[10/27/25] D65 - REGULAR SCHOOL BOARD MEETING

001October 27th, 2025. This is a regular board meeting for the District 65 Board of Education. The time is 6:03 p.m. I'll take roll call. Wilkens Here. Pinkerd Here. Opdyke >> Here. Salem >> Here. Weimer >> Here. Hernandez >> Here. Anderson Here. I move that the board approve tonight's agenda as presented. Second. Wilkens Yes. Pinkerd Yes. Opdyke Yes. Salem Yes. Weimer Yes. Hernandez Yes. Anderson Yes. Well, I move into district update. So, we are Can you hear me now? Okay. Uh we're going to uh move into the district update. So, we are so excited. This month is principal and assistant principal appreciation month. And so, we want to just publicly thank our school leaders who have done such an amazing job this year with the start of school and making sure that they take care of

002the students and the families at their school. And so, we want to celebrate them today and just say a thank you. And so, if we can just all give them a round of applause for their hard work. >> [applause] [applause] >> IT IS ALSO HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH. SO, we want to just also thank and celebrate all of our Latinx families who celebrate that. And so, let's give it up for them as well. >> [applause] >> And so, again, the season is changing. The clocks are going back soon. And so, just make sure you prepare for that so we don't get confused with starting school next week. And so, again, continue to have a great great school year. At this time, we have board comments. General? Yes. Is there anyone that would like to speak? No,

003I just just a quick couple of minutes here. Just wanted to acknowledge the difficult and serious nature of the decisions before us and the anxiety it has caused the community. And I want to thank everybody who who have worked throughout this process and for allowing me to listen in on community engagement sessions. Um and to and just wanted to make sure that people know that I am committed to continue to serving our our community and specifically our most marginalized students and families as I have throughout my life and career. It's It's It continues to be an honor to continue to work towards equity along with this incredible board that's before us. And um that is all I've got to say. All right. Other comments? Yes. I want to read excerpts from a note from a

004member of the SDRP3 subcommittee in response to our last meeting 10 14. Sent and addressed to the board, I'm reading with permission. I'm reaching out as a member of the SDRP facility subcommittee to share my reflections on the special board meeting today, 10 14. While I applaud the willingness to have tough conversations public to maximize transparency, I worry about the direction of the discussion is perpetuating the very problems many of you ran elections on promising to tackle head-on. I donate my time and pour into the process and request that came from the school board asking us to bring objectivity to the emotionally charged yet needed job of right-sizing our district to the number of buildings needed to serve our community. I respect this decision ultimately lies with you and it must weigh heavy to know

005that any closures will have hard impact. However, I am deeply disappointed and concerned that more time was spent exploring throwing out the work done by engaged community members, pouring our collective professional knowledge while holding empathy for our neighbors. I'd invite you to request individual meetings with any member of the committee to hear our perspectives. Our community is anxious and gesturing to do all sorts of organizing and solutioning and recreating work with incomplete data that has been done. Thus far, I have responded confidently that there are adequate ways to engage and partner with the district to help be part of the solution productively. I've encouraged people to give feedback, join work groups, write emails, and be good neighbors. I've assured them that if our kids need to change schools, it will be okay. I still believe

006that, but if we abandon the work these three committees did, I do not know where we are. If you decide not to close any schools at this time to preserve community engagement amid all the other distrust, please have a plan to leave our district in a more stable place than you found it. If you decide to close schools to address the structural deficit, please do not go rogue and disrespect the care brought to this incredibly hard task. We showed up to support you. We showed up to share this burden. To make choices not recommended is to lean into biases that have not been checked. If there is new data you would like us to consider, please give us the respect to have that opportunity and weigh in. Finally, as a parent, please give us give

007us enough time to care for one another and build cohesive and welcoming and inclusive spaces across the district before we start a new school year. Other comments? >> [applause] >> I mean, I I just really appreciate the community coming out to um engage in these discussions. I think they're really important. Um I was in attendance in a few of them um and heard some very innovative ideas. I want to first I want to also call out the Kingsley community. Um in their meeting, one of the things that I was really struck by was how was that they had a focus on how to support our teachers and families through this process. Um which is something that I think we really need to think through um and work towards cuz this is going to be a

008change um for many. So, I want to call out the Kingsley community for for doing that um in that meeting that I attended with them. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Does that conclude our board comments? Then we move into public comment at this time. Members of the public are welcome and invited to address the board during open public meetings. Speakers are discouraged from using the public comment period to air specific concerns about staff members, being mindful that the public comment period is not a suitable forum for fact-finding or resolution of disputes. Rather, we encourage members of the public who have concerns about specific district employees to follow district communication guidelines found in the student handbook. Please remember to state your name and that you will have 90 seconds to address the board. We have many

009many people signed up for comment and we want to hear all the voices. Also note that it's not 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 them. Adela, you Are you ready for the Okay. Let me adjust the time since we now Have to explain >> 55 speakers signed up. >> Okay. Okay. Do you want to explain why 90 seconds? The 90 seconds are based on the 55 speakers. So, that way >> Normally, we allocate 60 minutes only for public comment. But instead of giving everyone about a minute, we're going to go up to 90 seconds so we can hear from people. So, we're going We're going to extend our public comment. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So,

010I'll go ahead and call up the five uh the first five people that have signed up to speak. Um you'll each have 1 minute 30 seconds. Kelly Post, Jen Gilbert, Diana Arequin, Maggie Lou, Mary Schwartz. Per Article 4, Section C of Dex Collective Bargaining Agreement, I am requesting that my speech goes untimed. Good evening. My name is Kelly Post. I am a lifelong Evanstonian, a teacher in this district for over 30 years, and the president of Dex. I represent the dedicated professionals who work with every child every day. We are more than 700 educators serving bilingual and monolingual students from pre-K through 8th grade. We are academic instructional coaches, coordinators, and interventionists. We teach ACC, TWI, ESL, world languages, art, media arts, drama, library, dance, computer science, PE, music, band, and orchestra. We include IES

011special education staff, nurses, adapted PE, deaf and hard of hearing, the visually impaired, orientation and mobility, and vocational educators. We are the occupational and physical therapists, psychologists, school counselors, and school social workers. We are the people who deliver on the promise of District 65. Two current board members have failed in their most fundamental duty, allowing both alleged misconduct and reckless spending go unchecked. I was stunned by Mr. Hernandez's remarks the last board meeting. While discussing a fiscal crisis the board had known about since 2017, he stated, "We used the funds for the right things. We built staff capacity, built our school environments, and enhanced equity for marginalized students. That's what the money was used for for folks who keep asking." Let me remind this board and the public that What else those funds were used

012for? Expanding the central office far beyond the state average, even as critical positions like reading specialists and coaches were cut. Allowing taxpayer money to fund luxury vehicles, misuse of district credit cards, questionable contracts, and untracked gift cards. We, the educators, watched with dismay as new central office positions were announced while our direct classroom support vanished. My members are held accountable consistently and without exception. When new curricula are rolled out, often with minimal educator input, we are expected to deliver results immediately. In a single year, K-5 teachers implemented four new curricula. Over 3 years, they received three different math programs. Middle school teachers faced multiple new curricula in just one year. We asked for support. We asked for stability, but nothing changed. Still, we were held accountable. Meanwhile, the board that oversaw this harmful period failed

013to uphold its oath to respect taxpayer interests by serving as a faithful protector of the school district's assets. So, I ask, where is accountability for that failure? Does this district truly believe in accountability for all or only for those of us in teaching spaces? Mr. Hernandez and Ms. Wilkins need to resign. THE COMMUNITY DESERVES BETTER. >> [applause] [applause] >> FINALLY, [cheering] I URGE YOU TO BE THOUGHTFUL and deliberate as you consider the proposed school closures. At the last meeting, multiple expert speakers made it clear District 65 does not have the infrastructure, planning, or time required to responsibly close three additional schools by next fall. Even this board, the most informed body in the district, had numerous unanswered questions. This process demands clarity, transparency, and time. DSEC recognizes that school closures may be necessary to achieve

014long-term financial stability. However, we are deeply concerned that the current rushed timeline risks compromising essential services and overlooking the specialized needs of all our students. >> [applause] [cheering] >> I urge you to slow down this process. Focus on closing a single building next year to allow the district the time, a full year, to understand and manage the complex ripple effects across our schools and services. A responsible transition must take precedence over a hasty one. As always, we remain ready to work alongside the board and administration to minimize harm to students, families, educators, and to preserve the integrity of our community. Thank you. >> [cheering] [applause] >> MY NAME IS JEN GILBERT. I'M A SPECIAL education teacher at Lincolnwood Elementary School. It is my third year in the district and my 20th year in education. I

015attended D65 schools for kindergarten through eighth grade and I now own a home in Evanston. My grandfather, Bob Gilbert, was a principal at Kingsley before it closed many years ago. My father, Al Niemann, was a principal at Lincolnwood for over 20 years. I practically grew up at Lincolnwood and it holds a special place in my heart. As a special education teacher with two decades of experience, I'm incredibly disheartened by what I have seen with our department over the past 3 years. The turnover in leadership, lack of a continuum of services to best meet the needs of all students with IEPs, and the financial scapegoating that special education has received. My greatest concern at present is what will happen to all of our students with IEPs throughout this process of school closures and consolidations. I have

016seen no plans for how individual needs will be met, from appropriate staffing to providing spaces for services that take place outside the general education classroom. Right now, we lack resource classrooms or a cross-categorical option that could bridge STEP and general education, which leaves families with fewer, less appropriate placement options. STEP is a tremendous asset for our community and should remain at Lincolnwood, where we have space and facilities to accommodate all classes and students. In all scenarios that involve moving STEP to Willard, that building is over capacity. How would the district ensure that all special education classes, including STEP, have dedicated, accessible instructional and related service space without being pushed into a basement or otherwise inappropriate areas? Additionally, we have a significant number of students receiving early intervention and foundational literacy skills. These pull-out services need

017to be accounted for when planning for the actual students in any given building. Thank you. >> challenging to plan to schedule for such services? Absolutely. But it is our duty to ensure that all services required under students' IEPs, as well as all needed ancillary and support services, can be provided at the requisite level of intensity per title 23, section 226.735 of the Illinois Administrative Code. If we continue to do the same thing the same way, we will not be serving the most vulnerable learners in our school district. We must be do better for our students receiving special education services. >> [applause] >> Hey, um this is awesome and I really appreciate everyone coming to give their statement and I want to give everybody a chance to say their piece, but we have to just be

018more expedient and if you want to hand Adela your statement to be entered into the public record completely, then you can absolutely do that, too. But just out of respect for the person who's number 55 on the list, um and everyone here, if we could just stick to the 90 seconds, it would just it would be really nice. Yes, please, if I if I call your statement to an end, I would respect your respect for me in doing that. Good evening, members of the board and district leadership. My name is Diana Regin and I am the intermediate STEP teacher at Lincolnwood. I have been part of this program for 5 years and I'm currently the longest-standing STEP teacher in the district. I share that not to highlight myself, but to share that the turnover rate

019in STEP is high. Self-contained teachers are not only classroom teachers. We are also case managers. We coordinate inclusion, collaborate with general education teams, and support students with intensive needs every single day. When I started 5 years ago, we had three STEP classrooms in one building with 25 students. Today, we have eight STEP classrooms in three schools, two bilingual, three that opened this year alone, serving 52 students. That only reflects elementary STEP. This shows both the increasing need for specialized instructions and the trust families have placed in this program. This year alone, we welcomed 15 new kindergarten students, but we're only graduating three students. So, what happens next year? Are we planning ahead for more classrooms? More teachers? More support? And long-term, what's the plan for bilingual STEP? Will there be a middle school classroom ready

020for them when the time comes? And what about the STEP program originally slated for Haven? As our students transition, we're sending them to a middle school their peers don't attend. We're removing the relationships they have spent years building. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Hi, my name's Maggie Lou and I yield my time to Ms. Diana. Despite this growth, I want to share a truth that may be hard to hear. In my 5 years of teaching in STEP, it was not until last week that any member from district leadership or the board visited our classrooms. And even then, the visit lasted less than 10 minutes during a non-instructional time. My students were at recess. The Lincolnwood STEP colleagues also reported similar visits. Why did it take a school closure for leadership to be present in our

021highest-need environment of the district? Why were the visits not scheduled with intention and meaningful duration? How can leadership make decisions if they are not present in or seeking data or perspectives from those working in the environments that you are leading? While we might be a small program, we are one that is growing quickly and it's important for leadership to know and understand who we are when making direct decisions that directly affect us. I also want to highlight a major challenge, training for new staff, especially paraprofessionals. Working in STEP isn't something you can learn in a day. New staff should have access to training in structured teaching, behavior management, and sensory integration before the school year begins. And even then, it takes hands-on and on-the-job training for other skills like toileting, data tracking, prompting hierarchy, and

022de-escalation. This is essential for our students' education and safety. >> [applause] >> Hello, my name's Mary Schwarz. I'm a STEP teacher and I yield my time to Ms. Diana. >> [applause] >> Right now, we're asking new staff to figure it out as they go. And they're doing their absolute best, but that is not a sustainable or a fair system. If you want successful classrooms, staff need proper training before the start of the school year. You cannot build a strong program on a weak foundation. We are also finishing week nine of the school year and our new teachers still do not have access to curriculum or materials. Our bilingual classrooms have even fewer resources. There is very limited access to curriculum in Spanish. And beyond that, there is no adapted social studies, science, or SEAL curriculum.

023When curriculum is purchased, our staff still spend hours every week adapting materials and activities just so our students can engage and access them. Our team has been building, printing, and modifying everything themselves because they refuse to let our students go without. As we talk about about potential school closures, we need to make sure programs like STEP aren't an afterthought. Have we considered whether the new building has bathrooms in the primary classrooms? Will the playground be gated? When we first moved to Lincolnwood, there wasn't one and our students had indoor recess for nearly a month. The impact this had on our students' regulation was significant. Seeing their peers play outside while being unable to do so themselves resulted in eloping, biting, and hitting. Many of >> [applause] >> Hi. My name is Lila Lemieux Jordan. I'm

024a STEP professional and I yield my time to Diana. >> [cheering and applause] >> Many of our students use maladaptive behaviors when overwhelmed and as a form of communication. I say this to highlight the lack of thoughtful, intentional, and appropriate planning can have on our students' experience. What about the teacher and service spaces? STEP teachers need a private area for testing, prep, and de-escalation. A space to go to if our classroom needs to be evacuated or when students stay in our classroom for prep. Our related service providers, they also need their own rooms for testing and for therapy. Students in our STEP often require many related services on their IP. We cannot expect them to pull them into the hallways or corners of shared classroom when they need structured and enclosed spaces. These aren't small

025details. They define access and inclusion for our students. What's especially concerning is that in the school closure scenarios, the STEP classrooms and Horizon, the fourth one, are all being displaced. These aren't just classroom moves on paper. These are highly specialized programs that rely on consistent environments, trained staff, and carefully structured spaces. Relocating them without dedicated planning risks undoing years of progress for our students. And above all, STEP works because of the relationships built around it. Our related service providers, speech therapists, occupational therapists, and social workers have known many of these students since kindergarten. They understand their communication, sensory, and emotional needs. >> [applause] >> My name is Nicole Roach. I'm a speech therapist with STEP. I yield my time to Diana. >> [applause and cheering] >> SIMILAR TO OUR STEP TEACHERS, WHO HAVE spent years

026adapting their own curriculum to make it accessible for our students and have spent years getting to know and understanding them. And our paraprofessionals, who have received specialized training and are a significant part of our students' lives. These connections are not replaceable. So, as the program moves or expands, what's the plan to preserve those relationships? What happens to the staff who know our students best? It takes time to build a neurodiverse, inclusive, and accepting community. The one we've built at Lincolnwood has been years in the making. Over the last 4 years, our general education students have grown up alongside our STEP students. They know them, they understand them, and they include them. That kind of culture does not happen overnight. And part of the reasons programs like STEP often feel invisible is because there is no

027district-level position that directly oversees specialized programs. We're blanketed under special education as a whole. But specialized programs like STEP and RISE have unique needs that are not being led to or advocated for at the district level. Even within STEP, our monolingual and bilingual classrooms don't even share the same coordinator. There is no dedicated leadership ensuring consistency, planning, or long-term before these programs. Without clear leadership, there is no clear vision. STEP isn't just a program, it's a community. It's a place where our students on the autism autism spectrum >> [music] [applause] >> Hi everyone. My name is Jennifer Regal and I take care of the bilingual STEP program at Washington and I yield my time to Diana. >> [applause] >> STEP isn't just a program, it's a community. It's a place where students on the autism

028spectrum learn, grow, and thrive because of the stability, consistency, and understanding that we provide for them every day. As you make decisions about buildings and budgets, I ask that you keep STEP at the table. We are growing and we are doing powerful work. We want to continue building a program that our students and this district can be proud of. Please come see our classrooms. See the work firsthand. Get to know us because when you truly see STEP, you'll understand why investing in us is investing in the heart of this district. Thank you for your time and your considering consideration moving forward with STEP. >> [cheering] [applause] >> My name is Annika Newell and I am the bilingual STEP teacher, one of the bilingual STEP teachers. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Annika Newell

029and I am a teacher for the first through third grade bilingual STEP classroom at Washington. This is the second year of bilingual STEP and due to increased need and enrollment, we've already opened a second classroom. Last year, when I started the program, I had six students and this year we have 12 between our two classrooms. Tonight, I'm here to talk about school closure plans and what they really mean for bilingual and special education students. This is my third year teaching and now the second time I have seen what happens when a school community is starting to be torn apart. My first year teaching, I was a bilingual resource teacher at Bessie Rhodes. When the district originally announced the potential closing for Rhodes, they promised that the community would continue to be uplifted and that significant

030effort would be made to support their future. And look what happened. When schools are closed and kids are moved, communities don't just lose their building, they lose trust. Moving programs around sounds like it works on paper, but in truth, it's never the same. Those relationships, that sense of belonging, it doesn't just transfer because you put a kid at a new building. Now, I'm at Washington, another school with a strong Hispanic community and it's happening again. The families who trusted us and have established roots are being told that their place in this district is flexible and they can just go somewhere new. It's painful to watch and hard to explain to families who already feel unseen. When bilingual STEP started, it was honestly thrown together. A need for a bilingual STEP classroom was identified, but there

031wasn't a plan in place. I spent 2 months over the summer getting my room ready. I was never given appropriate Spanish curriculum and actually, I still haven't been. But with the help of my community, WE'VE MADE IT WORK. >> [applause] >> HI, MY NAME IS HANNAH BEST AND I'M THE SPEECH therapist for bilingual STEP and I yield my time to Annika Newell. >> [applause] >> In bilingual STEP, the kids are thriving. The program is growing and now there's a chance that we have to uproot it. Once again, the district does not have a clear plan for the program. They didn't ask for input and they didn't think about what this would do to our students. For two of my students, closing Washington will mean that they would have gone to three schools in 4 years

032all so that they can receive a free and appropriate education, something they're entitled to by law. That's not stability, it's survival. Washington isn't a place where my students and I are supported and valued. TWIS a key part of Washington. It's woven into every part of our school from monolingual classes taking part in cultural celebrations to the school-wide Hispanic Heritage event we had on Friday. It would be a huge disservice to close Washington. TWIS thriving here. It's part of the heart of our school. It's where language and culture are celebrated and shared by everyone no matter their ability or their language level. Bilingual STEP is finally finding its footing. A program that was built from the ground up growing stronger every day because of the dedication of our community. STEP and bilingual education should never be

033an afterthought. They are not side projects. They are places where kids learn, grow, and reach their potential. Thank you for your time and the OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK. >> [applause] [applause] >> THANK YOU, ANNIKA. THANK YOU, TEACHERS. >> [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> OKAY, NEXT WE HAVE JESUS VALLEJO, Kelly McCabe, Dan Ray, Scott Campbell, Jean Clipperton. You can come on up. >> [snorts] >> I was the second name, but I don't know who the first name was. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. Can you start my time again, please? Thank you. Good evening, school board members. My name is Kelly McCabe and I have over 20 years of community health research experience as a public health epidemiologist. I am here tonight as a member of a group of parents with many years of data expertise representing four elementary and

034two middle schools from all over Evanston. We are a grassroots group of concerned parents, now affectionately known as the Legion of Data Nerds. We are wearing black to represent our impartial stance on the data and to highlight the lack of transparency symbolizing the black black's approach that the district has taken. We are here speaking as one voice to urge you to build a system that best serves our community's most important asset, our children. This board is currently considering closing schools to relieve financial pressures. The district is re-evaluating facilities, operations, and services. Decisions that will reshape the backbone of our community and the future of our children. As applied scientists who value evidence-based decision-making, we've asked ourselves, do the data actually support this plan? We believe caution is warranted, not acceleration. We are advocate We are

035not advocating for paralysis, but rather prudence knowing that we share a commitment to our children which must be the foundation for every decision that we make. Thank you. >> [applause] [applause] >> Hi, my name is Dan Ray and I am a computational physicist with 20 years of experience in physics-based modeling and simulation. Let's talk about the score cards. To trust that the scorecard rankings reflects reality, we need to fully understand how it was calculated. While analyzing a large volume of data can feel reassuring, for such a transformative decision, we must be certain one that is good data and two that it is the right data. The administration's choice not to share a comprehensive description of its methods, data, and assumptions directly prevents the community from validating its analysis. A decision of this magnitude cannot be

036built on a black box. Scores that cannot be compared, by definition, cannot be trusted. Methodology that's documented in bits and pieces across the district website does not build trust. A data hub website that's constantly crashing for parents trying to access it on our phones does not build trust. We simply cannot trust a plan that the administration will not allow us to validate. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Hi, uh my name is Scott Campbell. I've got a PhD in aerospace engineering uh with over 20 years of experience building data-driven software tools to assist decision-making. Um so to take a quick look across the data sources on the SDRP website, you see a a number of inconsistencies. Uh for example, the enrollment numbers provided on the phase three school closures hub are different than the numbers on

037the SDRP data hub. The SDRP data hub sites a demographer report that goes out to 2034, but the scoring doesn't include any of the future uh projections. Moreover, it also the scoring does also not consider any other source of information like the citywide initiative that is looking to increase the population. So, why does this matter? Enrollment data are embedded in almost every calculation. So, worst case, inaccurate enrollment projections can lead to uh overcrowding, which is especially impactful if you close multiple schools and have limited options to absorb the extra students. So, big picture, the board needs to consider this uncertainty in the data. Only then can you make an informed plan, not just a decision, a plan how to address THE THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> MY NAME IS JEAN CLIPPERTON AND I HAVE A

038PhD in political science with certificates in complex systems and graduate teaching. I have 19 years of experience in quantitative analysis and instruction. Prior to that, I worked for 2 years in a school district with English language learners and managed the data for that district. Research tells us school closures hurt kids and communities. They lower test scores, reduce attendance, and increase stress and anxiety, not just for the children who move, but those at the receiving schools, too. This upheaval will will reverberate across the district, not only in the first year, but for multiple years as students and staff work to build community together. The ways to mitigate this upheaval come from careful, thoughtful planning and support for our students. What the district has planned will cram multiple schools above their capacities with minimal attention to ADA

039accessibility with a hope to figure it out later, per the district administration. We don't know the real financial benefit, how teachers will be chosen to stay or go, or the cost or length of bus transportation. In 2013, Chicago Public Schools followed a similarly rushed timeline and administrators and teachers found that the process was chaotic and that none of the schools felt prepared for the transition. Furthermore, the study found that students felt alienated in their new schools and that math scores were negatively affected for students from the closed schools even 4 years later. We must not optimize for classroom seats at the expense of OUR STUDENTS. >> [applause and cheering] [applause] >> NEXT, WE HAVE JOHN BRADY, Jacob Carlin, Lauren Mc Namara, Esteban Quinones, William Althaus. My name is John Brady. I'm a liquid parent and

040member of the financial subcommittee. District 65 reduces FY26 budget deficit from 20 million to 372,000 in 1 year, a practically a balanced budget. That's a comeback story, not a crisis. We now have financial levers available to us such as a community engaged referendum, selling Bessie Rhodes, and administrative cuts that can make a meaningful impact reducing our projected budget deficit and deferred maintenance backlog. Our focus [snorts] should be on long-term success for the community, teachers, and students. Focusing on optimizing for school utilization reflects a narrow view of the problem and can hinder our chances for success. Low enrollment and declining birth rates is not the problem. So, what is the problem? It is years of financial negligence and lack of accountability and the data shows this. Dr. Beardsley, you are the assistant superintendent of accountability. It's

041time for you to be accountable. Listen to the community, the data scientists, and do what is right for the kids. Stop covering up the data, gaslighting the community, and doing what's best for you and your job. ANDREW [cheering] WYMAN AND SERGIO, PLEASE STEP DOWN. HERNANDEZ, your job is to challenge the data from the administration and not accept it as is. That's how we got into this mess and we all know that. We are not in a free fall. We are finally finding our footing. We have time to focus on the horizon. Evanston community, teachers, and students deserve better. >> [cheering] [applause] >> Hi, my name is Jacob Carlin. I have over 17 years of professional experience working with financial market data and over the last few weeks, I've been following the money. We must ask

042if this painful school closure process will even bring the long-term will even solve the long-term financial problem. Data from other school districts show they consistently underestimate the cost of closures and overestimate the potential savings. This is especially worrisome given that there's no concrete plan for what to do once a school is closed. We cannot risk harming our students for proposed savings that may never materialize. I have another idea. We looked at uh 2024 2025 school year data available through the Illinois State Board of Education to compare D65 to 18 other peer districts. We categorized each position as either admin, principal, or teacher. We found that D65 has more admin positions per student than every other district except for Glencoe. D65 spends more on admin salaries per student than every other district except for three. We

043identified that if D65 were to adjust admin head count per student to bring it in in line with the average head count per student across these peer districts, D65 could save over $1.4 million annually, more than any other district in the peer group. Administrative restructuring and reductions would deliver major savings without harming classrooms or communities. We recognize the board is looking to make informed, data-driven decisions, but we need to alleviate the conflict of interest that comes with relying on administrative data. Thank you. >> [cheering] [applause] >> My name is Lauren McNamara. I have 20 years of experience working as a statistician, a data scientist, and in and in AI governance. Transparency isn't optional. It's the foundation of public trust. The district must release its modeling code, input data, and financial assumptions for independent review. >>

044[applause] >> Code review is a standard practice in every evidence-based organization and many frameworks define transparency as essential for trustworthy decision systems. We don't even know who did this analysis. This is especially important when considering models that affect our children's futures. Transparency also means releasing the targets. What are the specific end goals here? What what do we want to make sure doesn't change? For example, how will we know if cuts start to negatively impact academic or social emotional outcomes? We must name the metrics defining our end state, the performance indicators telling us whether we are on the right track, and the data and methods for how all of these are calculated. We cannot close schools in darkness and fear. Only transparency can shine the light to build the trust this district needs to move forward.

