001e e for [Applause] well we're sorting out the um I know there's folks we're uh sharing out some of the U translations can you do the roll call please good good good evening everybody today is Monday May 20th 24 is the District 65 special Board of Education meeting the time is 6:14 p.m roll call Lindsay Ryan here Kim here Salem here wi here Sue here here here [Applause] and Manuel we're going to need one over here as well for uh board member Wilkins please for okay we want to start off with the uh the next item on our agenda here is uh the bo board and superintendent comments so colleagues any any comments before we start our public hearing thank you for joining us for our third public hearing regarding the potential closure of Dr
002Betsy Road School of Global Studies on Friday I had the pleasure of joining the Betsy Rose Community for their International night it was a beautiful evening filled with joy Rich culture and celebration as a public school system one of the hardest things we can do is contemplate the closing of a school I fully recognize the magnitude of this situation and the difficult decisions that live before the board for the future of Betsy Rose and of our district overall I know we all share in the desire to do what we believe is best for the children of this community for the better part of this year our board and administrative team has discussed the need for building consolidation and right sizing our district we currently operate 18 schools which will become 19 once the new school
003opens along with a family center serving children birth through three years and a warehouse facility given our student enrollment it is not efficient nor fiscally prudent to have the number of schools we do and all located within approximately 10 square miles if we can right siize our facilities I am confident that we can ultimately better focus our resources to make even greater investments in student learning opportunities and facility improvements this being said our building consolidation plan that happen plan must happen in phases we need to ensure we have the capacity and resources to fully support any and all transitions at a systems level despite what it may feel like at the moment Betsy Ro is not being singled out this is simply the first of several tough decisions that lie ahead as it relates to
004school consolidation in District 65 beginning this fall the district will engage in the third phase of our Student Assignment planning and will utilize the data and recommendations from sap one and two our Master facility plan and enrollment information we will continue to convene a community-based committee to answer questions based on this data that will support implementation plans around school consolidations and programming placement all from student centered equity and financial lenses over nearly 6 months our team has spent a great deal of time thoughtfully crafting presentations responsive to board and Community questions and feedback we have held Community meetings sent Communications and discussed at board meetings why District administration believes it is necessary to close Betsy roads I recognize that the community wants overwhelming reasons as to why Betsy roads and why now since the first
005phase of sap beginning in 2021 we heard the community's prioritization for neighborhood schools this resulted in the decision to return a school to the fifth W Community since the very beginning this always included bringing Betsy Road students into the fold and eventually closing the building unfortunately this not go did not go the way it was originally intended because we had to prioritize Financial sustainability and reduce the scope to serve kindergarten through fifth grade students if we if we look at the factors we consider in our recommendation Betsy Rose oh slow down okay sorry I keep forgetting that you are translate Manuel sorry about that I'll start over not the whole thing but I'll start to the place if we look at the factors we considered in our recommendation Betsy Rose has the largest percentage of
006fifth War students compared to all other schools in the district District giving students in this Ward the opportunity to have a walkable neighborhood school for the first time in decades we also do not have the number of Spanish English language Learners across the district to justify adding additional tweet strands at the new school because such a large percentage of twws and twx students attend Betsy roads but live in the Fifth Ward it made sense that these would be the Tweet strands that should move roads is the most underutilized building in the district which is likely to only increase once the fifth War School opens Additionally the physical Betsy roads building is nearing the end of its useful life and is in need of significant facility repairs roads has one of the smallest student populations in
007the district and as a magnet school all students are placed there by the district as the demographic study commissioned by the district shows an overall contined downward enrollment Trend into the next decade we need to proactively account for enrollment Trends and utilization at roads our new school and the district overall in combination with our financial reality and I and while I know that Betsy rhods is an incredibly diverse School our decisions are with equity in mind we are building a brand new school in service to to the part of our Comm community that is predominantly black and brown also a significant number who currently attend Betsy roads we believe strongly that these children deserve a neighborhood school like every other community in this District at the end of the day we cannot look at any
008of these pieces and silos we need to put the whole puzzle together in order to make a recommendation that we feel is in the best interest of students overall we will continue to make the most informed decision that that we can based on the information we have I believe that is what my team has done again I thank you all for being here and for the continued support and advocacy for the children of this community thank you Dr Turner next item up we start our public hearing at this time 6:22 p.m. The District 65 Board of Education pursuant to Illinois school code will convene a public hearing on the decision to close Dr Bessie rhod's School of Global Studies and receive input from the community or policy 2 230 will govern public comments for today's
009public hearing thus each speaker will have 3 minutes to make their comment please remember to state your name and make sure your comment pertains to the closing of the school speakers are discouraged from using the public comment period to air specific concerns about staff members also note that it is not customary for the board to respond to public comments if there are any questions that arise as part in the meeting we will call up five people at a time to give individuals an opportunity to make their way to the podium so with that adila can you call our first few speakers the first five people are Tom Hayden Jen Tyler Ryan Lano Rebecca Garcia Sosa Kate odard and as they as they approach the podium I have to make a motion I think so it's
010a um at this time I moved oh sorry oh okay good evening uh my name is Tom Hayden I'm not a Bessie rhod's parent but I am evanstonian and app parents mayor biss in his state of the city address emphasized our moral responsibility to support migrants arriving to Evanston he called it the Evanston way to help in times of Crisis and this city is working to secure funding to house migrants demonstrating evon's commitment to inclusivity and supporting migrants yet this board remains strident in their decision to close the only school that has wall to--all Spanish language support and specifically celebrates the heritage of our new neighbors the administration's plan to distribute the TW program across the district itself lacks Clarity accountability and is infeasible there's no evidence other schools are prepared to replicate the Multicultural
011experience that Bessie rhods offers Bessie rhods is not a zero sum game with the fifth award School the district already has funding in place to build the new school and in fact has had this funding for two years and failed to act the architect's timeline Alone says the initial RF rfps were going to be publicly listed on May 17th it's currently May 20th and I don't see any rfps listed on the district's website let's be clear the delays in the fifth award School are due to the board's lack of accountability and have nothing to do with Bessie rhs either way either way the new school will eventually proceed and closing Bessie roads will only hurt our most vulnerable students finally it's an election year and I can think of one candidate on the ballot who
012would strongly support this board's decision to close the only Spanish language school just as the migrants begin to arrive here in Evon his name Donald Trump please please consider that when you vote thank you thank you good evening my name is Jen Tyler I'm a parent of a Bessie roads first grader I felt compelled to say something after hearing remarks and some reactions nodding heads um from the school board at the end of the last public hearing and this potential closure I ask please do not frame this decision as roads needing to close in order for the whole District to move towards greater diversity equity and inclusion values or some other greater good that comes across as a false Choice it's not an either or you can have both so for my first point Bessie
013roads can and should stay open while you work to improve the broader culture of the district for my second point if you want to move the district toward a better culture that is welcoming and accepting of all then please think carefully about who a decision to close Bessie roads would be affecting at the last meeting it was very hard to hear the board talk about wanting to address racial and cultural issues across the district and also proposing to do so by taking resources away from the school with the highest percentage of lowincome and minority students you can see the minority students represented on this poster here polling resources from that cluster of students would move the district in the wrong direction please find the money elsewhere well I do respect the need for a school
014in the Fifth Ward please don't take the money from this sensitive popular you can take the money you cannot take the money from a thriving diverse school and at the same time say that you're looking to build diversity Equity inclusion across the district our school Bessie roads has the most diverse student body in the district 91% of our kids are students of color no other school serves a diverse as Community as diverse as ours for my third Point additional two-way emerging strands at other schools do not serve the same purpose or meet the same needs as wall toall K to8 Language and Cultural immersion please don't equate them I don't want the cultural immersion part to be lost or overlooked that's a very important part of this magnet school so if you choose to close
015Bessie roads the services to students would not be made up for elsewhere as one of the parents posters will demonstrate coming right after me or maybe maybe a few after me um Bessie roads is the only School in the district with that's shown some increasing enrollment over the last five years the services and education of SE roads are essential they're also unique we know in respect that different families have different needs if you're serious about addressing the racial and achievement Gap then build on the strengths of Bessie roads invest in Bessie roads keep the careful The Language and Cultural immersion model let it be a source of Pride for the district take the examples policies and cultural events from the school and look at how to adopt them elsewhere within the district if you want
016to move the whole District to a better place thank [Applause] you good good evening my name is Ryan Lano I'm a father of a first grader and I just registered dalila to be a kindergarten next tozi roads because I still think that you guys are going to do because I I still feel that you guys are going to do the right thing I feel that once you guys see or really hear all the all the data everything that's been presented the incredible school that we have at Bey roads um it is now the time to close that school um I'm really hopeful that that you guys will I am hopeful that you guys will land on that and I'm I'm also eager to hear your open discussion on on the reasons and if all this
017data is just incorrect then let us know because this data is all is all taken from the district's website um uh peeking back out of what Tom was saying earlier um my son came up here with his best friend to plead his case I'm um about the school and he told you of of um something that happened at his school there was a migrant family who who just went to got to Bessie Rose the Venezuelan family and this little girl got their day one and they all went up to her and they told him you know what you're one of us I speak your language you don't have to be shy and if that is if if if that is not incredible for you to hear that that a school can can receive a migrant
018family that are I'm sure they're scared the unknown and students my son speaks Spanish at home but Benny does not speak Spanish at home and they went up to that girl and they said you don't have to be afraid we know who you are and we Embrace who you are you're from Venezuela I want to I want to learn about about about your culture um and that's what you guys have created at B roads not you guys created this back in 2017 when you created this magnet school because it made sense because it was a better the better model and we all agree it is a great model it works let's build on that let's just not destroy it um to close to close I would like to read a little one another data point
019um in addition in addition to serving the greatest percent percentage of students of color Bessie rhods also serves the greatest percentage of lowincome students in the district consequently Bessie roads has special programming in place to make our kids regardless of socio economic status feel welcome for example we are the only School in the district that provides free you after school programming to families this is extremely important child care that is made accessible to All Families at Bessie roads no other school in the district offers free after school service despite all of this we are the only school they have targeted for closing and one more thing I want to say is I understand that Bessie W was in The Chopping Block early on when Bessie W was is going to be moved to the fifth
