Community Conversation - Fleetwood 10/15

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 15, 2025, at 9:30 a.m.
• Location: Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center
• Approximate number of participants: 120

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.

• With the 3B, 3D, and 3X closure scenarios (or any of the other scenarios), is there the possibility that any of the schools could be changed (or switched out) for a different school than what is currently listed for each of the groups of school?
• Scenario scorecard 3D (revised) Costs Score: 2.4, Scenario scorecard 3B (revised) Costs Score: 4.3, Yet on the financial impact table, in every row scenario 3D and 3B are estimated to be close to equal. Why?
• If Washington closes, we’d be the only school split into 4 different elementary schools and 2 different middle schools. Other school communities, even if closed, remain intact if moved to a new building. How is predicament for Washington reflected in the impact scores or in any other way? 
• Why did the Dawes scenario include middle school students impacted but the Washington scenario did not?
• Do you truly believe that closing three schools at once is the best option? Do you see merit in the idea of going slower and starting with one or two schools and evaluating before taking more action only if necessary? Please don’t punt to the school board, I want your opinion.
• Can you please explain why there is such a big rush to make a school closure decision in 2025 considering that deficit $372k represents less than 1% of the total annual operating budget? (0.198%) Can you please explain why the district is not taking a phased, minimal disruption approach that prioritizes student and family wellbeing and education while allowing for enrollment and retention dynamics to settle while Bessie Rhodes is closed and Foster opens?
• Are chute kids that would have to transfer included in the "kids impacted" number on the scorecards for scenario 3B R?
• How did the board decide to put up Dawes at 2.8 without further investigation into the 4 3-school combinations that are only 0.1 point higher (and who all have lower single-school scores)?
• Please address the inconsistencies between school enrollment projections and the city’s own projections. We need to see closer coordination between the City and school. What steps are you taking to address this divide?
• Why do we need a magnet school?
• Under these new scenarios, will there be any opportunities for students to do a permissive transfer during these years of transition? For example, would former Lincolnwood/Kingsley families who live closer to Foster than Willard/Orrington be able to opt in to attending Foster? Similarly, at one point, future Foster students were given the option to finish out through 5th grade with their original school group…is this still an option? 
• When will we see the modeling for scenario 3v and have a chance to respond to it? Surveys close this week and community input meetings, too. You said that the scenarios have been modeled and recommended based on committee work and admin research and recommendations. But 3v was created by one board member for consideration. This scenario and any new changes (to be submitted by Nov. 3 according to yesterday’s board meeting) would not have community input. How can you reconcile that? It undermines trust and integrity of the process when individuals can circumvent the process after countless people hours of community labor.
• For students whose school is not closing, but are being moved to another school due to shifting boundaries: are students going to be able to finish their elementary time at their current school?
• Why were 7 scenarios presented to the board and public when it is clear only 2 of those options are being considered? Does it make community feedback irrelevant and inconsequential to the meat of the scenarios.
• Is there a place to see projected class sizes (for both monolingual and TWI) for each school with each school closure scenario?  
• With a King Arts closure, For kids who do not thrive in a standard school mode but do thrive in the k-8 model, how will we change the neighborhood schools to meet their needs? 
• What are the preliminary utilization rates for the Dewey/King scenario? How can the community respond to this scenario when there is no data to respond to? 
• Most questions here will probably be about how the various closure scenarios affect different populations because of the way this community engagement session has been structured. I would imagine that most people in the district would actually prefer that the community engagement process explore other options than three closures for balancing the budget. Maria and Nichole put out a very compelling argument for rebuilding community trust and exploring other ways to frame this discourse and close the budget gap.
• My kid's biggest concern is being split from her friends. Washington would be split into FOUR different schools and TWO different middle schools, which I believe is more splits than any other school is facing.  Are there ways Washington can be split into less schools, or can a choice of school be given, to keep cohorts together?