045We don't want to be taken advantage of again. >> [applause] >> HI EVERYONE. MY NAME IS ESTEBAN JOSE QUIñONES, and I have a PhD in economics. I have 20 years of experience working with data focused on global development and evidence-informed policy making. We're not demanding an action. We're asking for an approach that leads with evidence, transparency, and compassion to prioritize the well-being and the education of all kids in Evanston. We owe it to our kids to learn from the school consolidation process that's already underway and carefully evaluate what comes next. We can pilot, measure, and adapt all while pursuing independent audits, cutting administrative bloat, and exploring creative uses for our facilities. We recommend taking a look at the administrative costs and projecting utilization and financial savings across closure scenarios. We also urge you to look

046into how to gradually raise the cash on hand increments uh sorry, in increments from just under 70 days to the target of 90 days over the next 5 years. This is not something we need to do overnight. Policy making is often about trade-offs, and to many of us, closing additional schools to increase the cash on hand to 90 days at this very moment when we're experiencing a budget crunch, largely because of the opening of a new school, would be unnecessary disrup- and disruptive in addition to being unjustified and irresponsible to the community as a whole. >> [applause] >> My name is Will Althaus, and I yield my time. >> [applause] >> District 65 is not just making budget choices. It's also shaping our children and students, what many of us care about the most, as

047well as defining what kind of community we are. The current plans rush haphazardly to slash budgets and close a handful of schools in one fell swoop. Without a clear picture of the financial situation, the most important metrics regarding success or best practices, or the knowledge and experience we will gain from focusing on opening Foster and closing Bessie Rhodes this year. If nobody knows what the data says because of a lack of transparency or because of uncertainty in the data or the analysis itself, then we can't move forward and close schools. Let's fix what's broken, not what's working. Let's build a district that earns trust through stewardship and keeps students at the center of every decision. We simply can't close our way to sustainability. We invite anyone with data, financial, or educational expertise to join us,

048the the legion of nerds, in helping the district make informed decisions that will create a stronger district for our children. Let's move together toward a stronger public school system, informed by evidence, responsive to our community, and supportive of every single student. >> [applause] [applause] >> NEXT, WE HAVE KATIE ARMSTEAD, Liz Wollenz, Peter Bogiera, Jennifer Nelson, Julia Rank. Okay. Hi, my name is Katie Armstead from Invest in Neighborhood Schools. We're a grassroots effort made up of nearly 1,000 families and teachers across all 10 neighborhood elementary schools. Closing multiple schools is such a gross overreaction to the financial challenges this district is facing. District 65 is not on fire. This is a solvable financial problem, not a community-destroying emergency. Before you close our schools, turn over every stone. First of all, the administration can't credibly tell us

049how much money we're going to save by closing schools. They throw around numbers like $50,000 in transportation savings on a screen. It's insulting. But let's assume the numbers are accurate. Each school we close saves $2 million a year. That is 1% of our operating expenses. One. Revisit administrative payroll, $300,000 on a communications team, $800,000 on a human resources team. And what about transportation? Have we looked at how much we spend on Ubers to send students to other districts? Ubers? Revisit the aspirational 90 days cash on hand for fiscal year '27. Pull the Foster principal for our reserves. We'll get to 90 days. We'll get there. My grandfather used to tell me, "Katie, do not step over dollars to pick up pennies." And that is exactly what we're doing by closing multiple schools. And stop insulting

050us by talking about enrollment. We're not closing schools because people are having fewer kids. Atheists are paying thousands of dollars to send their kids to Catholic school rather than go to D65 with their neighbors. But the truth is they'll come back, and they'll come back because of us and what we tell them about D65, not about what anyone up here says. Look for ways to save money that don't come at the expense of our schools. They're out there. And then come to us and say you need more revenue, and we'll help you get it. THANK >> [applause] [applause] >> HI, I'M LIZ WOLLENZ, A PARENT OF THREE kids in the district and a founding member of Invest in Neighborhood Schools. Tonight, I want to focus on four of the many, many creative ideas that what

051we've heard from the community. One, expand preschool programming. Pre-K is something Evanston does really, really well, and we should leverage that. Neighbor- Neighboring districts like Deerfield have sliding scale preschool programs. This is a natural pipeline into our schools and has proven to improve academic outcomes for students. Two, slow slowly roll out grade level clusters starting in North Evanston next year. In the round table today, there was an essay that points out that moving to grade level clusters for two schools in North Evanston could save up to 20 classrooms. Three, consider community learning centers modeled in places like Akron, Ohio, which was going through something very similar, and using state and community funds, they, during school hours, now have modern spaces for their students and teachers. And beyond those hours, they host community, educational, and recreational

052programs year-round. Four, work with the city on a community benefits agreement that includes school interests for this 605 Davis Street development. Please consider a phased approach. THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> HELLO, MY NAME IS PETER BOGIERA, AND I'VE GOT three current D65 students at Kingsley. Tonight, I wanted to highlight something that urgently needs attention, but in my opinion hasn't received quite enough of it. I understand there are timelines we must follow if schools are to close, but what's been missing is a serious conversation with depth about a referendum this spring to address the elephant in the room, our 188 million in deferred capital maintenance. School closure discussions are incredibly difficult on their own, yet it feels like we're repeating past mistakes by not getting ahead of this very related next step. A March referendum is

053what keeps us on track to start long overdue repairs by summer 2027. Any delay just keeps our buildings and students waiting. This isn't something we can do by setting aside 2.7 million a year. That's like throwing a glass of water at a house fire and hoping it goes out. I urge the board to pass a resolution by December 15th, your last meeting of the year, so the communi- community can rally together to help pull us out of this hole. Thank you. >> [applause] >> HI, GOOD EVENING. MY NAME IS JENNIFER NELSON, and I'm a parent of a kindergartner at Washington. I'm a former King Arts student. My dad was principal at Chute. My mom taught math at Haven and Rhodes, and I worked for the district um when I was in college. I truly love

054this community and the district, and that's why I moved my family back here like many people in this room. I thank you for your service and listening tonight. I know this is a hard job. Um I have a background in change management, and I am here to urge you to find a better path. The plan to close four schools and open one next year is overly ambitious in scope, and it is dangerous to the long-term health of our district. School closures rarely save money. They add transportation costs, require upkeep of empty buildings, and they increase staffing needs. The district says otherwise because they are anchored and invested in a specific outcome, but that is classic sunk cost bias. Even scaling and onboarding and offboarding for Rhodes and Foster alone is enormously labor intensive, and we

055will be operating at max capacity. Expanding that to four closures and opening one in a single school year will drain resources, distract leadership, and displace up to 2/3 of our students, and will pull focus from student achievement and stability. We've seen this time and time again that school closures disproportionately harm low-income and historically marginalized students and disrupt thriving communities. Our students and families have been through so much these past 5 years. Homeschooling, maskings, IEP gaps, all-day iPad use in middle school, leadership scandals, and now ICE worries and growing food insecurity. Our community needs stability, not another upheaval. We ask you to vote no on the closure of this school and open Foster successfully and close Chute and Dawes as planned. Thank you FOR YOUR TIME. >> [applause] >> HI, MY NAME IS JULIA RANKY. My

056husband, Eric, and I have a first-grader at Washington in the TWI program as well as on a 504 plan. Tonight, I urge you to save our schools by protecting what is working. We are a mixed family. My husband is Hispanic, therefore we wanted to raise our mixed children in a diverse and equitable community. We moved to Evanston in 2017 since we adored the diverse community and my father grew up here. Right away, we approved a referendum for the district even though we did not have any children yet. We felt it was important to protect the schools and come together as a community, which Dr. Turner continues to express as a guiding principle at this time. I'm concerned that this plan overlooks that Washington has the highest enrollment in the district. Families deserve to keep a

057Title 1 school open that is walkable then and diverse. I cannot imagine a kindergartner crossing Dempster to get to their school. What will happen to our children in the district who thrive in a less crowded classroom with special needs? We have not really heard of any other options besides closing schools. Data supports having schools in the community showcase higher test scores, better attendance, and improved graduation rates. This decision will have long-lasting impacts on our children in so many ways. Your job as a board is to advocate for us, the families and children. Closing schools should be a last option, not the first. Commit to saving our saving our schools, close only one, and protect what is working, and find a better path. >> [cheering and applause] [applause] >> NEXT WE HAVE Heather Brunner, Shannon Coleman,

058Mike Dice, Vic Filippini, Celia Carlinho. All right. My name is Heather Brunner. I'm a 14-year veteran special education teacher, a parent of two Washington TWI kids, and one child who is in Lincoln STEP program, and I urge you to save our schools. I'm here because I believe you must protect what it is working at Washington. My daughter entered kindergarten just 1 month after her father died from cancer, and our family was in crisis. For years, Washington wrapped around our family with grief group grief group referrals, social work, books and breakfast, Girl Scouts, a culture of empathy and kindness. They gave us the stability she needed to heal and learn, and now my son thrives in that same community. Meanwhile, I'm deeply concerned about how these closures will impact students with disabilities and other vulnerable populations.

059Washington's Title 1 status, bilingual STEP program, and high levels of IEP, low-income, ELL, and immigrant students show that our school is uniquely successful at supporting struggling families, families like mine. Yet, under these plans, TWI, special ed, STEP, RISE, these classes will be uprooted, and the limited data release shows that these students will be affected at twice the rate of general education population. This process leaves no time to ensure equitable transition for hundreds of special ed students and otherwise vulnerable populations. PROTECT WHAT'S WORKING. >> [applause] >> HI, I'M SHANNON COLEMAN SICILIANO, parent of a third-grader at Washington and a sixth-grader at Nichols. Tonight, I stand with other members of our community to urge you to save our schools and find a better path. I stand here not just as a parent, but someone who deeply believes

060in leadership as a leadership coach, and I know what it means to lead through challenge, uncertainty, and change. Great leaders don't simply manage scarcity, they inspire possibility and lead communities towards a bigger a vision bigger than the problem at hand. Right now, Evanston deserves that kind of leadership. In just a few weeks, this process has activated our city. Parents, educators, and neighbors all bringing their expertise, creativity, and commitment. Imagine what we can achieve if that same collective energy were invited into partnership rather than reaction. Evanston children deserve educational excellence and a vision for improvement. Closing schools should be the last resort, especially Title 1 schools, not a default solution to a spreadsheet challenge. Budgets should budgets should serve our vision, not define its limits. Trust and stability come when leaders invite collaboration, communicate transparently, and

061believe in what's possible together. The community stands ready to support the district with ideas, resources, and innovation for SDRP 4 and likely even past a referendum. We're not here to obstruct progress, we're here to co-create it. So, I insist you to save our schools, only close one, protect what's working, and find A BETTER PATH. >> [cheering] [applause] >> HI FOLKS, MIKE DICE HERE, AND I'M A LINCOLNWOOD parent with zero years of data science experience, but a whole lot of love for our school and our community. Nicole Maria Patton Omar, I want to thank you for being a breath of fresh air to this board after years of the board serving as A RUBBER STAMP. >> [cheering] [applause] >> MATT, IT IS GREAT TO SEE YOU IN THE PRESIDENT'S CHAIR. It's great to see you again.

062You've shared concerns about accessibility at Lincolnwood, and I share those concerns. We would certainly welcome the district investing in getting all of our schools to full ADA compliance, and closing schools is not the way to get there. >> [applause] >> We love Lincolnwood. We love our families. We love our amazing teachers. We love our STEP class. We love our Kingsley neighbors. We love our school grounds. We recognize there are concerns about capacity. However, it would be profoundly short-sighted to close this school and sell this property to developers simply to provide a temporary cover for years of financial negligence and misconduct. Andrew, I support your decision to protect Washington, Dawes, and all Title 1 schools from closure. Now, I urge you, resist putting the full weight of school closures on one area of Evanston that appears

063to be ideologically and demographically convenient to you. Yes, one school might have to close. One. If it's Lincolnwood, we understand. If it's Kingsley, we understand, but I urge you, choose one and spare the rest of these schools, and put your sights on providing leadership and vision for the future that this district needs. THANK YOU. >> [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> MY NAME IS VIC FILIPPINI. I HAVE TWO KIDS enrolled in D65 schools, another one scheduled to start next year. I want to thank you all for serving on the board. I know it's a thankless job. My comments may only make it more thankless. Uh I attended your meeting on October 14th, and I heard the earnestness with which the board said that the SDRP process is data-driven. But the quality of your data determines the quality

064of your decision. Input determines output. I had written to each of you to be skeptical about that data, especially in light of the indictment of the former superintendent. Since that time, however, I have found that your data is fundamentally flawed. You are relying on a 94-page real estate report that purports to provide, quote, an analysis that focuses on the real estate development potential of the school sites. That report says nothing about the covenants that are recorded against the property of the Lincolnwood school campus. Understanding such covenants is about as basic as any development analysis can be. The report fails real estate 101. Worse still, I made a FOIA request asking the district for those records. So far, I got nothing. So, either you don't know, or you're hiding it from the public. Either way, it's

065a lose. You can't privatize public land without information. >> [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> Muy buenas noches. Mi nombre es Celia Carlinho. I am here to represent the TWI bilingual school at Willard school. Before I start, I want to recognize that there is a lot of parents that they couldn't come today, but they are in the other area of this building. We have in sixth and seventh ward and part of the northwest of Evanston, a lot of Spanish speaking families that are today. Please raise your flags and we represented many of the Spanish speaking families that actually >> [applause] >> doesn't show in your data. So, here it comes. On behalf of the advocacy team, we request to continue the two-way strand at Wheeler school. As Foster prepared to reopen in 2026, discussions have been including

066possible two configurations of two monolingual lingua and two monolingual programs and two two-way programs. Why not one two-way and one African centered curriculum? Like at Oakton school. That's the only one that really provide those two powerful programs that embrace the whole community. Why two-way belongs at Wheeler? Proven history and stability. Wheeler has offered two-way nearly than 17 years building a strong community of a staff, students and families. Creating sense of belong takes time. Wheeler has already achieved this through all these years. Educational benefits Two-way enrich our school comments. Thank you. We trust YOU AND YOUR DECISIONS. >> [applause] >> THAT'S BRADY, DAN WHITLEY, Brian Johnson, Andrew Billiter, Kelly Farley. I'm Beth Brady. I'm a teacher and a parent here. Um and in the last several weeks I've heard a lot and learned a lot about

067the impact of the various scenarios. I just want to urge you again to think very carefully about who is moved from a walkable boundary. Which students are put have that burden on them and make sure that we're considering students who are carrying more than one equity marker for indicating magnified impact. Additionally, I'm a little actually worried about the language of slowing down and maybe prolonging this really grueling process. It's not that there aren't other ways to go about this. There are, but the historical function of slowing processes of transformative change rarely benefits the people who have been waiting their turn for equity that we have yet to realize. Delay acts as a release valve and we set this down and have a moment of relief and later we fail to generate this amount of public

068engagement that we have right now. We tend to implement smaller patchwork solutions and the oversights and compromises impact tends to fall on the same people. Right now, we have some numbers to guide us in the discussion and they're not the complete story, but they represent care and attention to the priorities of our community that we lifted up and they open the door to the conversations we need to have. We're in the hard part now where we're holding these conflicting points of view and impossible choices, but we're in it and more and more people are showing up with their creativity and their wisdom and their passion, which is what we need to get through this. THANK YOU. >> [cheering] [applause] >> GOOD EVENING. MY NAME IS DAN WHITLEY AND I'M SPEAKING to you as a member

069of the SDRP facilities subcommittee. My committee colleagues and I have put in hundreds of volunteer hours since the spring in order to come up with scenarios that would cause the least amount of harm in a process that will cause harm to this community. I did this knowing that friends may feel betrayed by my work because I believed that closing schools would be less harmful than our school district going into financial distress. I upvoted scenarios that would have closed my own children's school because I believe that the goal of financial sustainability would ultimately better serve my children. It was an imperfect and messy process, but I believe the facilities committee did the best we could with what we had to create objective results and I fully stand by our work. I believe that the scenarios you've

070been presented are the least bad of bad choices. Your indecision is right now causing unnecessary and additional harm by creating stress and uncertainty in thousands of families. Mr. Weimer, I do not agree with all the points in your op-ed, but I commend you for taking a stand and making your values and goals clear. Where do the rest of you stand? What is your agenda? What is your goal? My goal is to do right by all of the children in the whole district while causing the least amount of harm. Remember, if the state takes over, they'll cut costs where it's fastest and most efficient. They won't care about our feelings. They will care about solvency. So, make the decision now and give everyone time to come to terms with the new reality. There is never a

071better time to do hard things. Thank you. Hi, good evening. My name is Brian Johnson and I serve as well on the SDRP facilities committee and I'm here tonight to share some personal thoughts related to to my service. I respectfully ask the board to implement one of the school closure scenarios developed and forwarded by Dr. Beardsley and our committee. Please honor the committee's thorough, inclusive and data-driven process that produced those scenarios. We committee members worked deliberately through all relevant data. As a group, we openly devised criteria, weighting and methodology that are equitable, rigorous and trustworthy. Thank you to the district for assembling over 20 diverse community members with deep expertise in school administration, teaching, architecture, urban planning, geography, demography, [clears throat] real estate, engineering and statistics. Our committee include includes committed caregivers, parents, grandparents, district

072administrators and union representation. This truly was the right group for the task. To make fundamental shifts at this point would be unfair, unaccountable and untrustworthy. Delays prolong emotional strain on families, scare away potential residents and erode public trust. The scenarios you've received are the least harm scenarios possible. I stand behind them professionally and I trust the process, expertise and effort that produced them. Please don't waver. Please select one of the scenarios and move forward. THANK YOU. >> [cheering] >> HI. HI, MY NAME IS ANDREW BILLITER and I'm >> the timer. I would like these proceedings to move forward respectfully. I do want to have everyone's voice heard, but when people are booing and clapping, we can't hear them. So, let's be respectful of each other. Let's show the community that we respect each other. And

073please respect me and give people the opportunity to have their comments heard clearly. Thank you. Um Good evening. My name is Andrew Billiter and I'm here to read a comment from a fellow Oakton parent. Uh she raises an issue I know will apply to many working and single parent families in District 65 in the event of the school closures. She says, "I have one child at Oakton and another at Chute. Because of my work schedule, my oldest child walks from Chute to Oakton each day to pick up their younger sibling. The proximity of the two schools makes this routine possible and provides a sense of safety and consistency for my children and me. It has become an essential part of how our family manages the school day. I depend on the current school boundaries to

074maintain the equilibrium between my professional life and children's education. The nearness of the two schools allows me to ensure that my children are cared for and connected even when my schedule doesn't allow me to be there in person. It's an arrangement that helps my children thrive both academically and emotionally." That's her comment and I want to expand on it. There are a lot of middle schoolers picking up elementary age siblings in our community, whether it's Chute students picking up Oakton students, Haven students picking up Kingsley students or Nichols students picking up Lincoln siblings. Disrupting these patterns will create yet another ripple effect that may not always show up in the data, no matter how rigorously that data is collected and analyzed. I hope you will remember these families and their needs as you make the

075difficult decisions ahead. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Hi, I'm Kelly Farley. I'm an Oakton mom. I have three kids. I'll be there for a very long time. I have close to 20 years of experience in nonprofit and social enterprise finance, HR, ops and leadership and I was one of the community members on the SDRP finance committee. Um I I think to abbreviate this, I would propose the same thing that I propose professionally in this type of instance. We have to chart a path forward. We cannot have this ambiguity. We start with two schools which the data supports with a wide margin of error. We set the goal of necessary cuts needed from administrative costs, from the sped audit findings and other operating costs. We have then we make a deadline by 2027 or whatever the

076board decides is reasonable and we hold ourselves accountable to that deadline. And if we do not make the necessary cuts, then we look at what comes next. But we I I I've cried with parents about this all year. It's hard and it's horrible, right? But, I want a school district that's viable and strategic and runs efficiently so we can invest in our kids. We want to invest in D65, we have to look at it like investors. Impact investors look for financial viability and responsibility and significant mission impact and a credible plan to achieve both. And in my experience, the financials come first before the investors come. I don't have time So, I'm only going to quote one of the board members, but all board members new board members and candidates were asked about if closings

077were necessary and not one candidate this April said that there was an option where that was not necessary. Uh Maria, you said the district has needed to consolidate these buildings for at least the last 8 years. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next, we have Melody Brinks, Lindsay White, Hannah Jones Lewis, Anna Holcomb, Melinda Story. Hi, my name's Melody. I'm the TWI liaison for the PTA at Oakton. I have a husband who's from South America. I have a student in TWI and two teenagers that went through TWI um also. For the lack of time that we have, I just want to come here to say I want to speak up as much as I can me for the Spanish speaking community right now because they are in peril. >> [applause] >> I'm going to do this

078with as much uh composure as I can, but just to say even when we had raids on Oakton just 2 weeks ago at school drop-off time in front of two of our schools our students came to school bearing the brunt of that stress and we are seeing it take its toll on all of our students. So, with that said I want to read something from one of our Spanish speaking uh parents who did not feel comfortable coming out because many of them are not right now coming out in public. And she says, "There are so many [clears throat] families who are afraid right now. The situation is heartbreaking. Families are being torn apart and living in fear. It's taking a real toll not only on those directly affected, but on the entire community. I respectfully

079ask the board carefully consider the ripple effects these school closures and boundary adjustments may have on families like ours. Many families, including single parents like myself, already depend on the consistency and proximity of their schools to coordinate safe travel, after school routines, and sibling responsibilities. Any shift in boundaries could create new transportation and safety challenges for working parents at a time when we are already unsafe in our communities." >> [applause] >> Hi, I'm Lindsay White. I'm a D65 parent. I stand here tonight asking the board to remember that when we came into this SDRP process, our plan was always to close schools and to right-size our district. Closing schools was always going to be difficult. The fact remains though that we have both a financial and an under-enrollment problem in our district. I've spoken myself

080with many, many parents and caregivers in our community and what they've shared and what I echo is that this SDR process has been community-led, data-driven, and fair and it has shown us that there are two schools that come up consistently in every scenario we are looking at. To the board, please don't shy away from the hard decision that is in front of you. Every single new board member leading up to the election said that they were up to the task of closing schools. Nicole, Maria, you both actually recommended two school closures. I don't see anything that has changed now except that we've heard very loud voices speaking out against the results of the data, the data that's based on categories that our community created and we seem to not like the results or to not

081trust the results now that we know which schools are on the line. Other voices may be loud in support of starting over, abandoning all the work we have done, or slowing down, but we need to move forward for this community together. And I'll remind you that there are so many people who are not here tonight due to jobs, due to ice, due to child care, and these are the families you also represent and have to think about. They may not be speak- speaking quite so loudly, but they count, too. Thank you. >> [applause] >> I hope that we can continue to be respectful. My name is Hannah Jones Lewis. I'm a King Arts mom. Um when my wife and I were looking at where to move our young biracial family, we chose Evanston because it's

082a community where that really focused on equity and diversity. When we were looking at schools, we immediately knew that King Arts was our community. The arts focus and the emphasis on creativity and collaboration drew us in, but more than anything, it was how the school lives out Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy every day. King Arts doesn't just have some extra art classes, although those are pretty awesome. Um they also teach compassion, courage, and justice. They remind students that their voices matter. Um and that they can use their creativity to make a difference. That combination focus on arts and activism is incredibly important, especially at this time in our country right now. Especially when it's being targeted at every level. Both my kids are neurodivergent and I cannot say more about the community at King

083Arts and how they show up for kids with learning differences. The creativity shows up in how they work to understand something that others might see as a deficit and instead they see as a creative difference. King Arts is a Title I school. We're the only K through 8 and the only arts magnet in our district. Every family has chosen to be a Mustang for a reason. I know that none of us would choose to be in this situation, including my own family, but our district has to make some hard choices and we cannot prioritize privilege and comfort here. >> [applause] >> Um hello, my name is Anna Holcomb. I have two children at King Arts. Um a lot of my story is similar, um but obviously personal and unique to us. When my daughter was

0842 years old, she let us know that she was an artist. Um I did not know about the King Arts program even though we live a few blocks away um and soon learned about that and was thrilled to be able to join and participate. Um we are blessed with such a curriculum that emphasis emphasizes the the very values of Evanston, equity, social justice, and advocacy. Um our girls who are blond-haired and blue-eyed come home and they're able to speak to me in such an excited tone about what those values are. They really are kind of the core of who we are as Evanston and I I I want us to consider that as a part of the selection as well as when we look at our title as a magnet school and the opportunities that

085that brings in financially. I think it's also an amazing hub for speaking about the values that we have collectively. Um and um to the other parents' point, to Hannah's point, I do believe that that creative challenge that goes into challenging our students to think creatively can also be applied toward understanding those differences between us and um I think that that part of the conversation in this community, especially at this time, is especially important. So, thank you very much. >> [applause] >> Next, we have Melinda Story, Daniel Danielle Cohen, Paula Fitz, Sarah Young, Matt Hoolan. Hi, my name is Danielle Cohen and I have three children in 7th grade, 2nd grade, and kindergarten. Over the past 8 years, I've noticed a disconnect between the way that many members of our board and administration talk about TWI

086and the way that Amy Correa, her team in Multilingual Services, and our TWI community of students, families, and teachers understand the program. The board and administration often adopt a deficit-based model. A deficit-based model says there is something that is wrong and we need to fix it. It is this mindset that leads the district to say that only English language learners truly need TWI. To imagine that the program is not really for bilingual students because they do not have a deficit that needs to be remediated. To promote policies that fulfill the bare legal minimum. By contrast, Amy Correa and her team have built a strengths-based model. We have students who have strengths in Spanish. We have students who have strengths in English. We have students who have strengths in both languages. When we put them together

087in a classroom, they can teach each other from those strengths and build something together. This is a vision that is represented in the district's mission to promote biliteracy, bilingualism, and biculturalism. I'm quoting here from your website. In the past year, while total K through 5 enrollment continued to fall, the number of TWI students actually increased and now accounts for more than 1/5 of all K through 5 students. Our families are telling you that we want to build a program that celebrates the Latino community together. I know we are facing difficult financial times and that in such times we must make hard choices, but to that I would say that our budgets reflect our values. What are your values? Are they consistent with those of our community which you have been elected to represent? THANK YOU.

