Community Conversation - BPAC 10/21

Thank you to all of the individuals who invested the time to engage in our Community Conversation sessions regarding the Structural Deficit Reduction Plan's school closure scenarios.

Meeting summaries were created to provide increased transparency across the community and to provide insight as to the perspectives and thoughts across various stakeholders.

The total number of participants does not include district facilitators.

Meeting details:

• Date and time: October 21, 2025, at 6 p.m.
• Location: Virtual via Zoom for Spanish-speaking families as part of the Bilingual Parent Advisory Committee (BPAC)'s first meeting of the year
• Approximate number of participants: 41

Questions generated via QR code:

Participants were asked to scan a QR code and submit questions, which were then answered in order. The questions below were transcribed directly from the QR code data, with the exception where identifying information was provided.

• Dual language programs are in high demand, is there a conversation about outreach to English learning families as an expansion strategy? Is the district working with the City of Evanston? 
• All 3 school scenarios show Foster TWI at 72% usage rate. What students are driving those numbers? Is it the Two strands of Bessie Rhodes transfers? Does that include the Willard strand? How would Willard transfers fit?
• ¿Cómo es que no están considerando cerrar el ACC si la capacidad del programa es de 128, pero históricamente se subestima a la mitad la mayoría de los años, lo que significa que tienen 9 puntos de clase? ¿Cómo es equitativo recortar uno por una razón y no por otra cuando también se encuentra dentro de los mismos parámetros de decisión?
• What was the Latino representation on subcommittees or working groups - especially representation that could speak to mixed status households, low income families and the safety title one schools offer?
• Why is it never in writing what will happen to TWI once it is removed from Willard? It is said that it will move to Foster, but it is never written, why? 
• How will the district address the disparity between the projected growth in population by the City of Evanston demographers  and the projected decline by the district-hired demographers? (Plans for Evanston 2045 predict a jump from 6-40% in population).
• How is the district not considering the impact of breaking TWI communities apart in a moment of time in which Spanish speaking students need their communities the most to stay safe?
• Que opciones hay para mantener las escuelas como hasta ahora
• Por que se eliieron los cierres escolares como opcion de analisis? No se conoce ningun caso en el pais donde hayan dado los resultados deseados y producen muchisimos impactos negativos fiscales como estudiantiles
• When will any group or stakeholder meeting address how ICE impacts us as Latino families and why your willing to disrupt the safety of our established school communities in this moment in time?
• Why is the TWI Willard community is being broken apart in the transition to Foster? It should be a priority by the district to keep communities TOGETHER
• Will Willard TWI families and Bessie Rhodes families be given a choice to stay together at foster or will they be forced to go to the feeder pattern 
• Can you explain why the equity scores change so much between scenarios 3D and 3B when Washington’s equity score is 4.2 and Dawes is 3.9?
• if you knew the attendance was declining, why did the district decide to open a new school? 
• The district promised Bessie Rhodes to stay together in their transition to Foster, why this is not honored for TWI Willard families? 
• How is the district showing it values bilingual education if it is willing to close  Washington, the school with the highest enrollment, the highest TWI enrollment, the highest number of low income students, and the school with the lowest number of students not attending a school in their attendance area?  I cannot think of a worst time in history to turn your back on a vulnerable population.  
• Closing schools afects more thant budgets? It impacts the heart of our neighborhoods. Like Dr Turner said schools are meant to be safe, welcoming spaces, but when they close what ensures these buildings won’t sit vacant and become magnets for vandalism, illegal dumping or squatting? For example, Washington is a historic building next to sports  fields and the Robert Crown community center. If it becomes empty and detoriatee; families may avoid the fields and community programs could suffer.  Is the City of Evanston prepared for the ripple effects? Before we move forward, we need to slow down and think this through and learn from the CPS experience.
• What plans will the district make to reduce administrative costs and the number of administrators.  If population is declining, wouldn't it make sense to reduce the number of administrators?
• have you consider engaging with a consultant to help negotiate better contracts with 3rd party vendors or consolidate vendors to reduce costs for the whole district 
