feel safe. TWI should be something the district
014protects, not something it should shrink. It helps our whole community learn about each other and stay connected. Please don't take this away from us. Thank you. Gracias. [Applause] [Music] Another applause, please, so the next person can speak. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Erica Crowder. I'm here with another Willard TWI parent, Annie Caccione, with a single request. Please do not make any changes tonight that impact our two-way immersion program. We do not believe the board has conducted a rigorous analysis of removing the eighth TWI strand at Willard. The modeling is incomplete and the consequences to children have not yet been fully evaluated. At the November 3rd meeting, Dr. Beardsley stated that TWI students from all over the district would be reassigned if they are not currently in their neighborhood TWI school or within their
015middle school feeder pattern. Based on FOIA data, that means 61 students from Dawes, Dewey, Oakton, and Washington would be told that they must leave their friends and their school communities to start over somewhere new. Andrew Weimer agreed with that plan, but none contested it. We doubt families know this is coming because it isn't listed anywhere on the school closure hub, and we've looked. Speaking of transparency, none of the school closure materials are available in Spanish, and we have not seen proof of meaningful engagement with the families that will be impacted by these reassignments. [Applause] Every scenario presented by the administration would move 165 TWI students to other schools. That's two more students than all of Kingsley. On the top of the 162 Bessie Rhodes students already displaced, that's a total of 327. That level of
016disruption is equivalent to closing two entire schools, but without the transparency or community process that school closures require. Sergio, you said publicly that you remained on this board to represent marginalized students, especially Latinos. Yet under every scenario, the district would remove six would move 67 English learners, including 35 Willard TWI students who were never even included on the district's equity scorecards. This is your opportunity to stand up for the very families you committed to representing. Our ask is simple. Limit your votes tonight to school closures only. Leave the TWI programs intact. Allow families who want to move to their closest TWI school to do so voluntarily, not forcefully. Thank you. [Applause] Okay. Uh Jennifer Cameron. Theo Lieber. Allison Lieber. Alicia Rowley. Katie Hauser. Rue Hauser. David Hauser. Well, let me know what is Jennifer Camelos
017and I'm here with Anna LeBron. And as parents in the Willard two-way immersion program, we are united in urging District 65 to preserve three TWI strands in North Evanston, two at Foster and one at Willard, and to maintain all eight TWI strands district-wide rather than reducing a thriving bilingual program. District data shows that even as overall enrollment has declined, TWI enrollment continues to grow. In the past 3 years, district-wide enrollment decreased about 3% annually, while TWI enrollment increased 5% annually. At this pace, TWI will be over-enrolled in seven strands by 2028-2029. Maintaining all eight strands is necessary to meet rising demand and to retain our exceptional bilingual educators. It is deeply concerning that Willard TWI families have not been surveyed by our preferences for next year. Without engagement, the district has no accurate data on
018family intent or on the growing bilingual population in wards six and seven. In response, we conducted our own grassroots outreach. We found that if given the chance, every Willard TWI grade would continue to meet required class sizes and maintain the balanced ratios of Spanish and English-speaking students needed for authentic two-way immersion. We also identified 67 children ages zero through fifth grade in 41 Spanish-speaking households across wards six and seven, 57 of whom are Spanish-speaking. This is not anti-Foster. It is pro-TWI. [Music] [Applause] This is not anti-Foster. It is pro-TWI. Both Foster and Willard should have a space for for this thriving program. We respectfully ask the board to vote for only one school closure today, which will ensure that there is a space for Willard TWI to remain open and continue serving our communities. This
019is an opportunity to rebuild trust by slowing down, opening Foster intentionally and successfully, and preserving programs before disrupting them. Let's choose trust, inclusion, and growth over haste. THANK YOU. DO YOU GUYS HAVE LIKE A STORE OR SOMETHING? NO, YOU'RE GOOD. NICE AND love you got it, buddy. Love you. Hi, my name is Theo and I'm here to remind you that I'm not just a number on your spreadsheet. Spreadsheet. My teachers and parents have always taught me that my voice matters and also that when elected people make decisions, they should do it in a way that actually represents the people who put them in their seat. Kids know a lot more than you think about what is going on. The way I see it, we're trying to fix mistakes from the past, but are we actually
020making it worse? Have we explored every option available before closing down our safe spaces and tearing apart our school families? Help build trust back in our school community by doing the right thing and slowing down. If you must close schools, vote for only one. Show me and all the kids that we matter to you and that we can work together to problem solve hard things without making the kids pay the biggest price. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] My name is Allison and I'm an early childhood teacher in Evanston and a mom of three at Willard, including one who currently receives servants services. I'm here to support the Willard community, Willard tweet, and the option for a one school closure. I feel strongly that slowing down to see where real financial and attendance numbers fall would make
021the would make the next steps clear rather than crossing our fingers with best guesses. We need to focus all our efforts to make sure that the new Foster school is a huge success before we uproot more families than necessary. We are progressive and a creative community who are more than capable of finding ways to make changes through the means of least harm and impact to the people who matter most, the kids, the future families of D65, and the incredible teachers. [Applause] Hi, my name is Alicia Raleigh and I'm here as a special education parent hoping this board will support a one school closure. Three months into my child's IEP, the district emailed our first disruption of services memo. She did not receive two months of specialized instruction. In May, we received our second notice totaling
022in 4,950 minutes of IEP services despite attending class. My fear is closing more schools means more upheaval when we are already behind. Our students already who fight so hard to receive services will experience this havoc. I'm happy to report this year with the help of a gifted staff at Willard, we are moving in a better direction for my child. But why was But why must we fight so hard for the basics? Investing in neighborhood schools is the basic. The displacement of our most vulnerable students will impact access to free and appropriate education. Do you have the courage to stand with me and the families in this community who are tired tired of fighting for a one school closure? [Applause] Hi, my name is Katie Hauser and my family proudly lives in the fifth ward. We
023applied for a permissive transfer to Dewey, a walkable school, which was denied. Our children were forced to attend Willard. We've invested heavily in that community for six years. We've come to love Willard. My son, Rue, is now a third grader at Willard. The first weekend after he started kindergarten, a classmate was shot and killed. Rue and his classmates supported one another. They formed close, tight-knit bonds that brought love and positivity to a dark and confusing time. Rue struggled with early reading skills. A private evaluation confirmed he has orthographic dyslexia. We shared the testing with the district and an IEP was put in place. Without our knowledge, Rue went two months with no services. He lost 5,700 minutes of legally required support. Two weeks ago, Orrington parents got to consolidate their kids and we're not getting
024to do the same. I don't know why there's a black tie. All right, so here's Rue showing off his hard work. Can you see the fear? >> Hold on. Help. Yeah. Can you see the fear? Can you see the anxiety? Can you see the sadness? Can you see that people are freaking out and um worried? A lot of people are struggling. They want to keep learning in their own schools. If you close any schools, people will be heartbroken. Close as few schools as possible. Thank you. [Applause] I'm Dr. David Hauser. I'm a licensed clinical psychologist, marriage and family therapist working with great devotion in this community with children and families of every single elementary and middle school in District 65 since I began working in 2006. I am also a father of two fifth ward
025children attending Willard Elementary. I had four minutes of remarks prepared today because in previous weeks that was allowed and now that's being taken from us and I feel silenced. So all I can say is we are on fire right now. My heart is throbbing and I think all of yours is, too, because this is multi-generational at play. This is what multi-generational trauma looks like. It confuses us. It overwhelms all of us and as all of the good stewards of children's education are trying to do the right thing right now, we are overwhelmed by the original sin, the original trauma of hurting those kids in the 1970s at Foster School. We are doing right by opening that back up, but we are also blinded by THAT EMOTION. NEXT, WE HAVE MIKE BALL, Olivia Ball, Stephanie LaFready,
026Christina Pierce, Robin Brown, Mark Seremsky, Billy Low, Heather Bronner. Hi, I'm Mike Ball, parent of three children at Willard. Sorry, Ms. Anderson, I know you said to keep it positive, but you also used the word honesty at the beginning. Okay, since moving here eight years ago, I feel like we've been consistently lied to by District 65. Um sometimes lies of omission, okay, but you got everybody talking about this like it's a one school closure and let's be clear, you're already closing Bessie Rhodes. So don't disrespect those families and call this anything but a two or three school closure scenario tonight. Also, this structural deficit has been known since at least 2017. Some people have been on the board that long, okay? And what was done? We had admin that was growing three times what it
027was. We had transportation costs going through the roof. And now all of a sudden the sky is falling. You let us sit here and listen to Raphael Obafemi say it wasn't going to cost the district a penny to build this school. He was right. It cost us 45 million dollars and maybe three schools. [Applause] My name is My name is Oliver Ball and I go to Willard. I live in the fifth ward and I might now have to switch to Foster, but I really love my school and I want to stay here. Please, we were told we could stay. I love my friends and I know all the teachers. They come for me and make me feel like I belong. I've grown I have grown so much and have more confidence now because of them.
028I feel safe and happy every day. I've worked really hard to do well in my classes and to be a good student and friend. It would be really hard to change schools because I have to start over, learn new routines, learn a new building, and leave behind people who know me and care about me. It would be very hard to start over and make new friends. Please, keep your promise and let me stay. It's important to me to finish elementary school where I started. [Applause] I lost it. Okay. My name is Stephanie LaFready. I have three kids at Willard and live in the fifth ward. I was only just asked whether my family intended to attend Foster, which I'm genuinely puzzled by this lack of foresight and care for the families. We were denied a
029neighborhood school and sent 2 and 1/2 miles to Willard. It wasn't easy. We rearranged every aspect of our lives so our boys could grow roots in this community. We even considered moving, but we were told we would be grandfathered into our current school, so we stayed. We made significant, irreversible life decisions based on those promises and I honestly wouldn't change a thing now. We are committed to Willard. My kids are thriving. My oldest photo hangs on the Willard wall as a Justin Wynn recipient. My middle literally sobbed on the last day of school cuz the thought of leaving them for summer was devastating. So, to think that they have to leave now their friends, their community, their stability is harmful. It's irresponsible. They are not data points. Slow down. Focus on making Foster succeed. Make
030it more than a beautiful building and focus on actual learning. Keep the promises you made and rebuild the trust between families and 65. The board that revitalizes 65, not one that shatters buildings. [Applause] I'm here today to talk about something that doesn't always show up in spreadsheets or scorecards, yet it's at the heart of every decision we make, the emotional impact that closing schools has on children, their mental health, their sense of stability, and their overall well-being. These are things that can't be easily measured, but they matter deeply. Any transition transition a child goes through can leave a mark. We know this not only from research, but from simply talking to any sixth grade teacher at the middle schools. Starting in a new school is hard, navigating new friendships, teachers, routines, expectations, and the physical
031challenges of a new building. These transition transitions are overwhelming for many kids. Under the two school proposal, over 600 kids would be affected. These kids wouldn't just be adjusting to change, they'll be mourning the loss of their neighborhood school. If choosing to close one school instead of two can soften that emotional blow to our children, I struggle to understand why other options remain on the table. We need solutions that protect our children, not ones that ask them to bear the cost of adult decisions. Our challenges we're facing were created by adults, and it's adults who must take responsibility to solve them. Our kids should not be asked to pay the price for the district's financial mismanagement and planning failures. Our children deserve better from us, and it's our job to make sure they get it.
032[Applause] Hello. I am here to reiterate statements I have shared in previous meetings. I'm not here because it's easy or comfortable for me to speak publicly, especially when my comments are contrary to many of the of the loudest voices. I am here because I still think it matters to speak up, particularly when the loudest and most organized voices can give the impression of community consensus. There is no consensus in this community regarding school closures. There are many like me who hope that you will stay focused and committed and take decisive action. I urge you to stop seeking consensus or something even close to it and continue to focus on your data and your stated values around prioritizing the most marginalized students. I am not a data scientist, but I am a person who has had
033to make hard decisions. I know that when a hard decision has to be made, it is best to be resolute and plan carefully for the execution and the aftermath. Our community will need great attention given to the aftermath. Please do not be swayed by fear and take decisive action and begin the actual work of shepherd or shepherding our community through this process. [Applause] My name is Mark Zaretsky, and as a proud District 65 alum and Willard parent, I stand here to confess that I'm confused. Throughout the school closure process, there's only been one constant, that Willard loses its TWI program and the district reduces its total number of TWI strands from eight to seven. But why? Why for a process that we've been told is based on data are we ignoring the data related to
034TWI? While the district's enrollment numbers have dropped, enrollment in TWI has increased by 13% in just the last two years. So, why are we reducing the number of strands available to our students? Knowing two languages helps you think creatively, improves your problem-solving abilities, and prepares you to be more empathetic. All traits that are more important now than ever before. So, why are we voluntarily taking those opportunities away from our students? If you have an answer to these questions, we'd love to hear them. Until then, we implore you to leave TWI programming out of tonight's SCHOOL CLOSURE DECISION. [Applause] I'M HEATHER BURNER, A STEP PARENT WHO has taught special ed for 13 years. I support a one school closure because closing two schools will put both Foster schools, Launch, and District IEP services at risk. Foster
035is brand new, and the district still doesn't know how many students, let alone students with IEPs, will attend. The curriculum is so promising, but supports and services must also be fully planned. Foster can't succeed if students with disabilities are an afterthought. Multiple closures will complicate this process. The models don't consider where the special ed students from closed schools will land. How will students be distributed to protect the 70/30 class balance if you don't know this? Transitioning even one student takes hours, but how will case managers be compensated for this work? Meanwhile, if STEP moves to Dewey, they will be the only students from Lincolnwood there, and their friendships will be severed, destabilizing the students in that program. Please focus on Foster success and don't destabilize special education. Just close one school. Come on. [Applause] Hi,
036my name is Billy Lowe. I am a a parent of a a young child in 65, and I'm going to say something that is going to contradict almost everything else that was said tonight. So, I think if we look back to 2017 when all these problems started occurring, had we taken decisive action then and made small changes, none of us would have to be in this room going through everything we're going through right now. So, my question to you, the financial consultant has said there is no way you can close less than two schools without it and still expect to fix the problem. So, if you only close one school, we are all going to be back in this room next year going through the same process and extending the pain that our community is
037feeling. [Applause] Okay, next we have Daniel Whitley, Mike Dice, Rush Showen, Grace Filippini, Vic Filippini, Caitlin Carlin, Annie Satula, Roslyn Christinat, and Beth Brady. Hello, my name is Dan Whitley, and I'm a member of the SDRP Facilities Subcommittee. Please close two schools. Please. Because in all of the fury over school closings, what's missing is how we balance the budget if we close one or zero schools. Where would we cut? Programs and support staff. How will we do it? Eliminate Head Start and preschool? Slash art programs? Fire occupational therapists and speech paths? Shut down ACC, STEP, RISE? These things are what make our district and schools shine and our students thrive. A school building without these things is a shadow of what it could be. A vote only close one school is a vote to diminish
038the education of every single child in this district. Closing two schools causes the least amount of harm. So, please close two schools. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Mike Dice here, Lincolnwood and Haven parent, and I am here tonight to ask you to cast a vote for Evanston families and in support of one school closure. The IINS has over 2,000 signatures supporting their plan for one closure and a successful opening of Foster. The Legion of Dad Nerds have offered proposals worth millions in savings. Our friends on the Washington Task Force have put forward a thoughtful proposal with support from throughout the district. Now, more than ever, you have an engaged, passionate community ready to invest a mountain of time, energy, knowledge, and heart in helping our schools turn the page on the past and achieve a
039brighter future for all of Evanston. We need you to believe in that future, too. Please commit to public schools in this district. Support our teachers. Support Willard TWI. Support fifth ward students who wish to stay with their cohort. Support Foster's successful opening. Support STEP. Support all of Evanston and vote for a one closure scenario. THANK YOU. [Music] RUSH SHOWEN, MY DAUGHTER'S FAVORITE BOOK is What Should Danny Do, a story about choices. My daughter says there are good choices and bad choices, and sometimes she picks the bad one just to see what happens in the book. But you can start over in a book. Tonight, instead of asking what should Danny do, I'm asking what should this board do? Should you close one additional school or two? My daughter would say one is good, two is
040bad. I'd add, closing one is responsible, closing two is totally irresponsible. Make the irresponsible choice, and a year from now, you may find savings don't materialize, the community and parents are upset, future referendums are in jeopardy, and Foster's opening might be rocky. The lighthouse will not be on. Or make the responsible choice, close one school, partner with this community, build a strategic plan, secure funding, and open Foster smoothly. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Please choose wisely. [Applause] HI, MY NAME IS GRACE Filippini and I'm a sixth grader at Haven. I went to Lincolnwood Elementary for kindergarten through fifth grade. I live across from Perkins Woods, so I get to see it every day. I get to watch generations of deer, coyotes, and birds from my window. If you close the school, I'll still get to
041look at the woods, but a lot of other kids won't be able to enjoy it. Lincolnwood is not only a beautiful building next to a beautiful forest, but the staff there is really awesome. They're nice, helpful, and you can tell that they do it for the students. I've completed my education at Lincolnwood and I live by the forest, so it makes no difference to me personally whether you close the school or not, but it will make a big difference to my community, particularly all of the students from all over Evanston that thanks to Lincolnwood get to enjoy the beautiful, unique campus and community of Lincolnwood School. Thank you. [Applause] Vic Filippini, I'm a D65 parent, a lawyer, and for 15 years I served as a professor at Northwestern Law School specializing in land use and
042local government law. I have provided you with a memo in which I analyze the title of the Lincolnwood School campus. We found some expired private restrictions, but we also found that the deeds for the campus establish a public trust for the use of the inhabitants of D65. Additional deed restrictions further limit the westerly 150 ft to park and playground purposes. These title restrictions mean you cannot sell or lease the Lincolnwood campus for private development. The district's choice is either to use Lincolnwood School with the adjacent Perkins Woods as an asset for the students or mothball it and make it an ongoing liability. If you ignore the legacy gift, I will have no choice but to sue you to defend that gift. Further, the failure to identify these title restrictions reveals a fundamental flaw in the
043SDRP process. Now that you are informed, your failure to abide the deed restrictions will constitute a fraud on the public, so you have a choice, either invest in the students please or invest in lawyers for a losing cause. [Applause] WHAT DO I DO WITH THE PAPER? MY NAME IS KATIE Carlin and I am a parent of D65 students. As we have embarked on this process together as a community, it has become more apparent each week how many unknowns we are facing in this time. While narrowing down scenarios should bring more clarity, there are still so many serious questions. We as concerned community members have collected these questions from constituents across Evanston. We present these questions in a spirit of collaboration to ensure issues and concerns can be considered and adequately addressed before the district commits
044to additional closures. In light of the extensive list of unknowns, we encourage the board to move forward without haste and close only one school in the 2026-27 school year beyond Bessie Rhodes. Tonight we will highlight a sample, but we presented you with 73 questions. The process of closing and consolidating schools while intending to save money in reality comes with great logistical cost. How much will the closing and relocation cost for up to three schools eat into any potential savings? What will bussing cost be? In previous listening sessions, Dr. Beardsley mentioned bringing on additional help to assist with multiple school closures in a short time frame. Do you know the cost associated with this? In receiving school buildings, will there be rooms designated for pullout services for children with IEPs, including quiet areas for speech therapy,
045OT, PT, and other wrap-around services? Have you considered the cost of special education outplacements to the district and how that cost will grow if we are failing to meet the needs of kids with IEPs through this tumultuous transition period? The city has expressed interest in collaborating with the district to explore joint use in buildings. Have we allowed enough time to see this through? How will you decide what teachers will go to what schools? A major transition for a teacher has an impact on their ability to teach effectively. Have you considered the impact this will have on student learning? Extensive PD for teachers at Foster was mentioned to the school board meeting in the school board meeting on November 3rd. What about support for teachers who are forced to teach in new buildings, grades, or subjects?