088>> [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> HI, GOOD EVENING. DO WE HAVE A TRANSLATOR? I want to say something in Spanish to represent the Latino community that cannot be here tonight. We do not have our translator here tonight. Okay. Can we restart the timer, please? Can you explain why? Because I don't want it to make it seem like we did. What is the process so they understand? Yes, we have a process where we ask that folks email to request interpretation to our to our translator. And as of this afternoon, he had not received any request for interpretation. No, that's okay. I'll do it in both. Thank you. My name is um Paula Fietz. I'm here on behalf of the Latino community. The families who were not in the room, the ones whose voices were missing from the

089SSRP feedback sessions. Our community represents a significant and growing part of this district. Yet, when the critical decisions were being discussed, decisions that will deeply affect our children's education, stability, and sense of belonging were not truly represented. Many Latino Latino parents were not even in these meetings. They didn't even know they were happening. The outreach did not reach them. The materials were not accessible. This matters because the Latino community will feel one of the greatest impacts from any schools closures or consolidations. Our families are already juggling jobs, limited transportation, language barriers, and personal safety. When you close a neighborhood school, you don't just move students around. You dismantle the trusted relationship that make education possible for families who already struggle to be seen. We're asking you to protect our Latino community, to make space for

090authentic engagement in Spanish, in community spaces, at time and places where working families can attend. Listen to the voices that haven't been heard yet. We're part of this district. Our children's futures are on the line, too. Please, do not make decisions about us without us. Por favor, no tomen decisiones sobre nosotros sin nosotros. >> [applause] >> Hi. My name is Sarah Young. I am a Washington Twe parent of a third and a fifth grader. My daughter has really bad anxiety and a 504. So, these transitions will be very difficult for her. After looking at the numbers, the charts, the graphics, there's a lot of the data. I don't know how real it is anymore. But, what stood out to me the most was the heart was really missing from these numbers. These numbers are not

091our children. Our children are excited to learn who their teacher is at the start of the school year. And we've asked so we've had so many amazing teachers at all of our schools. I'm sure many parents can attest to that. After finding out who their teachers are, my kids are always like, "Oh, which friends are in the class?" Right? That's what they want to know next. Their friends. That is what I want to focus on tonight. Not only their friends, but all of our children's classmates and their friends. There are several map scenarios given to our community in 3D Washington split between four schools, 3D Dawes split in two schools. These are just two of many divisive scenarios that have been created and presented to the community. In some cases, schools don't close, but your

092students are taken out of your school. It doesn't really make sense to me. These lines were drawn based on numbers and not on the hearts of our children. As you move forward in your process of fracturing this community, I hope that you examine your hearts and think about these children and not just the numbers. I hope as these decisions are made and boundaries are drawn, you keep the cohorts of children from Kingsley, Washington, Dawes, Lincolnwood, and King Arts intact. While many students will soon find out the fate of their buildings, we should focus on keeping these cohorts together. Thank you. >> [applause] [applause] >> Everyone, my name is Matt Hallahan. I'm a Kingsley parent and this whole community desperately wants to get this right. And I believe the root cause, the calls that you hear

093to slow things down, are not really born out of trying to save anyone's school, but come from an erosion in trust years in the making that continues to this day. The options and data presented today do not meet this moment and no school closure scenario outright solves any of our budget problems or capital needs. So, I hope this board knows that the same room of fired up caregivers, teachers, and staff will also be voters for capital needs via referendum and wants to be the biggest supporters of that, but need more trust and need to see more. So, what what does more look like? I hope a broader vision to start to be shared for how we will address our budget and maintenance needs and how we will envision this district moving forward. Why can't we

094have a leaner administration? Why can't we grade cluster? Why isn't Dr. Grossi looking at our finances again? These are just ideas. There's a ton of them. But, to propose these closures without a broader plan governs from a place of scarcity as opposed to harnessing this moment to govern towards a bold vision for the future. And finally, I hope this board builds off of the last board meeting and asserts the power that's entrusted in you. And too often I've I've watched meetings where I describe this board as passive or reactive or even defeatist and stubborn. And last meeting was the first time I saw a board that started to demand more. So, I hope I tonight I see a board that is clear and explicit and direct in asking from this administration and of each other

095what you want to see. There's no time for assumptions or lack of clarity. Thank you. >> [applause] >> NEXT, WE HAVE RICHARD RICKUS, KELLY ROONEY, Katie Nanson, Julia Vaughn, Alex Needle. Hi, I'm a former District 65 parent and former District 65 school board member. Um first, I want to say to school board president Anderson, I'm so hopeful with you sitting in that seat. The most hope I've had in years for our district. Thank you. I hope the community I hope the community gives you the opportunity for your leadership to to shine through. Um Sergio, I remember when we first spoke about your potential service on the school board. And I know that you have the best of intentions. And you can be proud that you have been a critical part of reopening Foster School. Um

096but you've taken so many other decisions and made choices along the way. And those choices represented your vision for the future of the district. And that is the future that we are now living in. It's chaotic, it's traumatic, and it's problematic. And even many Evanston Latinos have abandoned you like you have abandoned them. As my husband who's Mexican, Carlos, who you know, said to me recently, and I'll quote, "We Latinos have so little representation leadership. It's a tragedy when those Latinos do have power use it so poorly." As I've texted you already, it's past time for you to step off the board. You've had your chance to shape the future. And now as the board needs to re-envision a new future, you should not, based on your experience, be influencing that future in any way.

097Please walk away proud of the influence you had on Foster School and give the board a cleaner slate for a future of District 65 that will REINSPIRE US. >> [applause] [applause] >> I'M A KINGSLEY PARENT WHO WANTS to acknowledge how stressful things are for our teachers right now. And based on their feedback, amplify some suggestions that can make their work lives easier and ultimately have a positive impact on our students and schools. Teachers should have a much stronger voice in decisions about school closures. More closures mean more disruption and uncertainty, and these changes greatly affect the classroom experience. The board needs to be careful not to create more disruption than absolutely necessary. When schools close and teachers are moved, it's stressful, especially for those who are not tenured. That anxiety doesn't just stay with the

098teachers, it spills into the classroom, even though our teachers are doing their very best to protect our students from it. When teachers are moved, they need the chance to voice their preferences and what they feel their strengths are. Don't just shuffle teachers around based on their certifications. Giving teachers a voice in where they end up could help them, our teachers, and our entire school system. On top of that, they need time to pack up and transition without feeling rushed or overlooked. While we parents navigate these changes from home, let's remember it's the teachers who are with our kids every day. We demand a lot from our teachers. The least we can do is support them in this transition just as much as we expected them to support our kids. So, let's make sure our teachers

099don't feel invisible. >> [applause] >> Good evening. First, I want to express my gratitude for the public service that you're doing as members of the D65 school board. Thank you. >> [applause] >> My family and I chose Evanston intentionally. After living abroad for much of my adult life, my partner, an immigrant and a non-native English speaker, and I moved my family here because of Evanston's outstanding public education and its values. A community striving to live out the ideals of Martin Luther King where people from all all can thrive together. I urge you to pause and reconsider closing so many schools at once. Here are just a few creative ideas that would help balance D65's budget. One, no longer issue iPads to every kindergartner. THIS IS >> [applause] >> THIS IS A CARRYOVER FROM COVID and

100our youngest learners don't need personal devices. Two, sell or lease this building. Move admin offices to Move admin offices to existing underutilized school spaces. Three, sell other properties like the D65 facilities building on Greenleaf. Our public schools are not just buildings. They're the cornerstones of our democracy serving as multi-generational community hubs continuously supporting the rhythms and traditions of neighborhood life in several cases for more than a century. The decisions you make will define the character and cohesion of Evanston for generations. Please take time to get this right. THANK YOU. >> [applause] [applause] >> GOOD EVENING, BOARD, CABINET. MY NAME is Kelly Rooney. I'm an eighth-grade math teacher at King Arts. I have two King Arts students. My wife teaches at Nichols. I went through my letter to you all several times in the fear of

101being tone-deaf, but really it's a letter of joy. So, maybe it is tone-deaf. I'm going to go ahead with it anyways. Um This My journey at King Arts started 7 years ago even though I've been in the district for 18 years. I had the worst professional year of my life. Just completely disparaged. I was a part of an outpatient program as a result of just a very toxic workspace. And I was questioning whether I could make any difference in the teaching world anymore. But I always believe that creativity can heal. And that's what helped me cope the most in this challenging time. And that's what where I teach from and that's why Oh, my. I have 23 seconds. That's why I'm a part of a vibrant community at King Arts. But I In my 15

102seconds, I want to say that like I'm one of many. There's hundreds of us teachers. We have so much joy in our schools. We have those stories. They rescued us. Our students give us energy. And that's the part that I guess I want to leave everybody remembering. THAT'S ALL I HAVE. >> [applause] >> HI, I'M ALEX NEEDLE AND I'm a Kingsley parent and a former public school teacher with over 10 years of experience. My husband is currently still a special education teacher working at a local public school. In all of these discussions about our district's future, one essential group has been left out. Our teachers. The vision for excellence we all share begins and ends with the people who are in the classrooms every day. Research shows that teachers have the greatest impact on student

103achievement more than facilities or services or leadership. And I specifically need to give a shout-out to Kingsley teachers Alyssa Zaravel and Colleen O'Connor who have made a far greater impact on my child than an iPad and all the latest edtech offerings. >> [applause] >> If we truly want a stronger D65, we must center our decisions on supporting and retaining great teachers. Please slow down and consider what multiple school closures would mean for them and for the future of our children. Bessie Rhodes counts as a closure. Please do not close more than one additional school. Thank you. >> [applause] [applause] >> Okay, I apologize. I cannot read this um clearly. So, Z, I believe the last name. Uh X I E. Um Terry Shepherd. Dr. Michael Neighbors. Jennifer Dorty. Hans Sieberg. Jen Alexander. Okay, then come

104on. Okay. Um good evening. I bring nearly 50 years experience as a black parent, a black mother, of black children in District 65. I have seen it all. Uh good evening, Dr. Turner, members of the board and District 65 administrators. I want to support Huh? Oh, sorry. Sorry. Trying to figure out who the speaker was. Give me some more time. Come on. Okay. All right. I want to support the work that Dr. Turner has done in continuing to bring District 65 into financial order. I served on the DSRP program committee. I've said twice before this was no fun. It was necessary and we're reaping the benefits hearing about it right now. The DSRP process was difficult yet needed. Community support, in my opinion, at times is overrated. It allows the ugliness of our city to

105be seen in full color. You were elected to do a job. Please do it. Support the multiple school closure plan. Leave King Arts as it is and don't even consider King Arts to be a neighborhood school. I needn't remind you why King Arts, then Skokie, was selected to become a magnet. Don't slow down the process. Slowing down the process keeps our teachers in limbo. We don't want to lose our seasoned teachers. Relieve the tension. Do your job and decide which schools will be closed. Y'all signed up for this job, so please make the hard choices now to get us back on track. In so doing, I ask that you remember your pledges of equity. Remember our marginalized and Title 1 students. And please remember this process was begun to eliminate the continued bussing of our

106black students. Do your job. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. >> [applause and cheering] >> HELLO, MY NAME IS MICHAEL NEIGHBORS, president of the Evanston/North Shore branch of the NAACP and pastor of Second Baptist Church. It's humbling to be a part of such traditions. I want to share my support of Superintendent Dr. Turner and members of District 65 and especially I support Maya and Sergio. I want to point them out as well. It is certain no matter who and what is decided, a portion or fraction of Evanston residents will be disappointed. The closure of any school in a neighborhood it has anchored over the years is incredibly painful. No doubt residents now feel what Fifth Ward residents must have felt when the Foster School was closed in the 1960s. My family benefited from three schools that were

107founded to help struggling parents and families who happened to be black and poor. Union Literary Institute on the southern border of Indiana and Ohio was founded in 1846. 12 of my family members attended there before the Civil War. My great-great-grandfather and several of his siblings attended before joining Union troops. A few years later, the North Buxton Mission School was founded by Presbyterian minister in Ontario, Canada helping my maternal grandparents also attend school. Thirdly, in Chickasaw County, Mississippi, Okolona Industrial School was established where my father and his siblings were able to attend school. My maternal grandparents both had family members who also attended. All of these schools are just a memory. I dare not suggest the right answer. Amen. BUT KNOW THIS, EACH OF these schools produced some of the most amazing people. They are no

108longer with us, but the memory of those schools linger on and the excellence of generations remains with us. Thank you. >> [applause] [cheering] >> Good evening. I'm Jennifer Dorty, a former special education teacher in the district and a special education advocate with Evanston Case. I also have someone very near to my heart who attended school in District 65 for several years with an IEP. At one of the recent SDRP sessions, a participant asked, "How many students with IEPs move schools in each of the scenarios? What is the equity impact for each scenario broken down by K-5, 6-8, and all district?" For anyone who might not have seen the answer to this question, which includes students with IEPs as well as English language learners and low-income students, here's a summary of the answer. In scenarios 3B

109and 3B revised, 28% of all students would change schools, but 43% of marginalized students would change schools. In scenarios 3D and 3D revised, 18% of all students would change schools, but 38% of marginalized students would. And in scenario 3X, 25% of of students would change schools. Yet, 49% of marginalized students, almost half of all the students impacted, would change schools. When looking at numbers like this, I have to ask, what is really the equity score of each of these scenarios? Please take some time to consider the impact these closures would have on the marginalized students in our district while you continue to debate which scenario will be will best meet the needs of families in our community and what the real impact will be on moving programs from one school to another. Thank you. >>

110[applause and cheering] >> UH HELLO. MY NAME IS HANS SEEBERG. Um Thank you, board members, caregivers, and fellow parents uh I just for allowing me the time to speak. I know it's been a long evening. Uh it breaks my heart to hear of any school closures and to think of the communities that we operated. I hope there is an alternative to further school closures. However, I don't want to push down any other schools. I just want to tell my story. I grew up in Evanston in the '80s and '90s. I have three sisters, two older, one younger. As we were going through our schools, my mom saw what was going on in our local middle school and didn't want my younger sister to go through that. So, she made the difficult decision to change schools

111when she was in kindergarten to uh King Arts. Uh it worked out for my sister and uh now many years later my wife and I have two kids, one in second grade and one in kindergarten, and we decided to be a part of the King Arts community. Uh but for different reasons. We prefer the KA model, the emphasis on the arts, literacy, and carrying on Dr. Martin Luther King's message. Perhaps more important now than ever with the political changes, defunding of the arts, and the divisiveness of national politics. But regardless of the reasons, King Arts provides a home for kids and families who choose to be there. I am very grateful to be a part of this intentional community. It is a community from all over Evanston. >> [applause] >> Hi, my name is Jen

112Alexander and I cede my time. Thank you very much. Okay, I just have a little bit and then we're all done. Okay. Um we've already closed Bessie Rhodes. King Arts is the only choice for families that want to stay in public schools, but it's not working out for whatever reason at their local school. Um that's all I had to say. Thank you very much. >> [applause] >> Our last speaker um Huiyong Z, a Washington parent. I'm sorry. I may have pronounced that incorrectly, but if you signed up as a Washington parent? Yes. Um I I believe it is H U I G I N G. Is there a Washington parent who signed up and your name was not called? Yes. Okay. Might Might they be in overflow? Um I believe we checked the overflow room

113already. Okay, that concludes our list of public comments for today. All right. Thank you for bringing your voices into the room. We're going to move into the next item of our discussion uh with Dr. Susan Harkin around the SDRP phase three. So, I believe that Dr. Turner is going to kick off the presentation and then I believe we're going to all be tag teaming in some level in relationship to the various components that we'll be presenting tonight. Thank you for us for us last. So, good evening. Uh thank you everyone for joining us tonight as we continue to discuss the SDRP phase three uh process. Uh our agenda tonight I'm just waiting for yeah. Okay, thank you. Hit it on the screen for me, Adela, so we can move it until she figures it out.

114Oh, nope, it's on there. There you go. That's it. Okay. >> Oh, sorry. So, our agenda tonight, we're going to start with a review of the a review of the need for the SDRP phase three process, which I'm going to talk about in a little bit. Then we're going to transition into uh the board requested scenario. Uh it says 3X up there, but essentially we will go into 3B, 3D, as well as 3X. We will review um the school closing scenarios with the financial models attached to them. We will recap the uh community engagement sessions. Dr. uh Harkin and as the representative for SES and the board's consultant will provide a recommendation to the board, and then there we will go right into board discussion and then close out with next steps. Uh I really

115want to ground us in Click the next one for me, Dr. Harkin. I really want to ground us in, you know, and remind us this slide is is should be very familiar. We we continue to keep repeating this for several reasons. One is really to name that there are some hard decisions ahead, and despite it all that my team and I we continue to remain optimistic because we know that this work will continue to commit us to making sure that students remain the center of our work. We know that District 65 continues to have a strong history of providing an outstanding education, and that is all due to the fact that we have great educators and other staff and personnel, our students and our families that make that happen. And we know that even as

116we go through difficult financial times and have to continue to make some hard decisions with some personnel cuts, our schools will continue to provide warm and welcoming places for students to grow socially, emotionally, and academically. And so, I just want to commend the staff for continuing to do that even though we are in in the really tough phase of this work right now. And last but not least, my hope is that our goal, regardless of the outcome of these discussions about potential school closures, is really to ensure a bright future for our current and our future generations to come. And so, why consider uh the need for for consolidations and closures? Again, this Click the next slide for me, Dr. Harkin. Okay. Again, this is just a reminder uh for us of why we need

117to consider uh school closures. And really as a reminder, um there are three primary drivers that have led us and will continue to lead these discussions. Driver one is really a declining student enrollment and underutilized schools. Driver two is really a focus around school buildings that are in need of significant repairs and improvements. And then driver three really centers us around ensuring long-term financial stability and investing in our future. So, here is just again a recap of what our current reality is. So, our current reality when it comes really to the declining enrollment and underutilized schools, we have about a 58% occupancy rate. We operate currently 18 school buildings, but technically 19 when you add uh the Foster School to that. And the reality is is with the schools that we have operating, we still

118have $188 million in facility repairs and improvements that need to happen due to the fact that our buildings are in poor or very poor working uh building conditions. Um we know that as a district we currently operate a $189 million operating budget. And while the district has done a really awesome job and a Herculean job these past 2 years of getting the budget reduced by $20 million, and that also included a reduction over 100 staff members already, what's still on the table is $10 to $15 million in estimated reductions that still need to happen for FY27, taking into consideration a 2.3% expense growth, which means that our revenues right our expenses are outpacing our revenues on an annual basis, which is causing the structural deficit even with the reductions that we've done. And so, I'm

119going to turn it over to Dr. Harkin that is going to give you the high-level look and walk you through the evolution of SDRP phase one, two, and three because we keep hearing this is new, but this this isn't new for us. This is actually we're going into the third phase of this process. So, I'll turn it over to you, Dr. Harkin, to just talk about that. Sure. Thank you. Um and thank you for everybody sharing your concerns tonight. Um certainly democracy is in full swing here, and that's certainly important for all of us to hear the various viewpoints. And so, please know we are listening to you and that we we're really trying to come forward with a recommendation. While the situation in front of us is a difficult one, we're really trying to

120come up with a solution balancing all the various needs that Dr. Turner just mentioned. Um so, I believe and I'm going to carry over some things that Miss Turner would typically be presenting as the financial advisor for the district and the CFO. She's not able to attend >> say Miss Turner, but it's really Miss Mitchell. >> Miss Miss Turner, Miss Mitchell. So I'm here tonight to do some double duty, which is just providing some background on the district's finances. So in FY24, the district identified through Mr. Grossi that there was a structural deficit in what looked to appear to be two years of compounding deficits, which did prove to be real in those fiscal years. So that was the identification. Immediately, Dr. Turner started working with her staff and with Mr. Grossi to do the

121first phase of the strategic deficit reduction plan and immediately made $6.5 million in reductions, hiring freezes, eliminating vacant positions, and also reducing purchased services. All of that went into effect for July 1st, 2024, which would have been for the fiscal year 2024-2025. Last year, I came alongside you as CAS came alongside you which knowing that there was still this continuation of a structural deficit that we were engaged in a conversation around finding immediate reductions to just try to stabilize the district. And I do think one thing that I want to highlight here again in alignment with the conversation about um the pace and the in which this is all occurring. When we came on board, we had submitted a proposal because at that time the board was asking to close schools as part of the

122FY26 school year. And we pulled our proposal back because we knew at that point in time we in good conscious could not engage in conversations around really trying to close school for the FY26 school year. So at that point in time we did pull our proposal out. We were invited back to come to a subsequent board meeting in which Mr. Salem, I think you're the one that invited us to come back and at that point we said we would not entertain this work with closing schools for the FY26 school year. We did not believe that was ample time to do the research work that needed to take place. And so we worked together to say but we can work with you to identify some reductions that we could implement for the FY26 year with your

123team, with the conversations with the board to develop a pathway to come up with $13.2 million in reductions. And I believe what Miss Mitchell presented shows that hard work and the continued efficacy of the board, the continued efficacy of the administration to really keep a close eye on the district finances and really work to try to be thoughtful in this process of what some of the challenges you showed in the previous slide. $13.2 million had many reductions in the central office staff. That will not show up on your school report card until probably next fiscal year. So there have been significant reductions that have been made directed by the Board of Education, followed through by the staff, of which a big portion of the $13.2 million was implemented for the FY25-26 school year, which almost

124got us to a balanced budget. So again, we went into a process. The board voted in for that $13.2 million and we moved forward, but we quickly engaged then in the conversation around school closings in relationship to declining enrollment and utilization rates within those buildings. And so we're going to talk about that and we're going to make sure at the end of the day what I think is most important for the Board of Education is where are we leaning into as what our baselines are as we move forward with what best practice is and what we need to keep our eye on because the worst thing a school district can continue doing is talking about its finances and not talking about its programs for its students. I lived in a district that we lived about