• Do you have a score card drawn up for the closure of one 6th/7th school and how that would change walkability? (And removing Foster from walkability, since it have not been listed as an option from children in either of these wards). Do you have updated scorecards listed the transportation costs to include busing to Orrington and/or Willard, if both Kingsley and Lincolnwood go offline? Why is the boundary line, south of Central St., moved one block the the east, preventing a group of current Kinglsey students, to remain with their classmates at Orrington? Have you taken feedback from our teachers? Do our current teachers/staff have a priority to positions before outside hiring, i.e. foster & vacancies in remaining facilities? What is the number/percentage of students that live within the 5th Ward that currently attend King Arts? Are these student numbers removed in the occupancy number for Foster?
• Could King Arts be both a K-8 magnet and a k-5 zoned school or does it have to be one or the other? 
• Why are you recommending a scenario that requires substantial movement of middle school students?
• Is there an opportunity for Kingsley students to attend foster?
• Can the district handle closing 3 schools at once? 
• What are your projections as to what money can be generated by selling Bessie Rhodes? If not, why don’t we know that yet? You’ve known for some time it will be closing. 
• Do the scenario scorecards geography scores take into account the changes in middle school borders?
• Are you planning to sell the closed schools in the next couple of years?  Are deals already on the table in terms of leasing?
• Has the district/board thought about deviating from the whole-school to middle school feeder pattern model in the Dawes school closures scenario to account for the new boundaries having families that live across the street from Nichols would be boundaries to chute? 
• Has the district independently verified the baseline data upon which the models are based? 
• Are there any plans to change the busing for kids who attend Lincoln and live west of Chicago Ave?
• 3b: has the board considered the synergies of Washington's location next to Robert Crown? The Parks and Recreation department currently runs D65 sports programs and there are opportunities for additional collaboration with the city. We all benefit from the proximity to Crown. With the additional parking at Crown, dropoff even on the wettest, coldest days is a breeze. The convenience of the library, soccer fields, and ice skating programs are utilized by many families after school.
• Was king arts not considered until a 3 school closure scenario was considered? If so and the highest priority was geography, why?
• Where on the scorecard are unique resources such as the new Robert Crown Community Center considered? Washington is uniquely positioned next door to a library, gym, meeting rooms, fields, and community space that is not taken into account.
• Nobody at this meeting cares about low utilization. Why doesn’t D65 fix its product and compete better with private schools? In this case - low utilization is viewed as an opportunity and not a problem. 
• Why were 504 plans not included in the equity number?
• Why does the RISE program move to Willard IF king arts closes? 
• What were and are the steps you took and are taking to close Bessie Rhodes in regards to teachers, admin, janitorial staff? 
• Middle school shifts for Washington closures weren’t reflected. Why not if the Dawes scenario did reflect it? 
• 3b: SCHOOL BUILDINGS: I am concerned about vacant buildings in our neighborhood. What sort of tenant do you think might be interested in leasing or buying Washington? Are there opportunities to use Washington for other services such as moving in District offices, JEH, or Park School? How do the prospects of finding uses/tenants for Washington compare to those of other schools under consideration for closure?  For the "potential income" score of each facility, has the likelihood of finding a tenant been considered?
• In the Lincolnwood, kinglsey and Washington scenario there was a boundary adjustment shown on the map but it was hard to see. My home is in the affected area. What street is the western border. Still Hartrey? Has greenbay been labeled a hazard? Will students be offered bussing if they need to cross a hazard but are less than 1.5 miles?
• Are you only looking at 3 schools closing at this point?
• What are elements of the revenue levers? Increase from city property tax? Grants? Other?
• Are the number of students moving in every scenario inclusive of Bessie Rhodes closing and Foster opening?
• Are there scenarios where you’ve modeled school closures one by one (in the three closure scenarios) so we see walkability, access, etc. change based on the order they close? 
• Because the Magnet Schools of America review is external and evidence-based (not just local judgment), can the district commit to valuing not just enrollment or building utilization, but also those national quality signals when comparing King Arts to traditional neighborhood models?
