001good evening everybody uh we are here today for the regular board meeting on Monday October 23rd 2023 uh just wanted to offer up um we do have translation services concurrent translation services uh adila can you please give us a roll call yes um today is Monday October 23rd the time is 7:18 p.m. roll call Wilkins here Lindsay Ryan here Kim here Salem here hail here Hernandez here I'm going to now take time to read the Our Land acknowledgement we take time to acknowledge that the land we meet on is the traditional homelands of the Council of the Three Fires the patami oju and this land also served as an important meeting place for Miami hunk the monoman enoa sack Fox Poria Arapaho cheyen and other tribal Nations this land has long been a center for
002indigenous people to gather trade and maintain kinship ties located the intersection of several great waterways the region has become the site of travel and prosperity we acknowledge Evon and John Evans are tied to the massacre of the rapo and Cheyenne for railroads and westw expansion upon which John Evans developed his wealth and founded Evanston this this land was violently taken under settler colonialism through genocide and open Warfare and the region that is now Illinois and Chicago land is still home to thousands of native people who are actively struggling for sovereignty self-determination and Justice the genocidal acts of settler colonialism extended to peoples of Africa and their enslaved descendants despite Illinois eventually prohibiting slavery slavery was an accepted practice before and after statehood the vestages of slavery remain throughout the United States and directly affect the
003the descendants of enslaved peoples rich and heterogeneous communities who helped Define the African diaspora the genocidal patterns of violence against peoples of African descent and Indigenous people have been replicated to exclude and harm people from many intersecting marginalized identities in the United States religious minoritized disabled and lgbtq identified peoples bipac and Pac RIT large these patterns demonstrate that the pursuit to end State sanctioned violence against bipac is a daily struggle for Liberation from continued social political and economic anti-black racism and oppression today we acknowledge that we're living breathing loving grieving laughing and sharing space on unseated territory may we honor may we learn to honor the historical and contemporary presence and power of the people and their beliefs that we must be caretakers of the lands and Waters for the livelihood of future Generations we
004encourage everyone to continue to expand their knowledge and reduce their harm through awareness of local Mutual Aid models for survival and through engagement with online and local resources such as the Chicago American Indian Community collaborative and the front Legacy Center uh next item on our agenda is the approval of the meeting agenda may I move that the Board of Education approve tonight's meeting agenda as presented second welin yes Sue Lindsey Ryan Yes Kim yes Salem yes hper yes Hernandez yes next item is our uh District updates so first we'll start with Dr Turner absolutely so thank you welcome everyone so I want to just start by um just sharing a few updates so we're excited that our sports are up and running thanks to meredi teer Mr little and um Mr MC Holland at shoot
005the students from Haven made it to the state meet for cross country so that's pretty exciting we're very very excited about that uh as as far as the work that we're doing around curriculum and instruction I'm excited that our team is underway with our standards based grading professional Learning Community as well as we're in the fourth week of our professional learning with leaders specifically around K5 literacy so you know we launched the new literacy instructional resource this year and so I'm just excited that teachers across this District have really taken a hold to the new curriculum for K5 and they are really embracing it and again as slow as we must we're learning it we're adjusting it we're making the adaptations for for children and that's most exciting for us I'm super excited also that
006we are launching we will be launching our first trimester benchmark assessments are ready to roll out and so that's pretty exciting for us it'll give us a really a post check and a dipstick around where our students are toward meeting grade level standards and so excited about that and I want to just publicly say to our Betsy roads Global Studies uh community that we are still actively looking for a school leader uh that Community is near and dear to my heart and I don't want to make a haste decision as it relates to that and so the urgency is there our team will continue to keep supporting but our goal is to try to at least get as close to the mark of identifying a school leader there definitely ideally Before Christmas winter break um
007and so that's our goal so just wanted to acknowledge that as well we are uh underway with our Alice training and our Alice training is just safety training to make sure that uh all of the adults around this District are trained in Alice and so we're still improving those numbers every week with just getting staff across the district trained and so again those are the superintendent updates and so just excited about the work that's underway uh for our students here in this District thank you so much Dr Turner for those great updates um again I I just appreciate some of the work that you're doing to really look dig into some of the curriculum and instruction that's going to make an impact uh on positive impact particularly around the literacy piece um I just um
008again looking forward to the outcomes and and seeing how that's going to really change the trajectory of our students uh academically uh colleagues do you have any any of your own comments you want to share I know we are all trying to make sense of the path forward in light of the challenges we face as a district one of the challenges in moving forward is that our decisions have very real consequences for folks in the immediate future we hear from folks about our decisions and how they impact them today or will impact them when their third grader is going into sixth grade and those impacts are incredibly important but if we only consider the onee twoyear and five-year impacts we will not be able to make the best decisions for the long term of our
009district because honestly the decisions we are making are not five-year decisions they are 50-year decisions our commitment to a fifth W school and all of the reasons it was important enough for us to pursue have not changed there needs to be a school in the Fifth Ward for a myriad of reasons that range from historical to emotional reasons that have been discussed for years on the campaign trail of most of us and consistently in this board space those reasons continue to drive this board to move forward with our commitment to building a school but the reasons extend beyond values educational philosophy and Equity the reality is that many of the reasons for building a fifth W School are also practical they are functional and financial and as our population evolves it is imperative to have
010schools that meet the needs of students and to have those schools where students live and a significant portion of our students live in the Fifth Ward while the realities of how we do this have gotten more complex what needs to happen and what needs to be done has not changed it's critical for us to pause and consider the how I want to be clear that there is no option without costs those costs are both financial and have the potential to impact student experience we are hearing from lots of different folks with suggestions on how to proceed and I appreciate the perspective and thoughtfulness of the folks presenting new ways to approach this situation there are many good ideas to consider but I want to be clear that in addition to the social emotional and practical
011costs of each option there are financial implications with each decision not building a school will result in a loss of funds for the lease certificates and have a financial cost every year for decades with nothing to show for it delaying the building of the school will have financial implications as we don't control the market and cost to build they will likely increase and as they have over the past few years and also maintaining 18 buildings for an additional year will cost as well so we could spend millions of dollars to delay and get less for what we do spend later the cost of a K through 8 school which many are advocating for led to an increase in costs from our initial plan both in the expansion of the building and the 40% increase in
012construction costs that have occurred since our initial bids building a k through 5 building will result in both the costs to delay the project and may impact our future decisions on how to proceed because we may not have enough wiggle room to move other students to that space in the future should we decide to close other buildings down the road these just outline the financial realities that are known there will be other Financial costs in transportation in energy costs depending on lead certification etc for every item we consider eliminating we have to understand what additional costs will exist in additional to the fin in addition to the financial consequences of every decision there are choices that will impact student experience as well K through 5 and K through 8 options have advantages and disadvantages we
013are not making decisions in isolation the choice we will make then will impact other schools as well the reality is that we have had not had enough students or Capital funds to justify 18 buildings in a long time no matter what we do about a fifth W school we cannot ignore this reality any longer it may seem counterintuitive that you would build a new school and consider closing others but it is actually just necessary building the school and redistricting gives us an opportunity to make a host of decisions that affect each other at the same time instead of making decisions one at a time that limit our options for future decisions we need buildings to be where the students are and we need the buildings we have to be closer to the capacity and the
014number of students they serve past boards have chosen not to address this problem because it's difficult and unpopular and constituents will be angry and it means we are forced to address a multitude of challenges at once the cost of maintaining all these aging buildings with ever increasing improvements needed when they are not near capacity and the number of the students they are serving cannot continue so I want to encourage our board to be brave and instead of kicking the can down the next to the next board we need to look at all of these decisions in context there simply is not a choice with zero risk and with no downsides I would recommend that we move forward with building a school in the Fifth Ward I believe believe our decisions about the Fifth Ward sizing
015and feeder patterns should be with full consideration of the recommendations of sap and I would ask that they be tied to a commitment of this board to review all of our current facilities and student enrollment projections in the meetings ahead we need to make these decisions not in isolation but with broader consideration of the flowcharts of decisions that choice will necessitate we need to fully understand how each choice will impact our options moving forward per usual I think we need to move from the either or place and figure out how to make both and work for as many people as possible my hope is that if we Face the situation head head on we can build the school we need in the Fifth Ward we can make the difficult choices we need to about our
016remaining buildings and financial cuts and then we will be able to invest in the needed repairs and upgrades in our remaining buildings to ensure the best possible experience for students down the road at the end of the day this is not just a 5-year decision but a 50 years one and we need to find a way to balance making decisions with the least amount of harm for the children in our schools now with the need to also Center the needs of our students in the decades ahead so we can set up our schools and our district to be thriving communities in the future thank you colleagues any other comments I do have some comments from uh Donna Donna wangu um D due to my worksh schedule I um I am very apologetic for not being
017able to attend tonight's meeting in person I really wish that I could be there tonight to hear my colleagues thoughts more from Ser about the sap 2 discussion research and feedback as it seems that there's much thought intentionality put in there from our community but also in reviewing and hearing more about financial options this is a large responsibility to many parties the Bessie rhods families families in the fifth board everon skoki taxpayers the twe learning community and more so this is an easy decision or discussion to to have and make um bullet point sap two results it's it seems that Ser had a lot to share and based on uh last week's Personnel but you know I'm going to share these for um for our discussion so so I won't read that part um okay
018so yes so that that is her her her comment right now for for public consumption um again I just want to comment a little bit around this particular big decision we have to make you know we're we're in rock in a hard place right but I think um at the end of the day our I know the commitment I made uh campaigning uh and never since I've been on this board is to make sure that we provide uh the best possible resources to our most marginalized communities um again the Fifth Ward uh historically has been prom made made promises to and then these promises have been taken away or broken uh I don't want to be that institution that that continues to break the promises and the dreams uh of of of another black and
019brown Community I want us to be an institution that worked with other institutions like the city of Evon uh 202 Northwestern to collaborate and ensure that we provide the best Services possible to fifth War families because it's long long overdue and as bis said again this is a 50y year uh you know decision we really want to dig in this is the board who's willing to be courageous I think to really make the hard decisions around really rightsizing our school district and ensuring that our school schools are serving our students and families the best possible Educational Service that we can but again that means we're going to have to make some hard decisions around programming around uh you know buildings uh and then but again it's a long overdue conversation uh and again for for
020me uh building a a fifth W school will allow us to have that uh flexibility to be able to make these harder decisions that we have to make and eventually rightsize the school district which will ultimately benefit our students and families for generations to come right I mean it's easy to get caught up with okay well the here and now uh but again if we take a broader view if we as a community work in collaboration with our institutional Partners I believe the school is possible the way we originally intended to uh and which the community dreamt about and share those dreams and share their hopes uh in regards to providing the best possible school that we can build in a black and brown Community I come from a community uh Little Village um where
021I taught grew up a little bit there uh where again we had a school promise to us a high school promise to us uh and what happened was uh the the the mayor at the time da um ended up utilizing the same money that that was promised to our little village community to build Walter Payton College Prep beautiful school but the north side didn't need any much any any more nicer schools right our communities needed them so it's personal for me because what happened is our community had to go on a hunger strike our mothers and grandmothers again held a a hunger strike for two three months just to get the talk to the mayor and his and his handpicked board to give us what they had promised us and eventually we got the school
022built so it seems that every time that we try to build something in a in in a community right in a black or brown Community well it's it's not the right time it's never the right time when when will be the right time right as my colleague Sula said I think the time is now and I think we live in the community that has the resources to be able to invest in a community that will be a community Hub not just a school because a neighborhood school what is and was in the Foster schools case a community Hub where folks again centered community and community experiences along with the YMCA that was there right which again was taken away so let's now try to reinvest and I see as another form of reparations right this
023is educational reparations we re we we can bring back the school invest in a school in a community and ensure that that community and those students our black and brown students and families have the resources with city of Evon there District 65 there Northwestern there Family Focus there all of us can coordinate and make sure and invest uh make sure this investment uh pays dividends for generations to come so let's not be that Community again where we say oh well you know now it's just too much we can't invest but it's just going to get more expensive and we won't ever be able to be able to invest in in our black and brown communities because and then that'll be the same old story right that we just pull any type of uh hope away
024from from a community that has again endured a historical wrong and we will continue exacerbating these historical wrongs uh to these black and brown communities so again hard decision that we have to make but again I think it's something that I'm I am still committed to ensuring that we try to um hold our end of the promise that we made as a as an institution in the city all right with that we're going to go into public comments members of the public are welcome and invited to address board during public meetings speakers are discouraged from using the public comment period to air specific concerns about staff members being mindful that the public comment period is not a suitable form for fact finding or resolution of disputes rather we encourage members of the public who have
025concerns about specific District employees to follow District communication guidelines found in the student handbook please remember to state your name and that you have three two two minutes to address the board also note that it is not customary for the board to respond to public comments the best way to correspond with members of the board is by emailing school board at District 65.net adila can we have our first few speakers please yes we do have three people signed up for public comments so we'll be prorating the time to 2 minutes per speaker to a lot for our 60 Minute time um I'll start by calling out the first three people Dr Hickman Dr neighbors Roger Williams good evening can you hear me yes okay I am Dr Stella salisa Hickman president of both the ivy
026Pearl Foundation Incorporated which next year marks 25 years of awarding college scholarships to Evanston area students and the Delta Kai Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha story Incorporated currently celebrating 75 years of service to to the Evon Northshore Community our Decades of commitment to encouraging students personal growth in academic Excellence includes a variety of youth leadership initiatives in addition to the thousands of dollars in new and continued scholarships awarded annually tonight we are here to enthusiastically offer a significant financial contribution for the construction of a Fifth Ward school we make this pledge in honor of our members who served as Educators in the original Foster school we make this pledge in honor of our members who attended the original Foster school and and suffer the lamentable loss of a neighborhood school right and the wrong
027is long overdue while the sixth and seven WS each have two schools within near boundaries the fifth W home to nearly 1,000 students has no school within walk in distance these students are bust all over the city we make this pledge to support correcting more than 60 years of harm we make this pledge with a goal of encouraging like-minded individuals institutions and organizations to join the collaborative effort needed to make the building of a local highquality education center a reality our students deserve no less we make this pledge with a FV hope that members of the district district 65 school board will leverage the hard learned lessons of the pandemic and recognize that even though achieving Justice and Equity is not easy convenient or popular it is debt that we all owe to our community
028and to our children thank [Applause] you to Dr Turner and members of the board I'm Michael neighbors and I represent the Evanson Northshore National Association for the advancement of colored people and Second Baptist Church of Evans and combined they are 247 years of existence in Evon representing black and brown people um our Branch supports the construction of the Fifth Ward in Evanston Illinois our Branch began in 1917 126 years ago past members and officers of the branch worked to secure equity and equality and public education in Evanston during the height of World War I when race riots abounded around the nation during the summer of 1919 the striving to reach Racial equality and education was never more important during the difficult days of the Great Depression in 1930s with a growing population of African-Americans in