12510 years of over and over and over again about the district's financial crises and I was very proud by the time I was in the district back as their CFO that we were back in good financial standing and we could focus on how are we proving educational outcomes for our students. And so I believe at the end of the day we are happy to turn over all of our financial reporting and modeling that has been assumptions in relationship to how we've come up with that. I have been challenged by the board to talk about sensitivity analysis and we've worked and reviewed that with the finance chair and and gone through absolutely what are some of the variables that we've used to develop this model. And at the end of the day, there is never going

126to be a perfect model, but we certainly have if if certain aspects go up that are going to improve the district's finances and if certain things go down, we understand what that ripple effect is. And in my recommendation tonight, I'm going to bring forward what I think are things that you will need to continue to do to ensure you stay on this path. And ultimately, that's my hope for all of you. It's that we can move beyond what I understand to be a continued structural deficit for this district and in compounded in various ways that can get us past making a decision, while it will be hard, but will be in the long-term interest of the district to return it to financial sustainability. So just as a reminder again, the conversation around, you know, this

127seems new absolutely for the people that haven't necessarily been impacted by this. At the December 9th board meeting, this was the timeline that was provided regarding what we would do in phase three. It was a very early conversation around looking at school closures as part of phase three. Not making any predeterminations on how much or whatever. And in every one of our financial models, we do offer back to the board what no school closings does and what that could do to the long-term impact to the school district. But we at the December 9th meeting talked about a timeline that if the board was going to engage in conversations around school closures, that we would begin in March in February getting our data together as the administrative team and then begin some of the committees that

128have been referenced tonight to begin the work to walk them through, get guidance into the process to get us to the point as to where we are right now. The one thing I will tell you is though it was a fine dance. Ultimately, at the end of the day, the decision around school closures is the board's. A recommendation coming from the administration because at the end of the day, we have many passionate people in this audience that care about their kids deeply. They care about their schools and the people that educate those kids deeply. And at the end of the day, the decisions in front of us to resolve the structural deficit and the financial issues for this district is a hard decision to make and you have to balance lots of different data around

129that. And at the end of the day, I would be like every parent out there advocating for my school. And what we need to do is be responsible for the funds that we have and use them in a way that best helps us educate our kids and make some tough decisions. And so while we used input input from the committees, at the end of the day, the administration had to move forward definitely trying to be transparent as transparent as we could to move forward with the recommendation I will be bringing forward to you tonight. So again, the why behind this. Again, you know, it's it's a difficult thing. You know, the good celebration was is that there were hard decisions made as part of the previous decisions in the previous fiscal years. There is consequences

130to those changes, but the decision of what this administration did in this board through those decisions was how do we not impact what our kids have as part of their experience in District 65. So the good news, well, the bad news is is we had a couple years of those deficits that we talked about. We are looking to end the year in almost a balanced budget and we look to adopt close to a balanced budget. There are other financial pieces that the board did as part of SDRP phase two that really met number probably should be higher, but we took some proactive measures to buy ourselves some time. To be able to say, okay, if we have to make cuts, can we do it in a way that gives us a little time that helps

131us understand how things are trending. But ultimately, the number for FY26 based upon our refunding that was done, based upon a way to raise additional revenue through our debt service extension base, really FY26 deficit probably should be closer to two and a half to three million dollars. So that number is underestimated, but that was intentional. It's intentional to make sure that we did not have to make significant cuts in a reactionary manner. However, again, because you have a structural deficit, your expenditures are outpacing your revenue, we're just getting ourselves back to the same place where our days cash on hand for FY27 are estimated at 70, 47, 23, and minus two going through FY30. Understand if you are going to go out for a referendum, specifically around capital, the further you erode 90 days cash

132on hand, the rating agencies will um potentially downgrade you. They did downgrade you, and there will be a financial consequence associated with not maintaining 90 days cash on hand, and that is included in in my analysis as we move forward with the expectation that 90 days is what you minimally will try to achieve. With that, then we've got again the assumptions that factor in, will continue to erode our savings account, our fund balance um down to having used all of it up by FY30 if we don't do a course correction. So, this is the driving factor behind the why. It's also the driving factor behind we have been working on this, and it is also that it it could be a lot worse had we not make the course corrections last fiscal year um that

133could be put into this year, as well as the immediate reductions that were put into place to address when the deficit was identified. So, I think I'm turning it over to you. Do you want the You are. I'm sure. Yes, we do the handoff. Sometimes it's easier. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Dr. Harkin. Um as we move into our conversation tonight, we want to kind of reground with the task that we were given at the last meeting, and then ultimately to kind of reground in some of the baseline data. When we exited our last meeting, we went out and did community engagement on three school closures. In our baseline scenario, in our baseline data, which is grounded in the district moving to the board-approved boundaries for next year with Foster opening and adjustments to

134the boundaries. Essentially, what we're looking at here are elementary utilization rates by middle school feeder pattern. In that baseline data set for our schools next year, our Chute feeder pattern will be at 73% utilization rate. Our Haven feeder pattern will be at 50% utilization rate. And our Nichols feeder pattern will be at 68% uh feeder pattern utilization. It's also important to note that the Chute feeder pattern has four Title 1 schools. The Haven feeder pattern will have one Title 1 school when Foster opens next year. And the Nichols feeder pattern uh will have also has one Title 1 school. In this scenario, no schools close, so that is Washington. It is also important to recall that currently King Arts and Bessie Rhodes are Title 1 schools. Yep. Let's see if I can write tonight. All

135right. Now, moving us back into the scenarios that we were looking at and went out to get community engagement on. Specifically, the three three school closure scenarios that have been in our conversation and went out for community feedback and received feedback from the community survey, included 3D revised. When we met on October 14th, we shared the revised attendance boundaries, revised you utilization rates, and then due to those adjustments, we noted some increases in the required number of students for transportation and crossing of hazards. Similarly, 3BR, which is the closing of Lincolnwood, Kingsley, and Dawes, we also brought revised scenarios at the 10/14 meeting, and that also got utilization rates below 90%. Um however, did increase students that were crossing hazards and requiring transportation. And then additionally, we shared with you last time essentially a scenario

1363X that closes Lincolnwood, Kingsley, King Arts, and Dewey, and reopens King as a K-5 elementary. Um we shared some initial like an initial view of the data of the attendance boundaries. Tonight, we'll bring the more complete summary. All of that is also available on our SDRP hub right now. This will be a high-level overview to reground us for our conversation. So, specifically, just to make sure that 3X is in the same place in regards to data sharing as 3BR and 3DR, we share essentially that that scenario leaves us at a 76% utilization rate with an estimated savings of $6.5 million. This scenario does impact four school communities with the closure of three buildings, so it still sits in a three school closure. Um you can see that we have some of the same programmatic moves

137that have been brought up tonight. This does impact K-5 or RISE, which is K-8 in King Arts, so this is new when we close King Arts and move away from having a K-8 school. RISE is currently a K-8 program and would move to a K-5 building and a 6-8 building. Um STEP is impacted, and TWEE is impacted. The strengths that were elevated in this scenario is that it prioritizes maintaining neighborhood schools. It closes a magnet in preference to neighborhood schools. It does balance out having three schools feeding into each middle school. When we move into our boundaries next year, we would have five schools feeding into Haven, three into Nichols, and three into Chute. Um it does maintain the use of a fully ADA accessible building. King Arts is fully ADA accessible. It has been

138adjusted and customized to ensure that it fits the RISE community appropriately and supports their functionality and increased independence. Um and this scenario does maintain middle school boundaries. The challenges that were raised when folks when the subcommittee evaluated this scenario was that, you know, for a three school closure, it does interrupt four school communities to get there. We do as a district lose a K-8 Arts magnet that is certified by Magnet Schools of America, and we close a K-8 RISE program that serves students with low-incidence disabilities. Also, in that situation, an opportunity for those relationships between our K-8 RISE students and our K-8 King Arts students to grow over time and to develop through those nine years. Um we create a low utilization rate at King Elementary at 53%. We could continue to adjust that, but

139you note that because of its position, that bound that is already a fairly sizable boundary, so to expand it more to get it above 53%, we would be you know, expanding the number of kids crossing hazards and the distance traveled. Um the Nichols utilization rate, because King Arts students disproportionately come from Foster or the Nichols and Chute feeder pattern, the Nichols utilization rate goes up to 96% because we lose those middle school seats that are at King Arts. And the King neighborhood is adjacent to I-dot hazards was one of the things that kind of came up in the feedback because of McCormick and Dempster. It you know, it is in a place that at points can be difficult for students traveling to it independently. The city does have a tentative plan to build an underpass

140under Dempster for bike and pedestrian traffic, but I my last note is that they are still seeking the funding to complete that project. You said under Dempster, not Church, correct? Under Dempster is the plan. It's under Dempster. >> [clears throat] >> So, one of the things I want to make sure that we point out on this slide because again, people are challenging the numbers. At this point, we've put all of the maximum amounts that would be available to the board with the school closing. Additionally, transportation can't be calculated until we know specifically how the boundaries get drawn for any of this potential school closings. And so, as part of our work, we would need to go through one, are we in agreement that we're going to lease a facility, are we going to sell a

141facility? How does that factor into these bottom line numbers? But what we've done is listed all potential sources of estimated savings at a maximum amount. We don't contest that these need to be adjusted and are not finalized. So, for purposes of non-salary, just to reiterate because we know that there's been questions that have been raised at the community um engagement sessions, as well as uh information that's been forwarded to the board. Uh in that, non-salary brings in things like building insurance, utilities, cap year leases, custodial supplies, and other facility-related expenditures that work towards cleaning a building. Um staffing at this point um in relationship to how that fits into it, much of this will be subject to collective bargaining agreements and staffing levels that will be needed when we consolidate our schools, but we've done

142some preliminary estimates on what that would look like. But again, once we know what students are going where, we can make the determination on what we need for positions. But as an example, um and again, this is the hard part of school closings, there are certain positions in buildings because it's only one of them for a school that will be going away. And so, these are real people with real jobs that are attached to some of these conversations. And so, we're trying to be as sensitive as we can be can be, but we know we'll have to refine the numbers on the page. Um we do have uh what we would say if that school goes away that we don't have to do uh capital cost. It's not a one-for-one, but it's a based on

143square footage. Uh we are estimating um due to the fact that um uh Foster School is being set up as a uh very high energy-efficient building that we will see some savings in comparison to Bessie Rhodes for what utility costs would be. Again, we have a placeholder for transportation, but when we get confident and more um uh knowledgeable about how the boundaries are going to flow, we will work directly with transportation with what those actual savings, but in preliminary conversations with the transportation department, they felt that 50,000 per school was a reasonable estimate. Um again, there was a report that was done in relationship to lease close uh what it would be to potentially lease a closed facility. I know there have been conversations with the district attorney on how that piece would work and

144that there are specific guidance and guidelines that we need to follow. And then we also, until we know how and where and what students are going, that there will be potential um section closing savings when we get closer to the deck guidelines for class sizes. And again, once we know the actual number of students that would be going to a building, we can make a calculation. But at this point, it's the expectation for each school closing that it is roughly four sections that a building could go down by. But again, these are the maximum amounts. They will most likely come down, and I will need the board's direction on how we would refine those numbers that are on that slide. So, um later tonight, we're going to talk about the various financial models that have

145been developed to provide some parameters, some assumptions around how are we solving uh the long-term financial sustainability. The model that's currently on the slide, you've seen previously. Um the top section is the assumptions in the model. Going across, it would be what model that we've talked about for school closures. The bottom section talks about how are we going to get to, based upon these assumptions, the identified reductions. So, just to take you through uh the process, um the first column with numbers in it would be zero closings. In this model, we're anticipating the reduction that gets calculated, make sure that we stay within the financial guidelines and guidance that's in this assumption. And in this case, this would take us through 2030. What that means we would have to front-end front-load our reductions in order

146to maintain the 90 days cash on hand that's up there. In this model, the expectation is is beginning with FY27, we would be investing $2.7 million in in our facilities to maintain them. Um probably the quickest way to do some of that is is potentially roofs. What we would have to do is work with uh Stacy and her Dr. Beardsley and her team on how do we prioritize where we get the biggest impact and where the greatest need is. Um at this point, one of the things that we're trying to solve for is again the remaining funds that are needed to complete Foster School. In this scenario, we're we're um expecting that it will come out of working cash, but later tonight when we go through some of the financial models, I'm presenting different options

147in order to preserve the district's savings account, preserve the district's working cash to provide more time to make sure that we're understanding how the finances are um progressing under Dr. Turner's leadership and and Ms. Mitchell's leadership. And so, it gives us a little bit of a safety belt, which ultimately could reduce um the number we're trying to aim for. In this model, we're aiming for $12.1 million of reductions in FY27. When we bring over a zero school closing, and this is from the previous slide, we are only picking up the $50,000 that we expect in energy savings from Foster School. We have potential revenue levers. Again, the board will have to decide if those are areas that they're contemplating and would like to um leverage as part of solving for $12.1 million of reductions. Much

148of that is grounded in uh increasing fees at various levels, um leveraging other partnerships and those types of relationships to get more revenue into the district. We do have expenditure levers um that we've identified um in relationship to transportation. Um I'd have to pull it up right now, but there are a whole list of various items that we identified with the work of the finance subcommittee that total up to there. Again, we'll have to work through, and I've provided how you can identify and get to what those amounts are to make sure that we can get to $2.5 million, and those are specified and have been specified previously. So, line four is what is left to get to $12.1 million. In this case, with the zero school closing, $12.1 million with the financial parameters and

149assumptions that have been placed up there and being reduced by facility right-sizing, revenue levers, and expenditure levers. Line four gets less as we go across because we are then dropping in the savings from each one of the uh potential school closing that will have to be refined. Previously, we had four up there, four schools as as uh one of the options. And since that isn't something that the board has been talking about, we've taken that off of of of the presentation and the numbers. So, this is a summary of what the capacity rates would be if we were to utilize the school closings that are in front of us. And this is part of what is grounding my recommendation that will be coming forward later tonight. Um so, 1A ends up with the district-wide capacity

150of 66%. 1B is 67%. 2F is 70%. 2D is 72%. 3D is 75%. 3B is 74%. 3X is 76%. Then this is the I'm I'm I'm going to channel my best uh Dr. Beardsley where we've got number soup up there, um but I'm going to walk through um what the scenarios are. There are five base scenarios that I'm have uh modeled for you. Certainly, we can continue, and I up until Sunday night, I think I was still modeling various uh scenarios um based upon feedback um so that you have many alternatives in front of you. Scenario A expects that you would implement all of your reductions in FY27. It expects that you will invest $2.7 million annually starting in FY27 for your capital projects. And it expects that you use working cash to fund the

151remaining costs associated with Foster School. There is an A1 and an A2. A1 would say, okay, how do we lessen the use of our working cash? In that scenario, we would use Bessie Rhodes and sell it. We've got some preliminary estimates and some preliminary inquiries around selling the building and then use an offset of lease certificates for whatever would be less. Providing to you as options because what I'm trying to do is how do we lessen the full amount that we need to reduce by to lessen the impact on what the district needs to come up with for reductions. In that scenario, we come up with $10.9 million of reductions in comparison to the $12.1 million of reductions. A2 just is is A1, but we don't sell Bessie Roads, but we use all these certificates.

152That would um increase the amount of the reductions needed to 11.1 million. If we do lease certificates, there will be a cost associated with it, a mortgage payment for that that has been woven into this, but it does not utilize your immediate savings account for that. And it would be consistent with how you originally funded Foster School. Don't have to take it, but I'm putting every option up there for you to lessen the reductions that potentially need to be there, and and really allowing yourselves to better understand how everything is progressing. So, that's how all the models work, and I'm going to go a little bit faster um because I've got multiple options. So, B is one that says, "Okay, we're going to phase in our reductions over time. We're still going to maintain 90

153days cash on hand." The other piece I would tell you as well, too, in all these models, we also are getting back to a balanced budget. So, sometimes there's a little bit of a nuance as well, too, that in order to um get to a balanced budget, we may be a little bit above 90 days cash on hand because we're committing to uh being um in congruence with the 90 days cash on hand. Just so we're all clear, that is grounded in what uh the Illinois State Board of Education recommends, as well as what the rating agency, in fact, the rating agencies say in most likelihood we would should be at 120 days cash on hand, but for purposes of everything we're here which trying to get to a a better more stable, we've used

15490 days. So, 90 days really becomes the place for where we really get to a place that it's the baseline of where we are financially sustainable. So, in this case, we would lower our CapEx to 1 million throughout the duration through FY 30, and it uses working cash. The consistent in all of the models of B1 is we're using working cash, balanced budget, 90 days cash on hand, and phasing in the reductions over time. So, for FY 27, we'd either either need to reduce by 7.5 million, 8.6 million, and 7.5 million, but the future years change because in B2, we go back to 2.7 million of investment into our capital to maintain our buildings. So, overall, um they're pretty close in total dollars. They're higher than implementing it all at once, and they ultimately have

155different amounts that we would be solving for for next year to help again get ourselves to a place, which is how drastic of cuts do we need to make. C is we use lease certificates entirely. Uh you'll see a consistency that we do the 1 million overall for capital projects. We do 2.7 million for capital projects for C1. We do 1 million in FY 27 for capital projects, and then 2.7 thereafter. Again, helps to lessen what amount we're solving for for next year, but you will have to make cuts each year in these scenarios, and you're going to going to have to come back and identify what those reductions are. Um and again, it's just the math goes across, which is what are we needing to solve for FY 27, coming back at it for

156what reductions you'll have to make, all aimed at 90 days cash on hand, balanced budgets. D is an approach of we're going to not use lease certificates because that's distasteful, but we lessen the draw on working cash by selling Bessie Roads and using those proceeds in a combination of working cash and Bessie Roads to pay for the remainder of Foster School. Same concept, 1 million up capital projects for all of it through the base model, uh 2.7 of capital projects through um the model one, and model two is 1 million for next year, and then 2.7 million for all subsequent years. The last model that's up there, and I started running out of page screens pages out here, but you could do the 1 million, the 2.7 million up the capital, but really this one

157just is another analysis of where we would use Bessie Roads. And again, if we're trying to preserve our savings account, we could use lease certificates then, and then this one just factored in the $2.7 million in uh capital projects, but I could run any of those models, but at some point I want you to be able to see what's on the screen. Again, all of it assumes 90 days cash on hand and a balanced budget with all the numbers that are there in front of you with the assumptions that we've come that drive our modeling. I'm going to stop there and see if there's any questions or check for just where we're at. I'm trying to see if I can do my math. Um but just on the when we do 2.7 on like the

158ones, and then on the the D's when we're not doing I mean, so when we're doing 1.0 or we're doing 2.7, it doesn't seem like if I add up the difference of 1.7 across all three years that we're not going to do, that it you know, that we're is that much more on the total. >> Yeah, so yeah, absolutely. Great question. Part of that is aiming for the 90 days cash on hand, which gives you a little bit of flexibility, so you're taking some of the money to pay for your capital projects on how you would be going up in your um cash. So, it it's really you get a balanced budget, but aiming for 90 days, you free up some money that you can put towards that that doesn't compound those numbers. And we

159did have a conversation, which is ultimately, if if we wanted to, you could combine in what you're transferring to capital projects as your baseline for um getting to are you really at a balanced budget? This is only accounting that your 2.7 that you're transferring is is maintaining your original budget to maintain 90 days cash on hand. And again, you'll see some of the spreadsheets on how that all works. Um one last question related uh to this. The 2.7 um can we can you I think you have a good way of explaining this. What does it mean with respect to the um the 188 million we have? So, what does it cover? Yeah, so there's a couple things with the 188 million that are currently on the master facility plan and the number we've called out.

160Under first piece you need to understand is that 188 million is through 2040. So, it isn't right now, but it's really identifying that we've got to have a revenue source cuz 2.7 million into 180 million dollars um we're not going to ever get caught up, right? Those are approximately 20 years. So, um also what's important to understand in the 180 million, when that was developed, it includes upgrading our facilities so that all of them have air conditioning in them. So, there's a placeholder for that. Now, we're have not we've done some initial um analysis on it, and I'll trust this team to help me out with it because we will, even if we don't replace it with the air conditioning, there will be a cost, but if we just took that out, and we took

161what are the projects that are needing to be done through FY 27, that number's roughly $57 million of projects that need to get done, and if we took out all the HVAC, and it's just the air conditioning that's there, but we'd have to probably build some back in, we'd be at about 36 to 40 million dollars. So, right now your deferred maintenance number as an estimate, and I'm going to have these guys prove it out later on, is roughly about 40 million dollars that is outstanding that needs to be finished. But again, 2.7 million for that will take us many years to actually get that done. So, one of the things that I'm going to caution all of us tonight, I don't have your your your maintenance solved for you. I I am going to

162be clear about that without adding to the numbers up here for further reductions. And I would say I think we heard tonight that there's an appetite for maybe an alternative revenue source to be considered, and certainly. But understand that these numbers go up higher for that piece of all of it if we don't, and ultimately these numbers are independent of the capital referendum. Okay. Any other questions? I just want to provide Susan, thank you so much. I mean, the number of scenarios you started out with, I think was five, and maybe we're at 20. Um so, I just want to thank you. It's been a lot of work, and and just to kind of ground us in the different pieces here, so we have a full understanding of kind of what the major level levers

163are. There's a $6 million payment to to finish Foster School that we have to pay in fiscal year 27, so we are solving for that piece, um mostly. Um and then there is the structural deficit piece, which um we're solving for with further reductions uh either in the initial year or in each of the subsequent years in order to make sure that we're maintaining a balanced budget or 90 days cash on hand. And in addition to that, we've modeled two variations of capital expenditures beyond Foster School. One variation has us spending $1 million, which is historically what we have spent on capital projects over the last decades or more in fiscal year '27 because of that $6 million payment for Foster School um and 2.7 million in every year thereafter. And 2.7 million is the

164number that um I think it was SCGC Studio potentially gave us as the amount that we needed to spend just to keep up our school. So forgetting all the maintenance that has been deferred just to keep it up. Um and then uh Susan, you provided the extra option for us not taking the $6 million out of our operating fund to pay for the rest of Foster School, but issuing additional lease certificates for that. So we could see some of the differences in the annual reductions that were required in order to make that. And so if we make all of the cuts in year one, then we can make less cuts overall because those cuts will carry us through um years two, three, and four. And so that's what drives the variation in the different amounts

165that you see in the total column and then the variations in in the years. I I think everybody here is um has good understanding of that, but just so that everybody watching is not blinded by um spreadsheets and numbers, but No, appreciate you going back through it. I'm living it all day, every day. And so yes, you know, and sometimes that translation is really important for us to to ground ourselves in. And again, and again, they can continue to be fine-tuned because hopefully we'll get to the right solution for you. Again, but ultimately this, you know, it we would talk about this in the finance subcommittee. Unfortunately, we're at a math equation that we're trying to solve for, but has serious consequences to what happens in your school district. So so trying to be thoughtful

166with how do I offer you you know, in fact, it was interesting. Um somebody from the finance committee reached out and I had forgotten all about this, which is, you know, we can throw Betsy Rhodes as a potential reduction to the working cash. And and you know, I'm grateful because, you know, that was a really great thought that again, when you're so far in the weeds, sometimes you miss things. And and you know, Tamara and I both had you know, just kind of overlooked it. I'm like, no, that really needs to be an option for you. Again, you may not take it, but I want to put as many options forward for you. And appreciate all the conversations with all of you at different times to provide where we're at with all this. Thank you.