046[Applause] Hi, my name is Rosalyn Chrisnat and I'm a fifth grader at Lincolnwood Elementary. I've been zoned for Haven Middle School since I moved here. I do not go to Dawes, Oakton, or Walker, so why should I have to go to Chute? Lincolnwood feeds into Haven, same as Willard, Kingsley, and Orrington. Why should I have to go to a middle school that Lincolnwood doesn't feed into? I'm the only one of my peers who will be going to Chute, so I'll know no one there. Imagine having to go to a middle school you know no one at. My only shot at Haven is if I get a permissive transfer, which I don't even think I'll get. I just want to go there to be with my friends in the community we we have built. So, can
047you please just hear me out and let me go to Haven? [Applause] My name's Beth Brady, I'm a parent and teacher here. Incrementalizing, slowing down, and starting over feel good, but leadership is doing the hard and necessary thing to effectively solve our financial crisis and prioritize the most marginalized students. We need to elevate the perspective of those who have committed the most labor to facing this problem, those in our classrooms and buildings who absorb the gap between our values and our funding, those who have committed hundreds of hours to solution seeking in this grueling phase of SDRP, and those who have been doing the labor of diversifying our schools in terms of ability, language, and race. This commodity that raises your property values and is why so many people want to be here, it who
048does the regular invisibilized labor of providing diversity to an institution where their children experience worse outcomes and whose perspective is often spoken about by people who don't share their experience. Your work is to use the data and the priorities of our community to effectively solve this problem and allow us to collectively hold the impact together. Thank you. [Applause] Next we have Natika Washington, Maleeha Gertsm Bruin Senna, Here, I'll start over. Natika Washington, Maleeha Gertsm, Bruin Senna, Jennifer Nelson, Lindsey White, David House, or David Hauser. Good evening. My name is Natika Washington, a District 65 parent and I'm the co-chair of the ACC parent committee at Oakton. I stand behind the difficult work this board has to move forward on the recommendation to close two schools because it reflects the community-led, data-driven process and financial guidance.
049Tonight, I'm asking us to center equity. Specifically, how existing resources will be reallocated after these closures. We've heard a little a lot We've We've heard very little about what programming cuts would actually look like and those cuts will not impact all students equally. They will directly affect ACC and the students who rely on it. ACC is a program designed to affirm the and uplift black youth while serving all students by helping every child understand the global contributions of the African diaspora. With closures, Oakton and ACC will welcome new families whose children deserve stability, strong support, and for many black students access to African-American history they have not been receiving. Thank you. [Applause] Hello, my name is Maleeha Gertsm and I'm a parent of a Kingsley grad. I speak tonight as someone with over 20 years
050of experience in legal policy advocacy involving hard issues of public interest. I say it as a graduate of a Connecticut public school system not unlike Evanston's, which was involved in perhaps the most significant state-level civil rights education lawsuit in the history of our country. I also say this as a student who was redistricted from my dearly loved walkable neighborhood elementary school and bused to another elementary school where I knew no one when I was in fifth grade. I survived, your kids can, too. I don't ascribe to the view that the school district has lost its way. Instead, I believe that Evanston continues to try to do what few school districts in the country are trying to do and what no one has figured out, equitably serve a very diverse student population. I know uh let's
051see. I left knowing the meeting left the meeting in September knowing that people are here who will step up. Please close the schools if that's what we need to do. [Applause] Hi, my name is Lindsey White. I'm a D65 parent. At this point, the entire district is aware of the confusion playing out as 3 days ago we received Dr. Turner's email reiterating that the board is considering two two school closure scenarios and then simultaneously received a board agenda with a one school closure added. There's been a tremendous amount of talk around town about the board members who have been playing partisan politics by attending private parent advocacy group meetings and advocating for a one school closure. This kind of back door dealing is outrageous. It breaks public trust when board members make promises to parents
052outside of these public board meetings, which is where these things are supposed to be discussed out in the open. At the November 3rd board meeting, the board focused in on two two school closure scenarios and agreed to head this way, and yet here we are today with the agenda showing that we're voting on a one school scenario. When did these discussions happen? They happened outside of the public eye. How can the community trust anything that happens tonight after this clear violation of board conduct and policy? You must move forward in the direction the board knows is necessary and vote for two schools tonight. Thank you. Hi, good evening. My name is Jennifer Nelson and I'm representing the Washington Task Force tonight and we have intentionally limited public comments to give the board the space that
053it needs to deliberate and we wanted to thank you guys for your service and Dr. Turner, thank you for getting this process started. Um we support a one school closure as the clearest path to a united community and a successful Foster reopening. We want to build bridges and we know many of you are up to that task. A north-south divide does not serve any of us and we need to come together as one community. Our priority is stability for all students, especially Title 1 and special education. Two closures plus Bessie Rhodes overextends the district for modest savings and risks students. Community driven proposals show we can reach the needed savings without cutting in school staff or programs. We want to thank you for protecting students and families with the bigger picture and long-term vision in
054mind. The consultants gave us the D1 plan to stay solvent by 2030, but there's not a plan to fund the 40 million that we need to do our community um I'm sorry, our capital our capital needs ahead. We very likely will need a referendum and we need the entire community behind that ask. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening. My name is Bevin Seifert. I have a son in third grade Twe at Willard. Please do not close two more schools. Do not close Willard or Willard Twe. Flawed baseline data for Willard skews the equity impact of a Willard closure and skews the overall Haven feeder pattern closure scenarios. By closing Willard Twe by removing Willard Twe students and Willard fifth ward students from Willard baseline data, the district staff and administration has presented information to the community
055and the board that first under-counted the number of children forced to change schools. The data artificially lowered the number of children with IEPs and English learners who would be impacted by a Willard closure, thus under-counting the equity scoring of a Willard closure or a Willard Twe closure. The erasure of our kids under-counted the number of children in the sixth and seventh ward overall to make space for two school closure in the Haven feeder pattern. And this continues a pattern of practice of erasing feedback from Twe families and the existence of North Evanston's Hispanic families. [Applause] Um next we have Patrick Motherway, Ann Vogelsang, Thomas Weber, Terry Shepherd, Meredith Aponte, Wilmar Serpa, Barry Doyle, Jason Orloff. Hi, my name is Patrick Motherway. I have two kids at Willard, one in third and one in first grade.
056Um I look at the faces out in this crowd. I've coached with many of these people and coached many of their kids. And guys, I'm just thinking about this today, all this has done is divide our community. I mean, today you have a significant opportunity to rebuild the trust that has been eroded over the past several years in this district. Closing schools unnecessarily is just going to further this divide in this community. It has been very difficult to see my neighbors with different signs than my school, different questions, not feeling comfortable. This has just done nothing but create division. And in the beginning of this very, you know, present or very talk, you said that's the last thing you wanted to do. So with that being said, you need to educate yourself, guys. You need
057to look more into this. It's clear that there are still so many unknowns. Closing two schools is just neglectful. It's just going to drive this division even further and further. You need to close one school. [Applause] Hello, my name is Ann Vogelsang. I'm a special education parent um at Willard. And firstly, my kids don't attend Twe, but I'm here to let you know as a parent whose kids don't go to Twe how integral Twe is to the Willard community. And more folks should be coming up here and we all feel uh very strongly about keeping our Twe family together at Willard and how much it changes our kids who are not in the Twe program. How much it changes my children's experience to be in community with the kids in the Twe program, all of
058them together. That's number one. Number two, the board claims that this decision process is being made on data. So, if the board is not considering a one school closure, which you've heard a lot of the community asking for this evening, and if you're going to go with two schools, then making a decision based solely on the data of your score cards that many people have issue with, stick to your own data. Go with the decision if you're Thanks. Almost got there. [Applause] Hello everyone. Um my name's Thomas Weber. I'm a future Willard parent. Um I want to be clear about what you're voting on to close tonight. If you close Willard's building, you'd be closing a 103-year-old building designed by a renowned Evanston architect responsible for five other local landmarks and at the time the
059largest building in downtown in the world in downtown Chicago. You'd be closing a building that your own property assessment says is historic and is scheduled for a landmark hearing before the city on December 2nd. And you'd be closing the only remaining public school in Evanston named for a woman after the closure of Bessie Rhodes. And not just any woman, Frances Willard, arguably the most famous Evanston resident in history. As the author of her most recent biography wrote to you last week, Frances Willard was one of the most influential Americans of the 19th century. One newspaper said that if women had been allowed to vote, she would have been the first female president of the United States. In a country that still has never elected a woman as president, I want my daughter to know that
060at least one of Evanston's public schools can be named after a woman. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] My name is Meredith Aponte. I'm speaking on behalf of Willard. Um I'm sure that you're aware of the aspect of it being a landmark, of its walkability, of ADA. I'm coming at this from a very personal place. I come from a very cultural diverse background. We're Jewish, Puerto Rican, and Palestinian. And 3 years ago we were very attracted to this community area of the Willard school district. We moved here. I have a 2-month-old. I have a 2-year-old. They're we're not on your radar yet. We're not in your data, but we're coming and a lot of families like us are coming, too. So, please please save Willard. Please save the school that we moved to Evanston for. Thank you
061for your time. [Applause] Good evening. My name is Terry Shepherd. I'm a three-decade board watcher, a past District 65 board member, co-founder of ACC, SAP 2 and DSRP committee member, and a proud grandmother for fifth grade ACC student, and I'm chair of the education committee of the NAACP. I'd like to thank you for your presentation and commitment to an ACC program at Foster School. Once again, I want to say I support the superintendent and the process. Please do not abdicate your vote to community members that may have spoken louder and in greater numbers than those of us who support the two school closure option recommended by the consultant you hired to help the process. I am hopeful that all of you who campaigned on a promise of equity will remember your pledge. Also, if you're
062going to authorize a forensic audit, I think you should go back to Superintendent Ford. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] So just to follow up on that, as being on the fiscal committee with that consultant you hired, we recommended King Arts. The committee. That said, I actually wanted to come up here and talk about Dr. Horton sending the district into a death spiral during the pandemic. Because during the pandemic, 25% of the families went to Dr. Horton and they asked him for specific help to make it through the pandemic. And he told them to take it or leave it and they left. They went to private schools and that is still an option. And if we don't get that 25% back, we're still going to be under enrolled. So, how about some centers of excellence? How
063about Foster being a center of African excellence where you have immersion in Swahili? How about you have uh Bessie Rhodes back where you have immersion in Spanish? And you know what else? That land acknowledgement, I actually went up to talk to the Potawatomi and they'd be happy to buy a campus. They just need an invitation. [Applause] Hi, my name is Sperry Doyle. Um in addition to the decisions you got tonight, you have another big one coming over the horizon and that's to select somebody to join you on the board. And historically, I know that this has been a closed process. It doesn't have to be. And as elected officials, I think you should be accountable for your decisions and who you put on that board. That person is going to have some mo- uh take
064part in some pretty momentous decisions and how your choice is measured is not just by who you chose, but what what the other alternatives were. And I in your in the last board, there's actually a majority that would initially got on the board through appointment and that led to some disastrous group think that really led this district down down the wrong path. Um you profess to want to earn the trust of the community. Opening up that process is one way to do that. Thank you. [Applause] Hi, my name is Guillermo Serpa and I'm the I'm a parent from the Willard school. I'm here to urge you not to close Willard. To us, Willard is more than just a neighborhood school for the northwest of Evanston. It is the anchor where the community congregates on a
065daily basis. And at a time when community ties are more vital than ever, this board is considering closing this school and severing these ties. Please don't do that. I'm pretty sure that's not the legacy that you guys want for your for this board to be known for. So, please don't do that. Um at Willard in recent days when the ICE have been terrorizing the the area, how has the community responded? The community have responded by congregating in massive numbers during the school pick up at the end of the day in order to protect uh vulnerable families, vulnerable kids. And that's exactly what a strong community looks like. And please don't destroy that. UM THANK YOU. [Applause] NEXT, WE HAVE ANNIE CAWTHORN, Camille Walker, Andrew Billiter, Jessica Trujillo, Kelly Farley, Darren Aguilar, Hannah Jones Lewis, Kevin
066Christ. Hi, I'm Annie Cawthorn. I'm a District 65 parent. A year ago when we started this school closure process and determined the criteria together as a community, if you had told me I'd be standing here tonight advocating for the board to close more schools than less, I would have said there was no way. I've looked at the numbers and they're real and they're scary. And there's not a single alternate proposal I have seen that has any credible plan to achieve the $12 million deficit for this upcoming school year, let alone the $50 million in cash that our district needs by the year 2030, five years from now. Does everybody in this room tonight realize we aren't just solving for the $12 million this school year? The reality is that school closures alone are not enough
067to get us on a sustainable path forward. We are plummeting Thank you. Hi, my name is Camille Walker and I'm a D65 parent. We are at the cliff about to kick the can down the road again, repeating the mistakes of past boards, which is what this board said it would not do. Let me remind you that every single new board member campaigned on fiscal responsibility and not repeating the mistakes of the past boards. Two school closures are the minimum of what we need to explore in order and to get us on a sustainable path forward. And if we don't do that, the State Board of Education will make the decision for us and I know that's not what we want. Please listen to our consultants and committees whose hard work and guidance I trust. Tonight,
068we keep hearing slow down and get creative, but what we need to do is fix this financial mess and vote to close two schools. So, let's fix the financial mess. Let's right-size our district down to the averages currently met by nearby school districts. Compared to Glenview, we have 1,800 more students, but we have nine more buildings. Compared to Oak Park, we have the same number of schools per square mile, but very different density. Oak Park has over 1,100 students per square mile, D65 just 750. That means we have only 500 more students, but seven more buildings than they do in Oak Park. Remember that every additional building brings additional administrative staffing costs. All of this shows up in what we pay per student. We pay $26,000 per student. Oak Park pays $21,000 per student. Yet,
069Oak Park is outperforming D65 on English language arts, math, and science. They have a narrower achievement gap. We are spending more per student for poorer progress. Let's right-size. [Applause] Hi, my name is Jessica Trujillo. Um I'm a District 65 parent. Uh I have two still in District 65, two that have made it to the high school here. Um first, I want to assure all the parents here that we've gone through a lot of transitions. My children have transitioned schools. It's been okay. It really has been okay. Um what I want to say is that we need to redirect the dollars we spend as a district into academics, not excessive administration or buildings. I want to know why we are trying to squeeze pennies to keep more buildings open instead of investing in academics for all
070students in D65. Even with stu- with two schools closing, our district remains at or under the 85% enrollment for all elementary schools. And if we close only one school, we leave Willard enrolled at 45, Orrington at 52%, and Lincolnwood at 65%. This doesn't even get us close to our desired utilization and capacity numbers discussed by the board. And this is while other schools in our district, Washington, Foster, Dawes, are enrolled at close to over 80%. The fact is school buildings, specifically within the Haven feeder pattern, are not enrolled enough to support keeping their buildings open as we stare down this financial emergency. And I stand with YOU, HART. [Applause] HI, I'M KELLY FARLEY. I'M A D65 PARENT AND member of the SSRP Finance Committee. The school board needs to enforce a policy of 90 days
071cash on hand. As of FY30, curre- current projections have a negative bank account balance of over a million dollars. That means we need $50 million in cuts or new revenue in the next five years. There's a difference between savings and revenue that repeat year over year versus one-off influxes of cash. It is in the compounding nature of these replicable permanent savings that we start to close this gap. We don't need to just pilot ideas, we need that in the bank account in five years, $50 million. Some plans being circulated propose middle class homeowners, a family of four making over 60K, pay more in taxes, over 25% more in student fees, and being asked to donate or invest in bonds. Cutting costs, increasing fees, this is to achieve the stat- status quo for what benefit? None
072of this will go to improving academics, addressing achievement gaps, or improvements for all kids in D65. It will go to keeping buildings open. Invest in our kids. And the Oakton parents that are speaking here, many of them move in the two school scenario. We believe strongly [Applause] Hi, I'm Darren. I'm a dad in D65 with a kid in Twe. Um and it's my first time speaking in a scenario like this. Um I'm speaking up because a month ago, we were looking at three and four school closure scenarios. Um in the past few weeks, we seem to have backed off of that and are now discussing a one school closure, uh but but it doesn't seem like finances are part of that decision. Um financially, it's pretty clear we should be closing more schools, not less,
073because a one school closure scenario simply will not pay for the debt that we're in. $50 million, $12 million a a There is no one school closure scenario that covers this cost without pulling money from programming across the district. That means every kid suffers in a one school scenario. A two-school closing in addition to Bessie Rhodes is the compromise. Thank you. Hi. I'm Hannah Jones Lewis. I'm a District 65 parent. Um I am talking up here and speaking again not because it's fun to have people act out and scream and boo, but because I really believe that this is what's important for my kids and for all of our children to be able to move forward and get the services that we need. There are so many communities in this country that are actually needing
074to navigate similar things. In Waukesha, Wisconsin, the board voted to close schools as the student population is expected to decline 2% year over year in the next decade, prompting the need to consolidate buildings similar to what we're talking about and the need to reduce operating costs. Boston has a plan to close or merge 17 schools by 2030 to address declining enrollment and aging facilities. We are not alone and continuing to say that we want to support, support, support without the money without the plan is a problem and it's going to hurt all of our children and I'm not okay with it. I'm not. And I'm not okay with all of the yelling and the mocking and the all of the things, the faces. It's not okay. Thank you. [Applause] My name is Kevin Chris. I'm
075a District 65 parent in Oakton. Um We've talked a lot We've talked a lot tonight about um the fear around the unknowns of some decisions to be made tonight, but what we know for sure is that programming cuts district-wide is the only way to balance a one school closure. So please consider the equity impacts of these programming cuts because they're going to have an outsized impact on all of our most vulnerable students regardless of geography. The public voted decisively for drastic changes to this board and they didn't vote for them for more of the same. So we need a decisive vote tonight or we'll further rift in our community and we are asking this board to be decisive the same way that we were all decisive in electing you. Um we're counting on you to
076do this hard work on our behalf. Um this we used a community-led process that was equitable and transparent. We either believe in that or we don't. Um Next we have Jamie Capper, Julia Vaughn, Jimena Ezquerra, Michael Neighbors, Jean Clipperton, Lauren McNaugh- McNamara, Jacob Carlin, John Brady, Esteban Cuenos, Scott Campbell, Peter Bogera, Katie Armstead, Baxter Swilley. Hi, I'm Jamie Cappa, a District Willard TWIM mom. My son is white and he experiences some negative treatment from other white boys specifically because he's in the {quote} Spanish class. Their comments were directed at him because he has formed close relationships with classmates who don't look like him, children from different cultures and economic backgrounds. And while that has been challenging for him, it also has been one of the most meaningful parts of his education. In his TWIM classroom,
077he experiences real diversity, learns empathy in ways he most his mostly white class mates simply don't offer. He has learned to speak up for his friends and for what he believes in and I recognize that even with these challenges, he still benefits from the privilege of his skin color and social class. That doesn't make what happen acceptable acceptable, but it doesn't give him a level protection that many of his peers do not have and it has shaped him into the more compassionate and aware young person. This is exactly why TWIM pillar pre- TWIM program on the north side matters so deeply. At a time when progress is being rolled back and some of our neighbors feel unsafe in their own community, we should be protecting programs that build understanding and connection, not [Applause] Good evening.