029the city the NAACP continued to press towards equality fairness and excellence in public education when Evanson decided to desegregate its Public Schools the only School in the Fifth Ward was closed and children in the Fifth Ward were bust and walked to other schools in the city in order to achieve integration for decades no public school was made available for the children in the Fifth Ward we are here tonight to say to Evon District 65 the school board and residents on the cusp of making right a 50 or 60y year wrong decision one can almost hear the ancesters uttering a proclamation of Aman A or about dog on time if our nation can find $100 billion of money not in the budget to a Aid hurting and distress human beings if our state com controller Susan
030Mendoza can find $150 million to bring our rainy day fund to over $1 billion if our city could build the incredible new Robert Crown Center when it learned that it was so far over budget by finding money for the cost then surely we with an urgency that is prompted by a Chase for justice can secure $25 million to begin the construction of a new school a school that by its very presence will signal that Justice wins the day thank you very [Applause] much good evening I'm Roger Williams I'm a board member with uh crew 65 first I'd like to offer my support uh to the interim superintendent Dr Turner and the school board some of you know have known me for a while while I was president of uh opal and afterwards I've had conversation
031with some of you regarding black student achievement over the years and I watched as far as you and DR Horton struggled with getting District 655 through the uh pandemic uh the situation regarding the shortfall in the funding of the fifth award school has come to my atttention I'm not sure how we got here but I'm certain that we need to get to the Finish Line which is the building of the fifth War school I believe this this District 65 and evanson's moral obligation to build the Fifth Ward School The Fifth Ward in Evon is the only Ward that does not have a neighborhood school as a result black children have been busted seven schools for 56 years I have learned that when making decision it's why is wise to consider the broader uh historic context
032in my perspective The Fifth Ward itself and the school has always been the victim of racist policies and racist behaviors the fifth war with his African-American majority was the product of red lining that funneled black people into the fifth War F school though prop uh although predominantly white in the early 1900s became a black school as a result of red lining and what I call educational jurry mandering during the 1960s there was an initiative to Des segregate Evanson schools black children bore the brunt of this plan this segregation plan was designed to attract white family to send their kids to Foster school which later became the king lab school black children on the other hand were shipped away from Foster School their neighborhood school and were bust to other Wards schools that were predominantly white
033this practice continues to this very day uh many white people many white people in Pride themselves on on this City's diversity but let me ask you this do you think it's fair to uh to require black children to do something you would never require your own children to do like being bust to schools outside their own neighborhood every day that should be the the first question you ask of yourself is this good for my own child if the answer is no then it's not good for black children either the creation of a fifth W School in District 65 and indeed the city of evanson's moral obligation here's your opportunity to correct a pass [Applause] wrong the next speakers are Melissa dunon Kathy Parsons Alice Barry good evening my name is Melissa Denton I have a
034fourth grader at Willard Elementary School but most importantly as a part of this community I'm a part of the sap team and for all those parents who've dedicated all of these evenings to get us to this point could you please stand anyone who's been a part of [Applause] set [Applause] as first vice president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority a historically black sorority but also past president ameritus of the Willard PTA we've not only seen the impact of not having a school in the Fifth Ward but our children are living it it wasn't 50 years ago it wasn't five years ago there were three NES that were actually hung at Haven right on the campus between Haven and Kingsley that's a feeder school for us and I had to have conversations with my then second grader
035of what that meant so it's not about it being long overdue it's more about its time I Echo what everyone else has said we don't know how we got here financially but we are here to support moving forward not only with the fifth W School but understanding climate and culture still need to get involved to address the discrepancies that happen within our schools that impact our children so we're recommending that we move forward with option number three because it's the best available option right now with the following conditions added we would like for the schools to priori prioritize fifth W residents including our Spanish language Learners limit tweeted two tracks and then the broad and District must agree to a timeline to address the culture and climate of Haven who historically is unsafe space for
036black and brown students thank [Applause] you roads my name is Kathy Parsons I'm a fifth word resident and a Bessie rhod's parent I have two children at the school I have uh I've lived in Evon only nine years but during the pandemic I got bored and I bike down every single Street in Evon including one that's not on the map um so I've I've seen it I've Been Everywhere um I just would like to be a parent that says I fully support uh the new school in the neighborhood hood and um especially the any option that goes k through eight uh because these kids have been through a lot uh the my older son is in fourth grade and he was the one he was in the kindergarten class that got stopped halfway through and
037when we got the news of bie roads with clo I was like well it couldn't be worse than Co we'll get through it I suppose but we chose Bessie roads on purpose because it's k38 um and few transitions from elementary to Middle is better for kids and this would be just like so many transitions for them and making a K through five School in the fifth word but leave leave only one k through eight School option for parents who feel like that's the best for their families thank [Applause] you I'm Alice Barry I'm a member of crew 65 and a former former opal board member I have long supported the construction of a school in the Fifth Ward to remedy an injustice that has lasted almost six decades I do support it though it's not
038clear to me how it should happen exactly but luckily for this District I see before me very smart big-hearted Equity focused people who are working hard on answers I have confidence in the members of this board and in Dr Turner and her team to make the best POS possible decisions in response to this very tough situation this board has tried to make decisions for the long term something I applaud so I wonder if we might learn tonight if there might be even greater costs long term for not building the new school given the significant Capital repairs needed at Bessie roads and other District facilities let's not forget that education infrastructure in this town and across this country has been underfunded for decades it seems that this board and an administration's appropriate task now is to
039rightsize the district determining what the district needs for long-term financial and programmatic stability and making tough decisions to get there there's no question I think that the beautiful new upto-date facility would greatly add to the district's stability and flexibility going forward and make some decisions easier down the road I wish you all well tonight during this very tough discussion I and many others trust you and support you and I want to add that I saw on uh in the local press a comment someone saying that they didn't like the design of the school without Green Space around it and so tightly sort of jammed into a residential neighborhood my granddaughter attends Helen Pierce School in Andersonville which is jammed into a residential neighborhood almost no parking anywhere no green space anywhere my granddaughter is thriving
040there it's considered one of the best schools in CPS thank you [Applause] great and if we could have the speakers line up that would be great our next speakers are Samantha schwimer Michael Ball Oliver Roth hi my name is Samantha schwimer and I want to personally thank Dr Turner for the memo she shared on October 17th I'm going to read the letter on behalf of my neighbors and myself we represent 37 families within the second and Fifth Ward and reside within a five block radius of Smith Park our neighborhood spans different races religions and backgrounds despite being spread across various schools and W boundaries we've come together to look after the elderly celebrate life's Joys support each other through times of loss and welcome new neighbors all while frequently gathering at the Smith Park throughout
041the year currently our children attend four different elementary schools highlighting the unique challenges we Face we are deeply invested in a fifth wward school as our children would attend the future school and we'd like to be involved in the decisions concerning their education we are invested in sustaining our unique Community by by supporting our children's future through quality education and maintaining the affordability and accessibility of our neighborhood our request is straightforward we support the establishment of a fifth word school but implore you not to impose an excessive financial burden on residents or compromise the quality of Education a fifth award School loses its purpose if our community cannot afford to live there or it lacks the necessary staff and resources to thrive recent Revelations regarding budgetary and cost estimates have given us cause for concern
042and we respectfully ask that you consider our families before making any far-reaching decisions we seek clarification on the following key points construction plans how will the board use the new information to fully evaluate the various construction options and financing plans to ensure the new school and District 65 as a whole are set up for long-term success budget shortfalls in light of shortfalls and miscalculations related to the transportation savings we are curious about your plans for securing additional funding considering market conditions Rising costs and inflation budget cuts in the event of financial pressures necessitating Cuts or tax increases we are apprehensive about the criteria for decision-making and would appreciate insight into areas where the proposed 65% budget cuts might occur is there an option that doesn't trigger a 6 and half% budget cut transparency we place
043great importance on transparency and accountability could you please outline the mechanism that will be put in place to ensure full transparency within the fifth W school budget and my neighbor is going to continue this letter hi thank you uh we understand the complexity of the issues you must address and the importance of thoughtful deliberation we're asking you to take the time to thoroughly assess the situation in light of the new information learn from past experiences and to proceed in a manner that both fifth community and the taxpayers of Evon rightfully deserve in the past 5 days through our own Community organization our 37 families have gathered to formulate this letter while we do not represent the entire Community impacted we'd like to continue to engage with us involve our fifth and second word families in
044the dialogue to give us more opportunities to influence the decisions that directly impact our children and community sincerely 37 family uh families of the second and the Fifth Ward um I just wanted to acknowledge what a tough uh situation we're in right here I mean in light of the you know $20 million in cost overruns and the simultaneously you know $20 million in uh lack of of bus transportation savings you know that uh that we thought we were going to have so this is a really really really tough decision thank you [Applause] good afternoon Dr Turner board members I'd like to just make a quick statement before I began uh my wife and I were called to the hospital for her sister who was uh very ill before I came up so I have a
045statement and it I didn't check on the timing so it may be just a few minutes or or few seconds over so forgive me I hopefully will address what I wanted to address um my name is Oliver Ruff I'm a former vice president of Opel and a member of crew 65 being over 3ars of a century of age I feel that I've lived experiences that qualify and manifest my presence this evening additionally having been a former a student at Foster Elementary School also gives me a unique passion and commitment to indicate my desire to see the school being constructed and housed in the Fifth Ward again after 50 years plus absence of a community school for a Fifth Ward Community I feel it's appalling to be put in a position position of questioning that a
046school is built that reflects a quality structure programmatically efficient curriculum with qualifiable and effective Staffing to service the student population my heart is heavy standing here making this request but I am hopeful that caring and competent Minds will continue prevailing in the development process unfortunately we are currently encountering a debacco whose resolve is doable if we have the will and the minds to do what's right there is no war no other W in everon District 65 that has had the struggle of intentional or unintentionally denying deny denial of a community building the past history of the predominantly black community has been utilized for desegregation purposes of his students by being transported to other schools uh what what must what must we do to continue being the best making the best decisions possible when is this
047going to stop that we've got to come and plead to have a school in the community I entreat your our everon community to support the construction of the Foster Community School quality and Effectiveness are characteristics that I am request requesting in this construction project process let us get it done before the prices rise again and that it will be used as additional reasoning for moving for not moving the school forward thank you for your time and attention for this crucial and critical matter let it be option C thank you [Applause] our next speakers are Robin Brown Jason Ela Tom [Music] Hayden good evening we are living through very difficult times and I want to start by publicly thanking Dr Turner for last week's message on the war in the Middle East as well as Joey
048and Omar for making the courageous decision to share an additional personal message to d65 families all of you are wise Educators as well as compassionate and thoughtful people and that is what came clear in that is what came through in both of those messages also want to thank Dr turno for the thorough memo presented publicly to the board on October 16th regarding the financing of a fifth W school without being an expert in finances or public education Administration it is clear to me that you all have difficult decisions before you when the board voted unanimously to bring a school back to the Fifth Ward in March of 2022 many of us in the community were Overjoyed the time had come to work to repair decades long harm the plan to finance the school seemed perfect
049now fast forward to October 23 23 and things seem more complicated perhaps we including many on this board were too optimistic there seems to have been missteps and lack of communication and with Rising costs of everything these days including construction materials and transportation we're looking at a much higher price tag for the construction of the school this creates challenges for our community but these challenges should not deter us from the goal of returning a school to the Fifth Ward some will use this as a reason to pause or pivot from the goal I urge you to stay the course a new school in the Fifth Ward is good for every everyone most importantly fifth W families but also a new school in the district will support longrange planning due to underutilization of some d65 buildings
050all of which needs significant repairs we know there's tough decisions ahead many of us voted for you all despite the unanticipated challenges you're facing I still trust that you will carefully balance the needs of our community with the most marginalized students in mind I hope you take this moment to reflect on how we arrived in this place and humbly receive constru critique um I wasn't here when the vote happened in 2012 but I've heard lots of people say we almost got it done then don't let that slip away [Applause] now I want to start with when in Chicago when Brandon Johnson had big plans he famously said first we get the money given recent disclosures that annual savings from eliminating busing is now only 750,000 at best instead of 3 million and that a k
051R8 school is now estimated at 25 million over the original construction estimate of 40 million if the board is going to push forward with a new school building then the board has the responsibility to be transparent upfront about what it is planning to do to make the numbers work and balance the proposed budget instead of addressing the new school peace Meal please show the District 65 community the comprehensive master plan for redistricting and if there's no such comprehensive plan it is time to produce one before moving further and please show the community the plan for funding needed repairs for all the other District 65 schools so that all District 65 students have a safe and Equitable building to learn in thank [Applause] you hello thank you uh my name is Tom Hayden I'm a resident
052of the Third Ward uh and a writer and I've been critical of this board uh the board stands front in front of this community and says it is committed to equity and to the fifth W I asked the board where have you been the last 18 months why did it take 18 months for anyone on the board why did it take a new superintendent for us to be aware of the new costs and the changes in the plan skoki next door had a school in 22 months and it was built for $44 million and this has taken too long you you stand in front of the community and talk about an injustice and this is part of the Injustice that you have committed the new plan the $65 million plan is fraught with risk it's
053a complicated financing scheme it could be subject to a backdoor referendum I you know I don't think it's a good idea uh but the smaller school I think I urge the board to build a smaller School in the Fifth Ward uh to prioritize that to get a K5 to do right by the community and get a K5 School done as quickly as possible thank [Applause] you next we have Brandon uter Barry Doyle Benji hi good evening everybody uh my name is Brandon own I'm a Bessie roads parent I support the fifth wart school here to advocate for Bessie roads when we heard about the budget shortfalls it makes me think of going back to the drawing board like Dr Turner did with all of her options that uh lay out ways forward now I would
054suggest going one step further back to the drawing board and consider why Bessie rhods was rolled into the fifth W School plan to begin with and a couple of the proposed reasons that I've heard are are the money from busing those numbers happen to be a little bit off money from uh selling the school I don't know how much money you can get from selling the school but not $25 million that's for sure to offset the cost money from crossing guards uh I heard in another public meeting crossing guard money was 600,000 per year and then half of that is coming from Evanston currently uh and then also Dr Bessie rhs the school itself being one of the uh inmost need of repair schools in the d65 which uh if you compare yes the size
055of the school and how much money is necessary to repair it if you consider that ratio compares to some of the higher-end schools when it comes to repair costs but if you're looking at just the net cost of repair Falls somewhere in the median uh and those numbers are 65 numbers couple of other reasons as to why uh Bessie rhods may have been proposed is to be rolled in with the Fifth Ward is that population is reducing at Bessie Rose that's not true it was increasing prior to prior to the pandemic and it's currently now increasing my son's second grade class received two new migrant Spanish speaking students just this year and I would propose that that just keeps going up um Bessie twe curriculum is in its development phase if the school's interrupted now
056it could take years years and years and years to to make the ground that's lost that thank you very [Applause] much my name is my name is Barry Doyle I'm the parent of a sixth grader and eighth grader at Haven um you're in a difficult spot uh you're you're in a difficult spot because of a lot of the work that wasn't done along the way um along the way you've been aided in that work by DR Horton by Raymond James by cord cigan and Clark now DR Horton is gone um but ever since this vote happened last March to put up a fifth word School the story has consistently been we're going to put up a building for $40 million where he saved $3 million in transportation costs um um we now know that the