167All right, so I'm not this one. So I just want to start by saying thank you to all who attended the community meetings um these last few weeks. I think we can all agree that the the turnout and participation just shows how much our community cares about public education and the future of the district. Um We held one virtual and six in-person community engagement sessions last week and the week prior. I will say that the sessions were all well attended. We had about 700 total participants. Um as we have done with previous rounds of feedback, a summary for each meeting, which includes the full list of questions asked via via the QR code, is available on the SDRP webpage. Additionally, our online survey was open from September 29th through October 21st. We received 1,335 responses

168and a local university partner is preparing an independent analysis of the feedback that we received. Um I believe that Dr. Beardsley has more of our respondent demographics and survey findings on the following slides. Thanks, Hannah. And you can keep that and I'll just indicate as we go. All right. So of the 1,334 survey respondents, also the next few slides are going to give demographic and basically a breakdown of the folks that completed the survey so we can get a sense of who sounded in and whose voice was heard in the process of specifically the survey. So of the 1,334 survey respondents, 46% identified as white, um 7.1% identified as Latino, and 5.1% identified as black. A total of 33.4% either opted to not identify their race or left the item blank. In regards to gender,

16953.3% of the respondents indicated they were female and 20.2% indicated they were male. A total of 26% either opted to not identify their gender or left the item blank. We can go on to the next slide. Thank you. Now shifting to essentially the geographical area or the school that the respondents were connected to, 14.4% of the respondents were from the sixth ward and 13.3% from the ninth ward. And as I read these through, I'm calling out the two highest groups and then kind of anything combined around non-response. Respondents could not could select one of nine wards in Evanston, Skokie, or non-resident. A total of 25.4% of respondents either did not know their ward or chose to leave this question blank. Shifting to school, 15.4% of the survey respondents were from Washington and 13% from Dawes

170Elementary. A total of 12% of our respondents did not specify a school. And you can see um essentially the distribution by school. One school, Rice Children's Center, did not have any respondents. And Rice has a very small population. All right. Now moving on, our university partner has read the full set of responses from our survey. And to date has coded 70% of the responses. So what I am sharing tonight is draft. Um their general feedback is they don't see the high-level trends changing from the survey. Um but we will bring forward a finalized report. We would like to We're shooting for next Monday um both for the survey and the community engagement. We'll know later this week the extent that we can fully deliver that. The slides and the draft findings will be available on

171the SDRP hub. All right. Um All right. So the slide This slide shares the global feedback on schools closure aggregated across the scenarios. And for those on the school board, essentially our community engagement was focused on the three school closures, but our survey asked for people's feedback for anything from the one school closure up to the four schools closure. We got significantly more feedback for the three school closures because that's what we were out engaging on, but we did get good responses, particularly in the two and four school closure areas. Um common themes that came up in this particular areas like global feedback include concern about closing racially and economically diverse neighborhood schools and calling out specifically Washington, Dawes, and King Arts and a concern about closing schools with vulnerable populations, Title 1 schools, schools

172with large Latino populations, schools serving large number of students with special education needs. Second, uh there is a recommendation in those kind of the global closure tre the global trends to close King Arts before neighborhood schools in alignment with community preference for walkable neighborhood schools. Next, signi- significant movement of specialized programs causes disruption and challenging transitions. So this concern came up at in the global trends. A concern about closing both Lincolnwood and Kingsley because doing so eliminates walkable neighborhood school communities on the north side and a desire to maintain a K-8 choice-based option for families in Evanston. So these are the glo- global trends around feedback specifically from the survey. We'll go on to the next slide. Then specifically, uh the folks pulled out feedbacks about the process. So those were big picture global trends

173and then they pulled out specifically process-based feedback. In the process-based feedback category, um I mean, I kind of just read through them. These are the things that bubbled to the surface. Slow down. Concern about impact of simultaneous closings of multiple schools on student experience, community cohesion, public perception, and property values. A lack of trust in the board and administration. Confusion about the scoreboard and the data. Questioning the authenticity of the feedback process. Um a recommendation to consider stepwise or dynamic closure scenarios. Um a request to see or multiple requests to see the and share the latest financial analyses and audits. Considering other cost-saving strategies beyond closure, interest in collaborating with city on potential solutions, and concern about the likelihood of selling and leasing buildings. And in order for these items to have come up to

174the global process feedback, these are items that came up and were coded with a high degree of consistency across different scenarios and rose to the top in regards to the amount that of times that it was that it arose. So, we'll go on to the next. So, since the board had specifically directed us to focus in on three school closures, um essentially, and again, this is going to be difficult from the back, but these are going to be available in the SDRP hub. Um responses for the three school closures, as well as the others, but I'm just sharing three tonight. Um were coded, and you'll notice I'm going to kind of give some guidance on reading the slide. The left-hand column specifically calls out kind of the code that came up most often in this

175particular area. So, if I use our first row, um under location, which was essentially kind of a code family, the subcategory that came up with the most frequency was walkability. In some cases, you'll see multiple because there was it was fairly even. In this case, for walkability, about 23% of the respondents included a topic that was coded into walkability, and specifically for this scenario, they were raised they were raising concerns about the closing of Lincolnwood and Kingsley and the impact that that could have on walkability in Northwest Evanston. Okay? So, just kind of walking down this a little bit, you can see that for 3B, closing Lincolnwood, Kingsley, and Dawes, additional concerns included folks noticing that students that lived near Nichols and Chute in some cases were then assigned to other middle schools because of

176the way the boundaries landed. Um we also had respondents talk fearing the loss of two-way immersion program in Southwest Evanston in the Dawes area, elevating the concerns of a you know, impacting the Dawes community with a high percentage of low-income students, Title 1 funding, and Latinx population, and the kind of feeling that Dawes and Lincolnwood were described as kind of the heart of their neighborhoods, and how that closure could impact that. Um additionally, respondents did question how the criteria and scorecards were applied around walkability, equity, and utilization. Now, you'll notice when we go to the other ones that some of these themes cut across, so we'll shift to the next. So, for 3D, closing of Washington, Kingsley, and Lincolnwood, you know, you're going to notice the kind of common ones that came up here were

177walkabilities and safety around the survey surrounding location at about 25%. Unique to this one was calling out the adjacency of Washington to Robert Crown, um and then a continued conversation about the walkability and safety, but more specifically around vulnerable populations and leaving the north end of Evanston without that walkable school in Kingsley and Lincolnwood area. Around diversity and programming, comments around Two-Way, Step and Rise were most common, and so again, focusing on that impact of moving programs that we heard from comments this this evening, as well as the impact of closing a Title 1 school. Um future impacts, and if the note of some wondering about future growth, our demography report does indicate that Lincolnwood and Kingsley would increase over the next 10 years. The total of the students across the two is 27, so

17814 in one, 13 in another, but it is they're the only two schools that indicated on the demography report that they would increase, so they were noting that. Concerns about breaking up Washington families over four schools, um and the possible loss of not being in a in a historic building for Washington. Um around process, kind of intersecting, slowing down, um and then noting for closing Washington, potentially furthering harm around vulnerable community, raising up uh closure of roads, as well as some of the political situations and program placement. Um so, we'll slide on to the next. Now, 3X, what I want to specifically note, we unfortunately did not get 3X added to the survey until I think about the last 5 days of the survey. And so, that was an oversight on our part. There are

179fewer responses here, so we're drawing from the responses that are there, but they were fairly consistent in some of their feedback. Um there was a note here, you know, keep in mind that 3X is closing Kingsley, Lincolnwood, King Arts, and Dewey and opening King Arts Elementary. Um kind of the most common thing that came up was concern about moving multiple feeder patterns, occupancy and enrollment, again, this idea of four schools and four communities to get to three, um and then also raising the concerns around the shift of King Arts from a magnet to an elementary school and creating a lot of disruptions at once. Um there was a note here, this is the one is scenario that did introduce Dewey. Dewey had not been initially named in the scenarios, so about 8% of the codes

180did refer to a concern about closing of Dewey. All right. So, this gives you just kind of the sense of high-level feedback from the community engagement. Certainly, we can take additional comments, questions later, and we'll bring the final report uh ideally with the next board meeting. Thanks, Dr. Beardsley. Um so, we're back to this is our problem that we're trying to solve for, that we've been working on now for a little over a year together, or coming up on a year together. And um certainly, um as we discussed, you know, the one thing that's highlighted in yellow today that I'm going to tell you is not part of my plan, um is is solving for your uh deferred maintenance projects, and certainly, um we can talk about that, and I have information that you can

181decide, but I think at this point going deeper in making reductions right now for that, I don't believe is in your best interest. So, I'm going to walk you through um there's six phases to my recommendation. Um and I'm going to read it because I want to really be thoughtful as we have conversations about our recommendation to you. So, after extensive analysis and input, uh student-centered services recommends that the District 65 board adopt a financial model incorporating a two-school closure plus the Bessie Rhodes school closing and a deficit reduction plan that maintains a balanced budget, 90 days cash on hand, and an increased investment in its capital projects. This approach optimally balances three critical objectives: sustainability, capacity optimization, and flexibility. So, let's talk about the first one up there, which is the right-sizing of the

182district, and what my rationale is behind why I'm making that recommend recommendation. Research indicates that optimal school utilization rates range from 80 to 90%. Presently, four District 65 elementary schools operate at capacities between 35% and 56%. The closure of two schools plus Bessie Rhodes would elevate the district utilization to approximately 70 to 72% depending upon the model that we're currently have in front of you, which would be well below the 80% threshold. This recommendation would enhance operational efficiency while preserving flexibility for any future enrollment flux fluctuations. We acknowledge that school closures are inherently challenging decisions. However, given the district's current utilization rates and financial outlook, these measures are both essential and prudent. The data, encompassing enrollment trends, facility capacity, and expenditure patterns, supports this as the most balanced and sustainable course of action available. Two,

183I believe the district should focus on adopting one of the models. My recommendation is D1 or E. Both of these models are strategically designed to achieve a fiscal stability and flexibility through an annual balanced budget, 90 days of cash on hand, and a phased operating fund reductions through FY30. They are also designed to guide the district towards stability and fiscal responsibility while simultaneously safeguarding programs and services for students. The strategic nature of these models ensures that every decision is carefully considered and aligned with the district's long-term goals. Third, preserving financial sustainability. Maintaining financial sustainability remains paramount priority for all models. We advocate for the condition continuation of expenditure controls and the diversification of revenue sources to support the objective of maintaining 90 days cash on hand and balanced budgets. Key implementation measures would include regularly

184updating financial projections in comparison to actuals, phasing reductions to protect protect core programs, and developing a formal days cash on hand policy aligned to ISBE and rating agency best practices. Next, we need to refine the levers. Once the board selects the preferred financial model and potential school closing, the district should refine operating fund levers to ascertain the remaining level of reductions necessary to meet the SDRP financial models targets. The board's role in this process is crucial as it ensures that all cost-saving may measures remain strategic, data-driven, and aligned with district priorities and sustainability goals. This approach will help the board to make informed decisions and maintain fiscal stability. Five, continue transparent transparency and communication with stakeholders. That continued up there at twice. Sorry about that. I really believe it's critically important that there's a continued

185commitment to transparency and consistent communication. I have never seen a district engage with this public as much as it does, so I think you are doing a great job, and obviously this is a tough subject that really requires that you continue doing that. And Dr. Turner, I applaud you for standing up and participating in your team getting in front and having those tough conversations with your community. You've demonstrated that over and over again, and I really applaud you for that. So, thank you. >> [applause] >> So, with the continued commitment to transparency and consistent communication with both the District 65 community and the rating agencies, because again, if you're going to go out for a referendum, it's really critical to show your commitment to the district's finances. That will all be integral as your forward

186progresses. By providing regular updates or corrective measures on corrective measures and long-term fiscal strategy, the district can cultivate public trust, safeguard its credit rating, and prepare for future opportunities such as a referendum. This open communication ensures that everyone is on the same page, at least understand or at least understands what the district's financial situation is. And last of all, obviously as I've now stated multiple times, for all of the financial models provided, we have not identified a solution to the district's deferred maintenance and long-term facility needs without going deeper into the district's current operations, and we just don't feel that that's prudent at this time, but we do believe you need to continue building on public trust to ensure that if you do ask them to invest in the the facilities of this district that

187you they are committed and trust you in doing that. I think as part of that, um addressing your facility capital needs, you you will continue um you know, you will be continued to pose what are the new new revenue sources or corresponding expenditure reductions to offset transfers to capital projects. Part of the challenge for me is because we are still in the process of updating your master facility plan, I really believe that that's going to be a prudent activity. I think it's also prudent to identify what schools potentially will be closed so that when you do get to the conversations about the master facility plan and the amount that you need to invest, I think that's going to drive that conversation. So, before the completion of the updated master facility plan and life safety audits,

188the district should in the meantime continue prioritizing capital projects that ensure compliance and prevent the accumulation of deferred maintenance with the capital project investment modeled for larger capital projects, the district should consider seeking a referendum or alternative alternative funding sources as required to minimize the impact on the district's operating fund balance and maintain flexibility to prevent critical school failures. In closing, the district's financial challenges are not new. They emanate from years of structural imbalances between revenues and expenses, deferred maintenance, and declining enrollment. Nevertheless, the district now possesses a clear option to address these challenges, and if implemented, the SDRP financial models provide a pathway forward to guide District 65 five toward long-term sustainability, stability, and careful management, ensuring a renewed focus on students' needs now and into the future. And lastly, I want to express

189my profound gratitude to all of the members of the District 65 community, the board, families, the staff, and the community partners who contributed their insights, feedback, and concerns throughout this process. Your perspectives were instrumental in shaping this recommendation. Your unwavering commitment to the District 65 students and schools is what fortifies this district, and by continuing to work together, District 65 stakeholders can progress with clarity, courage, and confidence, thereby ensuring that District 65 continues to fulfill its mission for every student student both presently and for future generations to come. Thank you. Yes. So, let's let's have some feedback from the board about what we've just heard. Um >> [clears throat] >> I can say for myself that to me this this plan that we've been working on has been focused a lot on numbers, but behind

190those numbers are children and teachers. And I think um the ultimate goal is really to move take this process and move it to the vision for what we want to see happen in the classroom with the kids, and based on that, what we want to see as our educational outcomes moving forward. So, as we continue to discuss this process, um we I think we're all looking for some closure around this so that we can start to work a little more on the vision that's behind it because I know that's what the community is also interested in and deserves to see. Um it's part of this uh proposal does take into consideration quite a bit of community feedback. Um the slowing down process, the fact that we're going to have to use this process and the

191way that we implement it to regain and restore some community trust and how we move forward with all of the activities. Um we are dealing with many factors that are that are affecting this process. I I know that the indictment has really plummeted community trust. We know that. Um and we are here to rebuild it through this process. That's our intention. Uh we we have been focused on closures, but one of the additional components of this whole process is opening a new school. And I want that to be spectacular. I want it to be a success because that's where we're building a new school. We're not building it I mean, we're building it to start a new chapter in the educational system in Evanston. We're we're opening a 21st century school. And we have to

192make sure that we have the capacity to do that in conjunction with whatever the plan is for school closures. So, I'm happy to see that the the plan is moving towards closing two additional schools in addition to Bessie Rhodes while opening Foster instead of the four total schools. That that makes a huge difference. Um this is a new journey for us in terms of closing schools. There have been other instances in Evanston history where we've closed schools, but it's been many decades. It's been many decades. Another piece of this uh proposal that is attractive to me is making sure that we have some reserve. So, the 71% occupancy rate um is something that I'm paying close attention to because after, you know, we've had a lot of community conversation about the step program, which I

193am familiar with from uh the on the ground experience. It's not a one-for-one situation. They need They need the rooms uh they need those classrooms to service those students, and I know what that looks like, so I can bring that perspective into the conversation. So, there's there's many um parts of this plan that are attractive to me. What we do need to keep in mind is that even with all of these interventions, we still going to have to pull some other levers. Uh one of the things we some of the information we still need is from the WestEd audit for our special education services. That may have some impact. Uh but the life safety audit is critical. That's That's what it is. It's It's life and safety. So, we have to have that information to

194in order to um complete some of this. The um maintenance plan is really just maintenance. It doesn't include any enhancements. We're just trying to get the buildings functional. Um and we you know, we've had a period of time where that has not been seriously addressed. So, we we have to do it. You know, now now's the time. We've spent almost a year on this process. And based on community feedback, you know, we we have to be brave and take the steps. So, I'd like to open it up to other board members for their comment. >> Yeah. I just want to start out by saying thank you to Susan, to Dr. Turner, to Stacy, to everyone who's been working on this process, to everyone who's come out and spent their time speaking and providing their perspective

195here and at other meetings. And of course, to everyone who served on those committees because I know how difficult and time-consuming that was and we really appreciate all of your feedback. Um I kind of feel like we're coming full circle. I can remember 2 years ago sitting down when Dr. Grossi was going through the numbers with us and when um we were really facing the reality of the structural deficit that we have. And I remember, you know, saying at that time, "This is a lot. How are we going to fix it? What's the plan to fix it?" And I feel like we are finally getting to the point where we have a plan. We have a realistic plan. Um And I remember at that time, it's funny because part of the discussion we were you

196know, we were saying, "Anybody can cut, right? Anyone can look at a spreadsheet and decide how much needs to be cut and where we need to get to a balanced budget." But the really difficult part is finding out how we can do that in a way that has the least impact on students. In a way that makes sense for our district and the experience of students and what they get out of it and families. And there's no easy way to do that. But I do feel like this process and this journey that we've been on and all of the work, all of the thorough analysis that's gone into this has taken that into perspective and guided us there. And you know, it's not perfect. It'll never be perfect. Numbers will never be perfect. But I

197think that we have done this team has done um an amazing job of trying to bring forth all of the issues and things that we need to consider. So, I really appreciate that. Um you know, these numbers are difficult. Um you know, we were here and I'm a part of the team. I know how difficult it was to cut that $20 million. So, as I look at these numbers here and see that there are you know, additional things that we will have to cut even after the school closing process. I know that that's not going to be an easy process either. It's really a trade-off. Um I too feel like the you know, the two school solution makes sense. And the reason for that is it provides a path for us to get to a

198place where we are getting rid of our structural deficit. We are getting to that very important 90-day reserves that you know, we need [clears throat] to do to be fiscally responsible. We can't be in a place where we can't pay our bills or we're not sure, you know, how we're going to make payroll. We don't want to We don't want to get there as a district. But at the same time, it gives us some flexibility for the unknowns. And you know, I recognize that there are still a lot of unknowns and things that could happen. So, I I I feel like it gets us to the right place and provides us with some flexibility. Can I just ask uh So that we know where we're going with our conversation, what's our intention tonight? Like we're

199not taking a vote, but are we deciding on a recommendation? Are we trying to pick? Like what are we What's We want to give the administration some direction, right? But what exactly are we working toward here? Tonight. Well, I assumed that the um the last time we were in conversation, we took uh um a vote or a consensus how we want to I always get that wrong. Um to say focus on three, we would have to explicitly state. I would imagine that that's not what our focus is. And to um say it's two, but then I think there's also um a lot of conversation around is that two the 27 or is there How do we get to the two? So, I don't I don't believe we're having a conversation about which which schools. >>

200No. We're having a conversation about what's the path we want to uh be on. And we um since we went We were So, it's important to say the school the scenarios permit presented to us gave us zero to four. We chose to um explore the three. Um of course, which did create a lot of um concern and a lot of uh conversation in the community. And I think we heard you. We've listened to you. We've you know, got more clear about even the data um and our own numbers. We started out thinking we're 15 million. All right. So, the numbers are just different now. And I think we have to you know, have the courage and the um um humility to say that we might think differently now. But not necessarily also view that as

201a um kowtowing because some voices of the community have raised their raised their voice. So, to me I see it as um First, you know, saying which path are we going to go on? Um that we can allow our team to do the um the analysis that we need them to do so we can still honor our um on our timeline that we need to get. Okay. Can I just ask a couple questions? Um I didn't get a chance to ask you, Susan. Um but can you We didn't really have a a deep conversation about the lease certificates. But it it was my understanding and and I don't know if you're the right person to ask this to. But the lease certificates are not typically used for building new buildings. Um and then in order

202to issue lease certificates, you have to demonstrate savings in equal that are equal to the payments of those lease certificates. And so, in the initial issuance of those lease certificates, it the the the interest payments exactly matched the transportation reduction of 3.2 million. In this scenario where you're um you're presenting lease certificates issuance of lease certificates to pay for the $6 million of Foster. Can you walk me through, if you can, sort of how we might be able to do that and what's the potential um payment implications are for that? The the piece I do have for you, so um Tamara, uh Ms. Michelle reached out directly to your financial advisor. So, there are actually four different ways to issue debt related to the Foster school. Um how they all work specifically, um I I

203I'm not exactly sure because we reached out directly to the experts that would say, "Here are the legal ramifications that you have to do um in relationship to how you do that in a way that's legal." Right? So, so I won't I'm not bond counsel. I'm not, you know, the financial advisor. But we did reach out to the experts in this. Um so, there is and I could read you what was told to us. The recommendation would be structured as an interest only with principal payment due when D set becomes available, which would reduce D set capacity for future capital projects by this amount. It increases the annual amount from operations by approximately, if we use the full $6 million, um $300,000 per year. While preserving the $6 million of working cash fund balance, investment

204earnings could also offset that, right? Because we would be investing those funds. Uh but that was one of the direct um information provided by the PMTA about that piece. Um there could be a reimbursement resolution. There could be an operating rate referendum. There could be funding bonds. So, um again, I'm not bond counsel. I'm not your financial advisor. But again, that would came directly from them as a source to um apply that for this purpose. Okay. Um Come on. I I think some of my major concerns is in this process for quite some time, as we saw on the screen, there was about 16 and 1/2 million dollars of budget deficits over 2 years. Um and then when uh over the last 2 years, we've reduced those budget deficits quite significantly. And so, um sort

205of the imminent threat of state takeover of our district has been severely reduced. So, I think we are on uh much firmer financial footing than we were um 4 years ago. So, um >> [applause] >> It's in no no small part to Dr. Turner uh and then uh Dr. Grossi and Tamara as well. In this process though, there are some significant goals that I view that are missing. We have no smarty goals for evaluating these scenarios. We don't know what percentage of children that can walk to school is acceptable to us. We haven't identified that. We don't know what percentage of the children changing schools is acceptable to us. We don't know what the costs of transportation either increasing or decreasing are acceptable to us. We have no way to objectively evaluate the scenarios. We

206also don't have a vision for District 65. Part of the reason I think this is really important is because as we close schools and reduce reduce the footprint of our district, there is the danger that we are going to um create a race to the bottom and a spiraling of negative outcomes for our students. And I just want to point out that we we have done a survey for to find out why students have left our district, but we know that over the last 2 years approximately 190 students will matriculate into ETHS that did not graduate from District 65 and they are going somewhere in our in our in our community. And we should find out why. Where? I suspect many of them are in the sixth and seventh ward in the Haven Peter pattern,

207but I I don't know that. We haven't had any extensive conversations with the city. And we don't have a plan to increase revenue to address our long-term capital needs. And so what I urge us to do as a board is focus on addressing our financial goals without undermining other very important goals that are downstream from this decision. I also want to point out that there are several gaps in our analysis. So despite the time that was spent, which I think was very valuable and the data that came out of it, interesting, I think that we should be able to have an independent analysis that could replicate our findings or point out to us where some of the areas maybe from the black box data nerds um would be would be a good thing [applause] for

208us to do. Just to validate, right? It's it's important to do that. I think Pat pointed out the special education audit of which we spend over 12 million dollars a year on special education. um Which is is a lot. And then we haven't done the special education program analysis yet. I know that that's in progress to make sure that any buildings that we're closing are can adequately handle the the needs that the individuals described to us this evening during public comment. um And I think this the the scenarios as they were presented really lacked sort of the financial and program inputs that were part of the SDRP process that were supposed to be put all together. And that's not to mention sort of the lack of the long-term capital asset utilization plan, our plan for

209the building dispositions, and the analysis of programs within those those buildings, a transportation audit. You know, these are all gaps in the analysis. And I personally feel very uncomfortable making making decisions about the long-term footprint of our district without at least knowing what's going to happen to the buildings. >> [applause] >> Some of those other things. And I think as I see it, the major risk of of school closure right now is execution. We have tried to close Bessie Rhodes School. It was not a good situation. It was a very bad experience. And we don't actually have a plan for that yet. So from a human resources, building closure, communication, student assignment, the execution of closing we're going to close Bessie Rhodes for sure at the end of this school year. I feel very uncomfortable

210with our ability to execute that with more than one school in fiscal year 27. >> [applause] [cheering] >> My concern is that if we don't do this well, there'll be a further erosion of community trust. We could potentially see if we close more than one school some overcrowding in some of our schools. We're increasing transportation costs and then ultimately a failure of a potential capital referendum that would actually address our long-term capital asset plan. >> [applause] >> SO FROM MY PERSPECTIVE, I'M ALWAYS trying to sort of thread the needle between you know, the the harms and risks and benefits of different options. And so when I look at the different options that were you know, sort of coalescing around you know, two school closures all at once in fiscal year 27. You know, I I

211do want to recognize that you know, doing this and being definitive about it and sort of closing this chapter of our history at District 65 is easier for some families that feel anxiety and anxiousness and and around the uncertainties of the future and that that is um and also we can cut less money overall. So we can cut 12.1 or 10.9 or whatever it is in the top three scenarios rather than some larger amounts. You know, I would just caution us as the risks of closing more schools now, balancing capacity on the north side creates uncertainty around bussing. A large area of North Evanston wouldn't have a neighborhood school. Kingsley and Lincolnwood are the only two areas of Evanston that with predicted enrollment growth over the next 10 years and that the savings for school

212closures are estimated. And so that would be the reason why I would I would advocate for pacing it out so that we can test and learn in this process. >> [applause] >> The benefits of one school in FY27 and and I want to just be very clear that I am not advocating for only closing one school other than along with Bessie Rhodes forever. That I think that we need to I've heard some amazing ideas and thoughts about how to best use our capital assets in our district and I think that we should have an extended period of analyzing those proposals so that we can understand really what the cost is of doing some things like you know, co-locating offices with one of our underutilized buildings for example, just an idea. It gives us an opportunity

213to complete that capital asset asset analysis. It requires fiscal efficiencies to meet the SDRP three goals, which I actually think is a benefit because I do believe that we need to sharpen our pencil and look at some of the ratios of our expenditures in this district against other districts that are similar to ours. And I think if we're phasing in these closures, it gives us that necessity of discipline to look look deeply at how we operate. um And then I also think it reduces the administrative execution risk if we have a smaller change. Again, I want I want to acknowledge that that this extends the uncertainty for families. And then it also requires fiscal efficiencies to see if we can accomplish that which will be difficult. We do have a path to this. um I

214think while I while I recognize that it will not solve our utilization goals, it does allow allow us to move more closely to that and then hopefully reach our utilization goals in fiscal year 28. um And and I think I have a timeline in this in this deck just a proposed timeline for how we could accomplish this. And then you know, I think I would I am uh I don't believe that that we should we should name necessarily the second school as we go through this process now because it might change. And I think you know, I think some of us are have had conversations that if we could you know, move some of our buildings around in our community, they're very difficult locations some of them and very in the corners of our of

215the north side of Evanston. And so I just I don't feel comfortable you know, identifying that even with the uncertainty that that would that would present. >> [applause] >> I just before I speak, I just Dr. Turner or Dr. Beardsley or Dr. Harkin, is there any reactions? Yeah, I I have a reaction and I want to be clear. You know, I've I've heard you um use different choice of words that questions this process and I stand on the integrity of the process. So, your decision of what how you feel is your decision, but what I know is we ran a fair process. We solicited feedback from this community and that's the piece that I want you to publicly give us credit for cuz that's what we did. No, hang on. Whether whether people agree to

216that or they don't, that's what we did for this process and I stand on that. So, that's your opinion and I'm just speaking my truth today. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Can we have order in the room, please? The discussion is happening at this table and I would like for it to continue. You've So, let's let's give them an opportunity to speak. Thank you. I began by saying and you weren't in the room actually when I gave you >> But you said different pieces in between, so I don't know what you said in before, but I know what I heard during that time. All right. That's not cool. Please, that's unacceptable. No. Do you have security here? I should go say this. Is Byron in the Is Byron in the room? The process for SDRP3 was

217defined by the previous board. It was defined to have three subcommittees who were made up of community members that had particular charges and goals. I have said numerous times, I will say it again. That process has complete integrity. I believe that it was sound. I believe that it was honest. I believe that it was transparent. I do not believe it was complete. >> [applause] >> So, I'm going to just share what my where I'm at right now. I think we have several questions. We have questions about number. We have questions about financial model. Andrew, can you speak up to me? Yeah, I'm trying to read my paper here and talking to the mic. >> Cuz I want people to be able to hear. First, I want to say thank you to Dr. Harkin and Dr.