020W but now that that's not the case let's rethink it thank you [Applause] hi my is Rebecca Garcia Sosa I am also a Bessie Ron's parents at a native Spanish speaker and an outsider if you will even though I look like I belong here um Bessie rhods also serves the greatest percentage of English Learners in the district the school board has argued that it isolated that isolated twe strands in general education schools throughout the district will sufficiently replace Bessie Road's wall to- wall to e program but their plan simply cannot replicate the services that Bessie roads dedicated bilingual staff provides to Multicultural and multilingual students and to parents and caregivers who do not speak English there is simply no scenario where in getting rid of the one Public School in Evon and skoki dedicated to
021English Learners improves educational or social emotional outcomes for English Learners despite all of this we are the only School we've targeted for closing and the irony is that and this goes for president um we appreciate the comments made at the last hearing where we did hear some comments and we are grateful for that but while you describe that how important it is not to be othered and how you struggled as a child with trying to change your identity or your name you're in favor of dismantling yet again the only School in the district where children do not feel othered the results the results of your actions and decisions now could be recorded in history like another big mistake from District 65 in the next two years our teachers and staff do not have a secure
022job so what is the plan for our children when our teachers begin to find better jobs perhaps from districts that value them more than you do your words do not match the data and your actions are concerning the fifth W school back in the day was dismantled to desegregate black children with hopes to integrate and provide better care and education to all well that did not go as expected how is dismantling the only school where no one feels othered and diversity is celebrated different if this is your definition of equity look up at the differences between inequality equality equity and Justice and reevaluate thank you [Applause] hi my name is Kate odard I have a first grader and a proud incoming kindergartener um at Bessie roads I'm here to talk about student enrollment from 2019
023to 2023 the school board has relied heavily on the narrative that because of declining student enrollments Bessie rhods must close what they have never told you maybe I should look this way is that Bessie rhods is the only School in the district that does not have declining [Applause] enrollment over the past five years we are the only school that has not seen a drop in students despite this fact we are the the only School Dr Bessie rhods which is a person not just a place that has targeted for closing thank you [Applause] next five speakers are Rita Kendrick Tim nindorf Ashley Jackson Melissa Rosen Wick and liel Jen hi my name is Rita Kendrick I have a second grader and a kindergartener at Bessie roads um I want to talk today about the cost per
024student we've heard over and over again um in fact in the interview with Union um president Hernandez said that the reason um or the only reason that was cited was the cost per student um the cost of the school was too much and so I believe the school board has done a poor job handling District 65s finances and as a result they have argued that for fiscal reasons Bessie rad is too expensive to keep open they never talk about the other schools in the district King arts and Oakton both have significantly higher costs per students than Bessie Rose and our school costs only $6 more per student than Orrington the district's least diverse and most affluent student body to put things in perspective king art spends $3,462 more per student than Orrington does despite all
025this we are the only school that has been targeted for closing um in a letter that actfl wrote to the school board um they said specifically to president Hernandez and to everyone um that even though your district has many considerations to make the process of determining the offerings available to District 65 students and families of the best yearo school however I ask that you please weigh the value and impact of protecting these important 21st century skills and learning environments with the the future dividends that promoting language education will yield thank [Applause] you hey good evening thanks for uh listening to us taking time out your evening uh my name is Timothy neindorf I've got a son in the fifth grade and the daughter the third grade at Bessie roads we've been here since you guys
026wisely decided to implement the the wall to--all twe program 6 years ago um you insist that are buildings too expensive to repair and keep open um but you've left out the fact that most of the schools cost more to fix than ours you've been told that Bessie roads has a $9.5 million worth of repair cost it hasn't been pointed out that the only other k38 school in the district King Arts needs $15 million worth of repairs despite all this we are the ones targeted for closing first um I understand Bessie roads was orally SL it and you do need to close but closing Bessie roads right now first isn't the right idea it takes away flexibility from you um when you can close other schools where students will still have walkable schools you also say
027that everyone here deserves walkable schools um and that's true that's great I'm very happy that you're writing the wrong and opening the word in the school in the Fifth Ward but the parents here they have decided that they want to be part of a wall-to-wall experience they want their kids not to be othered they want I know for my family my mother-in-law erased her Hispanic heritage and our family and it's something that's really important to us to bring back um growing up I didn't get I grew up in a great school Community um but it was extremely racist and we didn't have language programs till high school till it was required and I think um you're making a big mistake by making this the first school to close and you need to take your time
028and slow down and re-evaluate what's going on thank you good evening my name is Ashley Jackson and I have a first grader at Bessie roads uh Dr Bessie Road School of Global Studies hopefully it will be open for you buddy I want to start by saying something that should hopefully be really clear Bessie rhods is the only School you've targeted it is the most diverse School you've targeted but it's interesting because when we're talking about education one of the things that we teach our kids is math and dealing with numbers and I know some of us struggle with numbers here particularly when it comes to Counting students but we need to make some things clear the school board tells us that we have to CL we have to close Bessie roads because the fifth W
029school will be walkable for our Bessie Road students but what what do the numbers say the numbers say that Kingsley has 45% of students from The Fifth Ward not Bessie roads most recently a letter from the president of the school board was written to the mayor of skoki and what did that letter say only 30% of Bessie Road students live in the Fifth Ward so either our wonderful School Board is lying to us or they're lying to the mayor of [Applause] skoki Dr Turner in your opening remarks you mentioned that without closing Bessie roads there wouldn't be enough students Spanish-speaking students to have Twee strands at other schools it's funny I've heard that argument before when they closed Foster school that's what they said about the black and brown students when it was when they
030wanted to integrate their schools you are not a corporation if you were we could be shareholders and remove you from your seats these are kids kids they're students they are not widgets they are not to be Consolidated they are not meant to be more effective or efficient they are students who is your job to ensure receive the education they deserve we are not talking about either or do better we can do both it's really interesting I was overseas in a meeting where people were speaking multiple languages and I said I'm so excited my daughter is learning Spanish she has learned to read in Spanish and they were like that's great and I was like yeah because now she can be a global citizen every time I walk into a meeting I am disadvantaged because I
031did not have TW we need our students deserve better and as people of color don't do the colonizer [Applause] work my name is Melissa Rosen swag and I'm a Bessie rh's parent the entire process for closing Bessie roads and ending the K through 8 twe program has been deeply flawed instead of forging A New Path that would uphold their commitments to all students of color in the district d65 leadership has weaponized data against our school flashing numbers to suggest that we are the most expensive to repair not true that we suffer from declining enrollment not true that we cost more to run not true true that the most fifth W students go to our school not true but you can't tell because they never display our numbers against all the other schools in the district
032they have fixated on proving their narrative that Bessie rhods deserves to be shut down and our community the most diverse in the district deserves to be dismantled they have most recently insisted that closing Bessie roads serves the interests of our families they say Road's families prioritize walkability but they have never asked us we have been demanding a survey for our families since January we didn't even get a response to this request we have been demanding a meeting with our school liaison wherein our caregivers would have the opportunity to speak to him directly it has never materialized so on April 22nd and again today over 100 caregivers and children have walked one mile from Bessie roads to this very building and protest what does that walking tell you what is our priority what does it tell
033you when a board member shares his vision of bilingual education for the district and an entire community of Spanish speakers Rises up and says we don't want what you're selling what does it tell you when their vision vision for expanding bilingual education requires shuttering the only Bilingual School in the district does that sound like Improvement to you please appreciate how painful it is for our families to muster the courage to get up to this Podium and publicly pour their hearts out only to be told we know what's best for you and your children at the January 16th school board meeting Biz Lindsay Ryan said and I quote while the input of Bessie Road's families is important it cannot take precedent over what the future decision needs to be even if every Bessie Road's parent and
034family said I want to do that it still isn't in the best interest of our entire District to plan that way now is the chance for the board to demonstrate that the disregard for our children that we hear in that statement is not their Guiding Light prove us wrong about you at a December 18th meeting Biz also said anytime you're bringing change there is going to be a group that bears the brunt of that disruption and she went on to say there will be no Bessie roads kids 10 years from now who is bearing the brunt of this change you are witnessing a tremendous failure of equity and a tremendous failure of leadership it's not too late to course correct and Infuse this process with greater deliberation and fact finding that ensures that the decision
035the board makes isn't another historic Injustice against a community of [Applause] color good evening my name is Lionel gentle and I have a fourth grader hessie RH I'd like to read a letter to you from someone who um from someone who is deeply rooted with be bie Bessie Rose is Bessie Rose I listen to you say Betsy Rose and it it just shows me it shows me how important this is to you my wife's not here so I can point it shows me how important it is to you that you say Betsy Rose and it's Betsy roads dear Melissa thank you for the warm welcome and wonderful experience at International night meeting with faculty administrators parents and students at Bessie Road School of Global Studies was an honor and a delight the event reminded me
036of some of the most formative times of my life when I was a student in District 65 in many ways I was raised by District 65 as both of my parents taught in the school district it was not uncommon to see Joseph Hill Gregory coffin Bobby Dawkins L Lorraine Morton Jean Ellard Joyce duelan or any other teachers or administrators in the living room of our modest home in the Fifth Ward back then as a young child I had no idea what they were discussing but I knew it was important while I was unsure I had a hunch these impromptu to often late night meetings had something to do with addressing an injustice and my attending the newly named Martin Luther King Jr laboratory school today District 65 faces similar important issues requiring tough decisions likewise
037while I may not know all the facts behind the current situation I believe that Bessie rhs would want the school to remain Thrive and continue intact at its current location or within the proposed new school anything less without the parents or or faculty's tacd support appears to be an injustice without going into a dissertation on my mother's philosophy I simply share one of Bessie Bessie's favorite poems taught to me by my third grade teacher Betty fiser it's the well-known poem Mother to Son by Langston Hughes well son I'll tell you Life For Me ain't been no crystal stair it had tax in it and splinters and Boards torn up and places with no carpet on the floor or bear but all the time eyes been climbing on and reaching Landings and turning corners and sometimes
038going in the dark where there ain't been no light so boy don't turn your back don't you sit down on the steps cuz you finds it's hard don't you fall now for I still going honey I still climbing and Life For Me ain't been no crystal stair I'd like I'd simply like like to say and I've said this before and I'll continue to say it I've never been to a board meeting where I've seen children sitting in the audience begging to be educated by a school board who started something so beautiful I haven't been at these meetings cuz I get upset about it and my blood runs hot but I do know one thing I know one thing is for certain change going to come change going to come and it's going to come sooner
039than you think and a lot of you sitting here may not like the change that comes but it's coming because parents like me parents like them are dedicated to their children have a good [Applause] evening the next five speakers are Margaret Nash Zia dinard Ardo Christopher dinardo Andrea Martinez and PNET good evening and thank you for listening to me today my name is Margaret Nash and I have a third grader at Bessie roads I am here today to tell my story my family moved to the United States from Mexico when my daughter was 2 years old at that time she was only speaking Spanish the first decision that we had to make was where we wanted to live where did I want to make a home for my family we chose Eon because of the