057$3 million was never ever a real number we also know that once the first estimate of the building cost came in it was 46 to 55 million the $40 million uh figure that was talked about in the community over and over and over wasn't a real number and I hate to be uncharitable but when DR Horton repeated those numbers over and over again those were lies now we [Applause] have we have coining cigan and Clark and Raymond James as trusted advisers to the board as part of the underwriting process Raymond James had to figure out that those numbers weren't real because that was how their they plan to get paid back their silence enabled those lies to grow and take root in the community and became points that you relied upon um with regard to
058cig and Clark the the $40 million budget that Dr Hort talked about over and over again was never real after the first estimate that came in so when you look at people who are still here today you have Raymond James you have cig and Clark these are people who continue to be trusted advisers to you the board to the administration you need to look carefully as to whether they deserve that role in light of what's happened thank [Applause] you do we have Benji okay the next speakers are Marta Medina Salvador Medina Bridget uter hello everyone um it's my first time uh English is not my first Lang language so I hope that everyone will understand what I I'm it's just my uh personal opinion uh I have a daughter at Bessie roads and I'm not
059against uh a school being built in the district building a school it's always good for the community but closing another one will have a big impact like at the families or uh at the children uh the other day I was talking to my daughter and I was telling her you know maybe B roads will close and you wouldn't be moving to another school and she was about to cry and that really made me really sad um like uh someone here at the board said we're going to build this school that in the future we're going to invest in the other schools why not invest now we're talking about and and you're talking about the future well the future is now the future are our kids we don't know what's going to happen down the road
060and that's just my humble opinion thank [Applause] you [Applause] I'm Bridget utter I'm a Bessie rhod's parent um on behalf of the Bessie roads Community which has been having a lot of ongoing discussions together I want to reiterate that we are in support of the fifth word School in surveying our group the major themes we have are that the bestos community wants open bilingual communication complete transparency leadership within our school and district and that our school and and the children who go to it are given the same objective considerations as the other schools and children in our district moving forward this has not been our experience so far and Trust does need to be rebuilt with our community however as we turn now to the Future I'm hopeful and I think many other parents at
061Bessie roads are hopeful that we can partner with the district and the school board in these efforts going forward thank you next we have Candace Chow chrisy flowers Melissa Rosen Wick good evening everyone my name is Candace Chow I'm a resident of the six sword I also as me many of you know happen to be a former board member head of the finance committee and also board president let me start by saying I wholly support the return of a Fifth Ward school to the Fifth Ward and I know this is not just a vote or a decision it is a process one that we need to get right last Monday this board had what I would call the most robust and healthy dialogue over options and choices I've seen in several years the dialogue was
062born out of huge surprise regarding both the 50% increase in projected expense and the real realization that very little the expected cost savings would materialize but it was a great dialogue unfortunately one thing I did not hear last week was a shared acknowledgement of the role the board has had and what we and where we see ourselves [Applause] today in in order for this board to be trusted and supported by the community that relies on you to be our fiduciary stewards please take accountability for your part in the situation at hand as was shared by board members I don't doubt that you were not told but you also did not [Applause] ask in March 2022 the board voted 70 to move forward with returning a K8 school to the Fifth Ward as we all know
063after looking at the agendas following March 22 uh until now I found that neither the finance committee or the board agenda had on ongoing discussions regarding the status of that project and as interest rates grew as the cost of construction increased the board did not discuss how this would impact the cost of the project when the decision was made to postpone the school opening for a year the board did not discuss how this would impact the cost of the project I raise these points not to be a Monday Morning Quarterback I don't even really know what that is but instead to present the need for self assessment and reflection what are you as a board going to do differently going forward there are still many questions what's the adverse effects of choosing a K8 path
064going forward one which will bring financial burden in particular to the very fifth W residents who've already paid so dearly what could be the impact of issuing $15 million in working cash fund bonds that open up the district to a potential referendum putting those funds at risk and possibly resulting in a student Building without furniture or equipment I understand the desire to move quickly but please make sure your actions now are the first steps in a deliberate intentional process to ensure no more surprises thank [Applause] you hi my name is Melissa Rosen swag I'm a Bessie rhods parent and I'm a member of the community that both wants to see the fifth W School built and either Bessie rhods kept oven or a single School k through eight twe option presented for the existing besie
065roads Community uh tonight I just want to say thank you to Dr Turner for your email today with the update about the hiring process for Bessie rhods was felt very good to get an update on that and just start to have this dialogue around that leadership vacuum we'd like to ask that continuing District 5 communication with the besie roads Community uh be offered in both English and Spanish um in response or thinking through the information given in that email we'd like to ask whether in lie of seven different District personnel providing rotating support for Bessie rhods if we could just have one interim principle to create stability and define leadership and finally um Dr Turner's email mentioned in an existing interview Committee of Staff parents and District leaders for the Bessie roads position uh we'd
066like to know who among the Bessie roads caregivers are sitting on that committee so that we may forward our ideas and our concerns to them as they are our representatives and if there is no caregiver from the Bessie roads community on that commun committee well we very much would want to add someone from our school all right thank [Applause] you [Applause] I just want to make sure we didn't miss Christy flowers okay the next speakers are Ruth young Rita Kendrick Mike Kendrick good evening I'm Ruth Young I teach in Evon I live in Evon You' probably all see me walking my dog in Evon and I want to say that I'm here to support the fifth W school I'm here to support the fifth W school for a couple reasons but the main one is
067that in 2019 I had the privilege of uh doing a collaboration with Amy nuser and Northwestern and the students in our district to look at busing and what it did to our children and my CH my students I was teaching fifth grade at the time were absolutely appalled when they saw who was being busted and wrote letters to the superintendent at that point and realized that the children who are busted lose books and breakfast lose after school programs parents can't come to after school events and they began really becoming social justice activists because they wanted to make sure that kids could go to school where they live and I have some ideas about how we can do that I know that we're only going to save $1 million by not having buses but how about
068if we cut a couple other things like the superintendent search since we already have someone who's transparent and who is already doing their homework and who is already inclusive and doing what they need to do that's a lot of [Applause] money and how about if we don't look at the $3 million how about if we look at even one cent of a child not being able to play with their friends after school as being an injustice that we as evanstonian should not tolerate at all thank you [Applause] hi my name is Rita Kendrick I'm a parent of two students at Bessie Road school um and I'm also for the fifth H school um our school is an incredible place and in our three years there my husband and I have nothing but gratitude for the
069invaluable gifts that our children have been given through the Global Studies twe curriculum both my husband and I have worked in K8 schools and we see the value of language imersion education I'm also currently on the board of our local Spanish Immersion preschool I'd like to say a quick thank you to Omar for hearing out thoughtfully listening to any Bessie Road's parents and I really felt your advocacy for students when I spoke with you this over the weekend so thank you I'm disheartened by our school district in this difficult time of change I was at that meeting at Bessie rhods last month where the staff committee and District officials told us that they do not yet have a plan for us but our school is still closing as a former teacher I have had such
070a heavy heart for our teachers our teachers who without leadership job security or stability show up each and every day for our kids words cannot describe how incredible our teachers are there I will not forget anytime soon what one of the teachers said to me at that meeting in September the teacher who I will not name as they're all concerned that their opinions will affect their jobs in this transition said this I know that our district is doing this to our community and our school because they know that our community will be quiet look around the room the majority of our parent Community is not here and it's not because they don't care with the number of immigrant families and families that don't feel comfortable speaking the language or speaking out in public or even
071families that don't have the ability to be there due to work or child's care many probably don't even know we're in this meeting they do this to us because they know they can without much noise and it's not right would they ever do this to one of the north Evon schools so that's the reason I'm here today I'm here for all the beautiful families and caregivers that did not feel empowered to share their voice I'm here for our teachers who are afraid to use their voices in this meeting for fear of losing their jobs please even though money of our community at Bessie roads is not here or empowered to speak here please don't forget about our students and teachers at Bessie Road School f [Applause] my name is Mike Kendrick I a principal of
072a k school hold a doctorate of Education with focus on leadership I am also a concerned parent from the Bessie Road Community I want to start also by saying I am in support of the fifth W school and this is in no way shape or form uh a a focus us on that today I want to focus on what one of my former my my current parent uh friend at the school mentioned that we have concerns right now for our kids and that is the focus of leadership over the last 10 weeks of the school year the first 10 weeks we have not had a school leader in place and we also found out today our assistant principal is on leave although District 65 has sent additional administrative support those administrators have full-time jobs that
073need their attention outside of the walls of the Bessie Road school and cannot provide the level of dedication needed for the school to succeed this lack of administration creates major problems for our school our teachers are left to teach without the support and to have to pick up the slack for the lack of administration our families are left without any communication and left doubt with the intentions of the district for instance we have not received a school newsletter in over a month and meetings have been scheduled during our family community events most importantly the success of our students is in jeopardy leaders help Elevate and Empower their teachers so they can provide top-notch education for our children and without that support our outstanding teachers will suffer and which ultimately leads to our children's suffering the
074teachers and students of Bessie rhods deserve better from leadership I am also very concerned with our principal search um as another parent mentioned it has been made clear that this is a priority but there has not been movement on this and that it was also made clear in a September meeting at Bessie roads that there is not a commitment for the new Bessie roads principal to lead the Fifth Ward school and it is clear that the Bessie roads school is still slated to close who would want a position like that that has no future that will be a lame duck at Bessie roads how are we supposed to attract talented leaders to lead this community and how would one keep up the morale of the teachers the families and the students going through this situation
075these questions need to be answered otherwise I fear we continue this leadership drought and hurt the families and the teachers of our school thank [Applause] you next we have Joel Renee Stone Terry Shephard do we have Joel Freeman okay good evening my name is Renee Stone um I am a former District 65 parent and also a member of sap one and sap 2 um so I'm winging it tonight because I wasn't expected that I would be here but I'm here um so I am actually here in support of the fifth W school and I just want to make sure that it is clear that we are prioritizing the fifth W students um and with that being said I support option three which is a k through school with four tracks so that all of the
076fifth board students can be accommodated including the Spanish English language Learners and the other fifth W um students that are in the ward um in addition to that if that happens a lot of work will need to be done at Haven the culture at Haven is not very welcoming for black and brown students and um change is long overdue and I think that you know like things just need to change there like it needs to be more welcoming it needs more acceptable um so that students are able to succeed there without feeling like they don't belong um so that's just all I have to say I just feel like we need to prioritize the fifth W students with whatever decision is made here [Applause] tonight good evening my name is Terry Shepard I'm a past
077board member I'm on currently on the sap 2 committee I'm on Evanston stem and I've been speaking in front of this group since my 44 year old son was in the first grade so I've seen a lot up here I've heard a lot and I've heard the same thing over and over and over again so one of the things I hope I never here again is the need for a fifth W school because we will accomplish it um I work one of the speakers immediately preceding said that uh the last fifth W School failed the vote in 2012 I worked very actively on that and I just want to share one story the very last meeting we had it at Cho middle school and uh an elderly white couple came they walked down the aisle
078arm in- arm and uh they wanted to speak and so they were the very last speakers they got up and they mentioned how they moved to Evon from Chicago because they wanted their children to experience an integrated education and so they actively supported the Fifth Ward school they lived in the Willard district and they said had they known the damage that was going to do they never would have participated in it because they saw the decline of the Fifth Ward so I'm asking hoping that we never see that and actually we build it up that we see the return 79 African-American businesses left the Fifth Ward since the closing of that school no other community can say that now back to what I came up to say um I want us to pay particular attention
079to the survey called amplifying black voices that survey interviewed over 700 African-American people uh Evon community members more than any survey that has participated in anything District 65 has done uh they had two things that they wanted to see come out is three first thing was the school in the Fifth Ward they wanted stem I'm also on stem Evon and um they also wanted to see ACC which is African Center curriculum spread throughout the district if that had been implemented properly I'm sure everybody know what it is I'm sure probably half of you don't um there as I said a lot of this is just rehashed like we've been talking about closing schools in Evon for 20 years and we know the schools they've been talking about probably still the same Schools they're talking talking
080about so it's time to move on that and we know why they didn't close it wasn't because there was such a need it was because of those voices in that community so let's hear some other voices let's make normaly out of everything we're going to hear um now I know okay we talked about I'm going to keep going I earned it okay I earned it I've been up here more than anybody okay we also talked about the benefits of K5 through K8 now I'm going put on my grandmother hat okay I've got a grandson at King Arts who the other day I said what are you looking most forward to when you go to high school he said he wants to be with his friends he's not with his friends at King Arts he's an
081athlete he plays baseball he plays soccer they're not with him so I don't support a k school I really don't I don't think it's it's it's as healthy as a K5 and last week you had a person here on this front table discussed the differences in K5 K8 I strongly support Ki and Biz I'mma go with you I go with go bigger go better or go home that's [Applause] it the last three speakers are Raheem Branch Jenny Carlovich Mera Sr I'm Jenny carlitz um I don't have prepared remarks which is risky um thank you Dr Turner thank you uh board um it is a difficult decision um I don't know I guess I really want to maybe mourn a bit um and I guess mourn for 50 some years of of busing um and and
082I look forward to you guys fixing that so thank [Applause] you just want to make sure we don't miss um Raheem or Mira okay I guess that concludes the public comments for tonight thank you so much and again we always welcome our public uh engaging us and again if you want to continue to reach out to us make sure you reach out to us at school board at District 65.net uh next item on our agenda is our proposed action items I move that the Board of Education accept the recommendations outlined in the attached group motion and improve the Personnel appointments leaves and separations Board of Education meeting minutes September 2023 approval of contracts 25,000 and over for October 2023 list of bills July 2023 treasurer's report July 2023 budget amendments July 2023 press 111 and2
083policy Amendment recommendations resolution abating the working cash fund of the district second Wilkins yes Lindsay Ryan Yes P yes Salem yes Hil yes Hernandez yes motion passes 60 next item up is the adoption of updated board agreements 2024 I move that the Board of Education adopt the updated board agreements for second Wilkins yes can we have a moment to discuss yeah um I don't have any specific comments I just think that there are a few things that that we've noted on here um for public consumption these are commitments that we make um as board members to each other um regarding how we share information with each other how we give each other a heads up um especially during critical conversations um I think we discussed things like uh in here there's an adjustment to the
084school liaison role for board members which has been critical during some of these conversations with school communities um there's also um a section in here trying to find it about a commitment between us and the administration on how board documents are prepared and in what time frame they're shared with us so that we can consume them ask questions and um and do so within a good timely fashion um all of that is is in part of a reflective activity that we took was it last week that we had I don't even know when we when we met um when we reflected to talk about how we communicate with each other and how we commit to each other to even when we disagree or um are having necessary conversations do so above board and transparently with
085each other and with the community um we also changed some things like this document always refer to the superintendent as a him or a his um and so we made sure that that wasn't necessarily happening because it's not happening um I'll just add to that um I think we also looked at the section on communicating with the public or the public communicating with us um and it might be useful it is a public document that's posted it might be useful to review um we do read all of us read every uh email that is sent to us um but we do designate um responding to those um public emails to the board president uh so uh that's why yeah I think sometimes uh the public expects that each of us to respond to every email