218Turner um for your leadership through this process. Um it's been um challenging. I can only imagine. Um I'm just going to go with my reactions here. There was a lot going on there, Maria. I wasn't able to track it all, so I'll look back at your slideshow. Um I'm going to support a D1 probably or B1 model. Um I I'm uncomfortable with lease certificates um and putting off some of these expenses. Um I think there's importance. We heard feedback about 2.7 million. It's not a lot of money difference between 1 and 2.7 million. But there's uh the modeling of discipline. Um There's a number of folk who will vote on a referendum who don't have children in our district for whom seeing that financial discipline will be a very important um sign that we've changed

219the board culture here at the district. Um we're going to have to keep pulling financial levers. Um this is rising costs. Um fairly stagnant income. Um we're going to be facing challenges um for years and years and years and have to be very careful and disciplined. Um I would like to say that I've appreciated the new financial models that have been given to us. It gives us a little more room to pace this out. Um And gives us time to build in this visioning process um even as we're right-sizing the district. I think 70% facility um occupancy it I mean, for me it's a compromise. Um I I would like to see us closer to 80. Um but it allows us to keep two schools. We keep some flexibility so we can work with the

220city of Evanston. Um and I'm curious as we identify the number of schools um as a board just the will of the board um and um I think there can be a dynamic process where we could talk about delaying a school. I am going to support in this time that we identify the two schools. I think that's very important right now even if we just decide to use a delayed um approach to this. Um Those are my thoughts just right now. I need a little more time to process, so I might add in more. Anybody want to go next? Okay, um can you bring back up slide nine, please? And I'm going to also ask just just to let you know after this slide slide 16. So, I want to start with slide nine and

221please um let me try to get through this. Um This is reality. Right, I think it was impossible it's important to show the utilization by feeder zones. Um I think um showing this allows us allows me at least to say um I feel comfortable right now focusing a conversation on the Haven feeder pattern because I believe the Chute feeder pattern is at 73% and Nichols is close to there. Uh can go to slide 16. But also, when I look at this the distinction right now between one school versus two schools 2F or 1B is 3%. And I just believe that the focusing on the whole story of the Haven feeder pattern, which is the opening of Foster in a way that respects the history of the community that's been there, the community that's there that

222allows it not to get lost in the way that it got lost in conversation today. I heard one conversation about Foster. One thought. But so much of the challenges that we look at in this feeder pattern are because of the history of what has happened. And we have to own the sending 500 creating the possibility of 502 young people to go to school in their community. Doesn't mean they will, but it creates that possibility. But at the same time, that does create loss and um change for families who live on the other side of McCormick or in those other schools. And so, we could do that probably was done to um Foster years ago and just say let's cut and let's move. But I believe that there's a possibility to say let's have a target

223of a of a of a of a capacity. But I just don't believe we've done the full work to get there tonight. Um let me please please please don't cuz and I and it just and I just refuse to let critique of the pro So, process of processes and what this team was asked to do um was to give us solution that based on closing everything at once and braiding things together, but the reality of the world and the time made that difficult. So, I believe that there's a strong foundation that comes out of SDRP and you have to have strong foundations to keep building. Because we say we want to slow down or do something doesn't mean that we don't respect, trust, and build on top of what's there. And I've said that and

224I will stand behind the work of Stacy Beardsley and what she was asked to do and what and Chris and what she's done. I can say that and also say I think we as Evanston can do more. We can own that we have to address this youth capacity and that might mean, hey, we're going to close the second school up north. But I also believe the same way we're asking for the Foster community to be part of deciding what happens in that school because it's a school for them, we need to create um opportunity as we say two schools in one community. I don't know if everyone who was on those in the facilities committee knew they were going in to say one community was going to lose two schools. And so, I believe we

225can say how might we and we can do two things. And so, what I'm asking for is to say yes, we are going to close a school next year, but we're then going to take a a period one school and um and course Betsy Ross. I believe Betsy Ross is the school that's closing, so that is Betsy Ross plus a school on the north side. And then I believe we need to have a holistic conversation around how might we how might we work with the city, the parks, the libraries, the number of conversations that are happening now that like, oh wow, this is a collective plan. Um how do we do that? How do we um talk about what families returning their kids? Because Pat, I do believe in you and I believe you're going

226to be a phenomenal president and I believe people are going to want to come back here. >> [applause] >> And so, we could we could so closings going with 67, 68% now and giving us a moment to say how might we what is the vision of schools what is the vision of learning that we have to agree upon or else we are going to have to get to a 70 or a 72% but giving the choice for that to happen. I feel like that's part of what this board ran for the four new people in this board and I didn't run to just say that and and I'm not disrespecting anyone on any of the facilities the finance or the program committee to say that my choice has to just be exactly what was presented

227in front of me. So let's be bigger than this Evanston. Let's let's work together. Let's address what we have to address but let's come up with a plan that might include doesn't include and I'll be finished with this and let others speak. You can address utilization and I've seen it done in many other places across in Chicago and in other countries and other cities. It doesn't have to just be school closing. You can make use of your buildings in collaborative ways that can raise the capacity reduce the financial responsibility and keep us in a in a collaborative approach that can allow us to think about a referendum or think about other other ways of addressing that just that we have schools that the that the the roof is fixed but we have buildings that can

228educate our kids in the way that we want them to be educated. I moved here for that. I'm bringing my nephews here to to do that and I know that we can do that together. >> [applause] [applause] >> So to try not to repeat anything that's been said. So I'm not going to speak to the process. I respect the process. I think um I mean as you've heard from folks who really believe in it some who don't. Either way it sounds like we as a board need to make a decision. Um are we going to accept the recommendation? And the way I see it is it kind of sounds like all of us are generally agreeing that we should accept the recommendation but then it's how do we roll it out? I personally can get

229behind a phased-in rollout. So one school in one additional school in the in fiscal year 27 and then a school after that. I'm curious on if from my board colleagues does anyone strongly disagree with that? Does that like I'm just trying to gauge where we are so we don't so we're not talking in circles all night. So my concern about I mean that that is an option but I would say we we need to identify the schools because parents children the community need to plan their lives and I think by phasing it out teachers will be more insecure about what their employment outlook is and I don't want to lose the fabulous teachers we have here and you know there's been a lot of talk about how they haven't been involved but this would directly

230I mean this it's all going to affect them. But this would prolong the negative effect. >> Sure. I also don't want to have to move kids twice because that would you know I know just from the closure of Bessie Rhodes just to move once is just not a a positive experience. So I don't want to move kids twice. Um I have confidence in the process as it's as the foundation for for moving forward. There we have many other options and if we phase in it will give us time to investigate some other things and to get information that we need to move forward especially in those those three areas the master facilities audit special ed and life safety plan. So that's the the positives of phasing but I don't know if that outweighs the negative.

231So I can refine my question. Do we have to decide that tonight? Like like what are we leaving here with tonight? Like we have a recommendation. I I mean I'm I'm not I'm not trying to cut off our conversation. I want to continue but I think we need to know where we're going. Are we leaving tonight? Like we have another meeting in a week. What's our what are we leaving here with? What are we coming back with next week? Are we asking the community for more? That's what I'm trying to decipher here. I think I think also from like administration side if there's particular information or modeling or other things that you know you haven't looked at you know we didn't spend a lot of time on the two school scenario. So we would want

232to know concretely what would be helpful to the board to move the conversation forward next week before we leave here today because it is already a very tight timeline. Thank you Stacy. So thank you. So so like what I would propose is do we want to see 1A 1B 2F and 2D model the you know you only have a week so not a ton or >> Those are we it's about you know we can bring those back for you guys to share those and if there are other particular more details or anything like that you know so that that we can certainly So so that's my question. I want to hear what you all think about it. >> Well I think for me it's not necessarily additional modeling. I think that we need to have

233more of conversation about like what phasing in means. And so like I definitely think that you know I don't want to put everyone through more uncertainty and keep people in limbo. So I think we need to name the two schools no matter what. But I do think like a lot of the decision about phasing in is about implementation and and I think for me understanding from a district perspective what that change management how do they feel the best change management process would work? How do they feel the implementation would go with two schools at once versus one and what would have you know how we be able to support students best. I think there are pros and cons. So for me it's not like about more modeling of this. It's about more of understanding for

234how that implementation would work and and how the district feels about being able to pull that off successfully. Right. This it moves us beyond the capacity piece if we name two schools today right? Because this is this is what folks are concerned about that we're just talking about capacity and the financial piece. But again I think we we have to have a foundation regards to what is it that we want as a board in regards to closures. And then that will allow the team to then accurately as as best as possible model the implementation. And really again if if we prolong the process it it it just it's just going to hurt people more and more. And then one of my big concerns that I think about is it's just the larger geopolitical issues that

235are going on in regards to you know you know we we have you know for Cook County we have to put out tax tax anticipation warrants right? Because they're late with their with their payment. And then we're looking at at a federal government that might give us you know blow blow up millions of dollars in our title funding. So these are these bigger things that again are leading me to make sure at least put try to push our board to be as decisive as possible as soon as possible because again those are just some pressures which again are sensitivities that we really need to be aware of as we move towards deciding whatever financial model as well as what schools we close because again those pieces are again that that that that there's so much

236predictability that we need to be decisive in order to be able to anticipate and try to deal and have our team deal with with with with those external pressures that are just going to impact us ultimately and particularly our most vulnerable students. Another piece of that is we are here because we historically have pushed this these decisions down the down the road. I mean that's why we're here. Um and I don't want to I don't I want to start to address the foundation we need to build so that we can start talking about the vision we have for that foundation. Um because that's that's part of the whole picture. So I am concerned about the financial implications of phasing in because it will mean two periods of closure and there's going to be costs that

237are related to that. Um I am very worried about losing our staff and that's where I'm at. I am really looking at this in terms of trying to close the phase three process so we can talk about something besides numbers and capacity. We you know that's to me that's that's where I want to go. I want to go there. And this uh capacity is with the two school closures is I mean there's not much difference, but it's very attractive to me because I I can't We need room for We need wiggle room. We need wiggle room for placing programs and students. Um So, that That's where I am. Can I ask So, in this That's the um the If we're closing two schools on the north side, the the What is the wiggle room? I

238mean, those schools become What is our We're We're 72% We'll be at 70 I can pull up the revised Give me a quick second. >> Okay. So, I So, I just So, I just want to be clear for me. I don't necessarily assume that a second school has to close. I assume that you can be creative. Uh let me I think you could [applause] be creative and make use space and or we can close the second school would be able to say, "We know what that place is going to be." Um I just um I just then to the I just don't think the process has fully gotten to that what the next and I think what we're saying is if we move down to say, "Let's close. Let's pick the two schools." We're saying,

239"We're closing and then we're going to I we're in the middle of trying to figure that out the what closing means. We're going to now be visioning what's next." And that's really hard to say we're going to do that. And so, we I Like, how how do we do that? >> I think the other thing that sort of causes a little bit of concern for me is that if we name two schools now, then there isn't an opportunity to envision a different way. So, if we're looking for a capital asset strategy that really optimizes our building use and programs, but we've already named that a school will close, that doesn't give us any flexibility in better understanding the optimal use for our space. And so, I'm trying to weigh that with the extended uncertainty. And

240I think that you know, and I'm also weighing that against the harm of naming that school for the children having to go there thinking about how Bessie Rhodes did uh this year knowing that they were going to close, you know, after 2 years. And so, I I short-circuiting our visioning process by just naming the two schools here, I'm afraid cuts us off from some of the creative solutions that we've we've that have come to us. >> [applause] >> Making a motion does not cut off conversation, but I I want to offer up a motion uh for our consideration. Is that okay? Yes. To the president. Um I want to move that all future SDRP3 activities be restricted to two school scenarios with a final two schools and scenario to be determined no later than November

24117th, 2025. Say that again. I'm sorry. What you say Speak. I couldn't really hear you. I move that all future SDRP3 activities be restricted to two school scenarios with a final two schools and scenario to be determined no later than November 17th, 2025. I second. I also have a question. Second. We have to call for the vote. Somebody Who seconds the question? Question. Yeah. I second it. So, so are you saying two no more than two or two Like, if we can amend it, friendly amendment, make it no more than two, then sure. No more than two. And then we name the schools and we name the schools on November 17th. And we name the school on I'm sorry. Can we explain The motion has been made. Just to be clear, I will repeat it.

242I move that all future SDRP3 activities be restricted to two school scenarios with a final two schools and scenario to be determined no later than November 17th, 2025. Does Dick call the vote? No, no. It's a discussion. Discussion. Call the question. So, It was already seconded. It was already seconded. It was seconded. Just want to make sure I understand it. So, no more than two, but we have to name them We have to name them both by November 17th. >> So, the motion was made as two schools. So, if I know more than two, are you saying one to two? Is that what you're wanting to say? Correct. Yeah, I've already made the motion with two. Okay. And it was seconded, so. It was seconded by my Yeah. I think like for me, you know,

243we considered zero to four school closures. I think that if we were looking at it just from a pure utilization perspective, we would be at four. But I think like that doesn't make sense given all of the other factors that are a part of this. But then if you pull up page eight, on the other hand, when we look at where we really are from a budget perspective, yes, we've made progress, but the danger isn't over. And I know you touched on this um Dr. Harkin as you went through, um but I think like just really if you could just There are two things that I think like we really need to understand when we're thinking about these tradeoffs because it is a tradeoff, right? It's closing schools, a number of schools, and then it's

244making additional cuts too. And how much in additional cuts we have to make will be determined by the number of schools we close. And so, you know, question number one, if you could just elaborate a little bit on where 90 days cash on hand comes from. Sure. So, it's a basis of taking whatever your expenditures are for your operating funds, divide it by 360 days, and then multiplying it times 90. And that you compare that number to what your ending operating fund balance is. And I mean more like where that recommendation of that's a good goal to try to reach from. Sure. So, um couple things. Um again, pulled up your last rating agency um downgrade. And it comes from um Moody's, who I believe is your rating agency. And again, grounded in what their

245recommended practices are for cash on hand. They recommend 90 as kind of the minimal and 120 probably more appropriate. And I And I think what I would caution all of us is I As we estimated, again, they're all interpreted differently, but with 170 days 107 days cash on hand, because of the delay in taxes, you're having to issue tax anticipation warrants, which will be a ding on the district because Cook County's late with issuing your taxes. So, basically like So, number one, if we get below that, it's more expensive to borrow. Right. But then, you know, on top of that, we're in a situation right now where we see why having cash on hand is important because we're basically not giving revenue in yet because, you know, the the money hasn't come to us that's

246even promised us, but we still have to pay things, right? >> Right. And so, it's like basically operating, you know, on the personal finance side with no savings in your savings account. And so, when emergencies come up or things that you have to cover, you have to borrow. And if you're below 90 days cash on hand, it becomes more expensive to borrow. So, I think about it like having a you know, a high interest credit card. And so, I think like that is not like a fiscally responsible place for us to be. And then the other thing I love for you to talk about a little bit is and and I don't um remember the slide, but where, you know, under all of these scenarios, we still have to make cuts. And some of those

247come from programs. And I know right now it's just numbers on a page and we haven't had a lot of conversation about programs. But you know, I think I asked this in a previous meeting a couple of meetings ago. Can Can either you, Dr. Turner, or you know, Dr. Harkin, or someone speak a little bit about What do you mean by programs? And what are some of the other things we'll have to consider um you know, making cuts to in addition to closing schools? So, certainly when we flagged what might be some opportunities, we're very cautious because at this point, based upon the cuts that have been made to date, it will be inclusive of staff, right? When we talk about special education reductions as an opportunity be to be be more efficient, it's staff,

248right? So, it would be how we deliver those services. So, and so, really at the end of the day, we're we're cautious about how we discuss this because we're really trying to be thoughtful of what we when we went through this. And I know from the point that we talked about reductions and getting to those people and letting them know that when you're 76% of your budget is staff, Yeah. there's going to be cuts there. So, then it potentially could be um let's bring early childhood back on the table. Is that something we need to reconsider because you offer more? In the finance committee, there were conversations about our staffing levels at as it relates to our related services, social workers. I hate to announce who they are, but how does our staffing levels compared

249to other districts that and I know when we went through the process for SDRP phase two, there were certain things that were not able to be brought on the table because they had a direct interaction with kids and how we're supporting kids so that they are receiving services in the way that we believe are important. So, it really will go down to programs will be things that we offer to our kids and it could be a myriad things, but really behind it is going to be mostly staff that are associated with those reductions. And that would be reductions in force that you'll have to come back through and you will be doing that in February, March, or April if we don't figure out a pathway forward. I'm confident we're going to find a pathway forward,

250but if you don't, right? And the this it's up there, right? Um if we do nothing and again, this is again not the phased in model because at this point we needed that conversation, but there if we it use all the revenue levers, use all the expenditure levers, and we decided to go with we're going to fix it all next year, you have $8.2 million of programmatic cuts that you're going to have to make. Right. But again, there's going to be options within that. This is the extreme version of that. Yeah, that's a lot. So, you know, I think there are you know, like we've already cut what 100 people, mostly central office staff. And so, like this next round of cuts to staff and cuts to programs, it's affecting our schools. So, I just

251want to be clear that this isn't a conversation about like closing schools, you know, versus nothing. This is how many schools do we close versus other things that are going to be very painful as well. So, I just want to make sure we have that context. And I want to um one of my major concerns about phasing in is how that will raise the amount of cuts we have to make once with that model. That's a big That's a big concern with me. Um because that that's going to affect what happens in the classroom. And that will So, that's my main concern about the phased in program is is raising the level of cuts that the or the debt that we will have to um satisfy in order to do that. Wayne. I I want

252to ground us on some just like budget facts. Um so, we currently and Nicole, check me because I know you you did this before, but I think we have 23 bus routes right now. There's someone up here that knows that. Right? I think so. I think we have 20 Yeah, there was 17 17 double six single, something like that. >> Right. I think one of the things like for example, we talked about that would save just in our current transportation model that would save $750,000 would be to swap the time that school starts. Mhm. Um so, that would be just an example of a program that we could change to save $750,000 in transportation costs. Um and I think as we kind of look across our budget, uh you know, we spend per student uh

253much higher amount than comparable districts. Um part of that is a result of the number of buildings that we have. Part of it is a result of the number of administrators we have, which is also related to our buildings. Um but I think that as we look to change the the footprint of our district, at least in fiscal year '27, um you know, there is an opportunity for us to be prudent. So, acknowledging that we have a $6 million payment to finish Foster, um I personally am not supportive of leasehold payments or leasehold certificates um to to cover that. Um but I also believe that if we spent $1 million in fiscal year '27 in capital improvements, um that still is, you know, along with a strategic asset plan allows us to demonstrate uh a

254long-term vision for our capital assets and then indicating that we were going to increase that level to 2.7 in subsequent years, um it allows us to cut 7 and 1/2 million um in total in um fiscal year '27. I think that was scenario B2. The one thing I want to just caution you on in the expenditure levers, there's a half million dollar reduction already anticipated in transportation savings that are accounted for in the 2.5 million. Oh, okay. >> Okay, because that's my expectation. I did start to where with with again conversations with the finance committee, where would there be? So, that's already factored into a portion of it. So, there potentially could be three quarters, you know, the only thing or another quarter of a million. And the only thing I would say is I

255think I've had heard conversations about we want to be more generous with our transportation and I think there's been conversations at the table around that piece. And and again, all of these are going to be trade-offs, right? So, so if we decide to shrink where kids qualify for transportation services, understand that there's those pieces and these this is the same conversation when I was in front of you in October. These are going to be tough choices for you that you're going to have to come back and and and come up with and they aren't easy and I don't, you know, I know [clears throat] this is going to be challenging, but again, all of the devil's in the details here as it relates to where we end up with the final number and the model

256that will get us to that final number. >> Can you just flip then to the screen uh 17? Oh, sorry. So, if we're looking at B .2, Mhm. Yeah. Uh that number 7 and 1/2 million in FY27 and that is a total number. So, if we were to close one school in fiscal year '27, that would give us let's just say 2 million for rounding. So, we would have to find 5 and 1/2 million in reductions in fiscal year '27. If we um you know, we would have that $4.1 million nut for FY28, which could include another school um based on our plan. So, that would leave us with 2.1 and then we would have 1.5 and 1.3 after that for a total amount of 4.4. And so, while we are ultimately cutting a larger

257number, I think allowing us to be thoughtful with it, um you know, the the 5 million, 2 million, 1 and 1/2, 1.3 feels manageable um given what I've seen in the budget today. Yeah, I just want to make sure we're being realistic. Like I think it's it's sort of you know, like I I want to make sure we're being realistic and honest with people no matter what we decide that this is going to be hard. Like the trade-off is going to be hard. So, you know, we're going to feel it in schools, we're going to feel it in the community, we're going to have changes no matter what. And so, you know, like I think there are pros and cons and we can discuss that, but you know, I hope that at least we can

258be up front and realistic with people and tell them that, you know, the 20 million we did so far, we were able to do that thanks to this team with minimal impact to schools, but the next amounts are not going to be minimal. And so, you know, it might be coming from the school closing side, it might be coming from staffing and programs, you know, and other things, but it it it's going to be something that you see and something that you feel and I think we need to be honest about that. So, to that piece, um did the So, I believe that the at least my understanding, the facilities team definitely did their work with their um with the scorecard. I'm curious, do we believe that the finance team, which I thought completed their

259work um the finance finance committee completed their work with suggesting programs and that the program Do we believe that all everything was braided together? So, that's just my question like what as when I when we joined the board and understanding what the SDRP free process was and that these three committees were going to do their work and then holistically come together and say this is how we see this. I'm just asking, do we believe that what we have in front of us is that braiding together of all of that? So, the challenge is and we had to bring legal counsel out when when we want to start talking about positions, due to collective bargaining, we need to sit down with the union before we have conversations with people in the community about programs and such

260that we're going to cut. So, there was some frustration when when we had those conversations, but there will be a lot more frustrations and certainly legal action if we entertain those conversations. >> Right. So, that's work we need to do. So, in essence, the committee, that's work that the committee couldn't do, but that is work that still needs to be done to figure out how to bring that together. Okay. >> broadly, we we spoke about it. And again, I provided for you what I at this point, what are your programming costs? Um and again, you know, what comes with that as well, too, is legally, what do we have to do for the state Board of Education to comply with all of that? You know, what do we have to comply with with your collective

261bargaining agreement? So, yes, the next level will require And and again, as I see that part, that then will replicate what we did last winter with SDRP phase two, cuz once you tell me we're not closing any schools, if that's what we decide we're doing, then we've got to jump into and understand it's going to have to hit the classrooms because we or we're going to bring back the things that were left on the the table the last time, which is transportation for preschool. We're going to talk about preschool in general. Um and we're going to talk about a lot of other things that you're going to have to wrestle with. And again, I'm not saying there's right or wrong, cuz my job as your consultant is to let you vet and give us direction

262on And I think we did a really good job of getting you to 13.2 million. So, now we're going to have to go to the next level, but those conversations have to take place in private because these are people's lives and there's lots of rules and regulations around it. So, so let me see if I can sum up this conversation up to this point is that um it's evident that we are coming to some consensus about the two school closures in addition to Bessie Road, but that the timing of that process is where we're disagreeing. And my my thoughts about that individually as board members is we have to decide if the phasing in is going to be worth the cost that it will be to the district for that process and to the community.