• Why were middle school students included the the number impacted in the Dawes scenario but not the Washington scenario? Washington would get divided into 4 elementaries and 2 Middle schools
• 1.Please provide more information on the zero closures scenarios. What programming would be impacted? 2. Why does your financial scenarios not include fundraising? Why are ADA accessibility and gym/cafeteria separation given equal weighting?
• What was the rationale for building the third scenario presented today? What anticipated pain points does this version solve for? 
• How can we trust the board to properly oversee school closures when there are still some members on the board who oversaw the huge cost overruns under Horton?
• What is the cost associated with closing schools? There will be transportation, retrofitting the schools to hold more kids, moving special programs. It was mentioned at the board meeting we may need consultants to help with planning for all the moves. Can we know what the expected cost of closings will be? This is important to know in context of the potential savings.
• STAFF ATTRITION: The uncertainty around school closures creates understandable anxiety for staff, which can lead to distractions and mid-year departures. What is the board's strategy to guarantee instructional continuity and maintain a stable, high-quality learning environment for our students during this period of transition? Will teachers easily be able to apply to transition to the schools their students are routing to?
• Will students in their current schools get to stay to finish if their attendance boundary changes? Especially 4th & 5th graders? 
• Are current K-5 students whose middle school will change included in the "Students Changing Schools" equity score?  Middle school communities extend to the feeder K-5 schools, and particularly for students in 3rd-5th grade, changing the target middle school is as disruptive as changing K-5 schools
• What if anything will be done to reconcile conflicting city of Evanston and d65 assumptions on population modeling before a decision is made on closings?
• If we live within walking distance of our current school, but new boundaries send us to a school that is double the walking distance/time: can we have accommodation to stay at our currently enrolled school?
• The city just raised taxes yesterday by $268 for a median household to increase revenue by $6.5m per year. Why can’t we raise taxes by a similar amount for schools to fix this budget instead of pursuing cost cutting which will risk a downward spiral of D65?
• How do you plan to retain/attract families and high-quality teachers to District 65 as the coming instability adds to our bad reputation in the region? Even if the transition is handled with as much sensitivity as possible, it is still going to be a PR/recruitment disaster. Financial accountability is a worthy goal, but I am very worried that we are leaning into a death spiral where more and more potential educators and families look at us and instead choose private schools, CPS or other suburbs.
• Have you considered the impact of families leaving the district? 
• The city forecasts population growth, however d65 forecasts declining enrollment. How much of this is due to student attrition to private and homeschool options?  School closures will likely increase this attrition.  Will the board be taking action to identify and address the specific factors driving families away from our district? 
• Can you zero in on NW Evanston school capacity numbers? Is a Willard at 103percent capacity still on the table? Which areas would be bussed?
• 1. How is the administration thinking about the 350M in deferred maintenance? Even if we close 3 schools, we still have 150M+, how do we plan to fund that? (We are trying to get them to walk into acknowledging the need for a referendum.) 2. What alternatives were considered before we evaluated school closures? Specifically revenue generating measures. (We are trying to get them to acknowledge we did not explore other options and this was done at the direction of the prior Board.)
• The charges against Horton are eroding the already very fragile trust between the community and the school board, in a time where trust and transparency are crucial.  What actions are the board taking to restore this trust?
• Why not close one school for each middle school? Closing the school with the lowest enrollment 
• How is the educational/academic/social emotional impact on our students taken into account in any of these scenarios? 
• Impact numbers are not reflective of middle school changes and do not take into account the already approved boundary changes. Do you have actual numbers of how many students will be moving schools as this is an important metric to tool at as it would be significantly different for any school that feeds into haven vs. chute/nichols.  Bottom line - can you tell us how many students will be moving from the school they attend right now?  
• For students whose current schools are NOT closing but where boundaries are shifting, can the draft models be adjusted so that as few students have to move schools as possible? I.e., as few students from Oakton moving to Lincoln and Lincoln moving to Oakton. How do we ensure there is minimal swapping?
• Will new scenarios continue to be added until November 3, and if so will there be more public comment meetings to discuss the scenarios added? Why are you considering scenarios not recommended by the committees at this stage in the process?