086um but we speak as one voice so our board president um responds on our on the board's behalf so I think uh reviewing how we communicate with the public I think can be useful um information for everybody and this was all done under you know the the guidance of the Illinois Association of school boards um when we reviewed our our agreements as well as doing the board retreat so again um again that there Authority around best practices for school board so again we continue to learn uh continue to reflect as it's been asked today so that that is part of the work that we do as a school board to really try to course correct there is a section at the end about board member training and I just want to clarify from my own
087understanding board members must complete restorative practices um still seeking clarification on what that means um because there's a number of trainings I don't know if that's an Illinois Association Schoolboard training or I think I'd like clarification on that before we add it to the agreements um and I would just add that uh similarly to responding to emails we also designate our board president as the representative talking to the media all right folks so so did we want to hold off and then get more clarity and then take a vote or do you I'm I'm absolutely fine agreeing to these agreements this is low hanging fruit for me um I think if we're going to agree to all be trained in something we should Define what that is okay um Beyond diversity c training um lgbtq
088plus gender identity training there's a lot of things that claim to be training in those areas um and we should just Define what that is so that we're all having a common understanding uh when we have discussions s good so what we can do is we can reach out to our ISB rep and then find some clarity actually get some of the trainings around restorative practices right and what exactly those are so makes sense yeah because there is a new iasb tra trauma informed um training that I recently took yeah um that should probably be listed as well but I don't know if that's uh I don't know if that's what we meant when we added that because they're not the same thing okay was that seconded someone second it was seconded I don't know
089if we want to maybe we just take amend and take out that last bullet under training unless there's anything else that somebody wants amend it so I moved at the Board of Education adopt the updated board agreements with the amendment about board trainings for second Wilkins yes Lindsay Ryan Yes Kim yes Salem yes hurn yes Hernandez yes okay motion passes 60 with amendments okay next is the adoption of updated border oh sorry the approval of a 2023 2024 planning calendar I move that the Board of Education approve the 2023 2024 planning calendar second um for for this planning calendar I think um I think every meeting curriculum policy Personnel building buildings and grounds and regular board meeting should have a fifth W School update a financial update on Fifth word School a project update if
090it's about planning for curriculum um or program adjustments um even if there's no update we should have it in the agenda as a placeholder so that that there is a placeholder for the communication to happen um and that update even if it's a non- update can happen in public because one of the one of the activities that didn't happen um before our last meeting for me the the price changed not because there were overruns in the project but because of time and inflation and the the price was going to go up what what I what I was under the assumption of in my conversations with past administration and and those that were uh guiding that ship at the time um was that in lie of taking next steps like breaking ground the plan we adopted
091was still the plan in place and we can't we can't make decisions without information and in Li of having information provided to us um transparently before and I've apologized to DR Horton and her team um we need to have placeholders for that to be there every time I agree I mean again when it yes yeah what did I say Dr Turner and her team that was just a brain fart um you're saying every single meeting should have an update is what your proposing for given the experience we've had right I understand I just want to clarify and the path forward I don't know why every meeting that we have we wouldn't have um right I just wanted to clarify okay some update on if it's a curriculum and policy there are recommendations in the SAT
092plan for policy amendments for school assignments um the work is going to be going on we should we should be getting updates um at all of our meetings for the massive project that that is being undertaken so my only like concern would be if it's during like if it comes to us as the curriculum policy committee are they also going to give you the same one at the person I just I worry that are we going to be getting different like do I have to follow every meeting even if I'm not on that committee because it'll come to us during the big meeting it should be in the public documents right right right I understand but then I just worry that then you all will have discussions so I'm worried about I know we want
093to be as transparent as possible I just want to make sure we're not harming ourselves and doing it too much um like for example curriculum policy and Personnel building grounds are two days apart most often I fully I fully that this is might be might feel like an overcorrection um but that's for me that's a non-negotiable so okay so my only I would just say maybe not for curriculum policy do it during Personnel buildings and grounds Committee of the whole and then regular meetings that would be my except except in this sap document that we have there are recommendations for policy changes and I I am concerned and curious about the community engagement that will go into preparing for policy adoption you know you know when we're recommending policy to be adopted by this board
094I'm expecting a certain amount of due diligence and in engagement with the community around that and again that takes time and that's those are the breadcrumbs that I'd like to see along the way to know that that work is happening yeah I think you know with again for the policy pieces right because we know there'll be policy changes tied to to um the building of a fifth board school um that we do limit those to that that you know at least the policy piece to our policy committee and again the fin in piece as well as other like operational construction updates around the fifth work project so that way there's no IT addresses what you're saying Omar it's like okay we don't want to overdo and have the same information repeated over and over again
095but maybe that's the issues that again we cover the policy aspects of of Fifth Ward if we decide to move forward with the Fifth Ward uh and then um and then for financing and all of that project update for sticks with building and grounds does that make sense I I would just recommend that in our when we come back together that there's a recap right right so finance committee talks about the financial aspects curriculum policy talk about the policy aspects and then in our meetings when we're all together there's a recap of like this was discussed at the finance meeting this was discussed at the curriculum policy so we are all make sure we all have all the information I I will accept redundancy over lack of information but see so Joey I don't think
096it's I don't think it's redund like what I my what I'm saying I'm worried about is if it comes up during curriculum policy and then it does doesn't come up during yours and it should that's the point I'm saying so what I'm saying is like is it going to be the same information when we have these our two committee meetings that are two days apart so all the things that happen in committee meetings are all discussion and they're all opportunities for committee members to ask questions so policy you know vet the policy poke holes in it try to find um you know understandings and misunderstandings Finance the same thing any decision- making comes to the full board for for adoption anyway so I think I mean I feel like we're probably saying the same thing
097we just want to make sure it's carried out the way we're we're asking I think I hope we don't do the work asking for a place for it to be shared with us along the way right we agree again thank you okay thank you so to summarize the request is every single meeting which technically is three curriculum and policy Personnel buildings and grounds regular board meeting there's an Ask every time for my team to provide an update on the fifth War school yes and and that doesn't mean that doesn't mean that all the experts have to attend every meeting that might be a a memo um to us to discuss about what the happenings are so that we can ask questions and and vet it but I think there needs to be space for the
098incremental steps to be shared along the way that we didn't have up until this [Applause] point okay all right so I'm not hear I'm not hearing push back on that I just want to make sure like yeah no I I I don't think it's more so I guess what I'm I'm a processor I'm very strategic in my thoughts and my thoughts are saying the update comes in the regular board meeting when the entire board is together when you ask to do stuff week to week and I've been completely transparent and full transparency it does not give my team enough time to go conquer and actually do I get it I can just tell you every week no update you know what I mean but the reality is and I'm just speaking on behalf of my
099team because we've been working extremely hard in full transparency getting the board and this community the information they need and my plan is to continue with that transparency so I yeah what what you can what you can count on for me is the leadership that I've been demonstrating which is continuing to be continuing to be transparent with this board and this in a regular board meeting allows me to do that with the entire board versus peac mailling every time yeah unless it's specific to that committee unless speciic to that I think that's what we're saying right so I think that part I think we can all agree on yeah but I I mean I get it I say if let us test this out and try cuz some things or requests we it might take
100a little bit longer for us to have to get information or gather information or we're working on something or in between meetings the sap 2 process and full transparency has not been closed we're still in progress with that so I also want to be respectful of that team's time because these are community members that are volunteering their time and they need the due diligence to be able to think and and plan strategically around that those pieces as well so like all of those things are plan into to play for me but I I get the need of why we're here and why the ask is I just want to be fully transparent on behalf of my team of saying sometimes there may be a no update because we're still in the process of gathering and
101really trying to sort through information I completely understand that and you have been completely above board about all of this to this point um I think I shared before like this is absolutely me reacting to my own feelings of of being burned with ambiguity or lack of information um and it's um I don't see how we go forward with constructing a building talking about school communities with respect to the staff and the students and the families that are there like every void is going to be filled with negativity fear all the worries and that's not the feelings we want to evoke with people that are that are experiencing the district right so um I want to make sure that we're leaving breadcrumbs along the way of deliberate conversations deliberate decision-making opportunities and deliberate actions to
102reach out to the community to make sure that people are in the know along the way including us I think my understanding of that is that there's still the ability for your staff to streamline right so to say on this full board meeting we're going to have this robust conversation about this aspect and that would then keep like I don't intend for the curricul policy say like I know we're talking about this next week but why don't you have all this other stuff ready for this meeting and you know and and let's go like let's the three of us work it out when we're the seven of us are going to talk about it in a week but I think there are you know to Joy's point there are aspects of both committee that need
103to be considered and so we aren't in a situation like this where our options are more limited because we didn't have information we needed and again this is not at all about right we are reacting to a situation it is um I think all of us can say we are very comfortable with the way that you have been giving us information um but so you know I think we can as a as a group say we're not going to ask like we're not going to create busy work around new parts of this plan just because we have a meeting but we are going to make sure that there is a process to ensure that there're we're we're very clear about what conversations we're having and then that there is a place for hey I just
104talked to cig and Clark and they let me know things are different than we thought last week that's that's there as you know as part of the um as part of the plan always so yeah there I think I think we can still make the bulk of the conversations happen in the joint board meetings but that there might be some offshoots that need to happen in those other spes is that everybody else's understanding okay and right we I do want to be mindful of your team again you've been you've gone above and beyond um and again we don't want to there's 20 million other things that we have to do when we in in a system that we're trying to transform and make more efficient and right siiz so we we also want to be
105considered that as board members so again I think having the placeholders nice uh but making sure that when there is updates right that we we're going to get them and you know so as Biz mentioned right there pigan Clark said oh you I got an update the other day uh from pigan Clark around this piece just wanted to share with the board and the public that way uh you know we're moving transparently and making sure that folks are in the know uh but also balancing the other 20 million options and the other budget items that we have to look at and how how we have to rethink and resize the school district so and just daily operations there's a lot on your list yes all right so again on the approval of 2023 2024 calendar
106we we are going to approve it uh with the amendment of having a placeholder in the finance committee as well as the um um uh policy and then regular Board second yep okay it's I think it's roll call in do we get a second for that second oh I second quiet does like microphone wilin yes lindsy Ryan Yes Kim yes Salem yes hper yes Hernandez yes motion passes 60 as [Applause] amended all right uh now is the big discuss discussion around the Fifth Ward school so colleagues you have um memo in front of you um and then we you know Dr uh Turner and her team provided us uh some updates here and I know you requested some information uh we have some of our experts that are coming up from from the team uh
107to answer all your questions so I'll go ahead and get started first of all thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share the information my team and I gathered regarding the new fifth War School building project during the special board meeting on October 16 2023 it was clear that we all share a passion for the district and for all our students we also collectively recognize the difficult decision we are facing in choosing the structural design of the new school building given the new set of facts we shared this memo is in response to the additional information that was requested as a followup to the 1016 special board meeting so I just want to name that during the meeting I presented the board with 13 different design options with estimated costs prepared by The District's
108Architects cigan Clark and Associates at the conclusion of the meeting the board asked our internal team to provide more information on several options which included options 3 7 8 9 and 12 set forth in the October 16th memo to clarify options Seven 8 and nine are the same designs and serve the same amount of students the only difference in cost is the lead sustainability option when including the lead silver designation and the expected inflation caused by a delay due to the redesign this option 900 students is actually more costly than the current option of 1,000 students per our financial advisor this is not a reasonable option to consider we are therefore providing an analysis of the current design a K8 three story which let me click this real quick so per our financial advisor this
109is not a reasonable option to consider we are therefore providing an analysis of the current design as you see here a K8 three-story building a K8 twostory building option 12 and a K5 twostory building option three as summarized in the chart that you see here our team team has gathered and organized additional information to assist in the board's decision this information Compares these options through the lens of three categories first the impact on student population in terms of programming and placement second the impact on the district's current and long-term Financial condition and third the impact on the construction timeline impact on programming and student placement the fifth War School devel vment team has reviewed sap phases one and two highlights sections per grade enrollment projections policy considerations and bus route dedu reductions the analysis contained
110in exhibit a and which you have here this long document here link is based on the enrollment projection data from 2022 2023 actuals and future projections provided by the demographer during phase one of the the student assignment project impact on the current and long-term Financial condition of the district the following Matrix you see here describes the recommended financing plan for the three primary design scenarios including the INF inflationary impact caused by the delay of the project with the K to 5 600 student option and Ka 750 student design as you can see based on a preliminary valuation estimate on the sale of the property of $5 million so you'll see that really named in the sale of Betsy roads potentially this is a estimated cost again number two where you see the working cash bonds
111these can be used to pay for site improvements Furniture equipment and Technology the dollar amount of $12 million is an estimate of the total eligible expenses and where you see here the other sources include proceeds from the sale of buildings proceeds from the fifth W Tiff distributions evidence-based funding corporate personal property replacement taxes and other lawful sources I want to note here that the proceeds from the sale of the Betsy roads property would not be received until after the completion of the project thus from a CL cash flow perspective when we talk about other resources these will be used to pay the construction expenses and the proceeds from the sale of the building will replenish fund balances concerning the long-term Financial impact of the design decision the finance team recognizes the need to rightsize the
112district's operations as the primary means to stabilize fiscal operations the district incurred an operating deficit in excess of $7 million in FY 23 and the district will begin to pay over $3 million annually over the next 18 years in principal and interest due on the lease certificates from its operating budget starting in fy2 additionally the facility condition assessment report prepared by cigan Clark and Associates dated February 14th 2022 reflects total deficiency needs between the years of 2021 through 2020 30 2030 for school buildings districtwide to be in excess of $188 million with each building requiring major Capital work ranging from $3.4 million to $18.9 million and the fact that enrollment has dropped by more than 1,300 students over the past 5 years gives the district the opportunity to make necessary adjust ments to the budget
113while limiting the impact of expense reductions on student learning opportunities as can be seen in this chart here oh sorry this was the appendix sorry the attachment as seen in this chart here prepared by The District's Architects the current student capacity rate is low throughout the district with only nickel's Middle School above its student capacity goal in the current school year with the construction of the new Fifth Ward the capacity rates will further decrease in those schools losing students to the new school the long-term impact of the design decision of the fifth War school is basically twofold the current 1,000 student design and the K5 design will both generate Transportation estimated Savings of approximately $750,000 annually a reduction of 10 routes at $75,000 per route estimated the 750 student K to8 school will provide significantly
114less savings the greater the student capacity in the new building the greater the opportunity to reduce the number of total school buildings in the district this will better allow for Staffing reductions reductions in utility cost and the savings of tens of millions of dollars in building repairs the sale of the buildings will also generate funds that could be reinvested into other school buildings the impact on the construction timeline according to the district's Architects changes to the final design of the new school whether it be the KA twostory option or the K5 option will likely delay the completion of the project to either January 2026 as a midyear opening or the fall of 20 26 if the district moves forward with the current design it is expected that the opening of the new school will be