040twe program we chose Bessie rhods because it is a K8 walkable wall to--all twe school for my family I've been an educator for 20 26 years I recently completed my second master's degree in bilingual education with [Music] an with an English as a second language certification my family is bilingual bicultural and biracial I chose Bessie rhods for my family for many reasons mainly I wanted my daughter to preserve her rich Heritage culture and identity in a thriving educational environment with parents looking for a school with the same Focus as I was you created this amazing program because of the thorough research done in 2017 the same research that I studied when I was getting my Master's Degree the same research led me to choose besy roads wall to--all twe is the best environment for my
041daughter so I chose Bessie rhods I'm asking you to remember why Bessie rhods was converted into a wall toall twe school back in 2017 I'm asking you to think about every child every day whatever it takes we stand here before you asking you to think about our children I ask you to do whatever it takes you can decide to do whatever it takes to keep our school and our community together so our children receive the best possible education by preserving K to8 wall to--all twe I ask you to hear us I ask you to see us I ask you to make the right decision for our children for every child every day whatever it takes please live live up to our mission statement at District 65 every child every day whatever it it takes thank
042you for listening to me and making the right [Applause] decision thanks good evening my name is Za dinardo and I teach Spanish at a public high school and I believe in public education I believe that together we can find reasonable Solutions The District 65 dire financial situation a few years ago when Bessie rhods was offered an alternate location for the same wall toall k38 twe programming our community was on board with the closing of the building however because of the financial troubles revealed within this past school year that long range plan has drastically changed and but it seems to be a foregone conclusion that Bessie Rose Building will close I am urging the school board to delay the vote to close Bessie Rose since there are no there are now so many unknowns there has
043been no overall budget Savings Plan published which brings up so many unanswered questions for our if our school is closed for example for the Bessie roads parents we are offered several options one option is to return to our home school but what if our home school is Kingsley Kingsley Elementary is located a few blocks from Lincolnwood Elementary and will be down to 30% capacity when the fifth word School opens another option offered is that if our home school doesn't have a twe program we could attend another twe program but what if we go to Willard twe program and that goes away because the Willard Island within the Fifth Ward will no longer exist all of these unknowns will make the transitions facing District 65 even more chaotic and the more chaotic the transition the more
044we risk exacerbating the problem we already face students and teachers leaving the district and a deepening financial crisis please please delay the vote until everything has been carefully considered and communicated to the public especially the short-term and long long range plan for financial cuts to the budget now I'll hand this over to my son Ben a second grader at Bessie rhods who wrote his own [Applause] speech okay thanks Mom first of all why are there so many microphones up here second of all now I all do my speech hello everyone my name is Benjamin I am a Bessie Road student along with all the others I have been through a lot of change but this was never like it it is wrong to close our school period no arguments no excuses no nothing I am
045here to stand up speak up and most importantly Stand Out District 65 you may not think this but you yes you are making a mistake Bessie Rose is a diverse and special school there's one single building in District 65 that has not one not two tree strands but a full tree building including the principal and that is Bessie Road do not give up on us now it is not too late we will not give up on trying to stop the closure of Bessie roads in my opinion Bessie roads is fly the way it is because it has three languages that you can learn I also have friends from cultures around the world yes it may cost about $9 million to fix as we saw in the thing over here maybe but it will be worth
046it now maybe you are thinking oh maybe we can close the schools that take more money to fix where will the kids from those schools go you guessed it somewhere else this is what these meetings are about the about speaking to stop the closure of Bessie roads and other schools we urge you to not close Bessie roads ever thank you over to you Dad [Applause] I don't know how I'm going to follow that um I'm Chris dardo Bessie rhs parent obviously uh in the past meetings I've tried to keep my comments focused on the aspects of Bessie rhods that I feel are worth preserving tonight I want to talk about how the closure of Bessie roads will fit into the larger Contex of the district and its history Evanston has a bad habit of asking
047at schools to Bear the responsibility of its racist past this goes back at least 50 years when District 65 was given the task of integrating schools in essentially a segregated City uh I've read a lot about the circumstances surrounding the closure of foster school and to be honest they are tragically familiar to the ones we are in today uh 50 years ago a progressive school board and an ambitious superintendent Rose to the challenge uh committees were formed Maps were redrawn and a pretty ambitious plan was carried out but for all the flowery language of that plan it really boiled down to closing one school Foster opening another king lab and shuffling around the kids from a minority population from what I've read the administration was proud of their plan and why not they did the
048best that they could with the tools that were available to them today we look back on that plan and we call it a historic Injustice today we've got another school board with broad ambitious goals we hear about them at all the meetings walkability districtwide bil lingual education correcting historic Injustice but the tools at your disposal are just as limited today as they were 50 years ago and if you strip the flowery language away you're left with a plan that looks tragically familiar Closing one school opening another and shuffling around the kids from a minority population I don't envy your position it's hard to be on a school board in District 65 but I also look at the plan today and I'm afraid about what they're going to call it 50 years from now that's uh
049that is it thank you very much for the time [Applause] good evening everyone my name is Andrea Martinez and I have a third grader at bie roads and I would like to give my time to name Theo but before I do I just want to tell you all that there's nothing here that I can say that um my um families and community of Bessie roads have already said so all I ask is for you to listen to us listen to everyone that has been up here to to our pleas and to consider the decision thank you thank you Anda for yielding your time to me hi I'm Nancy Castillo and I'm a parent at uh in Evanston with a kid who's going to be in District 65 um I'm here really in support of the
050families today that have been speaking but also as someone who cares deeply about organizational systems I first want to start with some curiosity is there anything that you could hear or that anything that someone who would say here that would change this decision okay if there was I would yield my time to let you let you share that but if there isn't and this is really just a formality then I really want to implore you think to think about this as a learning opportunity or a relearning opportunity the community here is filled with people who not only care deeply about equity and creating belonging spaces for their children but they are incredibly smart and competent and thoughtful people who expect that you as people that we've elected to understand and represent our interests are going
051to do so and so again I really implore you to use this as an opportunity to do better next time in particular right I'm hearing people talk about really wanting high quality decision making decision- making that is clear about what are the inputs you're using that is taking a holistic lens that's clear about the outcomes that you're trying to achieve I've heard many people over the last three hearings poke a lot of holes about the inputs you're using to make this decision I've also heard that there is an equity impact assessment that's not been done and or has not been shared if you're doing high quality decision- making we may disagree with your decision in the end but we should understand and rationally be able to get behind your approach the second thing that I'm
052hearing and and regardless again if if this is a decision then this is a decision and then I implore you to think about high quality implementation because you still have another opportunity there have been a lot of concerns raised here about the pitfalls of the implications of this decision use this as an opportunity to help us think about that that transition plan so that you're really clear about how you're going to address those pitfalls how you will get ahead of them how you're going to Institute measures and meth methods to track if this decision is going a right and being able to Pivot and again do it in a high quality way overall also think about this is a lesson in transparency and Clarity in communication I've heard words like Equity best these words sometimes
053can be fuzzy I think a a person earlier today said really understand the difference between equality Equity Justice these words have meanings right but like understand them deeply and use use them in ways that are not blurry so that people understand what's happening again I implore you to use this as an opportunity for learning don't let us down like next time you come forward with something put something that's high quality that you're proud of that you know we're all going to say yes thank you for listening to us that is a high quality piece of work don't let us down do better for us we have elected you to represent our interests and to understand them and you have a lot of opportunities to do better next time please don't let us down thank you
054Peter shank Bessie rhod's parent District 65 has lost 1,516 students since 2019 and yet Bessie Road's enrollment has held steady at 275 students I'm troubled to hear that some teachers at Bessie roads are being told their contracts aren't being renewed why if our enrollment is not declining is our school facing staff Cuts why are our teachers being told there's no money for school materials why in an area as affluent as ours are our schools $180 million in deferred maintenance Behind these questions require independent oversights we the parents do not accept the closure of Bessie roads without an adequate independent audit and future plan for how the language needs of this community will be met it's important to recall that the Bessie roads Community was promised to home the new fifth wart school that promise has
055not been upheld the Bessie roads Community was told their community of teachers would remain intact This Promise has not been upheld this community was promised a kindergarten through e8th grade experience in continuity This Promise has not been upheld this community was told their Multicultural community of students would remain intact This Promise has not been upheld the broader Community was told there would be $5 million in busing savings a savings that turned out to be $750,000 only 15% is walkable and as savings as advertised again the promised savings and walkability have not been upheld now this board president is asking us to believe that by closing Bessie roads it will allow them to quote offer broad access to highquality support to our bilingual and special needs community in every school across the district I'd like to
056see a show of hands who here thinks he's going to break that promise too thank [Applause] you next we have Amanda [Music] Logano oi Michelle nindorf CeCe IND here let me try again Amanda Logan cono oi Consuelo oi Michelle nindorf CeCe nindorf Daniel G Harris you still couldn't hear me let me try the podium mic Amanda Logan consilio oi Michelle nindorf CeCe nun andorf and Daniel G uh G Garis hi Amanda Logan I'm a parent of a first grader at Bessie rhods I wanted to address the board member MERS uh to thank all of you for bringing Bessie rhod's parents together some of you were on the board that decided in 2017 to convert Bessie rhods into a fully multilingual School you set the stage for bringing us all together and for the past eight
057months your inaction and lack of meaningful conversations with us meant we had to do your work for you we have had to build relationships with each other no matter what our linguistic competencies ethnic backgrounds or the grade levels of our children and here's what we've invested what we've learned and what we've created we've invested countless hours in organizing on weekends over email over the phone we figured out how to make our meetings as inclusive as possible by providing food and child care we have learned how to communicate across linguistic differences by for example sending every email in English and Spanish we've invested time in combing through reams of District dat data much of which has been hidden and much of which has still not been shared with us despite numerous requests we've invested time in
058organizing and attending protests with some parents even taking time off work to attend most of all though we've invested in getting to know one another and learning the barriers that some of our most vulnerable community members face some of us myself included here have learned about our privilege as white parents as educated parents or as parents that are employed full-time we've learned about intersectionality with many multi-racial families or families of color that have privileges that others do not perhaps most centrally we've learned the privilege of citizenship of being in this country legally of not being afraid to go on record in meetings like this we've learned how inadequate previous surveys of District 65 parents have been for capturing our Latino families because many lack these same privileges we privileged parents have learned that we need