078My name is Julia Vaughn and thank you again for your public service and commitment to our community. I've been thinking about legacy specifically and how we want to be remembered. And as parents, as teachers, as school leaders, as board members, how do we want to be remembered? Margaret Mead is credited with the following quotation that never doubt a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. Tonight we have lots of thoughtful, committed citizens here, but the most influential group is our school board and you have the ability to change our world tonight. As you reflect on what you will the way you will vote tonight, I'd like to advocate for five important points. One, cap school closures at two, meaning Bessie Rhodes and one other.
079That's it for the 2026-2027 school year. Avoid closing two adjacent schools in any Evanston neighborhood for any middle school feeder pattern. Three, retain TWIM at Willard for all of our bilingual families who rely on this important program. Thank you. [Applause] Hello, my name is Michael Neighbors. I am with Second Baptist Church of Evanston. As a psychic witness to silence, you are in the most difficult position that a person can possibly be in. May you move forward with the wisdom of Aristotle, with the intellect of Albert Einstein, with the compassion of Mother Teresa. I believe in you. I believe in a higher power. I believe in the right of everybody to say what they want to say. Do the right thing. Thank you. [Applause] Hello, I'm Jean Clipperton. I'm speaking on behalf of the Legion of
080Data Nerds. Over the last 7 years, our district's expenses have ballooned. We've dialed into the financials and have found ample opportunities to cut costs, enough to support a 4-year moratorium on closing Title 1 schools, a 2-year moratorium on closing more than one school and Bessie Rhodes, and no cuts to special programming until ongoing audits are complete. There's still a lot of uncertainty in the data. We do not yet know how much, if anything, multiple school closures might save or if those costs could compound. We don't know how much bussing will cost, what students need to support them, or what teachers will need to support the opening of Foster. There's This uncertainty can under- undermine the very students we want to support by acting rashly now. Closing more than one school in addition to Bessie Rhodes
081is like amputating an arm to heal a broken bone. We urge you to support a forward-looking plan of closing Bessie Rhodes and one additional school. That is the best way to act decisively now. [Applause] My name is Lauren McNamara. I'm speaking on behalf of the Legion of Data Nerds. We thank the board and administration for their time, effort, and thoughtful consideration working through this challenging situation. Please know that our enthusiasm for diving deep into every analysis stems from a stems from a genuine curiosity to understand the situation we all face and to help find a solution for all of Evanston. We are concerned that closing multiple schools will move next year's focus away from Foster as the many administrative needs and burdens arise and compound from attending to the closures. Closing Bessie Rhodes and one
082additional school combined with pulling other financial levers can balance our district's needs, protect our most vulnerable students, and renew public trust. Close one school and slow down to rebuild trust and set up District 65 to live long and prosper. [Applause] Hi, my name is Jacob Carlin. I'm speaking on behalf of the Legion of Data Nerds. We believe that the optimal solution for balancing academic excellence, disruptions to students and teachers, capacity utilization, and finances is to close Bessie Rhodes, close one additional school in the north, and pursue creative ways to use our spaces, and this is a a superior financial solution in the long run. After studying the data, we think it's feasible for nearly every family in Evanston to have a walkable school if we use some creativity. We envision a world where these spaces
083are not just learning spaces, but community spaces connecting our neighbors. We've heard an outpouring of have from so many stakeholders and want to engage with the city to bring these into fruition. We've laid out many ideas on our website and pledge to continue to lend our expertise beyond tonight to help find solutions on the behalf of our students. [Applause] Good evening, everyone. My name is Estevan Quinones and I'm here also on behalf of the Legion of Data Nerds. So, what I want to share with you is that I perceive the choice between closing additional school and financial solvency as a false choice. So, is the idea that if a third school isn't closed now, specific programs like TWEE, ACC, or special education have to bear the brunt. Closing an additional school doesn't suddenly ensure financial
084solvency. We need to pull the right financial levers and build a culture of financial accountability, not close an extra school. There are levers that are out there, some of which we've pointed out, that may be available to the board. This could include renting out part of JEH to generate revenue while moving administrative units into school buildings, selling storage and main- the storage and maintenance building on Greenleaf and co- co-locating services with the city. So, I urge you all not to fall prey to sunk costs and path dependence and fear to take the time to get the choice right. [Applause] My name is John Brady, a data nerd and a member of the SDRP Finance Committee. I support closing only one school. The decision before the board today is not an easy one and its impact
085will be felt across Evanston community for years to come. Yet, today offers an opportunity to begin healing a fractured community. By rebuilding trust and honoring your commitments, the board and the administration can create a shared vision with the teachers, students, and the families of D65. A vision that strengthens all of Evanston, centers the needs of educators, special education, and students and lays the ground for ground work for a successful referendum. The committee wants to stand with the board. Let's choose the path that unites us and build a better District 65 for everyone. Thank you. [Applause] Hi. Uh my name is Scott Campbell, also with with the Nerds. Um I uh I just wanted to kind of maybe just to put a I guess an emphasis on kind of the magnitude of of everything here, right?
086So, and and I think it's it's great that so many kids have had the courage to come up and speak. Um and you know, between the closure of Bessie Rhodes, the opening of Foster, and the potential closing of of two more schools, that's over 800 kids that are going to be in a new school next year. Um and you know, a lot of the work that we've done um you know, has been you know, trying to to minimize that. And I think that what we've done is we've found a path that we can minimize the impact to those those 800 potential kids that we've heard and I think we deserve it to them to pursue that. And so, I am for a one school closure. Thank you. [Applause] PETER BOGIRA, KINGSLEY PARENT. WE'VE HEARD FROM
087some that closing two schools is the only real solution. But, with all the well-thought-out alternatives in the community offered lately, are you sure? Board? Yes. Shh. Board, are you sure? I agree with President Anderson that this moment is an opportunity, and maybe our last for a while, to bring this community together. But, closing more than one school on top of Bessie Rhodes deepens divisions, doesn't heal them, and it saves under 1% of the budget. As a parent whose children's school you may advance for closure tonight, I don't want anyone else to experience this. People supporting two closures are doing so out of fear, fear of being next or of overcrowding or cuts to staff, and it's valid. But, fear shouldn't drive this. The numbers should. And the community's alternatives show we don't have to choose
088between a second closure and programmatic or staffing cuts. So, before you vote for the harm of multiple school closures, are you sure? [Applause] Hi, my name is Katie Armistead. I'm a District 65 parent and I'm speaking on behalf of Invest in Neighborhood Schools. Our proposal, which all of you have seen at this point, has over 2,000 signatures. So, when you hear me tonight, know there's 2,000 people standing behind me from every ward in Evanston. We're the size of over 100 SDRP Facilities Committees. There are loud voices here tonight telling you that we're in a zero-sum situation. We're not. Closing two schools is not the hard choice. It's the unnecessary choice. What else have we tried? Not programs. There's nothing else out there. Nothing to save 1% of our budget. I have so much hope. And
089something good is going to come out of SDRP, but it's not closing two schools. Look around this room. Could you imagine what we could accomplish if we stopped fighting about closing schools and work together, this board and the community, for the first time in a long time, to improve the education for children all over D65. Don't close two schools. Invest in our schools. And let us be there right behind you every step of the way. Thank you. Good luck. [Applause] This has been great. Uh my name is Baxter. I'm with Evanston Cradle to Career. Um I'm here to thank Superintendent Dr. Turner and many of the members of the board for their tireless engagement, their attendance at our community meetings, the inclusion of stakeholders and leaders in this community in a meaningful way in this
090process. I've been doing this work a long time. I've led several community engagement, large-scale community engagement uh movements over several years and I can tell you that this has been an authentically transparent and engaging process. And though the decision-making pro- the the the decision that has to be made, I don't envy you. It's a very difficult decision. But, I'm happy and I'm um satisfied that this has been a process where everyone had an opportunity to share their concerns and ideas. Thank you. [Applause] That concludes the public comments for tonight. So, for the next uh portion of our meeting, we're going to move into the discussion around SDRP Phase 3. Can you hit the first slide for me? All right. So, tonight's agenda, um I just want to start by saying our time tonight will review
091the updated two school closing scenarios. We will review the updated financial models uh based on the direction the board provided us on the November 3rd, 2025 Committee of the Whole meeting. Our focus, again, really is around right-sizing facilities, which will entail the school closing scenarios. It's the financial sustainability um really to address the structural deficit. And then, really reinvesting in buildings, and which essentially is, you know, the next phase of the the process, which is the deferred and future capital projects. And so, um we'll end with the board discussion. Click back to the next slide for me. And so, um I want to start just by saying, first of all, good evening, members of the board, District 65 parents and caregivers, and all community members that are joining us tonight. We are here to discuss
092a path forward that is not merely about balancing a budget. It is about securing the educational future for every single student in Evanston and Skokie. I want to state clearly and unequivocally, I stand in full support of the comprehensive process my team and I have engaged in collaboration with Dr. Harkin and Dr. Ford know of Student Centered Services as it relates to the scenarios and financial models that have been brought forth to the to the school board. The work presented tonight is the culmination of years of tireless effort, strategic planning, and yes, profound struggle. I want the community to know that this decision is agonizing. It has been incredibly difficult and the struggle to arrive at this point is deeply felt by every member of my cabinet and me. This is not a process we
093enter lightly, but one necessitated by our commitment to fiscal responsibility and continued academic excellence. The final revisions based on board guidance and direction from the November 3rd board meeting are being brought forward tonight, but I want to be clear, they stand upon the firm groundwork that my team and I laid again in partnership with Dr. Harkin and Student Centered Services during SDRP Phase 2. I would like to remind the school board and the community that over the last two years, we worked diligently to address our structural deficit resulting in an unprecedented $20 million reduction in the budget and a subsequent reduction in district staff affecting the roles of over 100 dedicated people. Those decisions were painful, but they have equipped us with the knowledge and discipline to tackle this next critical phase of SDRP phase
094three. To that end, I have complete confidence in the outcome of the rigorous, while some may disagree, data-driven work that has brought us here tonight. The scenario and financial model recommendations before you are not simply about closing schools. Closing schools is in fact only one critical piece of a much larger puzzle. My vision extends far beyond right-sizing our district footprint. My vision is a commitment to a comprehensive capital plan designed to decisively address our long-ignored deferred maintenance needs. This is about more than fixing leaks. It's about modernizing our infrastructure. We must ensure that all D65 buildings are properly equipped and in shape to provide the high-quality teaching and learning environment that not some, but all students in the district deserve. Some have suggested a repair and replace replacement of buildings model, which I believe is
095worth exploring. My ultimate goal is to make sure D65 is a place where every child who lives in this community is serviced with a high-performing education and a sustainable school district. Sustainability to me means having the financial health to focus on instruction, which we have not been able to do, not just structural deficits and building utilization that aligns with best practices to support positive student outcomes. This vision could not have been shaped without the extraordinary, and I do mean extraordinary, effort of my leadership team. I want to specifically thank Dr. Beardsley, Ms. MITCHELL, DR. ARKIN, AND OUR ENTIRE CABINET TEAM FOR THEIR INCREDIBLE CONTRIBUTION, THEIR UNWAVERING FOCUS, and their tireless commitment to this district throughout this exhaustive process. AND YOU WANT TO CLAP, WE NEED TO CLAP NOW FOR THEM CUZ THEY DESERVE IT. [Applause]
096IT IS YOUR DEDICATION THAT fuels our hope for the future. Now, AS WE MOVE FORWARD TONIGHT, THE BOARD, as we move for TOWARD THE BOARD'S DECISION TONIGHT, I must ask one thing of our community since we say we are community. We need to come together. This work requires collective understanding and it requires all of us, the administration, the board, the parents, and the community to operate with unity. Not pit each other against not pit schools against each other. We ask that you provide me and my team the grace needed to implement these challenging, but necessary changes once a decision has been made. Finally, let me make it plain and direct about the choice before us. If the board does not take action on the information that we will present again tonight, the financial and academic
097outcomes are of our district are dire. First of all, financially, we will immediately revert to the fiscal strain that necessitated SDRP in the first place. We risk facing deeper deficits that will compromise our operational integrity and our ability to maintain essential programs. This inaction is a resignation of our responsibility to the taxpayers and the future stability of D65. Secondly, BY FAILING TO ADDRESS OUR RIGHT-SIZING and capital needs, we perpetuate an environment where limited resources are diverted to inefficiently run decaying facilities. This means less funding for classroom resources, staff training, and the innovative programs necessary to deliver a high-performing education for not some, but all of our children. AS I CLOSE, MEMBERS OF THE school board, I want you all to know, and I mean you all to know, that the moment for decisive action is
098now. The future of District 65 hinges on your courage to accept the scenarios and the financial models presented by the district and the board-approved consultant tonight, allowing us to implement this bold, responsible, and sustainable vision. I'll now turn it over to our CFO, Tamara Mitchell, who will walk you through our financial models. Following that, Dr. Beardsley will walk you through our scenarios, and following that, the the consultant will round out with her recommendations once again for the school board before we enter into board discussion. [Applause] All right, thank you, Dr. Turner, and thank you for your words of gratitude as well. It means a lot, and I thank you for your unwavering support and your work during this process as well. All right, so let's talk about the finances. Um the numbers here on this
099slide represent the operating fund projections baseline. They include our pre-audit actual numbers from last fiscal year, FY25, reflect the approved budget for this fiscal year, FY26, as well as projections for fiscal years 2027 through 2029. The net change in fund balance line that you see there reflects our projected expenditures exceeding our projected revenues, which results in deficits for each of those years. The fund balance transfer line includes debt service extension-based bond proceeds transfers for FY25 and FY26. And additionally, in FY26, it includes a transfer from the operations and maintenance fund to the capital projects fund of about $1.6 million to cover district-wide capital needs. The $8 million transfer for FY27 represents a $2 million transfer to the capital projects fund for district-wide capital needs, as well as the estimated remaining cost of $6 million to
100finish the Foster School construction project. While the district has projected days cash on hand balances above 90 days for the previous and current fiscal year, you can see that changes in FY27 and beyond if we were to take no action to change the course of the district's fiscal trajectory. Projections for next year, which begins just about 7 and 1/2 months from now, reflect cash on hand dipping to 70 days. Reserves are projected to continue to be depleted with the district effectively being insolvent by FY30. I will state that while having 90 days cash on hand is a reasonable target, it does not guarantee that the district will have adequate funds for operations. Just last week, we closed on the sale of tax anticipation warrants because without doing so, there was a chance that we would
101not be able to meet our payroll, accounts payable, and debt service obligations due by the end of this month. So that said, it is highly critical to take strategic action to positively improve the district's fiscal trajectory. And with that, I will turn the presentation over to Dr. Beardsley. All right, thank you very much, Tamara. Appreciate it. And thank you again, Dr. Turner, and just a thank you to Chris Kostavas and Kirby Callam, who have been incredibly helpful preparing the scenario work and working with our facility subcommittee in this process. Um so, tonight I will provide an overview of the items requested by the board at our last meeting with the goal of supporting the board in making a decision on how to move forward with school closure. Coming out of the last meeting, the administrative
102team was asked to do the following: revise and represent scenarios 2D and 2F with a stronger emphasis on walkability, model the feasibility of different exceptions for any closure and boundary change decisions that the board may make, including previous board commitments to the Roads and Foster communities, and consideration for a new exception for students that would be in fifth, seventh, and eighth grade next year that are impacted by boundary changes. And finally, administration was asked by the board to survey families with students in kindergarten through fourth grade that live in future Foster boundaries using the board-approved boundaries for next year, as well as Bessie Rhodes families with current kindergarten through fourth grade students that do not live in Foster boundaries to get in not to get non-binding feedback on where they intend to go to school
103for the 2026-2027 school year. Administration also reached out to the Kingsley community to get information to inform boundary setting since the Kingsley community was named in both scenarios. This information will be used to continue to refine boundaries should either of these scenarios move forward tonight. Survey data will be reported tonight as initial since the surveys have not yet closed. We opted to maintain our two-week standard for surveys to the community to allow for adequate response time. Currently, District 65 is scheduled to implement the board-approved boundaries for the 2026-2027 school year as we bring Foster School online for students and families and close Bessie Rhodes. This baseline, which we have used for data modeling throughout the process, is built on 18 schools in the feeder patterns on the slide. This diagram includes the decrease of two-way
104strands from eight to seven while ensuring all two-way students have access to and are enrolled in the two-way program in their feeder pattern based on where they live. In this baseline, the STEP the location of STEP and Rise programs remain in their current locations. Once again, if the board opts to move forward with the 2026-2027 board-approved boundaries and schools, the kindergarten through fifth grade average utilization rate by feeder pattern is 73% in the Chute feeder pattern, 50% in the Haven feeder pattern, and 68% in the Nichols feeder pattern. The Chute feeder pattern has four Title 1 schools, Haven feeder pattern will have one Title 1 school Foster when it opens, and the Nichols feeder pattern will have one Title 1 school. Currently, King Arts and Bessie Rhodes are also Title 1 schools. All right. Now,
105we'll move into the revised 2D and 2F scenarios. These scenarios are using the same data that was used for the November 3rd, 2025 meeting. Specifically, we are using the October 1st, 2025 enrollment data. We are using revised capacities for Oakton, Willard, and Dewey to reflect the smaller capacity indicated in the master facility assessment. And we adjust adjusted schools measures the adjacent school measures for King Arts and Walker. To support processing and comparisons of the scenarios, we have made a change to our format. As administration and the facilities subcommittee reviewed the scenarios, it became clear that while there are items that differentiate the scenarios, there's also a bucket of items that are true for both scenarios. This slide captures the items that are true for both 2DR2, which is the awkward name we will use tonight,
106and 2 FR2. In both scenarios, the number and percent of students moving to a new school is high since any scenario includes the closing of Bessie Rhodes and the opening of Foster. The movement of these students, in addition to any new closure any new closures, are captured in this data. Scenario 2DR2 and 2FR2 have approximately 25 to 26% of the K-8 students in District 65 having a new school assignment. This is compared to our baseline of our previously approved board boundaries and previously approved closure of Bessie Rhodes of having a 19% of K-8 students receiving a new school assignment. So, it's a difference of approximately 6%. The actual impact may be smaller due to exceptions that could be attached to a closure decision. Despite emphasizing walkability in our objectives, administration was not able to create
107a model that eliminates crossing of Green Bay. In both models, there are students that would need to cross Green Bay to get to school. Utilization rates have become increasingly balanced with a range of 63% to the mid-80s. In both scenarios, the STEP program is removed from Lincolnwood School even if the building stays open and moves in this case to Lincoln. At this time, we have not finalized the placement of the STEP program. We are collaborating with the special education department to find the best possible option for the program. We know that both Dewey and Lincoln are feasible with limited capital improvements required. In both cases, we would shift the schools to three strands from four to make sure there is needed space for the program and that there are options to grow the program if