• Current Washington students could be potentially divided amongst 4 elementary schools.  Why is the most utilized school with the highest enrollment being punished for being at the heart of the community? 
• Were Hispanic families involved in the TWI-Willard closure recommendation? Also, how much would the district save if you close TWI-Willard?
• Dr. Beardsley said that ""current (TWI) students will have guaranteed access to the TWI program""- in the case of Willard TWI students it will not be in their neighborhood school. Is the desire to access programs within a not the exact reason we are building Foster School for $48.5 million? Please explain how the rationale for building Foster does not apply to Willard TWI students for whom the removal of their program from Willard will save the district $0. Where is Willard TWI on the scorecards? Looks to me that Willard TWI students have been erased by the administration. The administration has presented zero cost savings from removing TWI at Willard. Why has the impact to the Willard TWI students NOT been calculated/presented on the scorecards? If any negative impact would result at exactly zero cost savings, why is this program being considered for closure?
• Okay, this is not authentic engagement. This is a sit-and-get type of presentation and a check the box type of engagement. It’s incredibly disingenuous to the participants- especially our Spanish-speaking folks who are most impacted. You need to be more intentional about creating focus groups and round tables with small group breakouts and assign facilitators from the district to help unpack this data with parents and have an actual conversation. Have you done phone banking? A survey and 4 “community conversations” is not engagement, it’s a formality. Those were not conversations they were town halls. I’m dumbfounded by your decision to even have Washington listed as a closing scenario when it is the LARGEST neighborhood elementary school (83% utilization) / the ONLY BILINGUAL STEP program in the district / 12 TWI classroom, more than any other elementary school! How is this about equity? Because it isn’t. It is one of the MOST diverse schools we have in our district; what a blessing to have bilingual administration who reflect the students and teachers they serve. 
• Are the scenarios thinking about the short term and the long term? It is not clear if your numbers for Foster in the scenarios show all Bessie kids plus all Willard kids. Why don’t the models show a short term option: eg keep current TWI kids where they are and then begin enrolling Foster boundary kids at Foster starting with kindergarten? 
• What is the number that the modeling is considering as ELs within the Heaven feeder to suggest closing TWI at Willard 
• Why was Orrington not taken into consideration for a closure? 
• How is the district planning to pivot plans if the board is asking to look at other options besides only closing buildings in the 10/14 board meeting?
• Have Amy Correa and Sergio explained and advocated  to the district admin and board for TWX AND TWS students? the current Willard TWI kindergarten class includes 9 Spanish-speaking children residing within the 2026-2027 Willard, Lincolnwood, Kingsley, or Orrington boundaries and  Latino residents  are growing in north Evanston . If we keep the strand open, we can wait for real data vs projected data.
• Has the district ever considered moving towards a consolidated district K-12 to reduce administrator costs?  
• Have you asked Willard TWI parents from the 5th ward what they want? When you talk about centering TWS families, can you consider what those families want? Everyone I asked wants to stay.  
• Is twi must be moved to foster to make room for step at Willard, why can’t step be moved to the new foster 
• When looking at costs for maintenance and repair to current buildings, why isn't square footage taken into account? Washington has the largest square footage and the largest capacity, so the square footage per pupil investment is lower than the ones for schools that are smaller.
• What are your concerns about re-segregating the northern part of the district? Brown and black students directed to one school.
• You could keep Willard twi open. You don’t need to close willard twi right away. The Bessie strands will already move to Foster. You won’t save money because there are Spanish speakers who live near Willard and would need to be bussed to Foster 
• Why has the district been steering children from the Haven feeder pattern over the years to Bessie? We have families who live in walking distance from Willard who were told they couldn’t attend Willard and had to go to Bessie.  Some went, some held out and got a spot. Some just went to Lincolnwood and never did TWI. Shaping the data to erase Hispanic family data and make the case to erase Willard TWI? We have a Hispanic community in NW Evanston but the district staff seems quite determined to erase it. “No one Hispanic lives in NW Evanston” Sarita said to my Spanish speaking husband at a community meeting