059to speak up in public forums like this and express the concerns that our most vulnerable families have shared with us most of all though I'm enormously proud of what we've created and what I believe will be lost if Bessie roads is closed we figured out how to come together across ethnic linguistic educational and socioeconomic differences we started to do the work so to speak that being in a wall-to-wall twe School demands and fosters we've heard from countless parents of color that that work simply doesn't happen when twe strands are isolated as part of larger English-speaking schools this is exactly why Bessie rhs was converted into a multilingual school and it's hard to understand why that is less of a priority in 2024 than it was in 2017 what we've created is a model for solving
060some of the worst problems in District 65 and indeed as scales far bigger in this increasingly polarized world so thank you for not bothering to include Bessie rh's families in your decision-making on our behalf our community is growing stronger than ever as a result and we will continue fighting good evening uh Michelle neindorf parent uh Bessie R's parent in December 2017 the district recommended and the board unanimously approved that Bessie rhods add two strands of twe which was highly disruptive to the community at the time and I watched the video of that board meeting so many arguments that the district and the board it's uh that that the families tonight are making to preserve B Bessie rhods are arguments that the district and the board itself made for the twe conversion Dr Beardsley presented to
061the board and stated that the twe strands in the district were out of balance and two strands were needed to be added to get the program back into balance adding these strands would have been disruptive to Neighborhood schools possibly converting them to all twe or with leaving isolated strands which was identified as a real harm to students and teachers it was discussed a lot at that board meeting Dr Beardsley pointed out that the recommendation was based on a lengthy process with a lot of research she said there was a need to expand the twe program the need from native Spanish speakers a demand from native English speakers um the research supported the twe model and it and importantly that it aligned with the equity initiatives and specifically that the working Equity groups show showed that
062there was a need to break down isolation of single strands in addition what really um struck me from that meaning was this change was envisioned as part of the larger plan at that meeting there were discussions about streng strengthening twe across the district about busing fifth W students and about Student Assignment planning this was seen as a first step Candace chow and Jo Joey Halburn specifically asked about these plans Dr Beardsley stated I think it's important to understand that this recommendation is completely complimentary to all of that work and this is a long-term decision to create an absolutely excellent strong model for wall to--all dual language school that will benefit our students and so this work is complimentary and [Music] longterm Joey Halper asked he he was he wanted to make sure he was clear
063on this and um he said although this recommendation is hard it was made in concert with a lot of other considerations that the same implic in other parts of the community that weren't as complimentary to whatever is coming as well and Dr Beardsley responded that's right pessy roads is in the best interest of students and we believe it has the conditions for the best outcomes and opportunity for the two-way IM immersion program s Sergio Hernandez asked about the every student succeeds act and again Dr Beardsley said this wall to--all two-way immersion program our belief and what the research says is that this will be a model that benefits a full range of Learners regardless regardless of learning needs and will create an environment that elevates and values a range of languages and cultures and so
064when we do talk about doing the adequate work to have our students exit based on access score and then maintaining support there would be an environment where the adults in the building know those students over 9 years and have an opportunity to really intimately understand their families their language acquisition their Journeys as students so I see it as being a highly supportive model that should allow students regardless of language background to be successful and exit meaning dual language goals Dr gorin then said this is with the assumption that we're implementing twe with full faith and Fidelity which is a 5050 balance so please I urge you if you're not listening to us listening listen to what the district said when he made this decision listen to your fellow board members to previous board members the
065need is still there this is not just valuable our school is not just valuable it is urgently needed then and now thank you hello I am CeCe NE andorf and I am a third grader at Bessie roads I I'm going to tell you guys five reasons why Bessie Road should not shut down number one is the teachers are super nice number two is that our school is k through eight number three is our school is bilingual number four is we are a global School number five is that we are critical thinkers activists responsible empathetic and self-aware thank you for your [Applause] time hello I'm Danielle haaris I don't have any kids at Bessie rhods I do know a bunch of awesome families who do I served on sap2 I'm the parent of bilingual kids at
066Oakton and CH and despite not being Latina myself I have a lot of close relationships with a lot of Latino people I hear a lot in a lot of different contexts that it's really hard to get feedback from the Latino Community but they've certainly shown up in this instance and my question for you all is are we listening [Applause] it's a really unfortunate position to put yourselves in as public servants to break the trust of the people that you supposedly represent if we ignore this feedback now these members of our community won't see the value in speaking up again in the future I know so many of you and I believe that you all have the best of intentions for our kids I know you want to do what's right I know it seemed like
067closing Bessie roads was the right thing to do and it did it made sense when it could be rolled into the K througha School in the fifth W but now that that's no longer a possibility and we have a new set of circumstances it no longer makes sense to Simply go forward with the previous plan to close the school at this time the opening of a fifth W school is a step towards writing historic wrongs I support a fifth Bo school but in trying to correct a historic wrong we're committing another historic wrong against another marginalized group do you really want to leave this as your legacy for our kids or grandkids to correct of course not I learned something I didn't know about the closure of the Foster school from a newly published book
068to disillusion by Richard Heron I'm sure many of you are familiar with this book because it mentions several of You by name what I hadn't known previously it was mentioned earlier is that the decision to close the Foster school was made not by an overtly racist Administration but rather by one that was Forward Thinking well-meaning had the best interest of all of the students in the district at heart not just the white ones and even though hindsight is 2020 it just seems like we're making the same decision now that we made back then and we know enough now to make a better choice we still have that opportunity you don't have to do this right now you can wait until you have a comprehensive plan and you're looking at the whole District once the fifth
069word School is built instead of dreaming how we can achieve an Evon school system where all students are lifted up and supported we're being told that only one group at a time can have their needs met and that's ridiculous we're Evon I know it can be really hard to admit a [Applause] mistake it's better to adjust and take a different path when the harm we've caused is pointed out to us that's imp part what we're doing as a community in opening the fifth word School we're putting aside our egos and owning that we as Society made a mistake that harmed kids and were committing to do better there's still time to take a pause to step back reconsider what we're doing with Bessie rhods and not persist with another bigger mistake not harm another marginalized
070group not frame the choice in a way that pits our black and brown communities against each other many years ago I attended a presentation by a really smart diversity consultant at the downtown library that I believe was sponsored by d65 the facilitator is discussing the importance of acknowledging mistakes of trying to to repair harm when we become aware that we've harmed someone the third part apology was a three-part model and it went something like this you acknowledge the harm you apologize and you try to do better it works for little transgressions it works for big transgressions and so I know that our egos are telling us otherwise I know our egos are saying we've just got to go forward with this decision we can't step back we can't can't give any I think that if
071you are presented with a new set of circumstances it's a sign of strength not weakness to admit and to take a step back and reconsider what you're doing thank [Applause] you next we'll have Jason El Zia Eric Parsons Marna Garcia Ida Casta and Juana Vasquez hello I'm a former District 65 parent and um I want to address my comments to president Hernandez I um it was reported in uh Foy gr some of your comments you had made uh about uh parents who families who are able to afford tutoring and take one week's trip to Europe and then the rest of us out there hustling and trying to work and make sure that our kids are trying to do their homework uh this you know us versus them I think is really unplaced uh given the
072situation here and you know the reality is those families who can afford tutoring and trips to Europe have nothing to do with this District 65 board trying to close Bessie a school centered on serving a majority of spanishs speaking families and other families who want a school centered on Spanish language and culture I live up north and there's no Committee of North Enders lobbying to close Bessie roads instead of one or two North End schools I believe my neighbors up north if a nearby school was was considered Superior that they wouldn't have a problem you know driving their kids 10 minutes to a not so far school if if it was deemed an excellent school and it is it is you the board who is working to close Bessie roads and N full immersion wall
073toall Spanish English two-way immersion in Evanston the alternative is some District 65 school not focused on serving Latinos a school probably without all Spanish speaking staff and Leadership and and you know let's hope not another District 65 principal who doesn't value the Spanish language the buck should really stop with the school board regardless of your identified R race ethnicity orientation income Etc is school board members it is your financial decisions your values and tradeoffs and your level of due diligence and past administrative leadership hires that have brought you to where we are today I say why close Betsy roads instead of one or two of the North Side schools instead uh where is the equity for be Bessie roads families in closing Becky Bessie roads this is a product that you actually have District 65
074customers essentially families very happy about and want to keep and value that uh not every school's families are so happy so you know I suggest we work on you know thinking okay wow this is valued more than we probably thought it was when we you know proposed closing it and and just having a strand in another school so I urge you to reconsider hello I'm Eric Parson this is not the first time you've heard from me you've heard from me as a fifth W resident as a Bessie rhods parent of two as a teacher as an education researcher working on a PhD in curriculum studies thus far you've disregarded all of those perspectives so tonight I'm going to bring you some poetry now I'm no angsten Hughes but I'm going to try and do my
075best you say you are listening yet you ignore the pleas of parents caregivers and children you say you are voices for diversity equity and inclusion yet you make decisions for minority families rather than with them you say it's about declining enrollment yet you want to close a school that has stayed steady you say your hand are forced by financial crisis yet you expect children to pay for your mistakes you say you want greater inclusion yet you will force marginalized families to be further minoritized in white spaces you say closing Bessie roads is necessary yet you have forgotten your own reasons for creating the program 6 years P you say you are excited to expand twe to middle school yet you are undermining the Educator's task with making it happen you say you want safe learning
076environments yet you terrify teachers with fear of Retribution you say You must rightsize the district yet you refuse to do what's right you say you are sorry but you have no shame you say you are listening yet you refuse to hear and as a fifth W resident I find it offensive in the ways that you have pitted my community against my community thank you I yielding my time to my friend Z hello my name is Zara Garcia Bay and I'm a fourth grader at Betsy roads School of global study why close Betsy roads why not close other schools half the kids at roads can't even go to the fifth forward school this is the most diverse school I hate that if you close my community um my community school why will my friends go will
077I see them again the the other schools the white schools why can't you guys close them why I close my diverse school why close the fifth wordss or why close Betsy roads Betsy roads is the most diverse School in my district that I know and that I hope you guys cannot close it so y soy Betsy [Applause] roads okay my name is Mna Garcia back in 19 I was drilled by the news of our acceptance into the KA twe program at Dr Betsy Road School of global studies being built beginning with the cohort who entered roads as kindergarteners in Fall 18 and my my kiddo would follow suit as a kindergartener that Following fall 19 why have we been abandoned and not seen it through we embarked on this Collective Journey along with our teachers
078who exuded in this excitement we endured remote learning during the global pandemic and incessant racial violence my kdo was in kindergarten a critical period of literacy and writing development despite this turbulence we stayed the course and now we are enduring another iteration of harm brought on This Time by The District you hurl equity and right sizing as cools to allegedly justify closing our school with no due process lofty rationals are not grounded in reality see the Deep disconnect the disconnect from what you purport and from what we are presenting Dr toose that information side by side and make your decision today's opening marks makes it abundant clear the super the bo intendent who also serves as a school lays on in name and not in action are entrenched on closing is this political theater and