263I don't want to leave the community out cuz you are the district. So, um so we have to weigh that cost in order to come to that decision. >> I agree. I think you stated that really well, Pat. And but to me, the only way we can do that is if we see the models. And so, that's why I will be voting against this motion cuz that doesn't give us the chance to look at 1A and 1B to know if we shouldn't even be doing that. That's why I'm saying I'm open to phasing. >> [applause] >> Like the data might be crystal clear, so hold your applause. The data might be crystal clear that we need to do two. And that's fine, and I'm open to that. But to make a motion to say we

264can't even discuss it when all we've been talking about at this point >> Sorry? Point of just information, a motion doesn't say you can't discuss it. No, but if the motion passes, it does. I'm saying so so to make a motion so that we can't even discuss one if there's enough votes just feels like it's I'm sorry, can can you just show >> to Yeah, what's the or or have Have Andrew explain. >> to say it. At this point, you guys can probably take a straw poll in relationship to this, but because this wasn't a voting item on the agenda, you can't vote on it. Yeah. All right. So, we have it listed as a discussion. You're discussing the options, so you can gauge the consensus or the will of the board, but you cannot

265take formal action. >> Even though he made an official motion. Evidently, it's not official. Yeah, it's not Okay. You can make as we Yeah. Okay. But it is a question now that's been asked to test the will of the board for that same language of the motion. Okay. And and I think you can always take kind of like a straw poll with that because I think to the point is Stacy and I both need feedback on where you're landing so that we can create really good financial models and really good information about because the other part that we need to make sure is in the room. And again, I heard multiple times now what happened at Bessie Rhodes. There are pieces that if we move forward with any of this, that still will be decisions

266this board needs to make about grandfathering because savings will not materialize if we grandfather. Savings will not materialize if we decide to allow all sorts of different transportation iterations on this as well, too. So, part of why we don't have specific data is because the the net is really wide right now. I feel very confident in modeling estimates, but again, if you change drastically what the parameters around that, I can't do that for you. And I feel like I'm one of the best financial people that do district finances, and and we still need very clear direction from you on multiple pieces, and I would suggest that maybe at the November 3rd meeting, if we can't get clarity on some of this today and narrow, then we really need to come back and have very specific

267direction. But I think it would be our preference to get direction today so Stacy and I can do some work between now and the next meeting. I would also echo, just building off of Susan's comments, um as we continue to refine any kind of enrollment numbers for scenarios, and you know, if we return to ones or twos, we would want to revise and balance in the same way we did with three. These are all based on a certain set of assumptions about where students and families go. There are agreements out there that the board is going to have to decide, are we keeping these agreements around foster families, around roads, those kind of things? Are we creating any new agreements because for each of those agreements, the range of our enrollments become less precise. And

268so, and it's also our intention if we can get close closer and tighter that we, you know, essentially substitute in our current enrollment data and go down to grade levels and program specifics. And so, that will allow an increased level of um accuracy. So, it's both the parameters that are going to be applied and then the specificity of where we want to go so that we can give you better data. So, in that sense, we're saying um by saying two schools, are we would we be limiting the schools we wanted to consider so you can go back and do the analysis around transportation and all that because right now, the understanding the at least from my as I'm hearing you, um if we were to go with the recommendation that has been Kingsley and Lincolnwood

269and we moved in order to address the overcrowding at Willard and we moved the boundary here, understanding the transportation cost of that number of kids. So, it's hard to say, oh, I can tell you because have we just made the walkability um they're problematic. optimizes the walkability, we would want to go back in the same way we did with 3B and 3D, balance some of the utilizations, give you the accurate numbers around folks beyond 1.5, folks within 0.75, you know, and then feeding into any kind of And and there's the section closures as well, too, right? Where we're doing the estimates, so it's all of those estimates that are within there, right? Because ultimately then once we get there, depending upon what that number is, it's going to then still, hey, but by the way,

270you still got to cut this because are we leasing the schools? I would say you're probably going to pull that off, right? Let's not count that as a potential reduction for us. Are we going to remove CapEx and take the 2.7 and remove it for that school or do we still want to keep it 2.7 until we make understand the disposition? So, each one of the line items that we have for right-sizing will need to be clarified so that we can come back and again, we can probably run a few models on how it that would that decision impacts that bottom number, but all of that needs to be clarified. >> mean Naming this Naming a second school is probably also limiting, at least from my perspective, limiting collaboration with other other partners to figure

271out something create the creative. I mean, it's like we're saying we're doing this um we're right-sizing our our everything through closing. We're owning that, not necessarily seeking collaboration and and partnership. Plausible, but it's going to be much more difficult to do that. So, I've heard that raised a couple of different times tonight. And so, I'm you know, for us again, as we would need to model, is that the expectation that maybe, you know, because we've got some schools as low as 36% capacity, we let somebody else have that, but we leave that school as is because part of your challenge is your class sizes. All right? When we have two section buildings, right? And low enrollment, we end up having lower class sizes that ultimately if we have three or four section buildings that we

272can then maximize. So, again, if the thought is, okay, we're going to keep one of the schools that that that we have, but we're going to share that space and they're going to help us, you know, how are we going to, you know, there's lots of things that are behind it. So, I guess I'm sorry this is not I'm saying some I'm saying there's there's Hey, we might consolidate and build a new school. That take two That's a possibility. You could say is I don't I don't want to ideate in the way I'm saying these things are possible, but what I have seen done in other places with the park district. And they There's some facilities that make more sense to do some things than others. If we're saying these two schools are closing or

273these two schools are staying open, you're sort of constraining the conversations you're going to have about particular buildings. Part of the for me is to keep the other open. I mean, to keep it without saying it is like, hey, what is plausible talking to partners? What's when we get back our our document around buildings, you know, there's putting 10 million into two buildings or putting 20 million into one. So, just trying to understand what are the constraints. The constraints of selecting two does actually constrain you know, what your ways are for. I just want to be clear about that. >> what I'll do is just reiterate what I think has come up as well. The unknown of a second school in a two-school closure um makes our task of minimizing student reassignments im- impossible. Impossible.

274I think the other thing just, you know, like the kind of questions that once we do get to schools that will, you know, really need to be attached to any thinking on the schools is one, when will any new boundaries go into effect, will there any be any specific expectations carved out, and will any previous exceptions be honored or revised. Those are all things that we will need as part of this process to be able to ensure that this any change can go as smoothly as possible for students and families because to move this we those are that's the information we need to do it right. So, I had made a motion that is no longer a motion. Can we test the will of the board on that language? Is that I think Yeah, I

275think we have to at least figure out where everyone stands. So, language was to identify I don't remember what the language was. No, I think >> two schools and name them by the 17th I think is what you said. >> November 17th, yeah. Who calls it? So, Adina, what? It's unofficial so you can just say what you say what you think. Yeah, but who >> responds? Calls it? I will support the motion I just made. I'm in Yeah. I'm in favor of the two-school closure. Um no. No? I mean no No, it's two things. It's two-school closures and naming the schools on the 17th. That was That was the >> Which is two-school closure two school closure to be determined the names of the schools to be determined by November 17th. Can I can I

276ask one question really quick though? I mean, I know we haven't engaged specifically in the scenario building process um teacher feedback, but have there been any teacher um surveys or or discussions around, I mean, I would say no, probably. Sorry, but I'm going to say this is like about how teachers feel about delaying the naming of a second school because we're sort of saying that we want to name it because it's better for teachers, but do we know that? So, we did staff engagement sessions, but we did not But I want to be clear, we didn't do it because that was Yeah, yeah. Right. Correct. Yeah. And I think essentially and I can't speak for Pat, but you referenced in my when I heard you say that you referenced that as a potential consideration that

277was out there. You didn't It wasn't like you were saying you had some factual something to to justify that. That was just a consideration like I think all of the other considerations we've kind of been discussing. So, the exact language is test the will of the board to restrict future SDRP 3 activities to two-school scenarios with a final two-school scenario to be determined no later than November 17th, 2025. Yeah, I support that. I don't. I support that. I support. I do not. I do not. But doesn't matter. So, that is the will of the board. Okay, so but even with that, can we still see one-school model? Like Again, I don't think it changes what you're saying. I would like to see >> literally change cuz we'd said restrict. If we want to run another

278test of the will of the board, then provide some different language. >> Well, one of the things that I I I want to better understand is one of the one of the comments that community members and and the data black box people have talked about are the um sequencing of the school closures and how it affects the the models on the proximity of the other schools. And so, if we're doing a two closure scenario, then we can't look at that. You mean if we're naming the two schools >> Right. If if it's a two-school closure, then we're not looking at what happens if one school closes and then another school. So, we're not actually looking at the the combined impact of that. Are we? So, So, I think what um So, concern has been raised

279around particularly around the Lincolnwood and Kingsley closure of whether the Is that what you're talking about? Of whether the um the the closeness of those schools was taken into consideration in the model. We asked this board um gave direction to the team to close at the same time, not to do sequential. That's what we said. I think we came back with looking at it um is now I think the community has asked about the data, but we've also said, "Oh, wow. Um is there um is there something if you close if you look at closing one, then rerun the data and see what would happen?" I think that's um that hasn't been that hasn't been asked um and it's not necessarily clear that it would change, but if we're getting to the I don't Stacy

280would have to answer if that's possible to do before the uh 17th, but it is clear This is important for people to understand. They were not asked to do that. They were explicitly asked not to do that. They were asked to close schools to make all closing at the same time. So, there always different ways to do things and, you know, in hindsight we could have said that, but that wasn't what the request was of the team. Yes, so just to provide some additional information on the modeling. It is an iterative approach iterative approach. So, the ability to take all combinations and all possible scenarios from the original direction that we got from presenting coming forward with a zero school closure all the way to a four-school closure, if you're just looking at school combinations,

281it would be over 500 iterations that we would have to run outside of program placement. So, we took the iterative approach based on the direction that we received to look at scenarios based on the baseline scorecard and iterate that way in different combinations. In order to do like a sequencing, which is kind of what I'm hearing, would be that we would have had to make certain assumptions with the one-school closure and then move that forward into a two-school closure and then essentially perform all those combinations into a three and then the the tree essentially just continues to branch off. Um so, for the for the modeling, there we could take if there's consensus around what a one-school what that one of the two schools would be, we could potentially run different combinations for the second

282school. I can't promise it depending on the timeline. We would have to work with our university partner to see if that's feasible, but that's just kind of some additional information. >> So, it's from one school or two, then it's it's it's the com- the it's plausible. It's not plausible for 50, but it is potentially plausible to say if we pick a the first school that we are saying we can we would close that school at the beginning of SY26, you could then um tell us what it what would would the other school be the same school we think it is now or would there would the models look different? We could potentially do that. Um there there are some assumptions that we would have to make around students changing schools, for example. So, in a

283one-school closure, the boundary would look a certain way. Would we promise that a student only moves once because then you're limiting the the the model from performing boundary changes in certain areas. Um so, in the that two-school closure example with Kingsley and Lincolnwood, if Kingsley happens in year one, for example, um and then Lincolnwood and a boundary looks a certain way, I think one of the divider was on Central. Um so, north of Central would go to Willard, south of Central would go to Lincolnwood. And then if we run that iterative process again with the second school closure, we could model it potentially as Lincolnwood, the boundaries are going to look completely different. So, a a group of students a group of students would potentially move more than once. So, I have a point of

284order. Uh we just measured the will of the board. Are we not accepting that will of the board? Are we replacing that will of the board with something else? That was a clarifying question just to make sure everyone understood. I think it's important for transparency to just talk through some things. That was a question raised. Many people in the community have asked this about that particular sequencing and I think we owe that explanation. It doesn't change what the will of the board is. It's just creating clarity. Yeah, it clarifies. I mean, that's a significant difference between the two options. Is he talking about moving kids twice? That could have That's a significant impact. We we could potentially, and we would have to confirm with our university partner, potentially add constraints to only have students move

285once, but you would strictly limit what the model can do and optimize for. Yeah, there'd be a question about how feasible Yeah. that the models would be. And we have run previous scenarios of points around when we're modeling different things earlier in the process like staged moves, but that really limits what you can do ultimately. And right now, I think you framed Nicole that, you know, one of the concerns is solving for that utilization up in Haven, and so not moving twice would seriously, I think, limit the possibilities there. And that could be I mean, I'm curious I mean, we don't know cuz we can't ask parents this, but, you know, that's um moving twice to what? Moving twice to a brand new school? Moving twice to I mean, there's ways in which sometimes moving

286twice might be something that people would choose to want to do given the given the options. What's that like it maybe not I'm just saying it's plausible in places many times you close a school to build a school. People have to move. So So, another consideration for the phased-in approach is what can we reasonably accomplish in within the year between one school closure and another? So, that's another concern I have. I mean, I would love to bring in partners and collaborate and fill spaces and but what can we realistically do between the year one school closes and then the second school closes to I mean, we can start exploring, but what can we actually realistically do? So, that's that's that's what worries me. What can we really Yeah, that's that's what's on my mind. >>

287I think one of the things that I would hope to accomplish in that process is to understand some of the potential costs and savings from reimagining how our schools on the north side work. So, um you know, there's been talk about you know, pre-K, there's been talk about grade clustering, there's been talk about partnering with the city to try and optimize the location of some of our schools and come up with the, you know, the feasibility and sort of the quadrant of cost and complication and determine which ones you know, fall in the, you know, least expensive and least complicated and then pursue those for, you know, a plan. And so, there's been there's been ideas on the table of how to um make our transportation more efficient. So, how do we do that on

288the north side and be able to, you know, um capture those savings. How do we think about our different buildings? I don't I'm not necessarily uh as concerned about coming up with those scenarios only because we you know, we sort of have a a running short list of them. For me, it's a refer I think you we we have to decide how we're fixing our buildings. If it's going to be life safety and that and if um what the 6 months or a year gives you is one is to be able to say, "Here is the closure envision plan of what learning looks like in this district and what we expect to do and what we're going to do with our referendum." I, you know, I have concern of the ability to pass a referendum.

289Um if we just close two schools on the north side, and we just have to own that and say that we're going to get to the 50 million or whatever else we need to do to fix our schools, probably with more cuts. Maybe not, maybe folks will still vote for it, but that's the reality. Referendums are hard to pass anyway, particularly if you don't have full full community support. So, I think we have to be sober about that as well and understand any of these choices, everything has plusses and minuses and have implications, and we have to design for whichever route which way we go. But I will say that the referendum, which as we Susan has said, we this does not address our building issues. Our schools are in poor condition, and that's not

290of this administration, that of this board, that's multiple multiple multiple boards and administrations that have led this. And so, I hope we're not closing and keep staying the same. We should we should be like you said, the light bringing the light back to the lighthouse. What is the full plan to do that? And that's closures and rebuilding. And to me, the whole braided model was all of that coming together, coming forward saying what we're going to do. And And the one thing I just want to, you know, I love the the thought about reimagining, right? And And right And And I think that was my hope as as I came here last year. But I think when you're in this constant And I heard tonight change management, right? Change management, change management, right? They're now

291with less staff, a limited ability to execute on just how do we get again to a place that we know we aren't going to have one more level, one more level, one more level, one more thing we're having to do. Again, that creates uncertainty in your organization as well, too. So, I just my my fear, and again, I was really pleased when you all said at the last board meeting that you, you know, don't want to be as like previous boards. And so, I I I think, you know, these are hard decisions. But I, you know, the the the the percentages of capacity to me are the compelling reasoning. Even if it's one or two percentages different, that means two more million dollars in perpetuity that you're going to save that could be repurposed for

292other things to do in the district and and not compromise. And yes, school closings aren't fun, but I think ultimately, it's where your numbers are justified in with the number of facilities you have. And again, when we continue to kind of kick it down the road, it's creates this cloud over the district and again, the ability of the staff to constantly be in this change management with trying to just maintain running a school district on any given day. I have a practical question for Dr. Beardsley. Um So, this idea of you know, we're leaning towards two. The facilities committee, can this be a variable that's thrown in for the facilities committee to make a recommendation? How does this work functionally? So, the facilities committee is meeting this Wednesday. And so, if there are specific things

293that you're looking for voice from that committee, I'm sure they're willing to certainly wrestle with those questions and we could turn around any of their kind of, you know, conversation findings, wherever we are. I know we're planning on coming together to kind of talk through where everybody is in the process anyway, and I'm hoping they're waiting for my communication tomorrow to kind of firm up what an agenda looks like. So, is that ask of the facilities committee? Would they Would they want to do the, I think what you were just saying, the either say we think the two as it is, we're confident with that, or we would like to do the staged or the sequenced to see what that plays out with respect to two schools. And maybe that is, to your point, Andrew,

294trying to respect the committee by asking the facilities committee what their thought of of that approach, either taking the two that's there which or doing that sequenced approach given that we only have a very small amount of schools to be able to do that from. Does that seem like a wonder if both think if that's a um Excuse me. Excuse me. >> [clears throat] >> And this doesn't really is only pertaining to the the the Haven It's not bringing opening things back up to do modeling anywhere else. It's like pertaining to the Haven feeder district, particularly the question around the closeness of of of Kingsley and Lincoln Lincolnwood in the analysis. Is that something you can So, I think I just heard two different things. I am more than willing to take anything to the

295facilities subcommittee and gather, you know, feedback from it. The initial question I heard was um asking where the facility committee stands on either a simultaneous two-school closure or a staged two-school closure. And Let me just respond to you, Nicole and Maria, about enisioning and imagining um the two school closures will bring some definition to the process. Um and then we can begin to look at what to do with those schools in terms of imagining that way. Um because we have choices about the disposition of those buildings. And I think that could be some part someplace where we can start to do some imagining about what we're going to do with the buildings how we're going to use the buildings. So, I don't want to discourage any imagining or creative solutions because as we go forward,

296the the goal really is to pay attention to what that learning experience is going to be like in the classroom with these kids moving. I mean, that's really the goal. And so, if there's a building that's now not occupied with classrooms with the city, what can what can we do with the city to use that building to keep it viable in that community? What can we do with that? Um so, that that's that was my next thought. In terms of >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah. I mean, there's a meeting on Thursday. Yeah. So, uh hopefully you can start the discussions about that then. Um you know, I think by there's been some discussion about the disposition of JH. It wasn't included in our uh property assessment. Um we also never looked at partial property

297sales. So, that's a way to raise some money. Um and so, there's you know, by by naming two schools, we're going to name two schools most likely on the north side because that's where our enrollment is lowest. Um and there's kind of I guess I just I worry about the downstream implications of like the 200 students that left our district and aren't coming back uh but are going to ETHS. Uh and the opportunity for us to create uh an education model that's exciting and compelling for all of [clears throat] our students. Um you know, and then if we're you know, it's going to if if the models are what they are today, I would I would be surprised if we see something different. It's either Lincoln Lincolnwood and Kingsley or Kingsley and Willard are the

298two. Um So, I just on that note, I'll ask a question. Obviously, it's the will of the board to model two. But I was going to ask Stacy or Chris, maybe, 2A, which is Orrington and Lincolnwood, had the same score as 2D, I believe. And I just don't remember why 2D was chosen, but I guess my question would be is there a world in which it while cuz it still falls under the parameters of the will of the board, is can we look at that, too? I think a big concern I have is you know, two in the feeder Haven feeder pattern based on the data we've seen does seem to make sense. But why like I think a lot of us are having trouble Well, I I'll speak for myself. I'm having trouble with

299the fact that it's too close to each other and not two that are spaced like Do you all know what I'm saying? It's 10:45. So, point is is there a world in which we can look at 2A in addition to the other two? That like can that be modeled a little more more in detail for us? So, if that is the direction from the board, we could bring that forward into uh the similar examples that you've seen from the other two and three school closures where you get more accurate transportation breakdown. Um part of the reason that uh it was not brought forward was and Stacy can or Dr. Bridges they can talk to this a little bit further about uh the process with the facilities subcommittee and and their review of it. But in

300in my recollection recollection, the conversations that we had uh and some of the concerns that were brought up were specifically about the the boundaries that were drawn based on the modeling um in order to maintain uh Foster's capacity utilization with the with the double double strand TWI program there. You're limited as to how far that boundary can move northeast uh in an Orrington closure uh to to take up some of that boundary. And what ended up happening was at least based on the theoretical model was that um that Kingsley essentially goes all the way around and takes up pretty much all of Orrington's boundary. And you're essentially going to have students that would literally have to go that would live southeast by Ridge over by Foster and would have to cross Foster to to get

301to Kingsley. It would just wrap around that the Kingsley boundary. And and the facilities subcommittee was just not comfortable with that. Are are we is there a way for us to get greater clarity on the intended um attendance at Foster, especially for Bessie Rhodes and TWI? So that we have a you know, so I think we're making a lot of assumptions based on the capacity of Foster, but I but we've also said as a board that we're going to allow people to choose. And then we sent out a survey asking people if they were going to attend, but we only gave them the option to say yes. We didn't give them the option for no. So, if we had that number, then maybe we would be able to better understand the TWI population going to

302Foster or the population in general cuz I know there are also a lot of families uh in in the fifth ward that go to King Arts. And we do know that many of them want to stay at King Arts. So, >> did make phone calls for that group of 51 for King Arts. I think the challenge that you've got So, one, I think there was a desire from the board to allow Foster to more clearly define its programmatic elements before we further reached out to the community to gather information because I think we had the survey out, we brought it back, and then it went out again. Um and so, you know, we would also like greater certainty on direction. I think timetable-wise that's you know, we're talking a school of almost 500 kids potentially.

303Um you know, the best we could do would be any kind of sample um to gather that. But I thought the concern was around reaching out and getting further information was creating confusion in the community um about one, what are the full programmatic elements? And then number two, well, how do I answer if I don't know if my school's going to close? Do we have any more clarity of the program model? for why we hit pause on some of that. So, we we we reached out to the Foster the King families, we asked directly if they're coming, but we haven't asked the Bessie Rhodes families if they're directly coming. We have not conducted that survey at this time, no. I believe they were part of the survey that was broadly sent out, but then brought

304back. >> And for the King families, were they provided any information about um a modified uh ACC program is happening or was it >> clean succinct script that just was rather short and to the point. Okay. So, do we have clear direction on next steps in terms of the request of Stacy so that we can have additional information for our next meeting and start to come to I think it's for me asking the board asking the committee the facilities committee around the sequencing if it's the will as if the will of the facilities committee to look at that. And I can be comfortable if if that group desires that they want to stay with the two or would like to do that um analysis given they've been uh along on that process. The specific stage

305or Okay. And then I also had >> That's just me. I don't know everybody else. >> I think we should I think we should look at the stage. I would like us to look at the stage. Just because I think that's uh the phasing the phasing. The phasing, yeah. Sorry. >> [clears throat] >> Losing my words. That's the same thing. Where did we land on 2A, by the way? Did we land on we're okay to pursue 2A, that would be Orrington and Lincolnwood? All right. It's 2.8. It's the same. I know. It's impossible. It's not going to be up. What we're talking about is not going to be on a slide. We're looking at the other two Oh, we're looking at the two What we're talking about, just so we're clear, we're talking about the

306two school closure scenarios that Chris talked about modeling Orrington and Lincolnwood. Which is the 2A. Which is 2A, correct. >> So, bring it >> Sorry. Sorry to interrupt. What was the difference between 2A and 2C that I don't know? So, let me be clear. Let me let me try to be clear about this. The concern the question was the process. Was there a process of how Lincolnwood and Kingsley, because of the way we said do it at once? So, the question was if you if we pick one school that we say this school closes first, then you reset with that school with kids in that school, and then you run the same you use the same model, you run it to see does it change? Because right now we just said, okay. So, that was

307the question of the sequencing. That was the sequencing. So, would would if you picked Kingsley, would Lincolnwood what would happen? Would Lincolnwood the numbers change? Or if you picked Lincolnwood, would Kingsley change? So, I was saying, let's let's hear what the crit one of the critiques There's the critiques about other models, but this one can we use our model to or see if it has any impact if we sort of stage it. That was the stage question in the So, that wouldn't assume that it's going to be Orrington. >> Okay, good. So, thank you for clarifying. >> that. Phases is a whole different thing. >> the case, I'm confused then. Are we fundamentally talking about changing the method now? No. Oh. We're using the method to get additional information. Oh, okay. Okay. So, if I'm

308I want to make sure again and again I get tired. Um so, refined 2D and 2F we're planning on doing. I don't know whether you were asking me as to do that for 2A as well or not. Um I do have where does this facilities committee stand on simultaneous two school closure or staged two school closure? And then are we also asking potentially for us to model something sequentially? Is that what's being asked? Western So, sequentially is what you're saying? Sequentially like that's what I'm trying to figure out you're asking for there. I don't know what that is. No, I think what you just said is what So, Oh, okay. 2D 2F and just quality feedback from the committee about >> Oh, gosh. >> a stage >> But if they say yes, then the stage.