115in the fall of 2025 the delay will also have an economic impact on the cost of the Project based on estimates from cigan Clark and Associates a one-year delay in the timeline assuming a 5% construction inflation level could cause these same options to increase by approximately 2 to 3 Mill million as provided in the charts above there will also be additional architectural expenses incurred if changes to the final design of the new school are required however the lease certificate proceeds will continue to earn interest during the delay the additional interest earned on the certificates will offset a majority of the increased construction costs caused by the delay thank you you this also will be available for the community following uh tonight's meeting thank you for that Dr Turner colleagues questions just a few um I
116don't have to start but um um I have a lot of questions based on the memo you shared and um what we discussed last time um I guess just to understand a little bit more about the implications of K5 versus K8 um if we go with the K5 option um it sounds like the Middle School twe would be housed elsewhere so um I'd like to hear a little bit hi Serita I'd like to hear a little bit about where and um if that's correct or maybe in whether um it's housed at Haven or elsewhere um is there then future possibility of additional 6 to8 twe strands at other middle schools so if you could talk about so on behalf of Amy I'll try to answer this to the best of my ability um when we
117talked to the Bessie Rose Community I believe what Amy talked about is if we did if you guys decide to go to a K5 that we would want one school where the twe Middle School transitions to um likely if the fifth W school has the K5 um twe strands with Bessie rhods and integrated it would make sense for them to then feed into Haven together as a twe Middle School strand um I also believe she said that the the they want to process out sixth 7th and eth in one school and then they would start to scale in other schools s have to leave okay so one possibility is that twe 68 would be housed at Haven correct um but there's an other possibility or is that if there's more need right if we fill
118up what the Haven option is then we would consideration there is that we want to focus on Dual language in one Middle School initially focus on success in building a strong program down the road there may be options to build out dual language in another site but the initial Focus would be one school and building a strong program okay thank you and based on our current policy if and this is a big if of if that all happens would we be expected to bust students to those other middle schools or would the expectation be that if you want to select that program you would be responsible for getting your child to that school would have to bus uh we would start having to bus to Haven essentially for the twe students who where haven is
119not a walkable school for them that's one of the questions that I have is right now we only bust middle school students from Walker to shoot correct correct um is the fifth W boundary where the fifth word school is relative to Haven a bus required distance no in totality in entire area no currently Haven kids are pretty much all through that that um boundary currently and they all walk to Haven I think it's important to note too that we did not reduce the Bessie roads routes so those routes are already um we're still materialized in the in the numbers that we've been looking at so we would we never took away the Bessie rad routes because we weren't sure how we knew we would still have to bust them to the fifth W school as
120well great thank you just a quick just a quick update we are condensing routes right now so one of those Bessie roll routes has been already condensed one of the 10 and that was recent that was recent and then there was another I think this was in the sap uh documents that were included uh one possibility raised was of Haven as a K8 school um and I think that's the first time i' seen that possibility raised and I wanted to hear more about what problems that would solve um and what it wouldn't um and if Haven is a K8 is that with a K5 fifth board school or also with a K8 I was it wasn't it wasn't clear which option that goes along with yeah so I think for just Clarity for the public
121um I shared our all of sap Phase 2 preliminary recommendations they this would be the first time the public is seeing those so these are also not recommendations that we have shared with the public that we have had time to get feedback and then kind of do our process where we then go back and then shift those so there like every idea that we came up with essentially is in those documents um the K8 option really came from us trying to figure out how we preserve a North Side twe strand in addition to the fifth W School some of the concerns that were raised were flexibility of choice um for fifth W and North Side families as well as um overflow so if the fifth W twe strands get pretty full is there another option
122close enough for them to walk so when we thought about shifting and moving things um Haven as a K8 came up if the fifth W was also a K8 uh because Haven has a lot of room um and then it would still allow bety Rose to be K8 all the way through um was kind of the problem it was solving and then you could then possibly keep that fifth H School K5 if that was a k i mean we it was a lot of moving in pieces um I think one of the challenges um I think similar to kind of what Bessie Rose is facing now is like finding a leader that would want to lead a k a magnet but a local area Middle School doesn't sound super feasible um so that was one
123thing we were battling with and then I think you would also push Haven kind of to their capacity if that if we added a K8 strand um as well as keeping it a a middle school for the local area feeders can I speak can I speak to that so as I'm sure everyone remembers I'm I was on the saff committee and while our official meetings were cancelled several sap committee members have been kind of bouncing ideas off each other so there's one that kind of came up that I'd like to just share as an example of the benefits of if we were to vote on a k moving forward with a K5 School and it just modifies a little bit of what Serita just said so if we move forward with the K5 School in
124the Fifth Ward and we completely take Bessie roads out of that discussion okay um the the population at Kingsley in particular is going to drop tremendously so what we could do is move Bessie roads to be housed at Kingsley not as a school within a school but that's Bessie Road's new permanent home K8 you know there might be have to be a couple modifications to the building but that'll be Bessie Road's new permanent home what that'll also do is um guarantee a twe strand a twe School in North Evon so at Willard last month we had a mini sap um process with several some of you were there a lot of folks were the public were there and one of the things that came out of that was instead of having twe at Willard let's
125have twe more centralized and a place like Kingsley all of North Evon can go to so by combining by moving Bessie roads to the Kingsley building we'd be able to kind of give both of those communities the north Evon twe community and the Bessie roads Community a permanent home um I just want to see if there's anything else I'm missing that also provides for better space utilization through just the secondary and tertiary cons consolidation correct and so we'd have another tweet close enough to the Fifth Ward school if they needed to be you know if there numbers needed to be adjusted something else that came up kind of Maya to your point last week about folks in the K8 model in a K8 building but who want Middle School experiences well Haven and Haven would
126still be a 6 through 8 so Haven and the Kingsley building are on the same campus so there could be some work done there as far as middle school students at the new Bessie roads being able to be at Kingsley so or at Haven excuse me um again there's a few other little things that came up and uh I think we heard a couple public comments about it even but there there's more to it but my point is I don't like obviously we're not going to vote on this exact thing that I just shared but this is what the sap committee has been talking about and I think if if we [Applause] vote I'm not used to that uh if we vote on a K5 School the sap committee can go through this data and
127figure out what's the best way forward and we can still build a school in the Fifth Ward that doesn't have a school within the school that's just for the fifth W um can I ask a clarifying question please so if that were to be the what we did what would be the transition plan for current Kingsley students that are not twe would it be like the reverse process of what Bessie rhods did where we by a grade by grade eliminate a gened like how would that look because there obviously are haven't really thought that far I mean I think it is um worth saying that if if at some point Bessie Rose takes over Kingsley and that becomes their new home then we would have to redistri North the North Side schools we would have
128to go through a new free districting cuz those students would no longer be assigned to that school we would have to redo boundary lines up North for everybody or just for the Kingsley students I think you got to look at the whole the whole North as a a whole and that's already happen like part of what sap one did was do that right so there's already been changes they're on the district website I play around with that a lot you can see the old boundaries the new boundaries and where the schools are so there's again you know obviously I think we want to minimize disrupt as much as possible for students but I think in this case there were already disruptions coming I just think we just have to be I mean I'd love to
129see a transition committee once we're ready to do these things for all the schools that are moving and all the students and families impacted um but I think this plan could keep them to a minimum I also think at some point there has to be like everybody gets a postcard that says here's the date and here is your child's plan you know so people know exactly what's coming but that's like like you said a transition plan um I love hearing what you just said my problem with it is it's not in the packet um great that's it's what not one of our op well it isn't but it is so essentially we would vote on a K5 if we vot on a K5 tonight then it's again this is I I don't want to represent
130this as the whole sap Phase 2 committee saying it because not every single person weighed in but it did come from those people and it's modifications on many of the recommendations that we started but never finalized so um my ask to you all would be I think if we vote for a K5 if we can agree to move forward with the K5 trust that the sap Bay 2 committee if this isn't the exact plan it'll be something similar that will have used the correct data to to make sure that we're you know benefiting like helping our families affirming our Bessie roads Community while also minimizing disruptions for as many students and families as we can I really I I think that um I think that there are a lot of benefits to the K5 option
131right now just looking at the full scope looking at the costs looking at the benefits to students um I definitely think it's something um for us for it to be worth considering um I think that there you know it it's just so important to look like at everything including why we're doing the school in the Fifth Ward in the first place and all of the historical factors and how it's been such a burden on students and families for such a long time um one of the things that I want to understand a little bit more you know one one of the real things that made us want to do this school is recent events that have happened at Haven um and I don't want to kind of gloss over that so what I love to
132understand a little bit more is where are we from a culture and climate perspective right now at Haven and what has been done what can be done to make sure you know if we are considering this K through five option um that we address some of those concerns yeah I just to piggy back off that I know I we heard from several sap members tonight um and they also they seem to speak in favor of the K5 school so I don't know if Omar or Serita you could expand on the thinking or the reasoning that came out of those discussions informal or not um uh it's yeah the the the pivot to a K5 versus a K8 can I go first before you do that can you just for the public who may not join
133us for every meeting can we just say what sa is and who's on it and what the process has been because this is sap is a community group that is intended to represent a wide variety of folks so that we can get feedback from the community so I just I'm not sure everybody understands that if you could just fa uh so sap stands for Student Assignment process or project interchangeably depending on who you're asking um and it is a committee that is created with um community members um both staff Educators leadership at the district and then parents um and Community leaders that come together to use a process to help uh create recommendations to bring to the board for um Student Assignment can I go first answer then you talk so to my as original
134question about the culture and climate like I can't speak to what the district is doing but I what I will say and it was Melissa Denton during her public comment and we did receive a couple emails about this too like I think there was a a many members of sap Phase 2 had a caveat that if we are going to do that then there has to be a comprehensive plan for how to improve the climate and culture at Haven for reasons that you spoke spoke about and so again I think I don't know if that's under the purview of sep other than just making it a recommendation but it is a discussion that definitely came up from folks who were on board with this plan and I and I would say that um there is
135I mean these are kind of the things that can't surface to the top there were obviously we've been doing this for like six months right so there's lots of conversations that I think have been happening both um ASAP but also outside of it so in a lot of informal conversations for sure just asking you know how we could be up service to the process but I do think it is in it is critical to Maya's question on like how did we even come to a K8 I think that needs to be said publicly um because uh there was kind of a few factors and how we got there um one um for anyone who knows the Foster senior group uh these are a dedicated group of like 60 65 plus uh number not age uh
136people um community members that come together every Wednesday at um Fleetwood Jordan Center and talk about things that matter to them and fifth W school is one of the top agenda items um so amplifying black voices thanking them for really pulling um that community in for us and pulling the Black voice into our decision-making um and so they early on talked about Foster school and how that was a K8 so that was kind of the first thing it was like oh so if we're returning something can we return something similar um so that was one piece uh the second piece was around um like figuring out if we could support those Haven students so that I mean timing was impeccable um of having some real challenges at Haven um and just kind of this this
137theme of like our black and brown children not feeling welcome um at that school space so if we could if we had the opportunity to build something uh to Terry's Point let's build build it big and build it great so we can have all of the babies in one place I think it's also really important to note that um Middle School transition for any of you that remember that is a very challenging time it is very emotional um and kids are a little bit you know off their rocker a little bit and during that time right uh if you think about the fifth War families who and I I'm going to correct one of our speakers go to all 10 of our schools at this point um all being put together during the most crazy
138adolescent time of their lives all in a school where many of them never know each other that is problematic so I do think it is worth in this K5 conversation to know that that is a wrong will be correcting and those families and those students now may have the opportunity to actually know each other and come together cohesively and that's not something we've had going into Haven before and so when we're talking about writing that wrong um it it going on that in the the culture and climate piece that haven I think having those families just at one school is one big part of that that we can then carry into that we have not seen um prior to this um and then the Bessie Rose piece I mean in full transparency if we were
139opening a school we had to close something we knew for sure that we could not operate 20 schools um especially given our projection numbers um so Bessie roads came up for two reasons one the large population of fifth world families that are already at are attending that school the fact that the number of Spanish English language Learners was over well over 80 so we knew we would need two strands um and then trying to also figure out like how could could the if we had to close something would it be AA a magnet or a local area school so bie Rose's proximity to Walker was something we thought about to like if families had to go to a local area at that time we were not actually considering a school within the school so we
140just closed it just at all and and families just had to go to another tweets program we were like oh they're right next literally across the street so those are some of the things that kind of came up when we thought about um the K8 model but I do agree that there are some benefits for K5 and I do agree that we would have to kind of go back on the programmatic end and really think through what that impact is and how we stay committed to that sixth through e8th grade um tweet transition um do we have Sor I apologize I don't know every face in the room do we have a rep from cigan and Clark today that's okay great welcome Michael Mich Mich all right um I want to ask a different question
141than we asked last week and I apologize that it's a different question but I was sitting thinking of I a consultant I work with lots of clients and often a client will come to me and say I want to do this on this timeline and I say no we can't do it on that timeline and here's what I would prefer the timeline be to be and they come back and say no no I want to do it on this timeline um I want to ask the question of what would it take if we do decide to change design plan to get a school open in 2025 is that we need to hire more staff at cigan Clark or like what like what would it take if we're if if part of the decision-making process the
142concern is the year delay what would it take it it it's complicated because there is a lot of questions about the program being considered um it would be a step backwards in the design process where we'd have to re-evaluate um all the needs of the school um unfortunately it's not something where we can just throw more Minds at it um I think there's needs to be a consensus amongst the administration the board Etc and it's just not something I think we can advance quickly enough to still meet the projected construction timelines so there's no scenario in which you all as an organization could get us there we would try our best but I don't think it would be possible do you think it's impossible for any architectural firm to get us there or just you
143I I would it would be difficult for any professional to get that accomplished yeah and just just as a reminder again we are still in the sap process I mean it's not done again there's recommendations that have been put out right part of the reason why we're here is because we were engaging community Through the student assignment process right that's a best practice uh and that takes time to engage Community engage different voices making sure that we get everybody's input and then try to come to consensus uh sap one right boundaries so so it it's taking us long and the huge reason why we're here is is because we are taking time trying to get input from the community and then come up with the best decision uh moving forward overall for the school district
144right and and so so I don't want to rush that process either but but again we do have to do something because again costs are going to continue to Skyrocket um and for me the way the plan is right now allows us the flexibility to be able to meet Capital costs going into the future right we're looking at 180 80 million in capital costs um and my question is if we go K5 right and it says it clearly here on in regards to the long-term impact you know if we if we go through a smaller again the greater this building size the greater flexibility we have right to to reduce the number of total buildings which again is a long overdue process uh as folks have talked about um you know again this has been
145talked about before uh but again it's time it's time to really really rightsize this District in order to provide these efficient Services uh and it's it's going to be hard decision anytime you make it but I'm willing to make it I'm willing to stand and really think about how we rightsize this this this district and then right and then write a historical Injustice so so to me I mean again it it it should be when we think about the larger uh and and and in time the what we're doing is we are investing if we put a K8 as originally planned with the stem with all of these pieces that the community shared with us and what they want in their in their school um it's really going to pay dividends overall and we will