108needed. If the next in the next few weeks after more collaboration and analysis, a final program placement would be made. As stated above, in both scenarios and the baseline, we have modeled the closing of an eighth two-way strand. We share in the memo average class sizes and the challenges with lower class sizes that have led to this decision. All students are guaranteed a place in the two-way program in their feeder pattern. Both of these models leave Orrington open. This building is the smallest building and a lot and uh smallest building and lot in the Haven feeder pattern as well as having limited parking and basement classrooms. The district will work with our architect and school leadership to find ways to maximize this building. Either of these closures does lead to an impact that is largely
109absorbed by the sixth and seventh ward and somewhat by the fifth and first ward. Looking forward, administration also sees opportunity for the following. Pending number one, pending the availability of funds to do significant capital work. Any closed school building could potentially be used as swing schools to support major renovations in other buildings. Essentially, this would look like a school community shifting to a closed building for a year while work is completed and then move back into the school. It can also work where work is done in a closed building and a school is moved into that space when completed. Second, administration is also recommending the boundaries are reviewed no later than in than within five years, which is board policy. The exceptions that are attached to the board-approved boundaries for Foster families and Rhodes families
110will lead to enrollment shifting a great deal at the Foster School over the next three to five years as well as other schools in the district. It is likely that there will be an opportunity to shift school boundaries and increase walkability as these exceptions sunset. Thank you, Susan. Now, we're going to shift into the two scenarios that we were asked to refine and bring back tonight. Scenario 2DR2 has Kingsley and Willard closing at the end of the 2025-2026 school year. The average utilization rate is 75% and cost savings will be addressed when we return to financials a little later in the presentation. My comments will now focus more on strengths and challenges that are unique to this scenario. Strengths in this scenario include that the Kingsley and Willard communities largely stay together. We tried to
111work with the natural boundary of Central and when we realized we that we could not accomplish staying on the eastern side of Green Bay, we looked to the boundaries of Kingsley as well as the natural boundary of of Central to draw attempt to draw the most feasible boundaries and to hear a little bit of what was coming in from the community. Lincolnwood School, which remains open in this scenario, is centrally located west of Green Bay. This scenario also avoids closing adjacent schools and this scenario creates a larger reduction in operating costs with the closure of the larger Willard School. Challenges for this scenario include the closing of two buildings that are ADA accessible, are more recently renovated, and have the highest building functionality score in the Haven feeder pattern, leaving Foster as the one leaving
112Foster as the one fully ADA accessible school in the Haven feeder pattern for the K-5 students. And in this scenario, um it does lead to an increased number of students being bussed, and this is due to the fact that Lincolnwood has a smaller student capacity than Willard, which is closed in the other scenario. Thank you. All right. Now, moving. The 243 is more than the next scenario. The result in bussing 243 additional students. Yep. Thank you. All right. Moving to 2 FR2. The second scenario today closes Lincolnwood and Kingsley at the end of the 2025-2026 school year. Again, the average utilization is 75%. The strengths of this scenario include alignment to the individual and scenario scorecard values, maintaining a fully ADA compliant building. Geographically, the remaining three schools are spread out across the feeder pattern,
113and this scenario does have more students within 3/4 of a mile to a school and slightly fewer students crossing hazards. The challenges include the uncertainty about whether the district would be able to lease Lincolnwood School if that was the desire of the board. As you know, the board received Mr. Filippini's memo last week. It includes an analysis of historic documents and complex real estate legal documents. We are analyzing it closely with legal and we are in the process of obtaining and reviewing the historic real estate documents. District administra- administration, with assistance from legal, will advise the board when the analysis is complete. A final challenge for this scenario is that it closes adjacent schools and leaves feeder schools leaves feeder schools north of Central or south of McCormick. All right. Next, we're going to move
114on to community surveys. You can go ahead and flip it, Susan. Thank you. All right. District 65 administration sent two family surveys on November 11th, 2025. The survey asked families to share their school preference for next year while making it clear that the survey is non-binding. Our registration process is on hold until there is a clear decision about schools and boundaries for next year. The Foster family survey was sent directly to the District 65 families of students who currently live in the Foster boundaries and are currently enrolled in kindergarten through fourth grade at a District 65 school. The survey was sent to 294 students and as of Friday, we had 39 responses. Of the 39 responses, 77% of the responses or 30 students indicated that they prefer completing a permissive transfer request to stay at
115their child's current school. 13% of the families or 13% or families of five students indicated that they would attend Foster and four undecided at this time. The survey did clearly communicate that the district will not provide transportation if the family remains at their current school once Foster school opens. The second survey that was sent to fam- was sent to the families of Bessie Rhodes students who do not live in the Foster boundaries and are in kindergarten through fourth grade. The survey was sent to 98 students and as of Friday, we had 15 responses. Of the 15 responses, 73% or 11 students indicated that their child will attend Foster school. Two indicated that they will request a permissive transfer to return to their home school or school in their feeder pattern for TWI and two were
116undecided. Thank you, Susan. All right. Next, we'll move into the parameter testing around possible boundary exceptions. All right. In order to test the feasibility of various boundary exceptions, we revised for excuse me. In order to test the feasibility of various boundary exceptions for our revised scenarios 2DR2 and 2FR2, the administration conducted an analysis that performs a systematic parameter sweep to assess school utilization and capacity constraints under various scenarios. This analysis runs over 14,000 total scenarios to evaluate whether schools have sufficient capacity to accommodate accommodate different policy combinations with varying participation rates from 0% to 100% at 10% increments. This parameter sweep systematically tests all combinations of participation rates. Summary results of the analysis are included in the board memo that are in the board packet will be in the SDRP hub. The following exceptions were
117tested. The first one was for the Bessie Rhodes exception and this is Bessie Rhodes students that have a right to attend Foster school and essentially this test the impact of maintaining the exception for Bessie Rhodes families to attend Foster as opposed to attending their neighborhood school or an adjacent TWI program. The second exception that we tested and actually, let me clarify. For the Bessie Rhodes exception, that Bessie Rhodes exception was in a resolution from the school board on June 10th, 2024. The section second exception that we tested was essentially for students who live in the Foster attendance boundaries, have already started school in District 65, so they're in kindergarten through fourth grade this year and attend a school clearly that is not Foster because Foster is not yet open. All right. And then we tested
118and that exception was an agreement with the school board both in the March 7th, 2022 meeting and the March 14th, 2022 meeting. Last meeting, the school board also asked us to consider a legacy exception for seventh and eighth graders and we've labeled this legacy, but essentially this is asking that students that are currently in sixth or seventh grade could remain in their middle schools through their eighth grade graduation. Similarly, the school board asked us to consider a fifth grade legacy meaning that current fourth graders would be allowed to stay in their current school if assigned elsewhere through the end of fifth grade. All right. And just as a note, when we ran the the essentially the parameter simulations, we also modeled for King Arts students who live in the fifth ward and we modeled 0
119to 100 them returning to their home school because we're trying to kind of keep our eye on that Foster occupancy rate. Um we included this modeling to help us monitor the range of possible enrollments for Foster school. All right. Specific limitations just so we have this is um we modeled and when you see the diagrams, we paid paid attention to overall utilization. We did not pull out the specific program level capacities. However, where it was close, we'd take a closer look internally. And then second, we had a fixed enrollment assumption in our model. All right. Uh got to see where I am. All right. So, let's kind of talk through these. Sorry, lost I went ad hoc. All right. Based on this modeling, administration recommends honoring both of the exceptions previously supported by the District
12065 school board, which you were perfect, Susan. Go back. There we go. Um honoring both of the exceptions that were granted previously by the school board. The Bessie Rhodes exception to kindergarten through fourth grade students to attend Foster school. If they choose not to, they would complete a return to home school form to return to their home school or a TWI program in their boundary. Second, we recommend also honoring the Foster exception, which is for students that are in kindergarten to fourth grade pending that their school remains open, that they could stay at that school until they complete with fifth grade. These two exceptions kind of play against each other. They potentially bring kids into Foster and kids out of Foster. What you'll see in the note at the bottom of the slide is um
121number one, in 2D, we have more limited capacity. So, if the board chooses to go forward with 2D, all of these exceptions are a little bit tighter and we could be in a situation where families move in or families turn in a permissive transfer after March 1st and we could be a point where capacity is full and we cannot honor that. 2F, we do have additional capacity, but depending again on the will of people, this is this is a lot of moving parts. We could get to a space where we were full and in that case, we would route kids to an alternative school in the feeder pattern, which here we are confident we could do. All right. So, that will move on to the second slide, which addresses the two scenarios or essentially the
122two exceptions that were raised by the board in the last meeting. Um So, the current school board asked us to consider a new exception to the boundaries when moving forward with either 2DR2 or 2FR2. Um specifically, um I want to speak to the fifth grade legacy first. We modeled the fifth grade legacy initially. The tables in the board packet only show seventh and eighth legacy and that is because when we look at both Foster and Rhodes, which were previous board exceptions, that fifth grade legacy becomes too difficult to guarantee because we know that in many cases those fifth grade classrooms could become full with students moving from closures or wanting to stay. The recommendation here is that we use the existing board or district permissive transfer policy and that the administration prioritizes trying to place
123as many of those fifth graders as we can. But due to the other moving parts, we cannot guarantee that we would be able to honor all requests to remain in those schools. And so, here we show not recommending the fifth grade legacy from the administration side. However, we would encourage families to apply for permissive transfer and we would seat as many families as we could and if we could seat them all, we would. We would rely on our board policy for permissive transfer. For the seventh and eighth grade legacy, we also ran that in the simulations and we are able to well, we recommend on adding the seventh and eighth grade legacy, which would allow sixth and seventh graders to continue through eighth grade graduation at their middle school. We do have adequate capacity. We
124feel comfortable saying to the board that if you chose to move forward with that, that we could execute that. All right. And I believe you now I'm going to pass off to Tamara and Susan. Can we ask just a clarifying question? Just it's just board president. Would you just would you can we ask clarifying or would you prefer we wait till all the presentations? >> Absolutely, we can. Okay. You're not on, Susan. No. Can you can you bring the slide deck down and bring it back up? We get one more >> Perfect. Thank you. So, uh good evening, board. Thank you for allowing us to come back and uh review the financial models that have been put together um over a long period of time. Uh what you're going to see tonight is based upon
125the last board meeting's conversation, where we built off of what direction you had provided to us, and then at the end we'll review what the recommendation of student-centered services is. Um so, uh at that point in time, right-sizing facilities, we're at two school closing plus Bessie Roads. The financial model parameters are around maintaining 90 days cash on hand, achieving a balanced budget, multi-year reductions, where we take year over year that we're going to continue to have to come back to, making reductions to ensure we stay within those first two parameters. We have refined the financial levers in discussions with the administrative team, and we have tried to aim at limiting use of working cash in relationship to the completion of Foster school. We have mentioned that reinvesting in building strategically, uh we have the amount
126of $2.7 million for capital expenditures moving forward. You do You do have at your discretion life safety. Debt service extension base would become available to the district in 2031, and certainly there's been conversations around future referendums to address the district's building needs for its facilities. So, as Ms. Mitchell uh gave you the baseline for why we're here tonight, and again what I think was raised as as an important conversation, it really is starting with next fiscal year, where we do have $4.4 million of expenditures exceeding revenues, as well as a 70-day cash on hand, and a transfer of $6 million to cover Foster school. We are going to discuss some of that in the financial models that are going to be presented to you, but at this point this is the baseline model with the
127information we had since we've been reviewing this data, and we haven't changed it because we felt it was very important that we keep explaining how we're moving forward with why we're making this decision. In FY28, we have $8.4 million of of deficit expenditures over uh revenues, $10.2 million if we do nothing of expenditures over revenue, and almost $12 million. What's very important to discuss and and raise here is that is exactly the structural deficit that we're faced with. Expenditures continue to outpace revenues, and 76% of the district's budget is in salaries and benefits, and salaries and benefits are estimated to go up 5% every year. And when the district's largest revenue source is property taxes, and on average property taxes are going up by 2%, the district is in this situation where expenditures continue to
128outpace revenue. And so, unfortunately, we're in this place right now that we need to address it. Additionally, the district's enrollment has dropped 24% since 2018. You still have the same amount of facilities, and you will be getting additional seats when Foster comes online. You have had over 2,000 seats reduction in your enrollment, and so therefore, this is the time and this is why there is a recommendation about right-sizing the district. So, there's two models that we're bringing forward to you that is the recommendation of student-centered services. There's only a slight nuance between both of these models. The assumption in this is that there would be a balanced budget, and keep and maintain 90 days cash on hand. In this model, because we're still working through the final closeout of Foster school, and through what was
129shared at the last meeting with your finance uh officer, that we still are anticipating potentially $2 million would would be used by from working cash to pay for the remainder of Foster school, along with the sales proceeds of Bessie Roads school. It expects that we would invest in our facilities at a rate of $2.7 million for the next 4 years starting in FY27, and again it's a multi-year reduction. So, for FY27, we are looking at $5.5 million in reductions. However, you will be right back at this for FY28 to make another $6 million of reductions. Then you will have slight reductions after that point, which is still when we don't front-load making all of the reductions in FY27, that there will be incremental reductions that still need to be made every year as in order
130to achieve 90 days cash on hand and maintain a balanced budget. So, those yellow boxes at the top, 5.5, 6 million, 1.7, 1.2, are still the reductions that get us to maintaining a balanced budget. In FY27, we do have revenues exceeding expenditures by a million dollars, but that's in order to maintain 90 days cash on hand. So again, those have to work in tandem. Oh, that wasn't good. Okay. All right. So, um as we went through based on the feedback that was provided at the last board meeting, this then represents the levers in order to achieve $5.5 million of reduction that would be needed in financial model D1. We've laid out zero to two schools. Facility right-sizing top numbers up there, we'll talk about those in detail. They're in the bottom half and how we've
131come up with those numbers and how we've worked through that. We have come up with revised revenue levers that through the um working with the administrative team, which we believe are ones that we would bring forward that we feel are achievable, of $350,000. We have expenditure levers of $1.4 million, again have worked with the administrative team that we believe are achievable. And the yellow line and red numbers up there represent further reductions that will still need to be made and identified to get to a balanced budget and maintain 90 days cash on hand and get to the $5.5 million of reductions that are needed in FY27 to achieve what the goals and parameters we've set out based upon the conversation at the last board meeting. When we look at facility right-sizing, non-salary benefit and savings
132represent uh copier releases, it represents uh facility costs for supplies, and all of those pieces to maintain that building cuz we would no longer do do that and need to do that for that building, and I've worked with Ms. Mitchell to come up with those numbers. Salary and benefits savings represents those positions that are duplicative in when we have two schools that we would one school instead of two schools. And again, Ms. Mitchell and I worked very closely on those numbers. Foster school net savings represents because that school will be more energy efficient, what we're anticipating for the differences in running that school over the current Bessie Roads school. And this then becomes what we were working on since the last meeting. We have worked closely with the transportation department, and because we can get
133more efficient with how we will route and schedule our bussing, and because we can tailor it in a way that we maximize our tier structure, we anticipate transportation savings for our um projected school closing. So, at this point in time, based upon the feedback that we've received from the transportation department and and supported and reviewed by the district team, we do not believe that there would be additional transportation costs, and in fact this is a low estimate because there are other assumptions that could potentially make that number even larger. And then for section savings, at this point, because we're still working through some of the carve-outs and some of the exceptions, the section savings amount has come down, but we do believe that those numbers should be achievable in the one and two school closings
134respectively, with two reduction savings for a one school closing and three uh staffing reductions in a two school closing. So, those numbers at the bottom feed the first line of numbers up there in relationship to school closings and right-sizing. In both of the models tonight, we now are sharing with you what we believe are the achievable financial levers that we believe we would recommend moving forward. Again, as a reminder, there still would be additional reductions depending upon the scenario and that is selected. But, we've already worked closely, it should say Right At School and I apologize for that. We do have a in line one already worked out a compromise with Right At School where we would achieve $100,000 in additional revenue to run that program in our schools. Additionally, with the local university in
135relationship to the building of the new field, we have a signed agreement with them for the $250,000 that we will receive annually for the building of the field and that agreement does exist. So, our revenue levers would be approximately $350,000 that we believe are achievable. When we look at expenditure levers and in some of the work that's coming forward, we also believe that there still should be opportunities, especially in light of the ongoing audit and in relationship to the re-bidding of some of the district's transportation, that there should be about $500,000 in reduced transportation costs. We believe there's the opportunity for reduced purchased services. Definitely reduction in non-instructional consultants. We do still see through some of our numbering and programming that through the overall consolidation outside of the school closing, that there would be the
136ability to consolidate some low enrollment classes. And we also know that there would be a reduction in technology licenses that the district is already working on. So, that totals the $1.4 million of expenditure levers that were in lines two and three on the previous slide. So, this then is just the slight nuance of D1, what this models for the district because, you know, we know that we're still a work in progress and the team is working very hard to really make sure that we come in under budget on Foster School. This model specifically says we will hopefully achieve an amount that will be covered by the Besty Road sale. The other offset to this is the Besty Road sale does seem to have some pretty good traction for people that are interested in purchasing that
137property. So, you know, we'll have some time to look at and make a determination, but this would expect that there would not be a transfer working cash to cover the remaining expenditures for Foster School, but it has the same exact assumptions that was previously out there, balanced budget, 90 days cash on hand, $2.7 million in capital projects, multi-year reductions. In this scenario, we're not out of the woods next year, the number comes down to six and a quarter million dollars that you will need to reduce by in FY28 to maintain 90 days cash on hand and a balanced budget, 2.5 million in FY29 and 1 and a quarter million. Because when you front-load some savings, it causes further cuts in future years, so that's why you'll see some of these numbers come up because the
138challenge is is if we take 5.5 million, it's 5.5 million indexed year over year, and so this is 4.5 and it isn't indexed. So, the numbers do change year over year when we aren't front-loading and taking more reductions in the beginning portion of the projections. And in this situation, we're over the 90 days cash on hand because we needed to balance the budget, which drove up the fact that we had $92,000 left over to have a balanced budget. And in this scenario, um all we're looking at that's different from the previous slide is the yellow numbers. That means what are the remaining levers that we will need to identify dependent upon what the board decides and if you close no schools or one schools, you range from $2.7 million to $900,000 of further reductions. In