• I want to acknowledge the work Dr Turner and Ms Mitchell have done so far to bring down administrative bloat. Between 2017 and today enrollment has decreased by 20 percent yet the number of administrators we have has increased 25 percent since 2017. What further cuts can be made that don't impact kids?
• I don’t understand what the benefit would be under the 3x option. We loose an established neighborhood school in a highly dense area that has a specialized program and a certified magnet K thru 8 model that supports our RISE program. We won’t be fully utilizing the King Arts elementary and middle school adaptive facility either. How can this structure maximize utilization? Why are we asking for this option. What are what are we trying to solve for? 
• Why was middle school percentage effect projected for the dawes scenerio and not the Washington scenerio?
• What are the main staffing/program levers that would be pulled to make up the difference to get to 11.8 million reduction. Would those be equitable cuts to programming across all schools in the district?
• Is the lease certificate supporting the construction of Foster School part of the allegations against Horton?
• Besides closing schools, where other ways to generate revenue from our overall district facilities looked at? It feels like closing buildings was the only path explored for our facilities.
• To be fair why not close 1 feeder school per Jr High?
• If Washington is closed the student population will be split up among 4 different schools (and students will get split between two middle schools).  How is this fair?  By comparison Bessie Rhodes students were given the option to attend Foster so they could stay together.  Splitting up the students among this many schools will destroy the community that has been built among these students.  
• At yesterday's meeting, board members asked questions regarding additional two-school closure scenarios, however those scenarios were not included in the scope for today's discussion. is there a plan to formally evaluate and present those other, internally-raised options for public input?
• Washington is the only school split into 4 different elementary schools and 2 middle schools. How is this reflected in the score card? 
• Is the scoring a dynamic process? For example, in a three school closure once the first school is closed, are the scores for the remaining schools score cards recalculated before considering what the second school for closure should be?
• Why are adjacent schools (Lincolnwood and Kingsley) being considered for closure? Why will one single community beat the brunt of these changes needed by the whole system?
• At yesterday's board meeting, the board stated that they have read EVERY email sent to them by the public. Thank you for taking the time to do that.  Will the board also be reading ALL the community feedback surveys submitted? If not, how will the contents of the survey responses be presented to/reviewed by the board? If the feedback will be summarized for the board, can the same summary also be provided to the public so we can see that the key aspects of our feedback reached them?
• Will children at their current school be able To stay?
• We understand that only two board members can be present at this meeting due to board rules. How will the other board members be informed of the feedback received here? Thank you for planning to make an FAQ of questions that are not answered today. For questions and comments that ARE discussed here, will this feedback be documented in some manner for the other board members (and ideally the rest of the community not present) to review?
• How will the school district pay to defend lawsuits for violating Title 2 of the Americans with Disabilities Act by closing an ADA compliant school and making those students go to non-compliant school? 
• At the meeting yesterday, it was mentioned that the district knew back in 2017 that we would hit this funding crisis in 2025. Can you please explain what fundraising efforts were attempted, or are planned going forward? I never heard even a whisper of any type of Save Our Schools campaign. Why? If the thought was that school closure/consolidation was easier, and would increase building utilization, I again have to ask why? Complete utilization of a school is not something to be desired. It is my understanding that smaller class sizes are actually a great contributor to student achievement.
• In the King Art scenario why are we willing to reject the Magnet status we just received? Have we considered a fundraising campaign instead of school closure? If not why not? 
• With the move of TWI strands in the scenarios to new schools, will TWI families be able to move to a neighborhood (or closer to home) TWI school than the one where it's being moved to? ( scenario 3D-R)
• How do you support child with IEP in these big transitions to new schools 
• The $188m in deferred maintenance seems to be a key element in driving the need to close schools. How was this number $188m reached? My understanding is that it was calculated by one vendor in the Horton era - is that understanding correct? Can a second opinion on this very significant number be obtained?
• How does the district plan to lease or sell 4 school buildings?  Leasing or selling even one school building seems like a challenge and Washington in particular has historic status.  Has the cost of maintaining those buildings been factored into the budget numbers?