079I'm here to entertain you because you've already made a decision why have public commentary stop it truly take stock why bulos forward with haast and nastiness as stewards of public education adopt a critical lens and do the work or step away challenge their claims to close please review analyze and Dr suppose their data our data data in general let's acknowledge the ous work led by families functionings and dis fact dop board members let's be clear thank you so much for all the work and coming together cuz it's been beautiful to organize and dealing with this turmoil the to the promotional video it dazzles but remember not all that shines is authentic I declined to have my own kiddo feature because how could I participate in a tool that promotes our own destruction content without context
080is misleading our current fifth graders the fierce courageous Trailblazers task to build but then abandon you take our bodies the Optics of inclusion but fail to honor our Humanity Humanity nor do you take accountability where is the Strategic plan that honors a commitment to build and nurture that had potential to be a gem it's still does you are annihilating the special Community get fail where will my wakao TW e school since Arington does not have one claims for closure glosses over the uncertainty desires and outright neglect as Talk of the closing looms it demonstrates to be frank poor messy and incomprehensible leadership vote no I implore you to please do your homework and not get caught up in this intractable move of a school closure take your time and truly do the work thank [Applause]
081you my name is a Costa parent of Bessie roads my first ask is that you all pay attention here instead of doodling on your computers please like we are here pouring our heart and at least we deserve that that you hear us the Betsy Rose International night was incredible we hope that you experience what we see and experience every day but you can't hear it cuz you're busy doing something else but it is a strong community of diverse families teachers and staff of thriving School of filled with black and brown children we are we were also honored with the visit of Mr Rob rhs his granddaughters were able to learn about their great grandmother not just through a named building but through our children through their lives within our community now I wanted to post
082this that 37% of multilanguage Learners are enrolled at Betsy roads the highest percentage in the district and it's not just a number these are children these are families that have overcame continue to overcome significant obstacles yet in Dr Turner's opening statements she states that multilanguage Learners there's just not enough right to offer them a comprehensive strong program yet do immersion it's also about the non-spanish-speaking Latinos it is also about the black children the white children the Asian children that are enrolled in this program that benefit from this program but we know how you feel and view us as Latinos in closing Betsy roads you are disinvesting in a model that works and supports multilanguage Learners ski has more than 90 languages spoken in this municip Municipal boundary why are you disinvesting in ski on the
083on one hand you shout equity on the other hand you're shouting One S fits all make it make sense Equity is about access and removing access from one marginal group to uplift another is not Equity that is rooted in a scarcity mindset our communities can simultaneously be uplifted empowered in two in 2017 this District argued that a wall to--all tweet program rooted in data and research um at Betsy roads would diminish isolation for students parents families and teachers back then Serio ernandez made comments like a wall to wall tuille is culturally linguistically responsive it is the future we listen to the parents and now you want us to believe in your dream there's no strategy for our kidss other than trust us raise your hand if you trust them we do not I ask Mr
084Hernandez to pause and question your own bias given your pro personal preferences towards assimilation you are pushing forward assimilation is thinking yes you are I've been doing this work for over 20 years and you know you do not represent us Mr Hernandez you do not speak for Latinos and Evon and ski we are speaking for ourselves listen to stop listen to the families you have a choice every single one of you will you be the torchbearers of white supremacy or will you bring Justice to the communities that we that deserve it in Evon and skoki don't be the torchbearers because that's what you're doing right now [Applause] we had W of vque Sophie P en Shen sorry Shen Anna papado Anna papado De Leon is it not loud enough I'll try again okay so we
085have one ofas Sophie P Enid sh shank Anna copado De Leon good evening my name is Enid shank grandmother of a first grader child at B roads my Works come to you not based on statistics about B Road school or about their accomplishments their long-term goals or about their funders I wish they were but my family and I are new to Bessie roads you might remember that my son Peter shank already mentioned during the first meeting with this board that he and his wife search very diligently about a good school here in stone for their two little girls before they moved back to Illinois last summer they were very pleased to find B roads only to find out a few months later into the school year that this wonderful school will be closed in the
086near future last Friday May 17 I set foot for the very first time on this Noble school that is battling to stay alive it was a joyous occasion the international night was an example of what a United Nations should be children and grownups from different countries Africa China Guatemala Mexico Panama Italy all displaying their culture by ways of maps crafts their language music and Glorious Food I truly it was truly a happy happy celebration I hope that at least some of you were there to experience this exuberant event I would like to refer to a very to a poignant painting by Ivan Albright a native painter from Harvey Illinois the original work is display at the Arts Institute of Chicago for the people who are not familiar with it I would like to briefly described
087described the painting it's a real black door with a funeral wreath in the center and a hand in the middle of the front side of the door the title of this artwork is that which I should have done I did not do the reason why I mention this is that when all is said and done and you members of the board are retired and remember the difficult challenges of your career this quote will come to your minds I hope with all my heart that you will feel good about your decisions and with pride and joy will say that which I should have done and I did it in closing after I would like to use the words of John lenon in one of his very famous songs you may say I am a dreamer and
088I would like to ask the parents teachers and rest of the people here present to imagine for a moment that this fine group of people will vote in favor of bie roads and the News will ring in your ears yes yes besti roads will remain open indefinitely thank you please I ask you a heartfelt round of applauses to the existence of Bessie roads thank you very much [Music] is there anyone else that wanted to make a public comment whose name was not called Rebecca Mendoza [Applause] not [Music] um [Music] r for [Applause] gracias hi uh good afternoon bues um on Friday I participated in a panel about the 70th anniversary of uh Brown versus uh board and it was a really interesting conversation by several members of our own Community uh Northwestern was kind enough
089to include us the villagers of uh as part of that conversation and after finishing uh that conversation it made me wonder if this board has had a conversation about the impact uh that the decision has made in our own community and I wonder if you've given it the same attention as this decision that you're making tonight uh because not only are you closing a school but you're also shutting down an entire community and I think that the the biggest loss in all of this is the trust that you're losing from our Multicultural bilingual um aspiring community that you made a promise to that we made a promise to in 2017 and I know that this is as you stated it's not an easy decision but it's also a lot of information that we still can't
090make sense of the decision and we can't make sense of how we move forward Beyond this and how how we can see that you have a collected interest in the Latino community in the refugee community that Evanson is going to have to deal with in the coming years um we're also in the process of envisioning Evanson 2045 and it was really part of what we wanted to see that's what we asked for as residents of Evanston and taxpaying members of this city and we're not getting what we asked for we're not getting what our kids need and what we identified as a need for our kids kids um many years ago you know TW uh twe is not is not new and we've been doing it wrong for multiple years if not multiple decades and
091for me personally it just um it's it you know people won't tell you how they feel about you but they'll show you and so this decision shows me like countless other decisions that are made in the city is that the Latino voice just doesn't really matter and that you don't listen to us and that that you're willing to make a decision on our backs again of another marginalized community of another community that has been thriving and so it's going to be really hard to come back from that it's going to be really hard to get the trust of the community and I think that that's the most valuable piece that we have as um as community members and for people in in your position and uh so there's a couple of things even with today's
092hearing um you know this is the first time that I that I've seen around the um the sidewalk wrapping to go around which was not Ada accessible and then I I walked pretty fast it took me 3 minutes nobody gave me an option to sign up uh for public comments so I'm glad that you offered that option there was approximately 15 people in the in the holding area so um they wanted to make comments too there were students included in in that number and also I think there're supposed to be an independent hearing officer as part of these meetings and I don't know if that officer was ident ified um so just a lot of things um it's a sad day in Evon and um if you haven't had that conversation about how these decisions
093impact us I think it's a great opportunity for um the board um at your next um you know Retreat to really think about how that decision impacted and what what Evanson is dealing with now as a result of that decision from 70 years ago and perhaps how some of your decisions that you're making now are going to impact us many years 40 years from now thanks so much so another call for anyone that like to make a public comment and I'll go ahead and read out the names again of the people okay hi I'm Gable Tyler I'm the parent of a first grader at Bessie roads um just want to come up and like just say again like you guys have a chance to do the right thing here you've you've seen what sort of
094community you have here at bie roads um Bessie roads is a success story for your District a lot of districts around the country would kill for a school like Bessie roads a community like Bessie roads um um to have a place like Bessie rhods where people coming to this community could go and and have that option and feel great about it um so it's like crazy to me to have you guys sitting here talking about closing it please don't do that um I'm wrong all the time you can ask my my wife and daughter they tell me I'm wrong all the time so I know about being wrong you guys are wrong to do this please don't just reconsider and do the right thing thank [Applause] you I'm just going to read out names in
095case I missed them um Wana Vasquez Sophie P Anna copado De Leon uh if president if we could wait one minute while they check outside if there's anyone else absolutely yeah yeah thank you for that yeah we're going to wait and I just want to thank all the families uh community members who've come up and so far have shared their concerns uh have questions and their comments so so there is no one outside that has come forward to make a public um colleagues just wanted to open up the conversation um around what we've heard in our past three public hearings um so any comments before we do that can we just clarify the procedure so we're not we're not voting tonight is that correct yeah so just to clarify the procedure what we're going to
096do today is uh we're going to discuss what we heard in the past three public hearing sessions as well as the other opportunities that we've had to engage the community um and what we'll do is we at the end of our conversation I will ask folks to uh whether we have consensus on moving forward with a resolution to close the physical building we're talking about the building uh uh uh that Bessie wrotes somewh else so any comments on what we've heard well I'll start since looking at me um I think you know it's unfortunate that a plan that was originally meant to be for the Bessie roads Community um when we envisioned the K8 School moving into the fifth W school um has become in the eyes of many of you uh something that's being
097done to you right um originally the [Music] plan the plan was to right move this community into the new fifth W school um for all the reasons that I think we've mentioned here before um because there was a large percentage of uh students there who lived in the Fifth Ward um and that we could serve students in the neighborhoods in which they lived rather than being busted um so I just want to make I guess three points as I was thinking about this um over the last three public hearings um there's no single reason right there's no definitive reason um that we are having to weigh there are a multitude of factors that have to be weighed against each other um it's it's the cost and the fact that there were services that we could
098serve in the neighborhood schools it was the prioritization of walkable schools it was the transportation savings um all of these things were considered right so it's not a single uh definitive Factor that's going to um that I think some of the commenters were looking for right um I think there's a big overlap between the Bessie roads and Fifth Ward School population um and also the second point I have is the Bessie roads as special a community as it is and I I witnessed that on Friday and it reminded me very much of the international family nights at Lincoln where my children went um where a lot of cultures and languages came together we brought food we uh learned about each other's cultures um that can Exist Elsewhere in District 65 and it does Exist Elsewhere