139this scenario with where we reduce a million dollars because we aren't doing 5.5 million, but we're cutting by 4.5, we have some flexibility. And I would just caution us, we're working on a $189 million budget with a lot of variables that can change and I would look at as we look at conservative accounting practices, I wouldn't grab onto that. I'd hold onto it just so we've got some flexibility and in relationship to if there's additional costs that we need to pay for if you choose to move forward with the school closing, there are some dollars available there to help offset those one-time expenditures. All right, the one thing I just want to make sure we're all clear on is is this I put up A1 and A2. They're exactly the same in A1 and A2
140and D1 and D2 with that if we get enough money to cover Foster School, that that's really the difference, but it isn't a multi-year reduction plan. So, if we were to make all of the reductions and identify them, we'd be at 11 and a quarter million for this year that we would need to do. You'd have offsetting, what do we need to cut further to do that, but it's very, very, very important for me for just to caution us all, we are pushing off reductions that will still need to be implemented in future years if you are to choose moving forward with D1 or D2. And I just think it's very abundantly prudent to make sure we all understand while 5.5 and 4.5 is there, you still have work that's now going to be ahead
141of you by not making all those reductions in FY27. All right, and then the last piece is just reiterating we currently have not solved for deferred maintenance or future projects. This slide is intended to show you we've indexed what was provided in the last master facility plan. We're backing out what was Besty Road's, it's indexed and we also have completed some projects. If we look at what remaining projects will be deferred as of next summer, we'd be at $60.2 million of projects. And if we back out what would be air conditioning enhancements, we'd be at 35. This is not taken into consideration if you take any other schools offline. That number would come down if you were to implement any school closures. And then same thing for 22 to 2030. Again, if I'm trying to
142get you to FY2030 at this point in time, if we back out what you're investing in capital projects, if we take out Besty Road's, if we take out air conditioning enhancements, but we are not taking out if you take any other schools offline, you would have $152.6 million in projects that will need to be completed by FY2030 as well as then if we take out the air conditioning enhancements, you'd have 79. 3 million and I think that's going to have to be the next phase for this board and this next team of what are we going to do with that. Certainly, there's life safety available to you, there's referendum considerations, but all we're factoring in right now is the $10.8 million of future projects that would be accomplished through this financial models that have been
143presented. So again, I get back to my recommendation and I'm going to read kind of my justification for where why we are and where we are and why we stand behind this. Over the past year, Student Services has completed a detailed review of the District 65's financial position, enrollment trends, facility utilization and long-term capital considerations to develop options to address the district's structural deficit. Through Dr. Turner's leadership and her team's work, and I commend them all. I have never seen people work as hard as they've worked in this last year. They have worked their tails off tirelessly. The district has successfully navigated past its immediate crisis. However, you now stand at a critical juncture. The urgency of the district's financial challenges cannot be overstated. Delaying decisions regarding the SDRP could exacerbate existing financial challenges, divert
144attention from educational priorities, and further diminish trust within the community. It is time to address the district's structural deficit promptly to allow the district to return its focus to addressing student needs and restoring community confidence. Thoughtful and proactive planning is essential to returning the district to long-term financial stability and allowing the district to fulfill its mission to inspire creativity and prepare each student to achieve academically, grow personally, and contribute positively to a global society. Another year of SDRP is another year where those discussions cannot be held and improvements cannot be made. District 65 has made meaningful progress through early SDRP phases, including significant reductions in FY25 and 26. However, current projections that were shown to you earlier still show liquidity crossing below the recommended 90 days cash on hand threshold if additional action is not
145taken. While there's still there are still suggestions that the models are not 100% accurate, they now reflect updated transportation analyses provided by district administrators, refined Foster school weighted cost, and prior assumptions about variability have been resolved. But to be clear, the district's structural deficit still persists with all of these refinements. SDRP phase three was designed to help the district navigate these challenges responsibly and predictably. It responds directly to enrollment projections that have been supported by multiple demographic studies, ensuring that right-sizing recommendations align with the most accurate and current data available. A key component of the SDRP is right-sizing the district's facilities. This recommendation reflects extensive work completed during the community engagement process and the broader SDRP analysis. The process has already addressed alternative school closing scenarios, and while community engagement remains vital, reopening already resolved
146risk undermining confidence in the process and delaying necessary action. Right-sizing also positions the district to better address its long-term capital and programmatic needs. While evaluating the district's special education programming remains a long-term goal, the district acknowledges that savings, if any, would occur over several years and do not meaningfully change near-term fiscal requirements. Similarly, delaying decisions to create additional planning time, such as getting direction on a future capital planning and referendum, would prolong uncertainty and exacerbate community trust. The financial models D1 and D2, along with the two school closing closure scenario, provide a structured path toward maintaining financial stability through FY30. Although the district must still complete a comprehensive facilities master plan plan and life safety audit, the need for right-sizing remains independent of that work. These additional studies will inform future capital investment decisions, but
147do not alter the immediate need to align the district's footprint with enrollment and available resources. In offering this recommendation, I emphasize that the purpose of SDRP phase three is to support stability, transparency, and forward planning. Acting now allows the district to move deliberately, maintain trust, and uphold its unwavering commitment to students, staff, and families. The plan balances the need for fiscal discipline with the district's commitment to strong educational programming and equitable student experiences. On behalf of the student-centered services consulting team, I respectfully recommend that the board adopt a two-school plus Bessie Rhodes school closure. This strategic move, coupled with the financial models D1 and D2, will pave the way for District 65 to to continue to steward its resources responsibly and position itself for a strong and sustainable future. Board, I know you have a
148tough decision in front of you. I do thank you for your time, your leadership, and your dedication to the District 65 school community, families, and staff. Thank you for this um discussion around the SDRP phase three plan. Uh we're going to move now to action item A. Questions, please. Oh. Okay. It's just it's just clarifying questions. >> Okay. They're not related to any Okay. Can we go to um Can we go to 20 slide 23? I just have a couple of questions on a couple of slides. Um You said it's 23? Yeah, slide 23. So under Stacy's it was Stacy's presentation. Okay. Um just um I just want to make sure I'm understanding the exceptions. Here the exception are of course for Bessie Rhodes all Bessie How many Bessie Rhodes um K um what K
149through four students are there? The So this exception applies for kindergarten So Okay. Two things. So essentially all of the Bessie Rhodes students are coming into Foster. The ones that don't live in the Foster boundaries are right about 90. Okay. Okay. Yeah, it's right about 90. Okay. And those and so and then the Foster exceptions are Foster students to to maintain in their school. The only the students who are not included here are Twe, Willard Foster students who live in the Foster students who attend Twe and Willard are not There is no exception for them because there is no Willard Twe, right? >> There is no existing exception that would impact the Willard Twe students. Okay. And just for clarity for all of us to know in some sense, Foster we would be opening Foster,
150creating a culture of Foster, particularly with a population of kids Bessie Rhodes kids who are not in four years they won't be there, right? >> The So essentially And Crystal, pull up the number. There are very significant number of Bessie Rhodes students that do live in the Foster attendance boundaries. Um that is why we say that, you know, it's about 90 that attend Bessie Rhodes currently that do not live in the Foster attendance boundaries. So in that school population you have families that are Foster families that can be long-term Foster families, and you have some families that would have siblings that potentially or students that would move through Foster and but live in different attendance boundaries. Chris will probably follow up here. Uh yeah, so it's it's 90 K5 Bessie Rhodes students that do not
151live in the Haven feeder pattern. If you're just looking at K4, which would be eligible for this policy, it is 77 students. And how many Willard So the I think I'm just trying to understand in the numbers of the the tracks. In some sense we're creating a program at least for with additional 70 students who in five years there aren't necessarily those number of students in the track, right? So when it comes to essentially Twe strands, what we do is if we will go back and we evaluate over time, but we really the guidance that came out of the program subcommittee was place the Twe strands closest to where the TWS and we included TWX in that as well. TWS and TWX students live, and there is a very strong concentration of families in the
152fifth ward. Right, but there are I guess and I'll just let this just because this was an aha for me the other day in looking at this. The the Twe families that live in the fifth ward are already addressed or covered in it. I'm just saying that we are In order to respect and honor the Bessie Rhodes families and what they've been through, we're bringing them into Foster, but we are That's correct. trying to address the neighborhood, you know, the fact of not being a neighborhood school and just being transparent that we are doing that by also bringing in potentially 90 students who are from outside of the Foster boundary as we're also then the Willard Twe families in there, but the Bessie Rhodes families in some sense will transition out as their siblings do
153not Right. Okay. And that is why I made the comment that, you know, so we have a board policy that you should review the boundaries every five years. One of the things that Sarita pointed out in the SAP work was that that had not been happening in the district. And so I think it's really vital that there's a commitment no more than five years out to review these boundaries because that will give us a true we will be free we'll be cycling out of those exceptions and understand the full capacity of Foster, and it may be feasible at that point to expand those boundaries a little bit, which would address some of the walkability. I I have a question. Um in looking at a closure of Willard and Kingsley, because both of those schools are
154ADA accessible, how will you accommodate that population of students? So in the So there are a couple different things that we do. Um one, in buildings that are not fully ADA accessible, which unfortunately we have more than we would like in this district, sometimes it will mean adjusting programming so or classrooms, so we will sometimes rotate like grade levels to main floors to accessible floors. So it's really taking a look at the buildings themselves to determine can you fully access the program, but it's just that your fourth grade classroom is in is on a floor that is not accessible and if we bring that down to the main floor, we can address that need and you still have access to calf, gym, drama, music. So, we look at that. If it was a situation that
155we couldn't create a fully accessible opportunity, really that would be option would be Foster in the in the Haven attendance boundaries. But they have to go to Foster. Cuz Foster is fully accessible. Fully? Mhm. Um slide 32. I think unfortunately we don't have numbers up here. I'm sorry. 20 Keep going. Yeah. Keep going. So, just I I just want to comment on like when we when I got on this board or before these numbers what would have been in the yellow would have been so much more. Am I Yeah, so much higher. I just really want to commend the work that the team has done to get you to That is a lot of money to cut still, but I you know, it's it's not where it was and I just want to call that
156out and also as we think about we began this process assuming these numbers were much higher and so even our thoughts about the urgency of closures was based on these numbers being much higher. So, I just again want to commend the same way Dr. Turner you commended your team. You have done phenomenal work to make those and then the last one slide 33. Um the this one the this is very conservative on revenue levers. So, many of us live here. We've seen how much money have we heard about ETHS receiving from community members who believe in ETHS and and and what it does. I you my challenge regardless of what comes out of here that should not be $350,000 if we believe in the bringing the light back to the lighthouse. This work takes so
157much more and that's embarrassing actually for it to be there. So, I just want to call that out. It should be much higher. So, if you had gone back to that slide and we saw the amount of money that's necessary to allow some time to to do this, that should is not something that we can't figure out how to do. The only piece I'll say is this is just for FY27. So, right we We need time to have a conversation with you. Um my question is around the transportation side. Um and as I'm looking at this um did we has there been any analysis done at all on our transportation costs as compared to other districts or have we benchmarked our transportation costs just considering that those contracts haven't been competitively bid either ever or
158in a decade? Again, you directed staff to do that at the last board meeting. They're in the process of doing that. So, at this point we put in a a placeholder for it. So, so definitely it could be, but again that's you're going to have to come up with $6 million reductions next year. So, I think what you do is as you go through this process the part of the reason why it was structured in a multi-year reduction was because we did know that there were some areas that we did not have the answers for and so what we did is said, "Okay, let's see where we end up in as you get to that information cuz we don't have it now. But I know the team is working on that. I don't know if
159Ms. Mitchell wants to One of the issues I've seen as a as a board member for quite a while that has been presented by different budget folks here at D65 is that there's very limited competition among transportation. We have Compass. What's the other one? Positive Connections. That's it. And that's been the that has been the what's been presented for years because that we have such very limited competition in regards to have bidding bidding this work out cuz we've tried to bid it out. It again they they they they would take turns. Right? They offer us a cheaper bid every year, but continuing to right you know, raise their costs on transporting kids. >> I think the really good news maybe Ms. Mitchell can you just weigh in on when you believe you're going to have
160the bids back as well too because I think that that's an important conversation because we're still going to have to identify whatever the remaining reductions are and therefore I think if we if that times out well, that can make sure that that number number either holds or if it goes up because of the competition issue, we'll have accurate data, right? That that's important for us. One one thing I'd like to bring up too is that there were we had signed up for a state grant around electrifying school buses. So, if you can look into that Ms. Mitchell, again I don't know how much I imagine that's going to be some savings there if we if we can get these companies to electrify there I mean there's grant money for it. So, again just to look
161into that piece as well. And to address the question about the transportation bid. So, we anticipate having those bids received and presented to the board to be to award a contract by the December 15th meeting. That is specifically for our the non-traditional transportation. So, what we're the service that taxi providers providing right now. That is specifically what we will have ready to be presented and awarded December 15th. And that particular contract I think a lot of times we focus our thoughts on the general education transportation which you know, but the special education transportation is um How do we benchmark in comparison for special ed? I'm taking out the regular ed. How do we benchmark in terms of the cost that we're spending on special education transportation? So, I have not done that analysis and that
162would really vary by school district honestly. It would depend on how many students need that specialized transportation. For the students that need the specialized transportation, can they be transported on a traditional school bus or do they require more private vehicles etc. So, I've not benchmarked that. I can look into that and see, but have not benchmarked that yet. Okay, thank you. And I just wanted to clarify the D2 model on um slide 35. As we're looking at the difference basically between D1 and D2 and the additional savings that we need to find um right it's about a million bucks let's say. >> It should It's exactly a million bucks, right? Because we're balancing to the either 5.5 million or 4.5 million. >> Oh, okay. Okay, so there's exactly a million. >> Okay. >> Well, I
163guess I'm better at on the fly math than I thought. Uh so, is that because we're using the sale of Bessie Rhodes to offset the working cash required to pay for Foster in its entirety? Yes. So, the only difference between this slide D D1 and D2 and I'll show you is that bottom yellow box. It shows $4.7 million in transfers which assumes that we still will need to offset $2 million of the Foster expenditures. When I go to the next one, that same box is 2.7 million. So, that assumes that there would be no need to transfer any working cash to cover Foster school between using Bessie Rhodes proceeds and hopefully either that comes in really at a at a number that we will make them pay for that cut cuts the remaining expenditures or
164we do better than expected for the final costs associated with Foster school. That's the only box that's difference between these two slides. Okay. So, in the event so, just to echo kind of what Nicole said the slide 35 or slide 32 let's either one of those. That yellow box then we're looking at um in the event that we close two schools, we actually are generating we don't have to cut any additional money, but in the event that we can save one school and close just one school, we have to find a million bucks. Correct. Give or take. Correct. Okay. And yeah. And so all right, more questions. So, a clarifying question here too cuz I heard Dr. Turner's charge to us if you will. It's just one thing I'm struggling with is even since being
165on the board we've been I don't know time flies when you're having fun 6 months, 7 months now. I think maybe my time just guesstimating 10% of the time if we've been able to talk about educational outcomes and the rest has been talking about finances and buildings. Um but this budget right here doesn't include innovative programming to address the needs that we're seeing, correct? This just is the status quo of where we are right now. And I've for instance have seen the the data coming back right now about our um racial disparities in educational outcomes, right? That is a resource gap. That's going to take resources if we hope to bridge that gap. And so, just to keep in view here, this is just the same old same old. Um and so if you know,
166we need resources to be able to focus on education. So, just to flag that. And then I I I this idea of the fundraising and I've I've appreciated many of the ideas offered by our community. Um and I struggle with fundraising local like I I think I you know, I secretly want us to be like D72. I wish we could be like D72 stable. Um and but you know, ETHS fundraising for instance, right? They've been doing decades long relationships and stability and my concern is in the immediate obviously we need to have long-term focus but in the immediate we're we we're still building from scratch. And so that's my concern if we're relying on in our numbers um you know, just the things that may be tenuous. And so I that's what I'm just wrestling
167with as we think through these scenarios and financial um um models. Yeah. And I think I'm wrestling with the same things because when you think about fundraising, I think you know, they're they're first of all, it's not something that would have to be done once. And so we're talking about like being able to fund raise, you know, the things that you would have in here now, these are things that we can feel good about cuz we're already contracted for, but in terms of fundraising, this isn't like a one-time expense. This is something that you have to do year after year after year. Um and you know, that money has to support things that would be needed for the district. And so, you know, just relying on that as opposed to what our typical revenue levers
168um just feels a little out of place. Yeah, but yeah. So, um when I hear that discussion uh one of the things that comes to me and one of the creative ideas that's come from the community is uh community partners and getting people to help you know, supply some of those unique experiences that's that kids can uh take advantage of and that would elevate their educational experience. And then another piece of that uh speaking of 202 is an endowment fund. And how we could do that so we could build a whole new building on the side of the school. So, that's just all of those things, you know, you could you could drive down Lake Street and there it is. So, it's just a visible it's a visible replica of what some creative ideas can
169do. Yeah, and and not trying to I know we're not here to talk about fundraising. But I do want to say as someone who's raised millions of dollars for worth um money you raise money with a you raise money cuz people believe in the vision of a possibility and you're asking them to go with it. It's harder to raise money when you're when you're contracting and you're so the fundraising is is is connected to you know, the light in the lighthouse. We do this. We do it collectively. What are we building and do? But that's not let's let's that's not you know, I don't want the papers saying we spent all our time talking about fundraising, but just want to call it out. We've seen so much money that's come into ETHS because people believe
170in the vision of what's there. They're the same residents who went to D65. And so what is the light of the vision we're giving to make people contribute to us, but I will leave that and let's get to the I just want to remind ETHS is one school. You know, they they again, they have their foundation that's really well resourced. They have an endowment, right? And we are dealing with multiple schools and we're we're fighting against demographics. We're fighting against we you know, facilities that are deteriorating. Multiple, right? They have one. And again, it's just again, I'm all for fundraising but what's at hand, what's at stake here is something that has been sitting that has been sitting here with a band-aid for decades. And we really really have to be decisive. I mean, I'm