146see that return in investment because we will see successful kids because we will be providing the resources they need and working with Community Partners to provide the resources they need so I know there's concerns around okay well if they go through K to 5 they're going to miss out in the Middle School experience but again we have Fleetwood Jordan we have Family Focus there's other Community Partners that we work with to build out for instance executive function so kids can be able to and we could do it within the K8 school and invite those uh you know invite Northwestern invite city of Evon invite you know bring some of those programs after school before school in the weekends right and make it a community help for adults too so again there's so much potential in
147the current design right and for me if we cut it short if we do a k to five I mean I think it's I mean it right now it's physically responsible but at the end of the day somebody's going to have to pay right um you know one of the things we we like to say in Spanish is L the the the cheap comes out expensive so we go if we go cheap it's actually going to cost us more I don't I'm still trying to understand our options um so I'm going to go back to my cigan and Clark friend sorry um so the the other question I have is like is there a way for us and again I just want to know whether what we're dealing with if we if we don't use
148the current design um is is there a way to like scaffold it right so it's like we've decided two floors these are the changes that you can still make within this timeline right but these changes are now off the table right like I I I just have to believe that there's a way to still build a school with this much time and I I am concerned that any change to that is going to cost us millions of dollars um and I'm uncomfortable with any option that does not uh house all the fifth word students right so um so is there like I understand there's the ideal way I think we can all agree that ship has sailed and so in the moment that we're in is there a way for us to structure decision making
149so that we could still do one of these other options and make it happen well again I think if we pull our brain power together I think there is a way where we could possibly look at a midyear move uh not necessarily a fall but again it's there's so many elements of what what are we losing from the previous design what are we what's the focus of the final design that's changed um and it's it's not as easy as just erasing I'm not at all trying to suggest that it's simple I you know I think I I will say for me for a midyear move is a situation that you consider when you build a new school and you're moving all the kids from this school to that school sure you can do that in
150the middle of the year we would literally be changing hundreds of classrooms in the middle of the school year and saying we're taking these 20 kids they don't go to school here anymore they go over there I I I really can't see a way that a midyear move is a feasible option for us because there's so much systems change so many buildings impacted so I appreciate that it is not an easy task and it may be an impossible task but like if there's any Pathway to still opening in the in the fall of 2025 but but possibly as a K5 or possibly as a two-story k through eight I just I want to know if that's possible it's likely not we're already at the threshold with the construction schedule with the current design and finishing
151in Fall 25 making any changes going going back through permitting processes etc those are roadblocks that we can't expedite any quicker thank you I agree Biz I think that a midyear move would be kind of a disaster I think that would be really difficult um but I wonder if having a school that is constructed in the middle of the Year gives us more time to really trans transition and work on some other other things to you know have the school open in the fall of 2026 um make that Transit transition smoother I think like we've been talking a lot about construction but that is one part not a small part but one part of this puzzle and I just want to make sure as a board we're really thinking through how we transition the programming
152within the school hiring School leaders hiring all of the staff making sure they have time like there are so many things that go into opening a school that I think we should not just think about like when the construction is going to be finished in some ways it would be great if the construction was finished and we could go into that building earlier so we could do some of those other things um and have like a really successful opening in first year thanks SP appreciate that I have a couple of questions based on what my board colleagues have said so far I I think um it seems like and just to be fully transparent I'm very torn and I have been all week since the last meeting and I flip-flop back and forth and I
153don't know what the hell I'm going to do so I'm still thinking this through um so with K5 um and just fifth W families I'm also thinking the transition would be simpler like if we did did have a midyear move and it was just fifth W families going into that K5 school would that be logistically easier Kirby's kind of shaky out ofton I mean it's the most complicated but if we don't if we don't also have to worry about Bessie Rose anyway just so the K5 option does include Bessie Rose families so that yeah so that is that is still four um sections or four classes per grade we did include Bessie Rose into the K5 option okay can I ask a clarifying question so the K5 option we have that says 600 kids includes
154all Bessie roads Bessie RADS and fifth War K5 could fit in that school so if we decided to go with the scenario where Kingsley becomes K8 there would then be room in the K5 school to our point of the flexibility for other decisions and build other building closures and stuff correct if that so if we if it becomes option 3B right then they're because I think that is a concern that many of us have of like if we do this right down to the you know 10% of students and then we need to that will limit our ability to make other decisions after that because we won't have a way to move students that you know if we want to close this building where are those kids going to go um it it will give
155some flexibility I don't want to over oversell the flexibility in that school because that is one of the populations that also in the fifth War isn't decreasing at a fast rate than other other WS so sorry are you going to talk about ask about the fifth War because I was going to go back to K8 model I was going to talk about money okay let me ask this one first um so going from 9200 capacity District to one that's accommodating a little over 5,000 students in school year 3132 right based on the enrollment projections can we estimate now how many buildings would need we would need to consider reducing two I mean you know as Biz said we can't operate 18 or 19 school buildings that just does not make sense fiscally or otherwise um
156so what is a likely number of buildings for 6 to 5,000 students in a district what like what would make sense for us projecting five six years down the road I wish I had that number um so we I mean something I have been looking into is other school districts our size um and so haven't done that full analysis yet I'm hoping to have some information when we talk about enrollment projections for that because I think it is important um I do think that we need to uh I think Biz at this last meeting like we really have to consider which is not in our favor in our district where the the majority of kids live and making sure that those schools are in their vicinity and and unfortunately our school placements aren't lending to
157that very well so that's I feel like our unique Challenge and EV is where most of our schools are isn't where like our highest density population is um so I think that gets a little tricky um but I I I really want to look into some school districts that are kind of comparable and then see um how many schools they have and then also look at what their transportation model is because as much work as sap one did around walkable schools we may be looking at some more busing options if we kind of condense um right that was the other question is that if we do consolidate school buildings and school populations we may need to add busing back as part of the expenses right correct yeah so that hi everybody so that's one of
158the uh most critical questions for long-term fiscal stability for the school district that that's that that's that's one of the primary questions when we look long term how to stabilize this district and obviously it's a difficult decision and and and I can't answer the question as far as number of buildings but I can say that it's important to start that process sooner rather than later because you don't want to get in a situation where you put M millions of dollars into fixing a roof in a building that you're going to that you're going to want to close in two or three years or five years even so so I think that starting right away with a long-term plan and it's a difficult you know difficult plan but starting with a long-term plan on what do
159we want to do and and what's the progression as far as school closings um for fiscal stability uh the sooner the better long term yeah yeah that seemed clear so in the financial model it might have been a slide or two back I don't know if we can go back to the three options I mean there's the yeah uh one forward sorry so the the $12 million in working cash bonds that's not in the K5 option um if we went with the K5 option I correct in assuming that we have that flexibility to issue working cash Bonds in the future for future capital projects yes if we don't utilize that capacity now on lar one of the one of the you know there's advantages to both both ways one of the advantages to the K5
160option is that you would preserve that working cash borrowing authority to fix other buildings so that if you had to for example renovate a building to add additional prek classrooms or something like that you would right so we could do that correct that um working cash Authority uh preserving that and then also the other sources will come into play as well can I just throw something out there um as like uh like something I had just learned in the last few months is that Kingsley has closed in the past and was rented out it was used as a teacher Center was used as a prek center I believe like so one of the thing I've heard folks say that have reached out to me is what if like maybe selling off all of our unused
161buildings isn't the like maybe we like I guess to your point um is maybe we it is okay to remodel a building if we're going to rent it out anyway cuz we don't know what what's going to happen but if we sell off a bill and I'll just use Orrington as an example because I think it's an expensive part of town Orrington parents this is not uh anything about your school but let's just say we were to sell oring in in a few years and in 10 years we need to buy it like we're not going to be able to afford for property in that part of town or maybe any part of town so I guess I just want to like I agree that we need a very comprehensive plan starting now I think
162we have a committee who's ready to do that um but I'd also caution us on I know we keep hearing the phrase right sizing and I do think that's important to an extent but if we sell off everything we might that might be shortsighted for what we might need 20 30 40 years from now I mean that would be an argument for for the K8 right because then you could fit more students in there in the future in some ways I I could I would I would say it's still an argument in favor of K5 but I can see why you know why it could be either way um yeah I guess I kind of to the point I think you said it Su if we do build the largest school possible that's still going
163to increase busing Like the Way North Evon is laid out the way the schools are again on sap we spent so much time looking at these Maps there are many folks who have three walkable schools very close to where they live so closing like yes there'll be an immediate impact on families if we do close a school there or rent it out or whatever but there's still going to be walkable schools there and so I think building the largest school possible is is also shortsighted um because of the other plans that I think are important like giving Bessie roads a permanent home not in that building which also gives the Fifth Ward their own school not half of a school um and then the other thing if I can switch gears and just ask a
164quick question Sergio to what you were saying earlier you use the phrase $180 million I just wasn't sure where what that was I just that came from our Master facility study that was done to estimate how much it would cost to fix all of our buildings to fix all the buildings got it okay so option 3B is not in our packet is the K5 twostory building with a capacity of 600 students which in that number includes Bessie roads but um would give us a Poss a few possible options to possibly take Kingsley Lincolnwood and Willard would have really low enrollment at that point based on the table at the end of this packet y um to remap the north side to kind of right siize those enrollments that would possibly open up the opportunity for
165a north side K8 twe site so Bessie roads instead of moving to the fifth word school could have its own site possibly at a Kingsley something like that um we'd still have the lingering question for twe expansion on the south side and in central so we've got Dewey Oakton Washington and do that have twe that stops at fifth grade so we just have to figure out a middle middle school option for that and I understand we want to start with one thing but I feel like we've been starting with one thing for a while so I'm ready to expand that too um other benefits to this 3B like that seems to cover a lot of ground for me um except for giving all fifth word students a neighborhood walkable school but it does give all
166K5 fifth word students a neighborhood walkable School correct it gives the little ones a neighborhood School with the K5 yes two story yes so we still have the big Haven question about making that a safe space for our black students to attend um among other things which I think is still a big question but I I do want to highlight serita's Point earlier that people would be going in as CO as a cohort which would be very right that the fifth W students would be coming in as people who all had relationships with each other into Haven versus coming as six different pods from other places which is going to automatically have an impact on the climate there and we just need to leverage those things I think yeah I I'll just say like I
167think if we move forward with a k35 option a part of that should be really considering what we do to continue to improve the climate at Haven and how we measure that yes right um Serita the way we use the F like the way we use the first walkable school and our policies wouldn't Haven be counted as a walkable school for most of the Fifth Ward or no yeah okay yes um I want to go back to finances for a little bit um I think it was mentioned earlier Rob in an earlier meeting I mean we' need to make cuts no matter which version we go with K5 or K8 in terms of operational expenses we still need to make $4 million of cuts next year and then 7 million the following is that correct
168the four to five million in year one the second Year's you know that's contingent on that's that's the estimate as of now but it's contingent on what CPI ends up being for know there's there's first cut that's what we'd be recommending the second cut the magnitude would depend a little bit later down the road but but right now the estimate is that number okay and that we have to do no matter what which whichever design we go with that's the operational budget that's that's a really good point before this building being built and before the impact of the lease certificates the district has a structural deficit that they have to take care of and part of the overon on expenses was Transportation Transportation has increased very significantly so it's it's still in our interest it
169seems like to reduce Transportation as much as possible and the other related question I had to Transportation was I think it was also mentioned somewhere if we have lower Transportation needs we may be able to find competitor companies that are a little bit smaller in operation is that true or am I just making that up like that we can get competing bids rather than the one big com bus company I don't know it's a I mean from my perspective it's a speculation it's a possibility yeah um but you know it's a it's a tough Community to get to and and and Oak Park has the same problem it's hard to get busing companies to bid on them because they're so geographically kind of pigeon hold and and difficult to get into you know anecdotally I
170I work on a lot of Transportation bids you were very little competition trans that's what we were told yeah that's that's part of the increase right is that there is very little competition so um there isn't that price pressure yeah but both the K8 $65 million option and the k544 million option have the same estimated savings on Transportation yeah one is just $20 million higher yeah the transportation savings is similar I think across the board yeah and and that's because all the savings is in K5 there isn't much Transportation Savings in K8 because it is walkable for all those Haven students already just want to ask so then some of the pieces that Community asked for like stem ACC do we lose that in K5 if we go to K5 versus K no so the
171I think the recommendations will still be that I think the difference is can we do twe K8 in one building or do we need to do it in two was it were those cuts more in the k82 story that we would have to get when we were talking about not having as many science labs and some of these other things was that like k through eight two story that would make us right because your K8 two story is GNA be your tightest squeeze if you will because we still have to maintain the locker rooms because when you get to middle school there are just certain things in a building you have to have so the locker rooms take up space and we have multiple locker rooms in that building currently uh the size of the
172gym the workout facility that kind of stuff has to stay in that K8 2story so it gives you less flexibility for classroom space I I I I don't want to speak for anybody I know that I and I see that the options we're working from all have lead silver I think many of us feel that to not create a sustainable building with climate change and with the world that it that is going to emerge doesn't make any sense but I'm hoping I'm wondering if we can just um for the community like when we talk about the lead silver cost what does that save us in the long run right like I know that there's a upfront cost but in terms of Energy Efficiency and and costs that often are out of our control when there's
173inflation on certain things like what it could you help us understand like what I know we're putting up this is the cost to get it but what are we what are the benefits of it yeah I I don't have stats to share tonight but um I do know operationally you know you're going to save tremendously on your energy bills every month uh we're we're designing Advanced envelope systems that will last uh far exceed current code um and last you for many uh future ation of roofing mechanical systems Etc that have life cycle cost um so this this will have a savings I don't have that number to offer you tonight but we could certainly get you that those metrics yeah just that that red making a reduction in the lead certification is really not a
174good long-term solution because it we will we will pay for it in the long run is that accurate I think that's fair to say thank you just to move us forward I mean I'm I'm in the space where I'm comfortable supporting um option three wanting to hear more of the developed option 3B option um only because it's to your point Biz it's it's about the next steps um option three is a K5 two-story building it fits within the almost estimated cost of what we agreed to 15 16 months ago it includes all the K5 fifth word School family Ames um it has a delayed construction cost but it gives us the opportunity to talk about some alignment in TW some consolidation on the North side if necessary um and some other cost savings at some
175point as well so I just want to put that out there that that's where I'm at right now what what what makes it the be um considering twe at Kingsley as a k through eight like that nothing for the decision today but pratically Bessie Road out of it but nothing on the so is it impacting the design the design we just talking programmatics okay cuz I'm like where do we where do come from well well it's it's it's programmatic yes but in in terms of we currently have a K8 magnet school that is a k82 um I don't think the k82 progam the the small k82 program that we have should be um sacrificed for the sake of the the idea here and I think what I'm hearing is there's an opportunity to preserve it