309I mean, if they say So, if they say yes, then what? Then I think I think that's what Chris we Yeah, it's It's resetting after the first >> Yeah, it's resetting after resetting after you do the first move, then you rerun the you rerun it to see >> if the voice of the subcommittee is to consider a phased That's not phased. >> to say to the board we the board the subcommittee can share with us and we can bring back a recommendation to you, but I think the board needs to decide if you want us to model something sequentially. I don't think that trigger point should be put on the committee. >> I would like to see it sequentially. By sequentially you mean But I will say to you with sequentially I think you need

310to name a first school. I think >> Yeah, we Yeah, we understand that. We understand that. We understand that. You're You're saying phased I think we're talking about two different things you all. Let's clarify. It's sequential. It's It's Lakewood versus Kingsley. What does that look like? Kingsley versus Kingsley first Lakewood. What What does that look like? So, So, that's the No, I'm No, I'm saying I'm I'm saying you pick Kingsley and you say close model with Kingsley. Okay. Now we need to look at the data. What would be The next >> the next school schools >> low low utilization Yeah, so it might not be Lincoln Lincolnwood. >> Utilization is not what we use to determine what we model with. We use the sing the school scorecard. >> Right, using using the school court scorecard.

311Okay, let me just say this one more time. So, what I'm hearing Chris So, what I'm hearing and you can correct me if I'm wrong. Uh we have the baseline scorecard that we ran and that informed what additional scenarios we would model to move forward with. So, what I'm hearing what when we're talking about this phased or sequential approach is we've run Kingsley, Lakewood, Lincoln, Orrington, and Walker as our as one school closure. Those are the schools that we started with. If we go with Kingsley for example, make the assumption that Kingsley is going to move forward in additional scenarios. We already have the model that was done by our university partner. We do the baseline scorecard based on the new boundaries where students would be physically located and what school they would attend to.

312We do the baseline scorecard, see what order they result in, and then make a determination on a two school closure to model based off of that. Is that what I'm hearing? >> Yes. Yes. >> It would be an additional one school in that scenario. Correct. Total two. Correct. Based on the assumption that school A closes, what does the baseline scorecard now look like to make a school B determination? So, I I just want to make sure I understand. So, under that under that scenario we would be looking at one school seeing and then assuming that everybody changes schools, all the all of the boundaries change, and then looking to see after that what would happen. That does seem more like a change in model because like it it is it's taken into account you know,

313boundaries changing, people being actually being in new schools, and then how they're impacted after they've already moved, which Well, they're not at moving. They're not going to move. I think it it addresses the It can address a concern that the the closeness of link because we sort of said what happens if you close Lincolnwood and close Kingsley separately and then you ran the model with that together. So, you didn't There's no looking at the impact of the closeness of the schools. That's the That's the potential there, but >> the way I understand it it's like we're still going to close just so we're on the same page. In this discussion we'd still be closing two schools at the same time in the both in the Haven feeder pattern. I think the question is some of

314us think it might be more it might be more holistic to look at it this way because it might change that the two schools closing are not the two right next to each other. That's what I think I'm hearing from this discussion. Is that something that you can like that can be run and be like is feasible and or But the scorecard right now, doesn't that already take into account like when you show Kingsley and Lincolnwood together what the impacts are based on the criteria we came up with? It It would show the impact of both of them together. So, operating under the assumption with the FY27 school boundaries in place, I think there's roughly about 180-ish It's like 167 to 180 students between Kingsley and Lincolnwood that would be enrolled in those two schools.

315And the baseline essentially just like looks at those schools those students being displaced. We don't know where they're going to go. We know they have to go somewhere. And what I'm hearing is does that change if we move with the assumption that Kingsley is going to be one of the schools. Now we've already moved those 160 180 students to another schools, probably Willard or Lincolnwood. That would increase Lincolnwood's enrollment. Does Lincolnwood still fall to the bottom in a base What if we recalculate the baseline scorecard of what should be modeled for? I think that's what I'm hearing. So, are we restricting this to the Haven feeder pattern? And in areas Are we restricting this to the Haven feeder pattern like you said, Omar? Okay. Okay. I think that was the ask. Okay. Okay. Which we

316will still be able to get at with 3A 3B 3D. It's 2 >> 2F. I'm sorry. 2F 2D and 2A. >> Yeah, I mean I think in this modeling 2D might 2A, excuse sorry. It's >> This modeling 2A might become relevant if we run this sequential modeling is how I see it. So, it's still running the two Yeah, so we're still only like it hasn't changed what Andrew has said and the >> But we're running three scenarios 2A 2D 2F with the what we just talked about. I don't even want to try to articulate it cuz I'm going to send us down rabbit hole again. I got you. So, you know, what I'm going to do is we are going to go you know, I think what I hear and I'm going to say back

317to you and then we're going to work with the university partner in our own capacity to determine what we can bring back for next Monday. Okay. Okay. Um so, I hear just refining 2A 2D 2F. I also hear what is Where does the commit facilities committee stand on a simultaneous or staged closure? And then I hear a request to model sequentially Kingsley closing, then rebooting the baseline scorecards, and rerunning Haven scenarios only for two school clo for a second school closure. Yes. Is there anything else that the board would like for the district to do in preparation for November 3rd that you need with the two school scenario closures? I mean, so the only other thing that I'm curious about is I know that we removed Foster from the proximity scores. Is that right? From

318the proximity Foster is in the adjacent schools calculations. Okay. And I'll just add I know I said this earlier, but any more information about the pros and cons of a phased approach given that we would be naming both schools, but sequencing it versus doing it together. So, things like students having to move twice or if there are any, you know, economies of scale with doing it together or if it's harder to implement if you're doing two schools versus one. Um so, just I really want to think through that implementation and change management. So, I'm sorry. One more question. Can I just Let me get back to Let me make sure I understand what Myra's asking for. Myra, I hear you asking the administrative team as a whole to kind of think about the different change

319management impact on a sequential versus staged. Yeah. Um and then possibly uh data on students that if it is phased would be moved would have three schools in three years. Right. Right. Just a clarification for my understanding, as we're running these models considering that the boundary of Foster is fixed is ish, right? It's pretty fixed. It's not fixed That's not one of the objectives in the modeling. Um It It does change in some scenarios. Okay. So, in the two school scenarios, if we're if we're modeling if we close one school like if we close Kingsley for example is there a is there an output where the next closest school would be Foster and then that would change the scorecard value for walkability even though Foster isn't an option for that student? So Foster can be

320an option. Everything we don't have a fixed boundary. Okay. >> being managed by a combination of mutual of the objectives in the modeling including walkability. Um utilization along those lines. So it's it's in play. It is not locked. Yeah, there's just so many more kids closer to Foster. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Right. Foster has 500 kids in the area. Right. Right. So Dr. Turner, to answer your question, you asked if there's anything else that the board would like to see. I guess I I I don't know how it would fit into the scorecards, but I think you know we've heard a lot from the community about like related services. You know, when we talk about utilization rates, are is there room for related services? Um and then I would just tack on I would add

321programming to that. I know we're not getting too deep into programming yet, but like you know, Willard Twie has been pretty vocal with us. I want I mean is there a place are they being figured into this? Related services, things like that. I think. So programs, we specifically when we place programs, we specifically carve out the classroom spaces from the overall utilization, which is why some folks have said, "Hey, your utilization numbers changed. They're wrong." It's because we pulled seats out because we pulled classrooms out for programs. Um related services, we have you know, done a crosswalk of the full floor plans of the buildings. We've identified what was set up as classroom teaching stations, what's being held as multi-purpose or fine arts classrooms, and what are available office spaces. When we get closer to

322what the kind of final answer is, that's when we would say, "All right, let's map and make sure that we have what is adequate space." What I have said I think in most of the community engagement sessions and the staff engagement sessions is you know, when we close schools, we want to make sure we have the appropriate and adequate spaces for our related services as well as our instrumental. However, we have really spread out over the last 5 years. Like I'm just looking for a classroom to store like some really expensive adaptive equipment, and we have filled every room in this district. So it is going to feel tighter, but we need to make sure in these models we're providing adequate space for services. Um that is why we're you know, went to the step

323classrooms, we're going to step and rise. It is why we'll engage in conversations with the teams there to say, "Okay, what are the needs, what are the wants, and what can we get to in these models?" So in the Willard Twie ex- So Foster is taking is Foster is the two strands of Twie at Foster are the Willard families, the Bessie Rhodes families, and I assume all Twie fam- that would encompass all Twie families that are in the Foster. Are there any other Foster Twie families who are not included in Bessie Rhodes or Willard? So we are currently modeling the two Twie strands at Foster, and those would be the Twie strands in the Haven feeder pattern. So yes, it is students that are in the Twie program that live in Foster, that live in

324any of the other schools in the Haven feeder pattern, and we are modeling those numbers of Bessie Rhodes kids coming over and being part of that program. That is the way it is defined by the previous board though, reserved to the students that are at Bessie Rhodes currently K4. And so with that numbers would slip off over time. So with that, is there anything we can So it's very clear that with the return of Foster, we are definitely privileging and doing what we can to make sure that Twie has a place. Is there anything we can say about making sure that we're ensuring that um ACC and the programming or ACC revised or whatever for black families is also being attended to particularly given we're asking King families, King Arts families, are they staying in

325the ask for that question? I thought I got to know what it is my options for. Understood. Dr. Turner, do you want to go back to >> our our plan is is we will have the Twie strands that Dr. Beasley just communicated to you. Our plan is to also have strands of ACC reimagined um as part of um the instructional plan for students at Foster school as well. And so our team is currently uh in full transparency working to really build out what we envision the reimagined will look like as it relates to the day in life of um a Foster student that will make sure that folks are are represented in in the way that they need to be represented and supported for the population that that school community will will serve. So that's

326our way of um attempting to try to hear uh the community and hear all of the ask and uh bring back the historical aspects of a school in in the in that part of Evanston that uh where injustice was done 60-plus years ago. But I want to just recap. It is reimagined to get us caught up to the 21st century of how how learning and how we should be working um with with uh our black students and students of color and all the things. So just really want to name that very transparently um and I'm glad you asked that question. Um as we continue to um build that out, we will engage community partners uh and be in thought partners with us in that process. Um our we took our first stab at really defining

327that, and we will invite folks in on that process um after we have started the creation of the plan and and what our reimagined is going to look like. And so I just want to want to say that very transparently. Nobody forgot and all the things, but if nobody has been really watching what we've been doing the past couple of weeks, we all we've been focused on the past couple of months is SCIP and still trying to move the needle in the other areas and do all of the things with running the day-to-day operations of the school. We did not forget about making sure that Foster is prioritized and and done well for this community. So just want to really just name that. Thank you, Dr. Turner. I um staying on that subject, I guess.

328Talking about Twie though, so if if Bessie So Bessie Rhodes is a two-strand Twie building, right? Moving into Foster. But then also having like the way things are looking now would have to also absorb Willard Twie, which includes students who already live in the fifth ward, and then the boundaries are shifting for Orrington. So like my old neighborhood is the Firefighter Park neighborhood is going to be Orrington now, which used to be Dewey. So there are families I know there who are in Twie. Like are are we worried about running out of space for Twie more than two strands at Foster? So we have So the scenarios [clears throat] are built using data on where families live with that and then we have also added in it's 119 kids from Twie if all are in,

329and that still comes in that comes in about 84% in utilization. And I know we've got that 90% number for Twie, and so we're in that area. Chris is double-checking my number right now. It's somewhere between 85 and 90. What did we get? Uh I I don't have that, but I do have the FY26 enrollments Yep. as well, and it it's going to be less than than 119 from FY25. Coming from Bessie Rhodes. Coming from Bessie Rhodes. So if you look at K5 Bessie Rhodes this year as of our October 1st enrollment count, it's um about a hundred-ish students. Um and then when you factor in the students that are at Bessie Rhodes that live in the Foster's attendance boundary, it's going to be about 90 additional students uh compared to the 120 that we

330originally planned for from FY25. And does that mainly does that That's Twie E and Twie S and Twie X? That's all of it. Okay. That's students. Thank you. I appreciate that. Does the administrative need any team need anything else from us? Like for instance, on the financial models, I know there was a recommendation from our consultant around looking at um either D1 or E, and I know is that something that we need to make a decision now? Our financial model. >> Did we answer all your questions so Yes, I think the part will be is I think we need to determine if there's any potential savings because I think I you may want to leave yourself flexibility when you have to go deeper into what's left that may say, "Okay, maybe that's distasteful." I think

331you know what the options are right now. But again, remember I've given you the right size framing right at that that framework that we need to work through. You know, once we get questions answered, I think the part is I I I'm I'm assuming what I presented is good. It has options that you were looking for. If there's anything else that you'd like modeled, please let me know. I I think if there's the will, which is if D1 is one that's good, which is meaning we want to minimize what we're taking out of working cash, but we know that we prefer not to do lease certificates, all of that's easy to run it at later date as well, too. So >> And I I'll just add the caveat that if there is additional financial modeling

332that that that board leadership can take the lead to determine what is the will of the board and moving forward forward on that because we are getting closer and we're running out of time and we're still running a school district and trying to still interface, right? And so it just becomes much more constrained for us to be able to know versus kind of getting direction from seven different folks on on on what folks want us to do. >> Can I ask clarification on that? So I definitely on bigger finance which ones, but we do have to move quickly into the the programming one about we're going to hit right. So we're separate. We're not talking about that. We're talking about whether we're doing the Okay, cool. Clarified. And and again, you know, I think what

333we could do is for the will of the board the next time as well too. Are we good with phasing in? Are we doing a one time? Are we you know, 90 days are we good with? What's our caveat for what we're going to invest because if we're really solving for FY27, are we at 2 million? Are we at 1 million? Are we at 2.7 million, right? I think you're going to have to get consensus around those pieces cuz that'll get to the bottom number that we're going to then drive to those reductions and the time frame for that last time was as we brought those forward in December and approved those in January of what that 13.2 maybe it's four it's three it's zero, I don't know. So you know, I think we needed

334to probably next meeting just probably come back at those and and maybe package that as as an approval to move forward and then I think you could modify the motion, right? If you wanted to and then right. So it's a motion that's on the board that can give us direction. Does that make sense? So we have a clear path forward. We have item actions that we are that we are certain about. Is there anything else for the board? I want to move us along. It's like 11:00 and we we we've done it. So I want to first of all, I just want to really clarify the next steps on this slide. So we're going to come back. There's going to be continued SDRP discussion. The board has given us some of the additional things to

335think about. We're We're moving forward with the two school closure scenarios, but we're adding a second two school scenario to provide modeling and assessment with that. I just want to be clear and and really clarify that on November 17th because our legal counsel is is also watching this in live and action and he wants us to make sure that the board is clear on on the 17th the board will make a vote to advance a scenario to move forward to engage in the public hearing process. So that is what you will be moving forward for and and voting. We didn't talk We're going to come back with what you asked in terms of sequential stage phase. I think we we've added all kinds of new terms, but we also need to add timeline that needs

336to be determined in in this conversation as well and so those things are you know my hope is that November 3rd's conversation as we continue to refine this per the board's request and what's the will of the board, we can get to getting clarity on timeline um by answering some of the questions and doing some of the additional work that we are are going to be charged to do. So just really want to say that. Our legal counsel also said that if the decision is to move with a phased approach, it is going to require a different voting process and we will just work with the the legal counsel to make sure we're clear on that and that the district is following the legal guidelines and process for that. So just really wanted to name

337that very transparently on for this phase because the phase idea is new that was not what was considered initially in the process and so we got to get the counsel from the legal counsel on what what we legally are supposed to do in alignment to the Illinois school code. So just really want want to say that particular piece and so with that being said, I think this closes out the SDRP phase part of our conversation tonight. I want to say thank you. Thank you to everybody who participated and I'll turn it back over to the board president to take us through the remaining agenda topics. We do have a slight recess that was added to the agenda, but I think looking at the time we need to move forward so that we can complete our

338agenda tonight. So I move that we move I propose that we move to the proposed action items. Sorry. I'm sorry. Just so we're not taking a break. We're not Yes. Omar. Yes, I can't hear cuz Yes. Hernandez. Yes, no break. >> Anderson. Yes. I move that the that the board remove the destruction of July August 2023 closed session meeting recordings from the group motion and approve the following personnel appointments, leaves and separations, September 2025 Board of Education meeting minutes and October 25 bills payable. Second. Wilkins. Yes. Pinkard. Yes. Uptake. Yes. Salem. Yes. Weimer. Yes. Hernandez. Yes. Anderson. Yes. I move that the board approve the following October 2025 contracts above $25,000 outlined in the attached memo for Second Step IncidentIQ and Epic Special Education Staffing. I had one question about the Epic Special Education Staffing.

339Is that a new vendor for us? Dr. Turner. What is that question? I'm sorry. Epic Special Education >> not. It's an existing It's an existing vendor. >> Exactly. Yeah. It is. I just wanted to clarify that. Thank you. Yeah, this is an existing staffing company. We we are using existing ones. If new ones come before, I typically have Jenny to provide you all with the understanding or analysis as to why, but Epic is one we've been using we've used in the past. >> Thank you. Dr. Speth. You agree with that? Yes. Yeah. I second. Did we get a second? I second. I second. Okay. Wilkins. Yes. Pinkard. Yes. Uptake. Yes. Salem. Yes. Weimer. Yes. Hernandez. Yes. Anderson. Yes. My turn. I move that the board approve the renewal three-year contract with Johnson Controls for fire

340protection system weight services at nine schools for the yearly cost outlined in the attached memo. Second. Wilkins. Yes. Pinkard. Yes. Uptake. Yes. Salem. Yes. Weimer. Yes. Hernandez. Yes. Anderson. Yes. Weimer. I move that the board approve the proposal with AJ Contracts for installation of the JEH canopy in the amount of $51,621. Second. Can I ask this is a grant funded from the Family Center budget? That is correct. It is out of the family family center budget and specifically meant to address kind of safe entry for families with zero to threes through door two and to cover it for winter and all of those things. And if we keep in mind when entering with little folks, our parking lot gets very busy at the hours that early childhood is coming in and out. So they tend

341to rely much more on the street entry. And you were talking low and we got a request from some someone during this time that was sent to the board and to myself and and um Tamara and so the request was for the board not to approve this canopy, but this is for early childhood. What we have to remind folks is this is an administrative Half of this building is administrative. Half of this building operates a school. The canopy is again, can you repeat that in slow motion? I pulled it closer to my mouth. So the canopy is for Doorway to Learning to create an end to essentially support their entrance from McDaniel into the building. Serves our zero to three-year-old children. Because of the busyness of this parking lot and the busyness of dropping off

342during preschool hours as well as with administrative folks coming in, the majority of those families pull up to the side and enter through the side door and this allows for children in car carriers and things along those lines to have a safer drier entry into doorway to learning. I think my my question >> grant funded, too? Yep. Right. So, this money isn't being spent on something else. That's right. No. All right. Not at all. Right. We're not paying for a fourth grade teacher with this money. No. Okay. Okay. Just want to be clear. Okay. So, was it it was second I don't know if I think we probably should just do it. >> that. I have a second. So, I'll take the vote now. Wilkins? Yes. Pinkard? Yes. Opdyke? Yes. Salem? Yes. Weimer? Yes. Hernandez?

343Yes. Anderson? Yes. All right. Next item up is the Foster School construction approval on bid package 18 and 19. I move that the board approve bid package 18 for playground and bid package 19 for landscaping contract with Woodland Commercial, Katie Landscape, for the Foster Elementary School for a total of $595,399 as outlined in the memo from Cordy and Clark dated October 22, 2025. Second. Just clarify. >> Just a question. Is the amount there the same amount that was budgeted? How does this amount relate to the original amount budgeted? Just as a Uh the original the original budget for those two packages uh was in the order of um My math is like uh close to $900,000. So, but the bid came in very low against budget um which is part of Cordy and Clark's magic.

344And so, we're looking to save over $427,000. >> a special basketball court or something make me jump higher? You know, I'm just It's It's a late just joking with you. Okay. So, we're saving a close to 300,000. No, 425,000. >> 425,000. Thank you. Which is money that goes into the contingency uh which we're budget we're right now about at a 3.3 million dollars. If the project ended today, we'd be able to return 3.3 million dollars to the to the district. And could that go towards the 6 million? Okay. Can you say that one more Can you say that >> Say that louder. Please louder. I'm trying to get more. Dr. Mitchell told me to get 4 million, but Okay. Yes. Okay. We have to wait, though. Can't count those chickens. Okay. Just so everyone knows,

345that was information conversations around the finances, which is then maybe you don't have to spend as much as working cash invest so Bessie Roads plus something. Yeah. That can be the something. So, so are we saying >> Question. And I'm I'm sorry to divert this discussion and that's awesome news, Kirby, and thank you for staying so late. Um but are we saying that at the current moment um if we were to finish if if the if the Foster project was to finish tomorrow, that we would instead of needing 6 million dollars to pay for the termination of Foster School in FY27, that number would be 3 million? Roughly, right? Right right. So, right. So, it's 3.3 is what he said. So, 6 million could be 2.7, but again right right now 2.7. How have we

346factored into the budget anything for the moving costs and is that part of the and the furniture and everything or or the furniture that's going to come in? Is that comprehensive of the total budget? For the moving costs from Bessie Roads? Yes. Yes, we have. It's all been accounted for. So, okay. So, this is just the net number for everything. We We have one more bid group that'll be voted on in December that finishes out the project and that is still 1. Uh 2 million dollar total for four different uh bid packages. So, the final landscaping and gutters and curbs uh the fencing, the mixed metals, those things still have to be bid. So, there's a chance to either go over budget on those or go under budget on those. So, So, in December, we

347will know the final cost? Is that what you're saying? No, because there's still all the install and everything has to fit together nicely and So, I think the what we missed was if the project stopped right now Yeah. Right. That's where we would be. There's still work to do. We've We We've only paid half of our bills. I think I think at the end of the day, the end goal for this is we are trying to do a Herculean job just as we do everything else cuz to your earlier point, I do run a tight process system. >> Right. A tight ship or however you called it. The reality is is he know that he's charged with making sure and being a dog on the bone that we are under budget with Cordy and Clark.

348That was that was always our our goal. And he does a great job. I want to publicly just say thank you for doing that that Kirby. It's not It's not an easy task. It It's multiple people that's there kind of debating and arguing we're getting in spaces saying what what is a nice to have and what is a a necessary. And so, it takes that level of um following through and us talking and discussing this every week to get to that. So, our goal is to get under budget, but we still got some additional stuff that has to be bid. And and we don't want to speak too prematurely of of then get too excited. But we're going to shoot for that, but we also got to be realistic in what what we got to

349still continue to pay. I guess I just want to clarify cuz out of the out of the 12.1 million dollars in the A scenario, 6 million of that is to cover this remainder of Foster, right? That's over the FY30. So, the 12.1 isn't that piece specifically because the 12 points getting us to a balanced budget for four years. >> encompasses that 6 million dollar payment. So, it also assumes we'll get 4 million dollars. Well, the 6 million is what it is, right? If you aren't using the Bessie Roads sale. Yep. Right. So, if it So, if it's four then that's 2 million less than we need to cut. But but over the you know, Right. So, I can model I can model that. No, don't. Don't. It's It's a pretty easy model. Thank you. I

350guess my my question is when do we think we'll have a Yeah, sorry. Let's finish this. Motion and then we'll May. Okay. Yeah, I was about to say that the the goal is to be done in May. This school is slated to open >> doing the punch list in May. But we should know before May if we are going to be materially over under Yeah, when we do the punch list in May, we'll be we'll be able to give you a much better estimate. >> I think I think what the she's just said was we would be we should know before May. And I think it's The challenge is is construction. So, you know what I mean? If you ever done any kind of construction in a home, something could happen that could to throw

351us in in in a left field. We're working with a contingency. The goal is to be under that contingency as best we can. And again, I think Kirby has done a great job. What we will commit to do as a school district is continue to still try to be under budget and meet what has always been the board's expectation of trying to get this project done under budget as best we can. That's That's all I could commit to affirmatively right now. And you can follow the I'll take it. I'll take the vote. Wilkins? >> Yes. Pinkard? Yes. Opdyke? Yes. Salem? Yes. Weimer? Yep. Hernandez? >> Yes. Anderson? Yes. Is there any other business to consider? >> [laughter] >> If there if no other business if there's no other business, I move to adjourn this meeting

352at 11:20. 11:20 p.m. It's like a It's like a city meeting, but we don't get paid for it. They do. >> Mhm.