171all for all fundraising and we can do it. I I I but again, I think and I agree with having visioning and getting and I want to I want us to get to the other side so we can start discussing the creative programming, the creative ways that we we can engage our community partnerships, right? We already have tons of partnerships with the city, with Northwestern uh with all of you know, family focus, all these different organizations. How can we leverage those to you know, create more resources for our community, right? But what what's still there and we can erase is buildings that are deteriorating and we're facing this demographic cliff that not we're not the only ones. It's happening across the country and across the planet to be honest. So, again, that that is the
172bigger issue that we really need. So, again, I'm all hope for hope having hope and and fundraising, but we have to get to the other side and deal with the what's immediately in front of us. And that is that is a demographic cliff that is unaffordable housing right? That is you know, you know, wages that are that that that are again impacting families affordability here. So, so again, it's not just lack of affordable housing, it's just people being able to find jobs to sustain jobs. And being able to stay in this community. Like that is what's in front of us. And and again, we have to deal with with what we can deal with here and and and what's immediately that we can deal with here is right sizing this district in order so that
173for us to be able to then provide optimal and start you know, services and envisioning optimal educational services for our students and opportunities for our families. At what point is at what point does Go ahead, Maya. I was going to say at the end of the day resources are limited whether you're fundraising or not and I feel like as a board, what we really need to figure out is how do we want to use our limited resources? Do we feel good about using those limited resources whether they're coming from traditional revenue sources or in fundraising in order to make sure, you know, we can keep buildings that we know are underutilized or do we want to use those limited resources to invest back in buildings so that we can fix our facilities, so that we
174can make sure we have the programming and the staffing that we want. And so like at the end of the day, there's a trade-off and at some point resources are limited um no matter what. But there's an intersection here I think that we're we're kind of missing. Um and so I'd love to just get everybody's temperature on this. I mean as we what we went through SGRP one and two, it was about budget cuts. SGRP um really put school closures at the forefront of the strategy for saving. Um and for reaching that long-term financial sustainability. Um and I think the question I'm grappling with is you know, I think that I think that closing neighborhood schools should be a last resort. And as I'm I'm I'm curious how everyone else kind of views that as
175the strategy and tactic. Um you know, and then corollary to that sort of I started off this this process thinking that we should close three schools. And as I've as we've gone through that this process since we've gotten the scenarios we've had the cost savings per school has been reduced from about 2 million to about 1.6. We've learned that we may not be able to lease or sell a couple of our properties that are in the scenarios that we have here. The final cost for Foster has been brought down. Really good news. Um we found out we have multiple parties that are interested in buying Bessie Rhodes. Um we found out that we you know, we had our first collaborative meeting with the city in 202. Um and the city stands ready to help us
176with the utilization issues that we have in our buildings. Um we discovered the special education transport contracts had never been bid out. We're working on that now. You know, our other contracts haven't been bid out for transportation in several in a decade. Um our finance committee's work um in benchmarking the administrative costs, special services and transportation costs has not yet been completed. Um our former superintendent was indicted for fraud. Um you know, the deck president and several community members have called for the resignation of one of our board members. One of our board members has actually resigned and we haven't reported another. And then ICE has been invading our community and for weeks and terrorizing our Latino community and and that's just since September 29th. Um and so as I'm looking forward to what's going
177to happen over the next six weeks as we kind of go through this process I I believe closing schools should be a last resort and I don't believe that we've gotten to a place where where we can say that we've looked for we've we've we've uncovered every rock. I can see where one school closure makes a whole lot of sense. Um two gets a little sticky and the and the juice kind of isn't worth the squeeze at 1.4 million with all the things on the table. So, my question to my colleagues here is do you believe that closing schools should be a last resort? I'll say I believe that like I said before, we need to be efficient about how we spend funds. And so I think again, the decision that we need to make
178is that are we willing to spend millions of dollars over time so that we can have underutilized schools that are not near the capacity that they should be or over time do we want to use those millions of dollars in order to invest back into the buildings that we have to make sure we're adequately supporting those students in the best way possible. And so, you know, for me that decision is pretty clear. And I just want to go back. Can you just back up a little bit so I think it's the second slide that has just Yeah, I'm all I'm I'm thinking all the way back that shows our cash on hand. There we go. So, you know, I think the other thing that we really have to consider here is timing because you know,
179we've been working on this process for over 2 years now and have been through like a really robust process to try to come up with ways to make sure we don't get to the numbers on this page. And one of the things that you know, I like I've heard from the administration and you know, we'd love just for us to understand is that we're not going to snap our fingers and get to these reductions. It's going to take implementation. It's going to take planning. It's going to make take making sure we spend the time to make these adjustments right. And what I see on this page is that like we're in the red in fiscal year 27. And so, I feel like from a timing perspective, we can continue to say yes, we're going to
180come up with ideas. We're going to try new things, but like to me what the slide is saying is that the clock is running out and you know, I would love to not be here and have to make this decision. It's not a fun decision to make. But I know that I made a commitment and I don't want to be the one who kicks the can down the road again just because it's difficult to do and those numbers and that red, that's real. Like that's something that you know, we have to make decisions about in order to make sure we don't get there. And I can I say that and it's even started even earlier. It started back in 2021. This process is is not something that's recently we're trying to rush. We started with
181that with the student assignment plan which hadn't been done for decades. It's best practice what the school you know, that's what schools should be doing, but we hadn't done it for decades. And that's where it started. And then we did our master's facilities plan on top of that. So, we have two master's facilities plan, two demographic reports. We have some good data that previous administration and this administration specifically really dug into with community members in committees to really just dig into and and figure out a way out of this. So, again, I I just don't you know, what what I keep hearing from community like oh, this is rushed. You you know, you're you're you're you're going too fast. It it's You know, and and what what gets to me, you know, so one of
182the things that that I really noticed in some of the correspondence that I get, all the correspondence that I've been reading, how people are so proud of all the programs, step and twee and special education services and rise. And again, I was part of the community members prior to me coming a board member. We actually sat here at the table like three four administration ago demanding that this school district be accountable to our most marginalized students. And we've created programming and that's where the money has gone to invest in programming that makes your children and families feel like they belong and they're reflected. Mirror windows and mirrors. We want you know, for me it's it's always as an educator it's always been about about ensuring that children can learn about themselves, see themselves in the
183mirror in their curriculum and their staffing in in their environment and then windows, learning about other kids. And people have come up here and talked about all those things. I fought for those programs with other folks other community members with other school board members. And what what gets to me is that again, if we don't make the hard decisions now, those are the programs that we're going to have to cut. That those environments that we have been trying to curate to ensure that your families and your students feel welcome in our schools. That that is what's at stake here for me. So, let me just follow that up with um I think it's going to take a holistic approach to this. We're going to have to look at our facilities. Um we're going to have
184to look at our administrative costs. We're going to have to look at our programs. To me it's not either or, it's both and. So, to me it's more of a holistic approach to this. Um and you know, we still have some information that's coming in. But I do want to say that one part of the the reductions that have already happened and that will continue to happen is because now we have some structures, processes in place and systems. I'll get there. Uh because this is kind of a platform of how we I mean, we're actually critically looking at how we spend money and how the systems support keeping that to a lower level. So, to me it's a holistic approach. It's we're going to have to look We're going to have to look every We're
185going to have to uncover every rock. Um and part of that is really with an eye to preserve programs and the supports for the educational dream that we have. I mean, we're we're looking at We're looking at numbers. We're looking at buildings. But the goal really is to create a platform where kids have an optimal educational experience. So, to me it's like, okay, I'm looking here, but I'm also looking to there. So. To which who? Go ahead. Go ahead. So, I think right now we're almost having a conversation in this discussion as if we're saying one school closure or two school. And I think part of at least for me, I I agree and that's why I've always been like shows occupancy that we have occupancy challenges particularly in the in the north side. Um
186But as a kid who got on the bus from a school that was across the street and rode the bus 50 blocks every day from 8th to 12th grade, I also understand what that means. And so, I'm just saying then I believe I believe in this board. I believe in those of you who we just ran and talked to so many people about what we want to do. I don't believe that what we have right now is that fullness of plan. This is a phenomenal analysis of our facilities. And that's the score cards I have like this is what it is, but to say I know once we close this school, we know exactly what the implications are for learning, what's going to happen. We don't as someone who lives in the fifth ward. Um
187where these closures are going to take place. I feel this is going to challenge our ability to focus on Foster. Like Foster opening up, those of you Terry Shepherd in the back of the room, this is not a it's yes and to the to you Sergio, you made that happen, right? I want to give you credit. My I think I don't know if you were on the board, but your board brought the label enabled this board to be in a position to actually carry this through. And I believe that the opening of Foster, the attention and the time that it takes to get this right to open in beginning of September takes a lot of time. And so, in the same feeder pattern to close two schools, right? To do that quite well. And we
188haven't even had a conversation about what all of that means for what happens in the year later when people show up on Haven. Right? So, I want I'm not saying don't address the occupancy in the Haven feeder pattern. I'm saying let's give us let's open this school well. Let's do right by Best World. Let's do that. Let's close a school. And then let's spend this year putting together the light in the lighthouse plan that then allows us to um to get to that occupancy with the vision and the plan of excellence in education such that folks are coming back. Our plans right now are based on the fact that no one's coming back. Right? I believe that people can come back and I believe that this board can do that. So, I am not I
189am not saying do not let's stick with unoccupied buildings, but I'm saying we've been six What did you say? 5 months, 6 months at it and I don't think we've had the time to do the work and also to give our administration and the team the time and the right resources and the right vision that we as a board are responsible for doing to implement something that we can all be proud of and that can enable us to get to equity, to get to occupancy, to get to quality in education that it is that I think we deserve. Yeah, I was just going to respond to you Maria and to say, right? So, close no one I don't want to close a school. I'll just closing schools sucks. Um but there's lots of last resorts
190here. Uh stagnant educational outcomes. I I mean, those are last resort. Um continuing difficulty of our sped community to achieve to access resources they need, a last resort, right? You know, continue um growing um racial disparities in educational outcomes a last resort and so this is like navigating all of these really pressing and important things um and I hope that we're not situating this in a way of like who cares more for school buildings but that we are all weighing a whole host of very crucial things and trying to identify a way for me that's not just well how can we buy a little more time but setting us up long-term so that's where I'm at. So another piece of this is you know we're talking about one or two schools but there's also another
191school that we have to close and that's Bessie Rhodes and you know that's that's why I'm here is because of of that experience so um I know how traumatizing that can be and I know um how intentional it has to be to make it have a positive outcome so in reality we're looking at closing two or three schools that's what we're really looking at um and part of that school closure I mean it it doesn't not have an effect um so that's you know when we come up with the plan and you know press the button and this starts in January we're going to have to be mindful of that because the students that come out of that experience may need some additional resources in terms of how they're going to deal with that experience
192so this you know I'm just saying. Mhm. I think that's a great point Pat like I think you know we've talked a lot about this decision itself but what we haven't talked about a lot is like the change management behind of it behind it and I think you know like it's a very aggressive agenda driven by these numbers cuz nobody wants to get in the red and you know we don't want to kick the can down the road but you know just a question for the administration because I you know um you all are making the recommendation to us to close two additional schools and I love to just hear a little bit about like how prepared you feel and how you started to think about like just how that will work and being able
193to actually implement that change like has any I know that there've been some initial conversations but just want to hear more about how you're thinking through that as well. Yeah I mean I I could kick it off we we have a transition plan um in which all of our departments that is that work is being led under the leadership of Carbie Callam who essentially here's you know wrangled in all of the departments with very targeted focused work that is going to take when engaging in a school transition process but I'll be honest with you Maya whether we stick at what we know the definite factor is which is Bessie Rhodes which which was a decision that was made in June 2024 closing that school or we the board makes a decision tonight to move forward
194on whatever action they want to take tonight the process is is going to be a painful process no matter what so so we can't you we can't measure um I think the magnitude of how messy it's going to be it's going to be messy right and I think I think for me you know in full transparency do we engage in this level of messiness where we take the families in this community through this process multiple times or do or do we engage in the the change of that process one time so people can heal and we can move on because if we got to repeat this again multiple times we are not going to get to instruction we just we just not going to get to instruction at some point we GOT TO FIGURE OUT
195how to how to really get prioritizing what's needed and regardless of the fact of closing one or or three schools it's going to be a tough process that's going to be messy that is going to be um difficult to engage the change process for everybody but I will be very honest I cannot see me or my team engaging in a process of doing that again to this community on multiple occasions that's that's just where I stand. Yeah and so you know my concern here I I have concerns about execution executing what we decide because this is people um but at the same time I feel like I um so so we have just we're we're drawing down on the first equitable district-wide school closure process that this district has ever seen so let me be
196clear we are winding down the first equitable district-wide school process this district has ever seen that is not for the faint of heart I have seen the way these folk are scrambling I've seen the pressure that you've been under this is a unicorn y'all if you're familiar with Chicago land's history of school closures this is a unicorn and that we're here in this moment I just want to celebrate the people right here at the tables who got us here um and say that took some doing and to just signal that I'm going to be with you and we're going to keep at this whatever we decide tonight um but I that stirs in me some confidence um that that we've done this hard thing and we can keep going. So having you mentioned Chicago and
197having a little experience with Chicago school closure it's hard one you know one to two is is exponential the hardness right it's not okay just it is hard and three schools here while opening I keep wanting to say while opening Foster um and while addressing opening Foster is one piece of addressing and I am not an Evan stonian but I live in the fifth ward and since I've been here I've worked all my time with kids in the fifth ward and organizations in the kids ward so it wasn't just opening Foster is figuring out how the communities of the fifth and sixth and seventh ward are going to stay connected because again um on the first day of sixth grade we're all coming into the Haven right and I am excited about this team knowing
198having done some of this with members of this team was possible here and I think we only have the opportunity to do this once and with this board I I do want to address this that I think there's fear that if we don't close two now we're going to have to close another and then we're coming for the south side this board look who's on this board to the equity claim you made this board is not going to do that this board has at least to the next August the next April to get this right the right so it's done once the mess is not that much and we leave here with equitable education excellent education across all feeder patterns and I am because it is we are mainly we are talking about the whole
199district the money is the whole district but the changes are the Haven feeder pattern and we can't underestimate what needs to happen in that feeder pattern so that it is healthy as we get in we go in those so all I'm asking for is not is to is to focus on the opening the closing of one as we then figure out closing of two yeah closing of I apologize to Bessie Rhodes families for that closing of two no that that's that's important the closing of two and that we collectively the first time with a board of this board sitting in this normally this not this representation sitting in this seat making decisions about what happens to Evanston this we are sitting here and I believe that we will come to equitable decisions that are going
200to be effective at all and I just think doing that right saying we're going to do that right now is just difficult to do but I must be quiet. Well I can't speak for the whole board but I'll say for me you know but you know I'm always concerned about equity yes but I think for me my big concern is making this messier than it needs to be for the community and for families and so you know if we know now that there's a chance that if we close one additional school in addition to Bessie Rhodes that we would have to come back and close another school to me that gets really messy. That's asking families to possibly move their child twice from schools, which just seems completely unreasonable. There is a whole component of
201it around, you know, staffing and who's at what schools as well, in addition to prolonging the pain in the process of figuring out what school that is and people, you know, not being motivated or feeling demoralized because they don't know if their school is on the chopping block or not. So, to me, like that messiness makes it, you know, less appealing to try to say, "Okay, we're going to move forward with one now and then later on maybe we come back and we have to do another one." I think that it's a lot, even though it's messy no matter what to Dr. Turner's point, I think the change management is a lot it's a lot easier and a lot less messy if we make the decisions now and don't prolong that and don't prolong having
202to make families and communities and school communities have to go through multiple stages of change. To me, that's just unfair and that is, you know, us just not wanting to make the decision because it's hard as opposed to doing what, you know, is really less messy and easier to manage for families. I hear that, Maya. I guess my struggle is really around like if it's not certain it's possible that it doesn't happen and we as a board can work towards solutions to prevent that from happening while creating a better vision for our district and I think where I'm struggling is if we go ahead and close two schools, we might as well have you know, we're in we're in a spiral of of enrollment declines in that feeder pattern as people lose faith and we
203basically strip a walk we strip walkability from from those schools. And that was part of what we were trying to accomplish with building Foster in the first place. And so, when I look around to the options that haven't been considered in this process, there's a some opportunity there. And there's some there's there's opportunity for us with the city, there's opportunity for us to think more holistically about how we're using Park and JEH. I think we've all talked about that. And so, kind of going in, I hear you and I and I and I don't like that idea either. And I think the reason why I feel comfortable with one school closure is I think that we have enough nascent ideas and also thousands of people that support that plan and are ready to work with
204us to to get it to get it going. Um that that gives me hope. Well, I don't have a petition out, but I'm sure there are thousands of people as well. We want to make sure that we are thinking about long-term sustainability. And to me, you know, the fact that we are we've got average utilization under 50% right now. To me, like that equation doesn't make sense, not just from a financial perspective, but from a right-sizing perspective either. And so, I think again again, just going back to limited resources and are we really comfortable using the resources of this district to make sure we can continue to have buildings that are severely underutilized or do we want to use those resources to invest in students? And, you know, this isn't like a one-time thing, right?