176and provide an expansion opportunity on the North side for families that I think is um something we heard in in one of the set meetings that I attended and it doesn't have us prioritizing the needs of Bessie roads k through eight needs over the families of the Fifth Ward where meets multiple it meets multiple criteria um including the financial one but it doesn't eliminate some decision- making that probably has to come pretty soon as well there is the issue if we open and we pursue the B route then you're you're having the population of the K5 fifth W school because half of that population is the best of Roads population so you're creating an underutilized new brand new school in the fifth W and adding capacity in the NorthShore that does not need it if
177you look at the numbers going forward so to some ways I'm not I'm not understanding the economic reality of that situation of keeping another building open and adding more capacity when we don't need more capacity since we're already adding a fifth word school right and I'm not suggesting that we necessarily will keep all those buildings I think that's a just next conversation it gives us some Flex flexibility still if we go with option three to to talk about some of the programmatic changes we can right I I don't have enough information today to say um what that consolidation would look like um what I see is enrollment numbers that suggest that that is necessary and um the fifth word school operationally will be less expensive to to operate because it'll be a newer building it
178will create some flexibility for us to then talk about uh programs and options and um I I welcome that conversation and the community engagement that comes with that task as well um to decide how to do that in the time period where the the construction of the new school is happening so that we can have those decisions come next so can I ask a procedural question that may guide the rest of our conversation so if we were to choose option three which is not your current design what does that do to the bid process is that does that cancel the current bids does like what like what's that process timeline what do we if we effectively if we decide we're not doing the current design tonight does that determine the bid decision that we're not
179moving forward with bids can you just help me understand that process yeah so I think Brian mentioned last time there's 60 days uh to award the bid uh we could pause and uh give the board more time to decide uh I guess the challenge with it right now is the first package that went out is a ground improvements and it has association with the foundations so uh by moving forward with that package you're sort of locking yourself into the existing design footprint and if anything were to change there would be uh ramifications to that with uh redoing some of the foundation ground improvement work so um it's not we probably would have have to decide soon um whether to accept or reject those bids and then uh from a design standpoint we could uh work
180with the group to redevelop the plan and then it it probably would be a rebid process in a few months so from a design standpoint if we were doing option three the current bids like we would need a different plan for what the footprint of the building is and so the current bids don't work this is probably a much bigger hole the current bid then the K2 then then a K5 TW story building is a smaller footprint yes uh potentially I mean the initial concept was we're just cutting off a floor so uh you could conceivably keep a similar footprint um so there there's a lot that goes into it um I guess Michel to be clear I I'm going to make sure I'm clear tonight if you if the consensus is to move with
181a K through five you Our advice to you is to not act on the bids this evening okay okay but the I thought the bid the bid package number one was just for clearing could that go forward or do they have to go bid package one and two or they all bundled together it it could go forward the site clearing but it probably wouldn't be prudent because there's elements that you then have to protect the uh Earth from erosion Etc so it may end up costing the district more money in the long term to hurry up and wait right right I understand yes I can I just if we if we do move forward with like you know a K through five option I don't think that should be a a message that we're going
182to wait that everything is going to be a year later I think that we have to keep our momentum no matter what and some of these things shouldn't take as long to decide and so I just hope that you know the message isn't you know we're going to slow everything down for a whole year I think it gives us some more opportunities from timing perspective on the back end but I think we need to keep the momentum going I agree I agree and I think even more specifically what would be helpful is some timeline scenarios about building consolidations and redrawing boundary lines right that that's what we can work on if um whichever design we go with I think we need to continue working on what does building consolidation and um you know contraction look
183like uh I think that also gives some focused work to sap 3.0 um sorry Serita well I mean the there's a group that's been looking at maps and having conversations for a long time and I definitely don't want to lose the intelligence that's been built with that group and I think that would make a lot of sense to present a more narrow scenario say knowing this here let's talk about some next steps and you know maybe it wouldn't take as long as the first couple processes but I'm prepared to have a meeting with st tomorrow about that exact thing to let them know we're on pause until we sort out what we want to do because then we can take that and and map out what what some possibilities are well and to be to
184be really fair to the s team myself what I had in my head around where I thought we were going to go completely changed when I read where sap came from because it was really important the work that was done by people from across the community having this conversation over time you know kind of slowly going through methodically uh Community by Community thinking about all the different facets so I really appreciate the work that went into this and that'll be important going forward still this was brought up last week so I want to ask um about the lease certificate timeline um because I know if the money's money isn't spent within the three-year window there's some thing we got to do so how does that impact if there is a a year delay in construction
185if you could go over that again it won't be a year delay in construction a year delay in open yes right we'll get started on the construction that's right that's right or midyear midyear completion yes so what we're talking about here are rules related to tax exemptions so these are IRS rules and at the time lease certificates or really any tax exempt debt is issued for capital projects um the issuer the district has to reasonably expect to spend 85% of those proceeds within 3 years um if that doesn't happen and there are unspent proceeds at the end of that three-year Mark um there are certain investment restrictions that kick in um it doesn't mean that the debt automatically becomes taxable it just means that in an audit situation the district would be in the position
186of having to defend that at the time in 2022 when we issued the lease certificates the expectations were reasonable at that time that you would spend the proceeds in three years M when did the threeyear clock start it starts when the lease certificates were issued which was April of 2022 thank you so that goes to April of 2025 and again we're talking about the spending of when the bond proceeds are out the door um so it's not necessarily when the building is placed in service but it's when the district is paying the cost so engineering costs preliminary costs site prep um Architects and Engineering all of those even preliminary costs I assume would be spent first from lease certificate proceeds um you know the fact that you are spending money is I think a better
187fact than waiting till the end of the 3 years and then starting to spend so to the extent that you are starting to spend funds um is a better sign um and then I I would add that in an audit situation you know this would be an explanation to your IRS agent and it would be in the irs's um agent discretion to determine what's reasonable and what's not um you know to the extent that there are reasons such as Zoning for example or permitting that take longer um that is traditionally viewed more favorably in an audit situation versus you know things that are within the district's control okay so there is a good reasonable chance that we would spend 85% of the proceeds by April yes yes okay do you Bill us before you do
188work or after work is completed yes negotiable I just what is that right that if you Bill us before I would assume we pay for yeah okay so there's some flexibility there so colleagues what I'm hearing is we want to go with a k5b right with some so so we've modified what was presented here uh as a board uh with the possibility of converting Kingsley to to um or repurposing Kingsley right to serve a tweet I think it's probably pre I I don't I think it's probably premature to call a play like a option 3B when it we don't have the specs on it I think we probably want to do option three with their understanding that we need to then look at all of the possible programmatic pieces and what that impacts on other
189schools and make those decisions in conjunction is that trust the sap committee to do that 3.0 to do that I also just want to say like like I said exactly where I stood I'd be really curious like I think everybody should chime in here explicit I just also want to say like before we talk about other communities like let's just give that respect to say that we would go through the process with them as we have with other impacted communities um as we talk about changes so three modifiable like plan option three modifiable two story K5 school and we will still be determinated I just don't want to assume that a lack of opposition means uh agreement well I'm still torn but I also want to support consensus I think um I will I will
190probably be torn about this decision I don't know until you know 2031 and everything's hunky dory at Haven and K5 I think I'm wait till can we start with eliminating the middle option which seems to be not like that right so it doesn't seem like anybody wants the K through 82 story no is that fair yes yeah okay yeah yes now we're down to two choices I mean I love the IDE I think that you know we have the money to do option three like there is not there's always something that can get in your way but there are fewer barriers to making that actually happen and making that happen well and I think like we can achieve all of the things that we said we wanted to achieve in terms of having a neighborhood
191schools so fifth War students get all of those benefits um in terms of reducing busing we can do what we need to do in terms of having a six through eth tweet program we can achieve all of the things that we need to do with that option without putting ourselves into a financial bind that could hurt other initiatives other Equity initiatives throughout the district I think the part that I still want to understand um is about the available space because I really don't want us to make a decision on this with just this and then we say six months from now we need to close a building and the building that made sense to close doesn't work anymore because there's not room so I also I I I also want us to not assume we
192know what is best for the Bessy roads community in this in this option of whether they want to be at the K through 5 or whether they want a k through eight somewhere else I think we do need like if if we're making that decision based on what we think would be best for them I would like us to be in conversation with them about that so um I I'm not I am like Sula I think this is probably the um most of our board decisions I have felt very clear on what they were and just knew that we had to manage the the process of bringing folks along to those decisions this one I think there are pros and cons of all of the scenarios and none of them are going to be perfect
193Solutions and so um I not opposed to the K through five option I think just as Maya had brought to light there's a lot of benefits to that scenario if there's wiggle room in the building for me right if we were to capacity with what we do at building K through 5 there then I'm worried then that then I I the thing I like the most about the K through option is the flexibility because I just think we keep making one decision at a time that then hamstrings us for the next decision so that's where I am at um the only other thing I would add because I think it's clear that I think the K5 makes more sense for many reasons but I also think it gives us time to slow down a little
194bit and again it breaks my heart to say that because I wish I really want the school to open in 2025 but because of what happened since what whatever May of March of 22 whatever like this also gives us time to make sure that the numbers we've been given are right that CG and Clark can confirm this and so yes it might cost us a little bit more and like we're not going to approve we're not going to approve the next the uh whatever the clearing of the the site but it gives us that time too so again I just think it's one one more reason why we can um move forward with this but I also want to like I think what Kirby said shouldn't be ignored and I think that again that's something
195that we need that we as a sap committee need to look at too but again I think that still falls into this whole discussion and so I don't know if that all made sense but I think that that's just another reason why I think the K5 is is still the best option gives us the most flexibility I should say yeah so for me I mean again I I I still lean to the K8 uh I'm open to K5 but uh again for me just the the long the long range flexibility to be able to rightsize this district and um again an opportunity to work with Community Partners right and not that we can't do that with the K5 I mean you know we can still do the same thing it's just um I I just
196think again I'm I'm open to K5 but the K8 to me just opens up an opportunity to really start making some decisions that'll really at the end of the day help help us with our structural deficit help us with our operational you know budgets uh programmatic pieces and again giving given that we even though we have a declining demographics you know just in the Horizon uh we have and we continue to see a rise in um you know migrant students um because of bad American policy who are moving away from their countries and coming here and uh as at the same time we're seeing an increase in homeless students who are coming into our school district right so those are just some things that again pressures that again if we build a smaller School and
197the demographics may say something now but again uh that can change and it is changing as we speak I also want to note that um whatever buildings we do keep will need Capital Improvements and I know that the working cash bonds can go toward that but not $188 Million worth right um so just for our community to be aware I think part of the long-term planning will be not just cuts and not just consolidations but potentially another referendum right um I was curious so I looked up the 2012 referendum um that our local media supported back in 2012 um it was a $ 482 million referendum $20 million 20 and half million for a new K through five School Nicholls was supposed to get an addition and an upgrade at $10 million Haven was supposed
198to get an addition and upgrade at $10 million shoot at $3 million King lab $2.5 million and Roads was supposed to get new locker rooms for $1.3 million so obviously to make those improvements now would be much more costly and I just want to you know when I saw those numbers I thought wow we really missed an opportunity there with that referendum to invest in our schools and invest in our community um I don't want to miss that opportunity here which is why I'm also you know pulled toward the K8 in a lot of this thinking um but I don't want the I also understand the the challenges that we face um but I just wanted to make the point that cuts and this plan doesn't take care of the capital needs of our district
199um in the long term so there will be an additional difficult decisions ahead of us I think it might help for to hear what is the timeline if we don't make a decision tonight what are the costs of that decision and what is the timeline to make the next decision right so if we vote no on the bids we're you know we are thinking heavily about the k35 school but we still need some more information or we're thinking heavily like then what right when when would we need to because I don't want to be opening past August 2026 right so when when would cig and Clark need us to do the next bidding process like when when would we have to make this the decision between these two buildings if it's not tonight and I
200know the answer is yesterday but really what is the like when does it really start to hurt us and how does it hurt us um I I do like I mentioned before I do think there's a few months of of cushion if there is a a delay um and again it's going to depend on how much change is required um so we would probably have to Talk Amongst this body uh and understand what the ramifications of the changes are to give you a concrete uh time time frame for the redesign how functionally how quickly like if we decided at our next meeting in November what the situation was when would you then be able to get the next bid situation going um I'm GNA defer back to think we terms of time really more just
201the the next bid decision right so we if we say no to the bids tonight how soon would we be able to be in a position if we made a decision in our next meeting can I give a suggestion and just let's just sort of brainstorm this through a little bit so I to my mind what would make some sense that tonight it seems like you're coming to a consensus on the K through five that that is directing cigan Clark to get going on design plans they could then bring those to you I don't I don't know how long that would take they could then bring those to you in a certain time frame say we are these acceptable we could have a resolution in essence approving the K through 5 school with those plans
202attached and with a comprehensive Budget on that and then you could stamp approval for that now I don't know Michael I don't know how long it would take for you to provide those types of plans so there's obviously that period of time where they're working with Administration working with the board as far as what we want this to look like I'm not sure we fully have consensus on a k35 school I think that's that's the question is if we needed more time to get the programmatic parts of the conversation clearer what when would we need to to make the next decision on bids is that the November meeting is that and as far as that if you and hence you may go back to the original K8 three story building I guess I'll I'll put
203out to my board colleagues at our last meeting one of my concerns about the K 865 million option was I don't see the I don't see the dollars making sense sense without significant cuts across the board and I guess I would just someone have to help me make sense of that um to support that option I think I think the one challenge you run into is if you if you want to go back to the K8 three story is you really need to make a decision on the to maintain the 2025 opening you've got to approve the bids tonight or in a week yeah that's the issue I think yeah I think we have to decide on the design option tonight it sounds like because I don't want to come back in a month and
204say oh let's do K8 and then we just and or Andor realize the implication of that so you could maybe they would come back and it does not meet your programmatic needs and you say you know we really do want to go with the k83 story just realize then it's going to be more expensive and it's going to be a year later yeah now I think um this is the fork in the road yeah I think the challenge is that we have had numbers and plans we were working off that weren't an accurate reflection or changed and so for right so like I believe we can do the K5 option and I believe serita's numbers and I believe right but like if if it comes back that that's not true or there's some change that
205option does have limits and I think everything is an estimate because the reality is is it's a estimate right yeah right so you got to that doesn't definitively and say it is going to be approximately this right it's a estimate so that wiggle room for for change is going to be it's going to happen no matter what right I think the the the what's on the table is the significance of the the the change I think but you know everything even with the proje even with the cost have been as close to estimates as we can get we can get them based off of you know on cigan and Clark side what the estimated what what the actual cost for some of these projects are that they've done on our side in terms of numbers
206what our current reality is with with the projections and then working with the work from the demography that has been given so I just think yeah it it's there's there's always a little bit of wiggle room in in that with an estimate on all fronts I got a you got me thinking about the wiggle room and um we were at City schoolly aison meeting a couple of weeks back and they were talking about the construction projects that are going on uh on on Oakton Street and Dodge and uh you know never ending construction it's NeverEnding con it was supposed to be done sum two my house and what you're hearing is again they shared well it's delayed because there's been a shortage of workers a shortage of supplies so my question to court again is