099um Bessie roads is a special Community I saw that and and you've all testified to that um it's also part of just District 65 it's not separate from it or an exception to it it's part of it um all of these School communities are connected and the fates of the fifth W school and Bessie rhods are connected um I think both financially and programmatically and no we're not targeting Bessie roads there are other schools that we're going to have to considered to close um it's not a it's not a it's not uh if but it's when right and we are beginning those conversations shortly this year um so every school uh is part of this larger system and every District 65 school as hard as we've worked in the 70 years since Brown versus Board
100of as hard as uh previous school board members and previous um administrators have worked to fight for equity and inclusion there is still a racialized gap in Opportunity across our district including at Bessie roads so there's still a lot of work to be done right so I see us as a district having made some progress right we have twe we have multiple you know dual two strands of uh twe at every school that has twe which was not one one two what's that Washington and Wasington and two so that's that's something that we can right we can uh remedy if the fifth W school has uh we families right um so I think as you [Applause] say as we've heard as the Spanish speak Spanish speaking uh populations grow we need to build capacity at
101all of our schools for dual language and we are expanding dual language to Middle Schools I think that has been something that this Sport and previous Sports have been working very hard toward and I see that as progress for our district I see the equity policies that we've worked hard to uh Implement and the translation services that we're able to offer um that did not exist before I think these all speak to our commitment for including inclusion and Equity across our district um and finally I don't think it is a zero sum or All or Nothing conversation um of course uh closing a school impacts families and impacts children um but I don't think that children who have to make a transition will be irreparably harmed right I don't [Music] think I think Community is
102people not buildings and I think Community can be can flourish in lots of different context and we see that all across 65 when we have teachers and families come to talk about the work that they're doing the communities that they're building um the uh engagement opportunities that they're creating across our district so I don't think it's either or and I don't think it's all or nothing I'll stop there so I can allow our other board colleagues to speak I just wanted to invite the multilingual team uh just in case we have a [Applause] some and the fifth W internal planning team as well just to make sure that we have uh any questions around data or around the Fifth Ward school from from our my our board here I would like to make a request
103um can you speak up D sorry I'd like to make a request you know we've sat here we have given respect to listen um I don't appreciate being pointed at I don't appreciate being interrupted or heckled and I would like each of my board members to have that same respect as well you know there's a lot to be considered I know for me personally when we first looked at moving to Evon in 2005 Bessie rhods was one of the jewels of schools that I looked at um you know I'm bilingual in Mandarin and I studied Spanish for 6 years and I thought this would be an amazing school for me to have my family um and we kept applying to Bessie roads and we got weight listed for 3 years so when we finally got
104in you know Bethy rhods had transitioned from a stem to a Global Studies school and you know I it it it was a beautiful Community then and I still love the friendships and the community that we made we are still in touch with the teachers there um that 2017 vote was heartbreaking it was hard that group of parents that were shocked by the the district's decision the board's decision you know we created a Google Groups it was called save Bessie roads we had a change.org you know we spoke up we did our research church and I do want to state that it was not against anything against the twe Community it was because my family was too late to be part of TW my kids had already started you know kindergarten at a kindergarten and
105third grader then they wouldn't be involved in this and so it felt heartbreaking because it was not something that you know I had chosen um for my family um and after that vote our principal quit and then we lost two more principles that year we had 11 teachers leave that year um and honestly I felt like the district did not give us proper supports we kept asking what kind of transition plans are there what's going on and there was a lot of silence and a lot of excuses and I keep hoping for that kind of support and I've seen Bessie rhods over the last 67 years grow and become you know this wall to--all tweet community um I am curious though about numbers I do love my data and spreadsheets and I geek out over
106that um I can't help but notice when I was looking going back at like all of the you know opening of school reports um the year to year when I look at from 22 to 23 to this current year um there was actually a decrease um in the enrollment at Bessie roads and then if I look at the two smallest schools we have Arington at 243 students and Bessie roads at 253 students um I actually see that you know we've had other schools that have continued to increase but as my colleague Sula said there are a lot to consider you know we did the facilities management report that was the first of its kind in many years you know I think that we started the sap process with the best of intentions you know and
107every school deserves to be looked at you know what are the Pros what are the opportunities for us to grow you know um even looking at the walkability for every single one of them is there room to add like the prek there looking even at the numbers of like the school age child care which are bursting at the seams and who only has eight kids when they have the capacity for 50 um and so I have a lot of questions and I think that it's almost that chicken and egg question you know the building the school what you know do we have plans complete plans for the school itself as a community and the curriculum but what about the building um and I know that you know we cannot move forward with building the fifth
108W building the school without closing another building we we financially and physically cannot support that it's not responsible of us thank you thank you I'm sitting here and I'm looking at all of you um and I don't think that right now there's anything I can say or anything anyone up here can say to make this less scary these are your children I appreciate that I went through something similar with my own children and you know I know change is scary change is hard but it really is the only way to make progress and I will tell you it may not help today it may not make you feel any better about this today but I've poured over the data I've poured over the numbers I've had countless conversations with parents of Bessie Road students I've
109had conversations with parents and community members in the Fifth Ward I've spent hours I've spent weekends I've been in countless meetings and presentations as I know everyone up here have been and so we have taken this seriously and I will tell you even though again I'm sure it will not help today but if I thought that the only way for Bessie Road students to have a place where they would feel a sense of belonging where they would have a multicultural environment where they would get an education that they deserve was to keep the building open I would be making very different decisions today but I do not believe that is true and I'm sure I know how hard and how impossible it is to sit where you are now and to believe that and to
110think that that's a Poss posibility and I won't even ask you to have faith or have trust in us because I know that is hard but I will tell you even if you don't I will do everything possible to see that that happens in the new school to make sure we're thinking about those transition plans to make sure we're taking your families and your children into consideration and to keep the commitment that we have have to do a language programming to twe to making sure your children have a sense of belonging and have the experience they deserve so you know don't I'm not asking you to believe me today I'm not asking you to be less afraid because I know how hard and how impossible that is but even with that know that I will
111still remain committed to it throughout this process thank you my I appreciate you grounding Us in feelings because I think that is the hard part about our role is that we have to make decisions that are not necessarily what any of us are excited to do right none of us join the board because we want to close schools um the problem is that that's been true for decades of board members and continuing to keep this many schools open with the amount of students we have is an impediment to us serving every student to the fullest we are being negligent stewards of resources if we continue to operate this many buildings um I you know we've had questions about transparency and our rationale I'm going to share my rationale not because I think it's satisfying not
112because I think it replaces anybody's uh frustration or challenge with process but just so you understand the metrics that that we're putting forth that I'm considering um and Sula mentioned that you know when it when it's decided that a school will close there is not one reason why that the school is selected it's a multitude of reasons and in isolation we can manipulate the data in a lot of different directions um and each factor can suggest that Bessy roads is not the right school to close um but when you know that we might find on this metric another school has is worse right but um when you take into consider ation the totality of all of these factors it is highlighted again and again as one of the folks that are that are uh in
113a challenging space and so um you know I think we started with Community survey data and overwhelmingly heard that the biggest priority in our district from our families was that from the greatest amount of community members was that walkable schools was the priority and so once we began once we established that we started to look at our our dis through that lens what neighborhoods don't have schools which neighborhoods have more than one school um the fact that the Fifth Ward did not have a school led us to focus attention there especially considering the unfair burden on black and brown students to diversify other schools over the years um and frankly I think this is a point that keeps getting lost the proximity of Walker and Bessie rhods drove us to consider whether under a neighborhood
114walkable School model does it make sense to have two buildings so close together um and the significant percentage of students from the fourth ward attending best roads is a factor the number of and I think this is another piece of missing that that a lot of U that many of the folks and I'm I'm thrilled that folks have created community and it's been a very positive experience but a lot of folks at best roads did not select Bessie roads the district provided that as their best option um and so it doesn't give us the truest sense of where everybody wants to go because a lot of folks were placed there by us um the cost of repairs at Bessie roads especially when you consider you know the number of students right some of our students
115have I'm sorry some of our buildings have a lot more students that go there so trying to figure out how to make this all work with less buildings there are kind of all of these factors that we have to consider um it's it's heartbreaking to be involved in these decisions that cause difficulties for for current students um and it is really complicated to look Beyond you know our jobs are to look Beyond current needs in one building and make the decisions best decisions we can for the district right I four days away from not having children in this district and I don't think what I think is best for any school my kids have gone to should dictate the ne decisions for the next 50 years um you know because our decisions about closing schools
116are not 5-year decisions they are 50-year decisions and there's no way to make them without difficult disruption um along the way and it's pain painful and if we I swear if anybody had a way to make change without disruption that would cause harm I would jump at it um but no matter what school we decide and there will be other schools that will be having these conversations about there's going to be that um disruption and it'll be true every building decision we make but this is not a situation where making this decision causes harm and not making decisions doesn't cause harm there are harms and costs to our current system and those costs are to every student who doesn't have the full resources they deserve and every educator trying to meet the growing needs of
117their students with less because we're taking we're PRI we've been prioritizing the needs of taking care of Aging buildings instead of focusing our resources on our kids and that's where I am grounded in my decision- making is that as painful as getting to that place where we can put all the resources towards kids will be that is what is top of mind for me and there are um other factors that have influenced my decision making and and I'm sure other folks is decision- making but these are some highlights for me um I'm heartbroken for the current students and families at best roads that will have a hard time with these transitions I know it's hard to focus on um any of the positives of this decision right now when we feel such a need to
118grieve this loss and it's easy to focus on um the building and and I know things will be lost in moving to a new space but you have demonstrated an incredible amount of connection and community that I believe will transcend a physical structure um and I'm hopeful that once we move forward we can start really focusing on what Maya was talking about and making those transitions as smooth as possible and using our Collective energy and focus on strategies that can transplant your wonderful Community into the fourth word fifth word School in ways that are joyful and meets the needs of students um I think there are some amazing opportunities ahead and I'm you know truly saddened that we have to have the hard to get there um I'm not at all suggesting that this is