205Like this is year after year after year. And at some point, you either continue that or you have to make the change and pull the plug. And to me, these numbers suggest that like now is the time to do that. Um one thing we've been talking about is walkability and I think we haven't actually been clear about what's the walkable impact of our changes. So, I think we talk about there's right-sizing, which we as the board say, and then I think walkability is what the community has said. Sometimes those can be together, sometimes those can be in conflict. So, um the the and again, the the Foster opening Foster was a way to address walkability particularly for the for that for the Foster families. What's the implication of walkability on average for with the with
206either either these two options for the Haver feeder patterns? Is there walkability similar to everyone else or we in order to get to to this utilization is there what is the walkability comparison? It's tough to give you a direct answer to that question without knowing how this board is defining walkability. So, the You used the number that you have used. Yeah, so the administration in conjunction with the subcommittee have defined it as 0.75 what we're considering a walkable school. The the question is um are you just talking about students that are less than 1.5 miles or like on the transportation table that we've shared with the public? >> I'm saying the points that because almost everybody in Evanston is 1.5 miles from the from their school. So, the all of our data, the score cards
207are based on the 0.75. So, I know that that doesn't translate to transportation costs, but we've been using that term to to talk about what's a walkable school. And so, what is the walkable for Lincolnwood if we close Lincolnwood and Kingsley, what's walkability for Willard and and oriented and and really the main thing is is the walkability in that feeder pattern on par with walkability for every place else, other feeder patterns. If you give me a couple minutes, I can find out for you. But what I'm hearing you ask is students within 0.75 miles you're regardless of the if they cross a hazard or not, is that correct? Or are you just saying less than 1.5 is so the students that 0.75 I'm just just trying to say on the ballpark, we we're talking about
208um um we're talking about right-sizing. But and community is talking about walkability. Foster is partly back because it's walkability, right? It's like it was just the unfairness, the evidence in the pattern of that. And so, I'm just I think it's a fair point to understand what is the walkability that we're creating for the as a result of closing two schools, particularly two schools that are close if we do that one close together. Is it still a walkable? If you give me a few minutes, I can get that answer for you. And I think I just want to call out a couple quick things. The facilities subcommittee landed on 3/4 of a mile for the metrics in the scorecard. We got there because that was a decent differentiator in the district. We did not get there
209because that was the decision about what a walkable distance is. When we looked around when we when we looked online, when we looked, you know, there are different ways to define that. Others went to a mile. We even went into like what's the walk speed for an 8-year-old, things along those lines. But 0.75 was a way to differentiate because to your point everybody is within 1.5 of a school in this district with the exception of a few little corners. Um and I think the other thing and I'm going to your comments made me think about a superintendent parent and caregiver advisory group when a very similar conversation came up and somebody said, "Well, Foster was about creating walkability." Foster is very much about righting a historical wrong and returning walkability to that community and I
210don't think we should separate those two. And so, I do hear walkability. I think to Kristen's point, it's difficult when we haven't defined what that means. And then the other thing, we cleaned up some of this with our boundaries, but there are some communities, for instance, there's a walker section on the east side of McCormick south of Dempster, you know, that's not walkable. You know, there there are pieces of this community that have also because of the hazards and things in this, it's been difficult to get. And so, like in these upcoming boundaries if we get to them, we've been able to because capacities have shifted, assign them to Washington, which would put them back in a walkable zone. And so, I think it would be ideal if we can get there for all places,
211it's not quite there because of where our physical buildings sit. I think Omar before leaving the board kind of stated geographically in the Haven feeder pattern, our buildings are not in optimal locations, but we're trying to work with what we have. So, I I So, I do not equate this is important, thank you for that. Walkability is a data point, it's a data pattern that shows the historical harm of what happened to the fifth ward families because of that. Under no circumstances am I equating the walkability of Haven with what happened to the fifth ward family, but still understanding is we have chosen walkability as something that's important. I think it's important that we know what the walkability, the resultant walkability will be. And this 2.75 is something that we can compare across across systems.
212So, he will work on that and we'll get something to you soon. So, I think one of the things shaping my thinking, and I think it's shaping all of our thinking. I just want to be clear I'm not like doing something fancy to try and say I'm special, is risk tolerance. We all have a fiduciary responsibility here. And so, when we look at these numbers, not these numbers, other numbers, maybe I'm like page 32 or something. Um we also have to be thinking about variables. I think one of the things I'm very concerned about is the the current federal administration has shown us quite willing to do illegal things to withhold funding. So, snap, two federal judges ruled that was illegal. So, our title one exposure, a million plus dollars. I don't know, do you
213remember what it is Tamara right off the top of your head? It's million plus for sure. And that's just title one, that's not accounting other title funding. Um and then I'm I'm concerned um as well if we only go with one school. Um I'm I'm concerned about our sped audit. We don't know what's going to come back here exactly, but we know if we're, you know, some tenuous funding streams don't show up, that we know that this district has a history of rating sped when we have budget crisis. Um and I want to ensure that we're in a situation where we can be very selective and ensure that, right, we're we're really living into our values, ensuring the highest quality here. And so, this is two things for me that our risk tolerance as I
214consider my fiduciary responsibility. I know that we're all engaging a whole array of risks in this process. But to that point in the scenarios, particularly as not necessarily the sped audit, but to achieve these scenarios, um STEP is moving we're moving STEP out of the Hayven pattern. Um our class our schools, I think part of the special ed audit and what we've heard, definitely talking to the Lincolnwood STEP educators, is the importance of space and making sure it would be very important to make sure that we've accounted for the space. I think we've even heard that in some of the comments about the need even for IEPs, the number of classrooms that are necessarily needed for the dignity of pull-out services. So, we'd love to make sure that our calculations of our spaces are over-accounting
215for the classrooms, the unique spaces that are going to be necessary to support the programming that we have. And also, we don't end up creating a um a feeder pattern that doesn't have um students in specialized services, of course, with IEP. Do you mind if I speak to that for a quick second? That okay? So, particularly in these scenarios, you know, one um we've, you know, we tried to listen to the feedback that we are hearing and what is explained in the memo and kind of touched on in the presentation is that should we go forward with 2D or 2F, our twos, um in both cases, we have really tried to make sure that we would have adequate space for the STEP program and for growth. And if I were to talk to each one
216of those spaces, like, and I don't want to, before I even dive in, I don't want to minimize the impact of moving a program. If we move a program, we want to make sure we're moving it to a place where it can be long-term and that we can truly invest in making it the long-term home for that program. That is why we also then engaged with the special education department and said, "So, you know, one concern I had was when we looked at it and said, 'So, that would put STEP entirely in the Nichols feeder pattern.'" But they pointed out that is where the middle school STEP program is as well. So, similar, you know, it puts them in the same feeder pattern to create a continuity, which is helpful. Um what I mentioned in
217the presentation tonight is whether STEP would land at Dewey or Lincoln, we're continuing to collaborate with folks to find a long-term place, but in both cases, those buildings have 24 classrooms. We essentially would move the buildings to be three-section schools, removing six classrooms from essentially the traditional program. We know that we would have three STEP classrooms coming in. We know that based on the feedback we've gotten on needs and wants, we'd need at least one related service classroom. It's nice to have a second. It also allows for growth if the department identifies that we need to add a new section. And so, you know, and the memo calls out both, you know, what some of the capital needs are in the two places. There's also the potential benefit, you know, we had to weigh, you
218know, when I didn't have the conversation with specialized services around Lincoln, you know, we would similarly reduce that building to three sections. And then there is an opportunity to minimize travel for those related service providers that really specialize in working with that population. So, we really are trying to think intentionally and long-term. If we have to disrupt a program, we want to do it with a in moving it to a place that is long-term and will meet the needs of the program. Uh one of my concerns about the um 2D and the 2F is if we if we move those two if we close those two buildings and then what kind of actual savings will we have based on transporting those students to those then new corner locations? The um Do you want to Chris
219is working. So, I know that the transportation savings that are up here, they took a specific look. This is the low end of the range for transportation savings for 2F and 2D, but we have learned from our past, we quote below. Okay. Um and so, we're looking at $300,000 in savings. Particularly, I think there's a strong benefit when we close Willard because or excuse me, when we close Kingsley because those are all single routes. And so, but the team took a very specific look at the routes and route savings. Do we I just want to make sure we address Lincolnwood like I know we it was spoken about, but the the implications of Lincolnwood assuming it has to stay in the public good, that means it's either used for parks or it's used by us
220in the education setting, which it's not then that means those building costs are our costs. I can't imagine the park district is going to say, "We'll take the building and the $10 million, right?" They'll take a fixed-up building building to do something. So, how does that, and I know you've done a lot of thinking about that. So, can you speak, I know it's in the, but I mean speak around the implications of of Lincolnwood having to stay one school? I mean, at some point we can either close it forever or we might, if it's going to be used, it might have to be used by us. Is that the interpretation? So, I you know, as I mentioned earlier, I think we So, very specifically, we've pulled the titles. We are working with our attorneys and
221I think we want to wait for our attorneys to be able to take the full dive before we speak to what the options are. We want to understand and make sure that a certain understand the full level of potential restrictions on that property before we respond to that. We've already addressed the lease. We've reduced any expectation around resources. Is that it? But I also just want to capitalize on the recommendation of using those particular properties as you refer to it as swing, I refer to it as a repair and replacement. So, like I think we immediately talk about the use of selling these buildings, but closing schools is one piece of the pie. The other big piece of the pie is what is and I don't even know what slide it was, 35 that talked
222about whatever the slide was that talked specifically about that that slide right there. There we still got some deferred maintenance issues that we still got to take care of. And so, some of the required work that is going to take is not going to be able to all get done in the summer. So, you got to have a plan for how you're going to leverage those other buildings to then move potentially schools. I mean, if you look at the history of Highland Park, I mean, all of the buildings and we had somebody actually sit on our facility bill sit on our facilities committee from Highland Park who was able to really help us to see the vision of a district who now pretty much they had that particular process the entire time and eventually was
223able to get all of their buildings renovated enough to close. So, it's not all the ways about selling a property and and and what we can immediately do with something. You got to have a plan for how you going to what I do know is consistent, the defer that is still there regardless of the fact of whatever decision. The buildings are still falling apart and there still has to be a comprehensive plan to really think about that. So, I just want to name that even with what was brought up to your point, Dr. Pinkard, about Lincolnwood and what what's going to happen. For us we're we're trying to figure out how to really leverage those spaces, whatever the decision is, to think about a more long-term plan to to get the repair and replace of
224of the other properties. So, I just wanted to name that. You referred to it as a swing Yep. when you reference it. And I appreciate that, Dr. Turner. I think, you know, we we need to understand any of the covenants or any of the easements or anything on the title. I I don't think we ever foresaw selling that property to begin with, but it does, you know, we then need to just think about productive ways to use that link. And that building. Um I think um I appreciate it. I think last meeting Dr. Pinkard, you said like we need a decision tree. Right? So, this is going to be a process of that I assume would maybe even engage like the facilities committee or I mean this is going to be a public process of
225of getting input, right? Is that what I've heard already? So, we have you know, the second master facility assessment as Sergio pointed out we did one in 2021. We have another one that is scheduled to wrap up by the end of February. And I am hoping to release the facility subcommittee for a few months and bring them back in March anybody who's interested in continuing in that process to work with us to to build you know, to look at that plan and be thought partners and think about a longer term plan. Yeah, and that's one of um the things that's going >> remember that's a combined health life safety and master facility assessment. And I I just want to name that's one of things I'm struggling about um as we contemplate perhaps a quick sale
226of Bessie Rhodes as it doesn't seem fair to me that that would fall outside of an an additional decision tree um an intentional process um even though um we need money. And then just to to raise as well, I know this has been a a source of frustration in the community is that we don't yet know what we're doing with the buildings. Um and that's because this is a legitimate process. Like literally all of us up here none of us know how this is going to end up, right? And so, this is what a community driven transparent process looks like is you got to take it step by step. And so, I look forward to talking about values and I hope land for the public good is like I mean that's a very important thing
227to me. There's sort of a sacred trust with public property in my mind. So, I'll look forward to having that conversation. So, I think this is um I'm I think this is where we I think we agree and we disagree on this point of because of exactly this of the public is not just we have a deficit our buildings are in good condition. So, if we can close a building, we're good. We have to we have to address our utilization. We have to reduce our costs, but we also have buildings that need work and that I don't believe that that is only can be covered in our budget. I think that's that has to also be covered um in um life safety or referendum and life safety is a referendum without us getting permission, but
228it's still isn't the same thing as as money. Um and so, just to be where I'm probably saying well, let's have the plan first is to say what are we you know, and I'll Well, I'll say it. Probably shouldn't say it. I'm like I believe have the option to hold the north side accountable to equitizing building rebuilding schools on the south getting in place a plan that this equitable board can see to push through because that is real money, right? And whether we can we can close schools today then come back in a couple of years and ask for these funds. Yes, I believe that that can happen, too, right? I believe that that's possible, too, but I believe it's better possible to have a full vision and plan spend a period of time to
229bring that back. So, when we come back in September with this board that's still here say, "Hey, you want to we're going to we're going to close the second school or we're going to do what we need to do to make sure that all of our buildings and we can address this." So, I do think the we agree on so much. I just think it's whether the the the second closure right now prohibits how it's going to make it difficult to get the resources to do to do the work. And we'll never know. That's we all have our own opinions. We won't know until we get to the point of having to do that. Dr. Pinkard, I do have the walk numbers that you requested. So, in the baseline that would assume a zero school
230closure with Foster opening also the assumptions are that Twee students go back to their neighborhood schools. Other students also go back to their neighborhood schools. The baseline in that scenario is 70 approximately 73% of K5 students uh live within 0.75 miles of their assigned school. And that is excluding King Arts. I I should note that because it is a magnet school. In scenario 2DR2, so that is the Kingsley Willard closure, I believe. The it is 68%. Is that just that across the whole all of the schools or are you isolating that area? All the schools. All the schools. Uh and then for 2FR2, it is also 68%. But the only school So, I guess I was really asking about the Haven and we can answer that later cuz it's the only pattern. It's the only
231it's the only feeder pattern that's being impacted. There there are Let me put it most forward. I mean others are a little bit, There are there are other changes to the other feeder patterns slightly uh in those um from the baseline. I think for example, Lincoln's boundary goes further north to Dempster because it's a clean dividing line and then there is a slight adjustment to Oakton's boundary. So, for this you're saying technically this So, the So, the the the Willard kids if if Lincolnwood and Kingsley are closed, the walkability for Lincoln for Willard kids is you're saying it's I'm I guess I'm asking this pretty much the same as if I go to in the shoot pattern in that sense. Is that what we're saying? But let you know what? It's an unfair question ask
232right now because I'm asking you to make this up off the um I just think it's something that we can talk about it later. But it's being clear about walkability for each school. I do have I do have though I have the average walk distance per student for for those schools. Um if that's something that you're interested in. Yes. Yes. Uh For Willard for Willard if we close Lincolnwood and Kingsley, Willard and Orrington. So, Willard in the baseline the average walk distance for all students assigned to that school in the baseline and again that is with the Twee program at Foster, the average walk distance for students is 0. I'm sorry, 51 No, I'm excuse me. I'm not in percents anymore. 0.51 miles. >> Okay. Okay. In the scenario where Lincolnwood and Kingsley close, the