207are you seeing like any types of construction material shortages that are delaying um School building projects um yes we we do see that across the market but it's something that we try to anticipate and bid packages early so this that's why you see this first bid package was broken out anything that we can uh accomplish early uh we we aim to do that but yes there are certain delays but uh all of which we do our best to anticipate ahead of time so the other question I had um it said in Dr Turner's memo that the additional costs for redesign And Delay are estimated at about $2.2 million but that it could be offset by lease certificate interest is that for like a sh thing like how how confident are we about that offsetting so
208you have $40 million in the bank the leas certificate's ready to be spent I'm presuming that they're earning around 5% interest that's what kind of what interest rates are right now which generates $2 million for the year so with that assumption which I think is a fair assumption the um the extra interest earnings will offset a majority of the construction inflation with the delay and then if it did kind of go beyond the construction costs because of delays in inflation Etc contingencies um we would still have a cushion in with the fund balance um to cover some of the costs right if there was an increase so uh right so so we it would be a situation if we just did the 40 million in certificates and the expected interest if there was any additional
209money we don't have to issue working cash BS now where it's a small enough amount that we could tap into the sale of Bessie roads for example or or another lawful Source but that wiggle room does not exist if we do the K8 $65 million option correct it creates more of a challenge yes and there's a tax increase in addition to that with the working cash bonds the working cash bonds will have a uh will impact the future tax levies related to bond and interest fund yes and and Rob I'll just note really quickly that the bond yield on the lease certificates was 2.8% so that would be the so and it's limited right is it it is one year yes that was all issued in one year so there is no Arbitrage rebating okay
210so you're the the the borrowing rate was 2.8% 2.8% so the borrowing rate was 2.8% so 2.8% at 40 million is more like a million dollars that's all we're earning on it it's it's it's restricted uh be because of IRS regulations it's restricted uh because you issued more than $15 million in in the calendar year so when we think about our initial commitments right there's like six s eight things in the original plan that we were working from it does seem like we are much closer to all of those commitments with the K through 5 option than with the K 38 option knowing that we don't control these numbers I think all of us are having a hard time swallowing the pill of $65 million if that number is really going to go up right
211I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit um even if it doesn't go up I'm not comfortable at that um I just don't see yeah there's no way I could vote for that and then I just want to touch on something you know because you keep hearing the phrase right sizing but if we build a 1,000 student school that's going to be 1if of our population based on these projections and so isn't that just going to put us back back in the problem of we're going to be busing kids there from like so the the the transportation cost so I guess you know just for so many reasons I feel like we can't we there's it's so not responsible to move forward with that you know plan like we have to
212go by what we know now so yes maybe it it made sense when we were told it was going to be 40 million a year and a half ago but now we know that's not the case we can't do it just wanted to point out as you can talk continue talking about a little bit of flexibility in Elbow Room uh that there is rumor that Co had a baby boom and those numbers are not projected in this because these were during Co so we do need to do another projection based on what happened during Co just to make sure our birth rates didn't add some kind of EXT extraordinary uh numbers I'm just saying people were at home like so people were you know making babies so we just want to make sure that we
213get um our demographer back here just to make sure that that hasn't inflated those numbers I don't think it's super drastic but again I think we need to have that demography projection so whatever scenario you guys choose just make sure we have some flexibility uh taking that into consideration we ask we did ask the demographer when he was here how good are these projections how long are these projections good for and he said a year you got to revisit it every year to make sure that the trajectory is right so it's now been a little bit of time you're absolutely right we should check in on that so Ser I'm going to put you on the spot um as someone who's been a champion for this school and leading the sa process do you feel
214like both of these options give us wiggle room to make decisions down the road or do you think there's one option that is better for us in terms of the long-term financial needs of the district so the I think the ka8 gives you the most flexibility I think to Omar's point we will be back to busing right like we would have to Bus kids to that space um um I think there is still room you can see my projections and over time like by 2032 is what we're kind of looking at where we at least have some preliminary demography projections as um right now and that's even with those numbers at the K5 there is still wiggle room um with those numbers a little bit less but with oral and in terms of meeting the
215charge from The Fifth Ward and what the community needs is I mean it seems like both of these options are still a win agreed I think uh the fifth War just want y'all to build a school we got to build a school in the fifth War um I do I think uh the comments around Haven are are very real to them so I think along with that there has to be a comprehensive plan of what that looks like um both on the educator side but in the culture and climate side well we've talked about it before we cannot underestimate and I've been a building principal the value of a cohort growing up for six years together in a community school traveling together to Middle School versus right now that is a group that is fractioned
216off into different places it's a totally different scenario we're six years away from that right right so I just want to make sure that we have a plan as that Community starts to grow together that there's a transition for those six years until that first cohort gets a Haven can we vote I mean we don't have we're not voting on this we're Direction and then we are voting on the bid package right or we're not voting on the bid package if we don't yeah we so so there's no vote tonight on this I think we want to get a sense of consensus um and as far as the bids go if the consensus is the K5 I I would I would recommend just tbling the bids for now as opposed to a full rejection um
217we may later bring them back to reject them but for now I would table them but technically we only uh cigan and Clark only gave us a week for that is that correct that's correct but the bids the bids exist for they're valid for 60 days I think Michael 60 days yes guess I'm still unclear on next steps in terms of like are we telling cig get and Clark that they can move forward with a k35 design are we saying we need more time and if we are when are we making that decision because I think we need to make it fast because now the clock is ticking on option one getting more expensive yeah but option three on your sheet what's option one current Des milon the current option because yeah so okay we
218didn't had 20,000 numbers I'm like which option is that you'd added the extra option so if we if we had consensus today on an option um Brian you were suggesting that at our next meeting we vote on or whenever the designs are ready we put a design and cost vote stamp on on it um kind of a formal consensus at that point right I mean I think tonight you're reaching it seems you're reaching a consensus on the K through five that seems to be we still want this to be timely we want Cate and Clark to start working yeah on that yes I I'm sorry I just had to ask a question because I'm tracking what Biz was asking as far as the timeline so I'm I apologize but I just have to follow through
219from a timing perspective of the board's decision um and I don't know anything about construction but um these first bids are for Sight clearing and deep Foundation size so so I guess and and clearly getting that done before the weather turns is an important factor in this thing and I don't know what happens step two but if the Board of Education knew that they wanted to C if the Board of Education knew the the footprint even if it's smaller with a K5 building I I mean could they proceed with this and then figure out how they're going to design the inside of the building and it not slow down the time frame and essentially not cost us more money right I get where you going yeah so I would say we would uh have to
220consult with Dr Turner's team and start designing tonight and get going and we're already at bedtime so we're going I I also you're making substantial changes to the what you provideed the specifications of the bid you have to rebid it so it would it would have to be basically the same in order to approve that bit correct meaning the design the the foundation design will have to be the same that's right correct so then maybe we have consensus on a K5 twostory building that matches the footprint K three story because then we would that that would be an option I don't know if that's the most prudent Choice well and I think that's that's one reason to that's one reason to table the bids for now yep right to not specifically reject them so maybe
221maybe that could work but I would table the bits for now but I to back to Mya's point when should the informal consensus be a vote and a resolution so that we can get going on redesign Etc like can we do that in a special meeting like next week tomorrow tomorrow tonight you could I mean I I think it might make some sense to have more formal plans before you yeah okay and I don't know how long that will take that will take us a few weeks uh we will need to have some back and forth dialogue with the administration to make sure that uh what we're presenting uh meets the needs of the ultimate K5 design okay and I think it would make sense as part of that resolution also to have a comprehensive
222budget too yes that's just all the document a revised Pro how it's going to be financed yes that would be good so what's the chicken and what's the egg like what's the thing that has to happen first do we have to decide K5 or do you have to give us plans I think tonight I think the well chicken and egg I think the beginning I think tonight we want consensus and if there's a consensus from the board that we want to move forward with a K through five that gets C and Clark moving we will then come back to you when they're ready with a resolution to approve I understand why people keep asking about the bids but I also think we need to realize like this is a like at this point we might
223be throwing good money after bad to trying to save a little bit of money when if we come up like if they come back with an amazing plan that doesn't fit this Foundation um then we're trapped a little bit right so I know it kind of sucks but I think this is much more prudent um to use Michael's phrase so consens since K5 I yes K5 okay one K5 you don't get to sleep tonight you guys are working on so then we will come back to you in a few weeks with a comprehensive resolution with those plans with that budget with that financial plan then for official board approval in conjunction with that then we need to have a schedule in our upcoming meetings about the other building like we need to revisit the Master's
224facility plan and look at what buildings we need to think about in terms of closure so that we can make those decisions together along with your K5 decision we also need to talk about what we are telling the Bessie Rose families because that does impact them as well so if you guys are going on consistent with K5 we also need to have something that we are communicating to Bessie Rose well I was going to say I think Dr Turner can part of this consensus that we're making can you can you direct your team to whether it's sap and some of the other components that we've been talking about in the meantime like that can start now that that doesn't have to wait for the plans do that sound fair to everybody and I think we
225should get some feedback from Bessie Road's family so I I think there's no reason to pretend we have an answer that we don't have I think we should say one option is going to be sending kids to this K through 5 school another we're looking at other scenarios of whether there is a k through a option in a different building and want to hear from folks about what makes more sense because I it it's not great if we decide one and then we give people choice and they all chis yeah just like that exactly that so are are the options we're talking about for roads to transition K5 in the new school and then the sixth rate at Haven or to look for an option elsewhere where their entire building could go essentially right and
226I think you take the findings from today because we're scheduled for sap tomorrow right and that's where we we start so now everything starts to yeah and I just don't want to go ahead go ahead uh and then I think that also affects the timeline of the transition for Bessie roads whether you go with one option or the other does it not no cuz nothing can start until the school's built anyway yeah okay and I don't want to pit communities against each other I think the folks at Bessie roads we already know have at one point chosen a K8 school um I think I don't want to presume but I think we know where a lot of them will will land if they're given an option and I don't want um like a Kingsley or
227a Lincolnwood Community to think that if the Bessie roads folks say they want to go one way that means that they lose their like I think sap has an objective space to deliberate um because there's representation and I would love to see that play itself out um and I also had a 10:30 question um how does this impact already approved city ordinances and Zoning for the building and is it fair to assume that a maybe smaller building will be easier to get approved again or do we have to go through the whole process over again we we will discuss that with the city great um I would just also like to be clear with best roads families of that um really any of our community families because what happened before when things ended up being
228twe at Bessie roads was that there were some conversations with other schools where people felt entitled to debate whether certain children were welcome at their school and this this will be a district decision about what's best for students um and I don't want us to get certain communities coming to us and saying no no we don't want TW year we want TW year we like this is a we're going to consider all of the options and we're going to and but it is a district decision not a individual school we want input but in the end we have to make the best decision for the most amount of folks and this is not a situation where any one school can say no we're not going to we're not interested in having this community or this
229community that's that's not that happened previously and caused a lot of harm well I I I think it's important to then amplify something Serita said maybe 20 minutes ago maybe an hour ago that all we did was approve like all we did was come to consensus on K5 we're not telling Kingsley they're closing like that's not part of this decision you know um like that is an idea that came out of sap and they're going to go through the process and engage the community like they always have um I just want to make sure that's clear because we know rumors can sometimes start and these these notes the sap notes are a part of the public packet and there are unique features for every single School Community if you would like to to see the
230ways that the sap committee thought about your school community and boundaries you can read these notes and you'll find that um you can worry about the possibility of you know my kids are at Walker Walker being redistricted a few different ways so it's it's not about one school we talked about it for example um I think it's also important to note on the slide that's later like the fifth slide that has the and I just want to clarify the enrollment numbers and and the percentages are current correct so this does doesn't take into account what the numbers will be after the fifth word school is built and so you might look at this and say start sending us emails like you need to close this one because of what like this is a picture of
231right now but we have to make the decisions based on now that we're deciding to build the school or continuing to decide um what those numbers will look like because these are going to shift pretty substantially and I just want to say thank you for saying that like I I just want to also be clear that saff is not a decision-making committee that we look at data and give options and then we bring that to the board to then you know M through all the waters and Dr Turner's team to like look at like operationally does that really make sense so I love the oh we could just put them at Kingsley operationally it may not make sense though right and so I I just want to reiterate that like we'll look at the options
232and then bring you like here's the pros and cons and then you guys can kind of deliberate similar to the packet that you have in front of you thank you but I think to to answer that I think just highlighting in this slide too when we look at building utilization that will come up as part of some of the conversation in Sap's recommendations as well for us to think about so like and what I mean by that specifically is is we still cannot negate the fact that we have buildings that are underutilized that is financially costing us as a dis District we're not naming any schools but we're saying we're going to have to do that level of analysis as well to make future decisions going back to what be said earlier 50-year decisions versus
233in the next year or the next five years so like I just want to name that too because it's going we're going to come back at some point and have to have those conversations so to name it tonight is important yeah I I want to go back back to that question I know we can't answer it now but like what's an ideal number of buildings for 5 to 6,000 students right been doing some research of youve been talking um so isby right wonderful resource has an entire essentially a spreadsheet of all of our schools the county and then the number of counts um and their number of K12 most K8 so I'm kind of going through now and just seeing we we have the largest number for the size currently um but there's some good
234analysis here so let me just SK through some of these because I think for your the enrollment projections I'll have a little map on like what the schools um offer like what grades they serve how many students they have and then how many schools are there and then we could have some comparables to look at I mean I would feel much better about this K5 decision tonight if we had a clear road map of what we're doing in terms of right sizing and how many school buildings we're aiming for for 5 to 6,000 students right that with some room for growth and further contraction right we can't totally predict but I think um I would feel much better if we're not just kind of pushing this right sizing farther down the road but that we
235tackle it as part of building the fifth W school so I apologize that I didn't think of this when we were voting about the planning calendar but I think we might need to go back to the planning calendar and look at all the November December meetings and think about how we're where we're placing these various conversations right that and like what the timeline is for your staff to be ready to have the conversation about all the facilities and what buildings are in you know the greatest need of repair and the enrollment projection like we need to Overlay the enrollment projections with the facilities um and so looking at the November December meetings what where are we slotting all of that in I don't even an answer to that right now I just want us to
236I don't know any other questions colleagues I knew we could fill out all those spaces pretty quick there spes all right so no if there's not any more questions I know the next item we had was the approval of the new fifth W uh School construction bid group again now that we've come to consensus around a K5 school um table that Ive table the the approval of the fifth word construction bid group for a future meeting second V Wilkins yes lindsy Ryan Yes himim Yes Salem yes yes um and the next item is old new board business does anybody have any old new board business just want to give a shout out to Stacy for the memo the curriculum memo at the end if you want to know what resources are being used there's a
237nice compact summary of all the resources for publicans thank you to everybody who hung with us till the end you yes all right with no more further business before the board I adjourn this meeting at 10:41 p.m. thank you everybody