119not incredibly difficult for everyone involved but there there is a totality of factors that are influencing this decision can I go next um so there are definitely some things I've heard that I agree with there are some things that I disagree with a little bit but that's okay I'm not here to have an argument but I would love to ask my board colleagues if we could consider one other alternative and um I'll share it all and then I'd be curious to hear your thoughts but I guess like I would still be okay with closing the physical building of Bessie roads I'll start there like I'm H I'm I'm okay with voting yes if we have a concrete plan I still don't think our plan is comprehensive enough so what I'm asking is that we keep
120bie roads open for one more year what that does like we commit to one more year only for now that gets this year's fifth graders through eighth grade and they finish in the building where they started they were the first children to be in that program and at the exact like as soon as this meeting's over after our vote I think we really need to activate sap 3 to decide which other schools are going to close when the fifth award School opens I think those two things should happen in concert meaning sap 3 should decide the programming for Bessie rhods meaning it might still dissolve but maybe it doesn't maybe then sap 3 says we keep it open maybe they say we move it to another building but I think moving or opening the new
121school the fifth W school um without closing at least two schools is not wise and I know some of you have spoken to that too so I think um I really think those two things go together so that that gives us one year of like Bessie rhods will be open at the same time as the fifth award school for that first year but in the meantime sap will have decided what happens next um I think that also gives us a chance to really solidify all the data because as many of us have noticed and as the parents pointed out like the data has been different and that's okay I mean sap 2 was a year a year and a half ago and some of that data we used was from 21 so a lot of
122this data is just old anyway so um there's a few other components that I think would really benefit other schools if we go with this plan but I guess I'd really just like to ask that we consider that as an alternative and I to me it feels like a compromise where where um you know again we give Bessie rhods it one more year that also I think would give maybe give us a few more sixth graders from other schools for next year knowing they don't have to transition for that first year and then we can leave sap 3 whoever how whatever iteration of sap 3 looks like you know in a few months we have a concrete plan for all of our schools so um I'll stop there I'd love to hear what people think
123if [Applause] that's my first my first clarification is we're not voting today Sor we're not voting today correct right so that's why I just i' would love to hear people's thoughts and maybe we can have some data on it by our next meeting um maybe we can V on both colleagues any comment on that idea I think it brings up a lot of questions for me you know I think the cost of the Staffing and the teachers I mean I do love the idea as someone who was forced and I'm still bitter to this day having to leave my school in the middle of freshman year of high school and move across the country I would love to see those kids that started there in kindergarten being able to finish grade there but then I
124can't help but think okay well what about the kids thereafter too so I think I have a lot of questions about that um I think I'm also curious to see what kind of impact that would do to Fifth Ward attendance but like you said you know sap three I think being able to look at all the schools and all of the different attendance I think I saw was it there was like I'm not going to misspeak because I'm not going to misspeak any kind of data but there it would be good to have good updates here as well I don't know how I feel about what you said um CU I was having my mind was trapped in a different sap 3 thought and for me it's about I'm in a bottom line up front
125mode not a feelings mode so I I heard what everybody said and I want to respond to it but I wanted to share the bottom line up front first which was more about sap 3 and where we go and that's so that we can learn from what we where we've been to try to be a little bit clearer moving forward and there's three components to sap 3 for me that I I would really like to see addressed and they're different components and I think they require different people and I've shared this with some of you individually at different times the first is the facility conversation sa one and two talked about facilities but it really talked about walkability where we needed a new school and it led to a Bessie Road's recommendation but I think
126we need a broader conversation about what does a district of our size need facility wise we did the master facility study we got square footage We Got U we know how much space a person occupies in a building how many buildings is it ideal for us to have I think we need a group that looks at the facilities that goes in the buildings to see what what is working what's not how can we fit our students into an efficient space that allows us to do what we need to do and we need that recommendation so that we can Define the footprint reduction I think the people that do that are facilities people maybe Engineers maybe people from the community that have knowledge and knowhow um I think we need a different group that talks about
127the programs and that is what types of programs do we want to offer in this community the conversations about where Early Childhood is and like is it just here or is it elsewhere where are special education programs um the TW the Dual language program right magnet options right we're talking about a magnet program here but what if we go through sap three and sap 3 is like Yeah we actually should have more magnet options like we need to have that conversation and there needs to be people talking about the programs so we can fit the programs into the facilities where we need them the third and final option are piece that needs to be done and this goes to I think it was Z dinardo's talking about budget savings plan we need to talk about
128how to pay for it and the financial model has to allow us to be saving ahead of the doing so we Finance uh through lease certificates to build a fifth W school we open up a fifth W school we close Bessie roads we are deep populating certain buildings which creates space and then we get a glorious idea to do something else but we haven't yet talked about how we're going to pay for that idea we need to know the idea years ahead of time so that we can finance that plan and and lead the vision forward because if this is a long-term plan that's going to take 7 to 10 years maybe to complete we need to be doing this every step of the way um so we need to talk about the facilities we
129need to talk about the programs we need to talk about the finances and for me it it really is more of a I will I will own I have seen more than you have seen because I've been able to sit with people who have different information ask questions and I think we need to do that in a public space I think we need to bring people along in the ideation process I think sap should work as committees that gets presented in public meeting meeting so we can have discourse um I think it needs to have FAQs along the way so people can ask questions and poke holes in it I think this lagging FAQ on a on a closing of a building in the Dual language programming is it's a postao effect that's why there's
130mistrust that's why people are frustrated and not all the questions are answered um I really need to see I I believe this first step is is still the right one I think we're going to need to close Bessie roads I think we're going to build the new school but what comes next hasn't been defined yet and we really need that information to start coming before the building is built um that's that's the way I feel about it I think that I think that's monumentally important for for transparency for consistency um for people to know what's coming ahead of time um and then I I it's a real functional question but like when will the FAQs be complete I know we have them but they're not not all the questions are answered so I how is
131that being tackled yeah so we're we're talking about the FAQs that we've been developing so in all the community meetings that we've had and we've engaged with Community uh particularly the besty roads Community uh my understanding is that that is a con constantly updated as we continue to have an Engaged Community is that correct team yeah we are continuing to work on responding to those and um we are over halfway and having them posted what AA able online um and we continue to work on them I was working on them today as well great thank you for that thank you I know it takes time you know you can only but we won't I think the answer is it'll never be complete but if we can start putting it up as so that as questions
132are coming in people can react it's already up though they are posted you can find it on the Dual language page um yeah but I think what what Joey is essentially saying is some of the questions aren't answered we're in the process of answering those questions because we want them to be authentic questions versus just putting a response and we have to retract something or it's not accurate information so it it'll continuously be updated that's why it's on the website um I'd also like to reflect on a conversation that I had um members of the Bessie roads Community reached out to the American Council on teaching of foreign languages which is based in Alexandria Virginia and we got a letter as a board from Martha Abbott the interim executive director of the actfl um and
133she wrote a great letter talking about the value of Bessie roads and all the programming that's there and I called her and we had a great conversation um I learned something in that conversation with her that is reflected in the feedback we got from the Mosaic group that led the listening sessions at Bessie roads and then we got recommendations from them um the main thing was that people don't understand where we're going people don't I talked I talked to her about where I hope this long-term plan leads and she's like that could be a model for the country that could be something that we can showcase that sounds amazing and then she said I hope you guys do it and I said I hope you keep calling and hold us accountable for doing it um
134because it's not a model yet it's not amazing yet we're still talking about an idea which is why we have to keep talking about it which is why we have to keep rolling it out and telling people about it because it is an unfulfilled promise still um and we got heard from people that we need a unified message across departments and board members and Bessie roads Administration that there is a lack of clarity in the answers parents are getting this is from a consultant that we hired to lead listening sessions that's telling us that we we believe parents parents and students need something that could ease their anxiety and fears we have two years two years before the building closes we have to do something over the next two years actively to care for members
135of our community we have to do something actively to not just bring them along in the decision-making but you don't have to like it but I want you to understand where it's coming from but we're hearing from people they still don't understand it they'll make it make sense we have to figure that part out and if if it doesn't make sense to people we have to communicate a different way because communication is a message received not just sent right um so that's that's my thought well you know just wanted to get from the team uh in regards to you know the plans that we have in place right I I I think the the question you know that Omar brought up is interesting you know having it open for one more one more year I
136ask I like that both the the fifth board planning team as well as the you know how feasible is that given the Staffing that we need to consider but again as Donna said you still going to have that seventh grader that's going to my family's going to say like well I want my kid to finish and and so do the sixth grade students too but how feasible would that can can I interrupt just I just I I just want to be cautious that I don't know if it's fair to put them on the spot because I didn't present it before and that they're staff and that I don't want them to say no if that's what they're thinking and then okay you know what I just I want to make it's never if it's never
137been considered like let's not let's think about right cuz it plan the the question right so I just out of respect for our staff I don't want to put them in that position um if that's okay and maybe we talk about it in June just and and if that's up to them again they can say we can always come back with the with an answer just that's fine what's the question again it's it's what Omar asked Is it feasible to keep best so can we keep Bessie roads commit to one more year of Bessie roads regardless and then start the sap 3 process right away so that cons like other school consolidations happen at the same time in the 26 27th school year when the new school opens Omar I think your instincts are right
138that it's probably not fair to ask them to respond to that in this moment and I you know I think this is an idea you didn't float to any of us to my knowledge so I think it's a good idea for all of us to I I wanted not ignoring it I think we should think about it right I I think I think in order for us to think about it we're going to need to know some data right and maybe we can all brainstorm some things we would need to know we haven't even asked like if you asked families if these were options what would you choose and how many kids would be in both schools how do you staff it I don't think that but like that's not a I mean that so
139my question was more can we consider that as an alternative to only closing the school so meaning at our next meeting can this be something we vote on I'm not saying we need to have flush out this whole discussion tonight is what my question was I mean I guess two questions come to mind that maybe we'd have to consider um is how would the breakdown of students work like which student which students would be at the fifth W School in that first year without but I don't interrupt you but I guess my like part of my thinking is we haven't asked that question yet about Kingsley Willard Lincolnwood or Orrington yet [Applause] and and I'm not saying that to be argumentative but I'm saying like to me that like as someone who was on sap