233Willard walk distance average becomes 0.67. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, at at this time we're going to move forward with the action items. Action item A. Approval for the commencement of the required school code public hearings to consider school closure scenario 2DR2 Kingsley Elementary School and Willard Elementary School. 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 school closure scenario 2DR2. Three public hearings will be held to consider the closure of Kingsley Elementary School and three public hearings will be held to consider the closure of Willard Elementary School for a total of six public hearings. The dates for these hearings will be determined by the superintendent and board president. The superintendent is directed to provide the required notice for
234these public hearings at least 10 days prior to the first public hearing by publication on the district's website. Is there a second? Second. Is there discussion? Call the vote. Anderson? No. Pinkard? No. Hernandez? No. Hopkins? No. Weimer? No. Wilkins? No. So, that So, that motion does >> That motion does not pass. Action item B. Approval for the commencement of required school code public hearings to consider school closure scenario 2FR2 Kingsley Elementary School and Lincolnwood Elementary School. Is there a second? Oh, no. Stop. 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 school closure scenario 2FR2. Three public hearings will be held to consider the closure of Kingsley Elementary School and three public hearings will be held to consider the closure
235of Lincoln Elementary School for a total of six public hearings. The dates for these hearings will be determined by the superintendent and board president. The superintendent is directed to provide required the required notice at least 10 days prior to the first public hearing by publication on the district's website. Call for the vote. For point of information, you did say Lincoln. I said Lincoln and not Lincolnwood. Okay, I'll I'll repeat the whole motion. 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 school closure scenario 2FR2. Three public hearings will be held to consider the closure of Kingsley Elementary School and three public hearings will be held to consider the closure of Lincolnwood Elementary School for a total of six public
236hearings. The dates for these hearings will be determined by the superintendent and board president. The superintendent is directed to provide required notice for these public hearings at least 10 days prior to the first public hearing by publication on the district's website. Have a second? Second. Call the vote. Anderson? No. Pinkard? No. Hernandez? Yes. Opdyke? No. Weimer? Yes. Wilkins? Yes. That's 3-3. That motion also does not Motion does not pass. C. Action. Approval for the commencement of the required school code public hearings to consider a one school closure scenario of Kingsley School. 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 Kingsley Elementary School. The dates for these hearings will be determined by the superintendent and board
237president. 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 on the district's website. Have a second? A second. I'd like to call a question. I have a a few questions. I don't It's going somewhere. Um So, um when we left on November 3rd meeting, um we had two two school scenarios. Um that was the will of the board. Um so how did this come to our agenda? Um when I um saw it on the agenda, it was news to me. As you know, there were news articles about this. So how how did this come to be placed on the agenda? Yeah, this was um this came to the agenda in conversations during our planning meeting with Dr. Turner. Um
238and it was also based on feedback from board leadership and board members. Let me let me interject. So I want to be clear. I want to correct what you just said. >> Okay. This came on the board agenda because in consultation with the district legal counsel, the district legal counsel stated that we had to put all of the remaining options on the agenda. As you go through the process, if we came to either a vote did not get approved or it came to an impasse, it defaulted to this particular vote. So that wasn't a decision that wasn't my decision. That was not your decision. That was the advice of the the legal counsel who has extensive experience with school closure hearings walking the district and the board leadership through, specifically the board president, through the
239process of making sure that we legally follow what is required of the of us based on the Illinois School Code. Okay, so my my follow-up question here is the confusion about the process because the administration did not just bring 1A to us. You brought 1A and 1B. And so are we saying that the lawyer made a determination that to to go with 1A outside of a board determination? Cuz that just doesn't feel right to me. Uh that doesn't sound like a a process that really honors what we had said we were doing in SDRP3. Um so that's my point of concern. On one one A and one B, we brought one A and one B. So the board one scenario school closings. The you want me to speak to those two? >> Yeah. I can.
240Yes. Give me a quick moment. So essentially 1A was closing Kingsley School and 1B was closing Lincolnwood School. Do we want What is it that the board would want to, you know, I could go back into those particular >> In your scenarios, the score the um the facilities committee one on the one scenario, which of the two were was What we brought to the board on September 29th was 1A and 1B, closing Kingsley and closing Lincolnwood. The administration was asked to bring forward two one school closures and we brought both of those forward. There was no will of the board vote taken, was there? There was like a straw poll, but we never like took a vote to say we're only going to consider two school closures at any point. Did we? Uh we left
241November 3rd meeting with clear direction. >> Yeah, it >> Um um so so um just be clear as I'm not angling for 1B here. I I'm I'm not in support currently of a one school closure. But this seems to be an important process question of did we let legal counsel circumvent our process here by selecting to remove something that we did not remove as a board. Yeah, I'm I'm not At least I don't feel like we let legal counsel circumvent the process. I think there was a a for real oversight of of 1B because we What what I can remember is Kingsley was the school in all of the scenarios and I think we just brought forward Kingsley. To be honest with you, you know, we followed the the legal counsel, but we were really
242hoping that the board decided on what we were charged to do, which was A and B. And and and that didn't happen. So in my mind, I I I did if we were only bringing 1A, so it it's it's an oversight that we just didn't catch. Um and I mean yeah, the yeah. I don't think legal counsel is going to override our process. I think we need to maintain appropriate legal counsel within our process. So legal counsel then would have been guided by our impact scores, but we know from months of meetings here that even we haven't been guided by our impact scores. So um there seems to be a judgment call that legal counsel made. We've had individual board members ask for plans to be looked at that were ranked way higher on impact
243score, not based on impact score. So my concern here is that this we're dotting our i's crossing our t's as far as process. Um and it seems that we let legal counsel eliminate a scenario brought to us by the administration um outside of any determination made by the board. So you you're asking for um I'm not asking for anything. Are you? So what's call What's the question? Uh we can't add anything to the agenda now. It's too late. We need to be be based on OMA, we would need to give notice of that. Um but um I just need the name. But it feels like the process somehow was not followed here if we allowed an outside party to determine that we're removing something that we we did not determine as a board to remove
244from consideration. Well, the Essentially, what he's saying essentially is the district brought forward two one school closure scenarios. 1A was Kingsley. 1B was Lincolnwood. Technically, it should have been a D on this agenda that said action approval for the commencement of the required school code public hearing to consider a one school closure scenario for Lincolnwood School. He's saying that because that was not on there, his perception is that we allowed the legal counsel to circumvent a process that is not there. And I mean it's it's I mean if we brought it forward, it should have been included. Like I recognize it was an oversight on our end. Yeah. >> Is this something that we could just refer back and engage with legal counsel just to check? This is not intended as a gotcha. I didn't
245know this like a day or two ago and hold it till now. I literally looked at this and looked at our SDRP's website and was like we have two scenarios. So could we just move forward, but just check with legal counsel after this to see if that in any way increases exposure, if we need to come back and revisit both options. Is that possible? Yeah, so it's possible, but the other piece is I guess it would just determine if people have if the vote would show up differently because if you all are going to just depending on where it lands with the vote, if if it's going to still be potentially at an impasse on the one school closure, then it what we what legal counsel counsel essentially told us, which is why it was
246only included one. Yes, please call Rucci at this point. Yeah, somebody call Rucci at this point, which is the district legal counsel and just ask her at this point. But essentially, if it if this one school closure didn't get passed, then essentially the board the leader the the district legal counsel said it will automatic default to zero school closures for this year. So so even even it really depends on how you come out on this vote cuz after this is nothing and they did make it clear then no action was going to be taken on any school closure. So I don't know if that was the the guidance, but you know, out of fairness of a very fair process, which we ran and we to keep the level of integrity with this that wasn't intentionally
247done on our part. He the the legal counsel made it very clear to us that when we get to one if if there was no consensus on the one, it was going to automatically default to a zero. So I think it was just an oversight on our end to say we should have had that one as well. I can call them. If you want me to call cuz I can call the legal counsel. Recess. Uh so that we wouldn't be heard. Okay. You're turning it to me. Okay, so thank you all those who remain and who are watching online. Thank you for your patience. Again, spoke to the district legal counsel want to be very clear. That was a very much direct oversight on on both the district part of really making sense of that
248with the board legal counsel. To be very honest, I say as I said before like we put the two scenarios on the table, didn't think we were going to get to the one and it just was a total oversight. So we apologize for that. With that being said, what the recommendation from our legal counsel has said is the board will move forward with taking action for the this particular action that's on on the agenda. We'll we'll move forward with taking a you know, action on this particular on C. In the event there's no consensus or if we come to an impasse, the board will have to come back and call a special board meeting on Thursday to take a vote for scenario. Was it 1B or 1D, Dr. Beardsley? B. It's 1A and 1B. Right.
249So the board will have to come back on Thursday for special board meeting. Doesn't matter what time that board meeting is and then at that particular time the board would take a vote on on 1D. All right, but it's B. 1B. Sorry, 1B. It's it's getting late and I'm I'm I'm a little bit over this at this point. Does that make sense? Okay. Everybody got it? I'll turn it back over to Madam President. I'm ready. Can we wait 1 second? There's no sound. Test 1212. They don't have it on live stream. Let's just give them a 1 minute. Otherwise, the recording will get pushed out. Okay, it's back on. So we made the motion and Dr. Pinkard made a second. I will take the vote. Anderson? Yes. Did you reread it? You Did you want
250to reread it? I say reread it. Okay. Yeah. Sorry. Action approval for the commencement of the required school code public hearings to consider a one school closure scenario of Kingsley School. I move that the Board of Education approve holding three public hearings in accordance with the section with section 1022.13 of the Illinois School Code to consider the closure of Kingsley 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 on the district's website. I second. I second. Anderson? Yes. Pinkard? Yes. Hernandez? No. Opdyke? Yes. Weimer? No. Wilkins? No. 33. Motion does not pass. So can I interject and repeat again what I said? Yes.
251Okay, so I just want to interject again before Madam President comes back on to say the board will reconvene on Thursday for a special board meeting in which they will take a vote on scenario 1B. So I just want to say that very transparently. The reason it's Thursday is because OMA requires us to have to post the agenda and do all of the legal things we need to do 48 hours in advance of the actual meeting. So that is why they cannot reconvene again until Thursday. And let me just point out that the impasse is based on having six board members instead of seven and that is something that's going to be addressed. My turn? Sorry. [Music] This is action item eight. I move that the board adopt the truth in taxation resolution to estimate
252the taxes to be levied for the 2025 tax year and authorize the administration to publish the legal notice for a public hearing on December 15th, 2025. Second. Anderson? Yes. Pinkard? Yes. Hernandez? Yes. Opdyke? Yes. Weimer? Yes. Wilkins? Yes. Motion passes 7-0. Item number nine is the item part of consent agenda. I move that the Board of Education approve the personnel appointments, leaves, and separations, the October 2025 Board of Education meeting minutes, and the November 2025 bills payable. I second. Second. Anderson? Yes. Pinkard? Yes. Hernandez? Yes. Opdyke? Yes. Weimer? Yes. Wilkins? Yes. Motion passes 7-0. I move I move that the board enter into closed session on December 2nd, December 4th, and December 9th to discuss and review candidates for the board vacancy. I second. Can we discuss that right now? Yeah, do we need to
253Do you want to discuss it now or do you want me to discuss it now? Next comes next. Anderson? Yes. Pinkard? Yes. Hernandez? Yes. Opdyke? Yes. Weimer? Yes. Wilkins? Yes. Now we have other business. So I wanted to have a discussion about filling our seventh board seat. And we do have a policy for taking appoint taking applications and then doing interviews and and all of that. But we are, you know, within 12 months of an election year where we had a lot of candidates run. They were vetted by community organizations and the voters. And I wanted to hear from my colleagues, you know, should any of those individuals apply, why would we why would we conduct an open process with people that were unvetted by the community so close to an election when we're dealing
254with so many difficult problems. I can say that to address that I did follow board policy because to not do that we would have had to go through an additional process. And um since I was on the campaign with those people, um the the option for them to apply was also included in that process. Okay. And so as we um go through, you know, continue to go through the process to seat someone, um that can be something that they can include with their application. I guess what I'm wondering is I I I understand that and I respect that. I think the genesis of my question is really around um you know, transparency and trust are of the utmost importance for us as a board, I believe with our community. Uh and that right now we
255are facing you know, kind of a historic attack on democracy in general across our country. Um and I I want to see us really stand behind the democratic process that happened you know, not even 12 months ago. Um and I I want to know if anyone has any reservations with you know, prioritizing and selecting candidates should they apply from the list of candidates that ran in the last cycle with us. Yeah, so we have a board appointment policy. It's already been named. This is the best practice of transparently ensuring community accessibility. This is our policy. Uh District 2 has also utilized this practice, I think in 2021. I believe I believe Mea Ante was appointed and then later reelected. Um you know, and folk are welcome to apply. Candidates are um you know, the point
256of this process is that you know, the the we will be able to choose from the best of the best. We will all the best will rise to the top. Um I also just want to name that this has been a crucial means that has ensured that marginalized voices have been on this board. So in the last 20 years 10 D65 members have been appointed. Of those 10, eight were later reelected. So so a fairly high test there of of public agreement with some sort of standard there. Um of those 10, seven were women and eight were persons of color. Uh so it's 80% and then D65 um s- if you look at the people who were directly elected to the school board since 2005 instead of being appointed, you know, it's used disproportionately white,
257almost 70% white. Um and so I just think this is a best practice. It's a way that we've ensured that there's equitable access to the board. Um I I think Barry Doyle mentioned uh um um in public comment if there's any way we can make it more transparent, I will support that. Um but I see no reason to wave board policy. So I think the policy is that we have to open the application. It's our decision of how we choose to vet applications. there is no approved policy of how we vet. So I think what you I believe you're asking is you're asking us how we think about um In the last election we elected three women and one man, two which are people of color. So I think the voters did pretty good last
258time. Um and so yeah, my question is really why wouldn't we uphold if if we have the opportunity, which I believe we will why would we choose an unvetted candidate? I I like to see like I would love to read the applications for who applies and be able to make that decision based on the application. Um I think that, you know, we had an election and, you know, it was a fair election. You know, everyone was very well vetted and you all were the ones who were selected and I think just saying that we're going to, you know, pick someone who was on that list just because they ran, that doesn't necessarily represent the will of the community. Um and we've got another election that will be coming up and so I think that's the
259opportunity for people to weigh in and vote again. So it just seems odd to me that we would change that board policy and sort of say, you know, anyone who ran um sort of has uh a leg up um just because they ran. Well, I'm not saying just because they ran. I'm actually just saying cuz people voted for them. >> Well, people voted for them but not enough people to get them elected to the >> Well, there was only four spots. So Well, exactly. That's what I'm saying. So the I think the community has spoken like with their um with the votes that they did cast and so, you know, I love to see have a opportunity to be able to weigh in and choose from the applicants who submits. I I I think um
260it was a very valid and equitable process. The the campaign and there are in our particular case that there were some very um high standing results from the community in terms of their vote. Uh so that is something that I think brings I think the community used their voice to say that that was someone that they were interested in electing. Um and the vote split may not have been as significant as we think it is. I mean, I don't I don't remember the The one point difference. But it it was, you know, there were some pretty high standings. So that's that's something that needs to be taken into consideration because if someone got Well, I mean, they were thousands of votes, then it to me that tells me the community But I you know, they
261they are part of a pool. They are still part of a pool. So So That's my thought. Okay. So individually we might choose to um give credit in our own individual vote to that, but as such a split board, there's no consensus of how we would do that as a as a board. And there's no criteria currently for how we're selecting anyone. We have to figure that out together. Yeah. So we're a work in progress. I just don't know how like eight months from an election we sit up here and say we know better than the voters. I mean, that's who we work for. I hear you. Adjournment. I move that the board adjourn the meeting at 10:27 p.m. Second. >> Second. I'll second. >> I'll second.