1402 as I'm sure I've made it clear many like I just feel like that's an important component that's going to come into it so we don't have as Joey said like four half empty schools I think consolidating a couple of the north Evanson schools is a very different situation than closing Bessie Road so again I'm saying I'm I'm just saying I think I would love for us to be able to look at that as another option to vote on on June 10th that's kind of what I'm asking I you know I get I think we really for the more we hold off on closing the physical building the more expensive it gets to do our overall School consolidation planning I mean I think as as I think as I think about this process right and
141we we started the sap process a couple years back second so again we we spent time on this we've done the research we've got the data I I'll wait I'll wait till folks let me talk yeah my my fear is that again if we continue to delay things are just going to get a lot more hairier in regards to what what do we do around again student enrollments as as Sula suggesting is like so then what do the and the Staffing and the Staffing right so that's that's I think that that's that's where a lot of expenses are right and that's at the core of our expenses is is the Staffing piece right so I want to I want to answer your question in terms of could we will we consider it my answer is
142yes I'll consider any idea that anybody puts on the table I think we're I want to just demonstrate that as folks are responding that's it that is them considering it right like that's part of the process for us to consider anything is to think about what doesn't work about it and so um I'm I'm open to hearing how that could work I have concerns about how many of the logistics play out and whether again we're just we're creating more uncertainty and more elongated pain by not making a decision so I think we I guess my response to it is if we can identify some questions that we would need to have information about to consider it and we don't change our timeline of because we had a legal process to get here but like that
143we can I'll consider anything that we think will work but um so when I shared my um my thoughts about there being a facility program and finance uh sap 3 configuration I didn't touch June 10th because I don't you can't have any of that information really I don't think the staff has the bandwidth to get it to us in the next 10 days I think that's just a reality um I really am leaning on um pressuring you my board colleagues and asking the administration to lean into the reality that after June 10th the clock the two-year clock starts yeah yeah I mean we want really meaningful work that includes program conversations facilities Financial Planning and Community engagement and rebuilding of trust that is clearly broken right and we have to do that we have to
144like we can't just show up at International night when we're you know hand inv invited we got to we have to be more out there talking to people because this is this is a big deal I I agree see it differently but there are children in the room it is a big deal yeah yeah I agree I think that you know in the sap 3 process holds that opportunity for us to really deeply engage in this ongoing process in regards to right sizing the school district and helping folks transition as smoothly as possible and developing Community Trust um again I think we we've tried we try as a school district to really try to engage community members uh in in all our decisions that's something that we value now there may be folks who may
145have not been part of the sap 2 or maybe may have not seen me uh when I went to the sweet information nights with our team or or or the when when I went to the Fall Festival that I was invited to by our colleagues again I I try to be good boardly ason I do have another life uh I do 20 million things besides this uh but I do try uh to engage and I value value Community engagement immensely um but again I think what Joy suggested in regards to really looking at sap 3 process and those three pieces right that are at the core of the work that we do which is again facilities man management right fiscal responsibility uh you know again all those pieces really um you know and programmatic you
146know just really digging into those three pieces within the process uh to to and making sure that folks are very clear uh as much as possible working with our team to really provide Clarity uh in regards to what direction we're going to uh as we move forward with right sizing the school district I mean this this plan has to hold up to scrutiny yeah if we invited people in to talk about our facilities we should go see a building that's struggling to survive for kids and it should be indisputable right the program conversation should be the same thing the financial model should be the same thing we should be able to bring in all of the naysayers in our community to join a financial committee to talk about how do we deliver the best things
147for our kids and they should be able to get on the same page and say we can afford that this way like we shouldn't be afraid of that and do you think we've been afraid of that here no but I the fact that people keep saying they don't understand the plan means that we haven't communicated well enough that that's all that means to me I'm not saying we haven't said the information but people keep coming with the same questions and if it's blocked by trust then we got to fix that part if it's blocked by information we got to fix that part and those things clearly exist because people keep showing up in our mailboxes at our podiums and having these conversations it's it's it's incessant it's the reality that that we live in we
148have to fix that part Joe I think there are sorry where you going to go no go ahead Joey when you say the plan you're talking about closed like we vote if the vote is yes close the school there's two years the fifth the best like that's what you're talking about so I guess my question is to kind of connect that to what I shared like I think what I said can still happen like even if we like the plan is still to like shut down the Bessie roads building and programming in 26 like are we still looking at closing two other schools by then like that's the piece I guess that has been unclear to me is like are those two pieces still cuz we haven't had that conversation but why that's that's I'm
149saying why haven't like it's not like I feel like we started talking about this in December and January and it's now May 20th so that's the piece like I me I think we can we can only like do these big analyses and data Gathering right in succession we can't do them always simultaneously I would like to see a plan as well within the next two years I would like to make decisions about which buildings need to close in the next two years I would like to see that in the sap process as as Joey's laid out um yeah so can I ask this is and I this is just for clarification sake so you're saying we would know within two years which schools and I kind of want or or are we saying they would
150also close that year cuz that's the piece that I can't I think there depends on how quickly the analyses can happen right it depends on how quickly the process can happen in terms of facilities programs and budget savings model those are not insignificant yeah I also Imagine there are some legal boundaries that I we can't like announce a school closing in 3 weeks right like we there needs to be process there needs to be there needs to be public best roads is head so but I don't I don't and I don't want to because I know that we sometimes get interpreted very literally right we I think we can decide more schools within the next two years I don't know that every decision we need to make will be made in two years because we
151don't know what we don't know a year from now right so I I I don't think there's any reason there seems to be the will of this board to continue this conversation and to go engage in a sa process that gives us the data that we can keep moving on other decisions and other closures should that be where you know in whatever ways they make sense I don't want to put an exact to it because it does depend like if we don't get the information for 6 months then that wouldn't be fair to schools to not give them the same planning and to and to your point Sula the reason why I think they need to happen they do happen in succession and I think they need to happen in closer succession because I think
152that one is dependent upon the next we we can't continually move School communities no right and and because of that like we know the fifth word school we had the demographer show us the potential impact of depopulating a number of schools I think we need to think through that reality and talk about what the next wave looks like so that we can Define that so that everybody can land in a productive supported space and we can plan to to put that into action I just want to add to that so if we think about what this process has been this Bessie roads closure was announced two years ago we've had two years of this process and we're still two years away from it closing right so we probably will have to have a a similar
153timeline for for any I don't I don't think I think we're going a similar timeline for other disclosures but not for decisions yeah decisions can be made in the next two years but I think we it wouldn't be fair to turn to another community and say best Ro got four years you guys get six months we would need to have the same process yeah Community engagement takes time so people criticize why why hasn't the the the the why hasn't the fifth world school why haven't we Broken Ground why haven't we done cuz we are engaging community that takes time we have an engaging Community also we also had a fin iial issue there that we talked about right that Financial issue that came up as well so again there there's these all these factors you
154know there's been transitions you know in in leadership I mean there's so many things that have been happening so folks went you know why why why is it why is it taking so long to break we we're doing our due diligence right but there's there's folks out there the media out there that tries to use conjecture in uendo to suggest that we're not doing our job but we are we're out there trying to engage with Community as best as possible all right so again I think and we are going to continue and we have to but that takes time and and and again to to get it right we're going to have to take our time to to build trust to build uh you know a solid plan moving forward on how we ensure that
155this District so my only concern with what I heard and again I'm happy to have this continue this conversation I'm really not trying to be argumentative but and I know things take time and I I realize all that but when the fifth War School opens we are going to have four underpopulated schools so it just seems like to me we can if we can speed up that process and do some consolidation um like we'll be able to get like more fiscally sound sooner we'll be able to like adjust Staffing sooner and make sure you know make keep smaller class sizes if we have a fewer building so I just feel like I'm scared I'm I'm cautious that we're going to wait too long to do that next step I think we're all agreed that we
156want to fast move fast so I think as a board we we can put a deadline then like we can ask this like task the staff with saying we want know we do need this data as soon as possible so that we could do right by our community by excuse me our whole Community yeah there there's some things that can be done and there's some things that can't be done right there the children who are going to be kindergarteners at the new school when it opens you know are three years old so it's hard to if they if we don't know who those parents are it's hard to ask them you know does yeah I mean they now would go to Willard do you want to come back to the fifth word school near your
157home or and asking now doesn't mean that they'll stick to that decision two years from now or my point isn't kind of like I think something that's been said about best like we're not asking every individual family we're we're looking at the boundaries as they exist consolidating and kids are going to like families are going to go where the borders are like that's the piece and and I I mean on a similar note and one of the sap 2 people spoke up like some of this stuff I feel like we talked about during sap 2 we still have never heard a full presentation from sap 2 and I don't even know if it's possible now with Serita gone but I feel like some of these things were flushed out by sap 2 and we never
158got to present I think I think the sap 2 committee made recommendations I mean there were lots of options but they didn't they presented the recommendations that they believed were most feasible right I mean and then the everything else I think was available but it wasn't necessarily presented is right and I feel like we're all sort of saying the same thing I mean it's clear that we want to get zp 3 moving as quickly as possible I think that like the Administration has heard that but we oh I think that the Administration has heard that but we owe it to them to come back to us with the plan and a timeline that is quick fast but that they think they can actually execute on so so that we can get the data that we
159need and start the process in a way to make sure it really happens I also want to add a bit of the urgency I would love to give our bilingual certified teachers and staff that reassurance they are amazingly talented and high demand and I would want to retain them here for our twe community in all of District yeah that I can agree with as well I mean I think again given the um the demand all over right and and given the situation you know with migrants that are coming in um and again it's it's it's it's already happening we're already seeing migrant families coming in um and that's going to increase that's going to bump up and I think whatever we can do to keep our Educators or multilingual Educators um it's critical I mean
160it's critical to meet that upcoming demand so all right colleagues with if there's no other comments uh what I'm going to ask you to is if you if we're okay with asking the administration to bring us bring forth a resolution uh on on uh for June for us to vote on is everybody okay with that to close a physical building okay it's one two three no no okay so we got U yep 6 to one all right so Administration uh colleagues again we're asking that you please bring bring forth a um resolution uh for our June meeting to vote on uh with that I conclude our board discussion at sorry we'll a motion to close the public hearing yeah so at this time I move to conclude today's public hearing at at 8:44 p.m. can
161we take a quick yes yes yes yes Sue yesz yes can we take a quick yes