• The school board discussed slowing down the closures or phasing 3 school closures over a two year period. How feasible is slowing down or phasing from a financial health perspective?
• Magnet schools potentially have grant money available, however, given the political climate, this money may never materialize. How is this factored into the calculations?
• There is NO HUMAN IMPACT component to these projections. There is disproportionate impact on litter income and EL students in the Southside schools. The impact on this tight knit and supportive communities is not being considered. The impact on our Southside middle schoolers who would have to adjust AGAIN to a new school is not even accounted for, much less considered. Moving the vulnerable special Ed programs is disruptive and not in the students best interests. How HOW can the district say "students first," and claim to strive for equity when these plans are the opposite? And are not comparing the actual human impact. It's a sad numbers game 
• Can you explain how the deficit turned out to be lower than expected last year? How does that impact future finances? What are you doing to reckon with Horton's financial malfeasance?
• I’m concerned about closing two adjacent schools. I noticed in model that Lincolnwood for example received a 1 rating for cafeteria/gym separation. Is this correct? My understanding is that it is a separate space. Since I don’t know all school, it does make me question some of the modeling if there are potential errors, especially with how close the rank order is. Also, if the north end of Evanston utilization is so low, can you please run the modeling closing Lincolnwood and Orrington instead of 2 adjacent schools. Also, I echo some of the board members feelings last night that that a packed approach makes more sense to minimize impact. 
• 1)How does the art curriculum of King Arts support the at risk student population currently attending? 2)How is the $188M capital expense needs gap going to be closed over the next 5 years. 3)Do the score cards differentiate the life safety capital costs from the overall capital costs?
• The scenario equity score does not appear to account for the amount of non-white students impacted. Is my understanding correct? How can this be addressed in the analysis?
• For the RISE program kids to have to lose their support team in the transition from elementary to middle school seems like a huge shift for one of our most vulnerable student doesn’t seem like an option. Is this of the part analysis.
• Oakton has a 22% reading proficiency rate according to U.S. News but it’s not being considered for closing. What do you say to parents whose schools are closed and would have to send their kids there despite being a worse school than they were at before? 
• What is the financial model estimate of combining school districts?   Where in these models is considerations around projected number of parents pulling their kids from d65 due to dissatisfaction with the district?
• Will students whose school is not closing but where boundaries are shifting, will those families have the choice to continue attending their original school until the students finish 5th grade? This would maintain community. 
• What is your response to the community speaker who was an economist and offered his help in cleaning data that he deemed not good(don't remember exactly what he said)?
• Lincolnwood School is zoned as open space by the city of Evanston. How can the district estimate a value of selling it here: https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1758999864/district65net/bvoagbdzjl5aaetauyh7/PropertyAssessment.png?
• Why close schools and not considered in closing buildings that are not in function and are requiring a maintaince yearly ?
• Why are we denying children the option to choose attend their neighborhood schools, tearing apart community, in favor of kids having the opportunity to choose to attend a non-community school?
• Closing schools seems like a predetermined decision - given the evidence behind the harm caused by school closures, why have other scenarios and solutions not been exhausted first?  Namely combining school districts and cutting more administrative costs.
• Can clearer maps with ALL boundary street names labeled please be provided? It has hard to see the details and zoom in on the current format. In 3b, Even on the revised map, Lee Street still appears to be the boundary for some students (including my student). Our neighborhood naturally splits at Main St - kids roam with their friends in our area but do not cross high-traffic Main St. This splits our neighbors apart and means my kid would need to cross Main St.
• Have you analysed the impact on neighborhoods of increased traffic from more drop offs for children that will now likely need to be driven to school (eg those that live 1-1.5 miles away)? Can residential streets cope with this ?
• Not a question but just wanted to recognize that no one wants to have to be going through this and change is hard. I appreciate the work you all have put into this. We have the opportunity to model resiliency for our kids and how we make the best of a situation when things don’t go our way. That’s life. So, thank you for taking on this hard task.
• How were boundaries drawn for each scenario?
• Closing schools will have impacts on the students and teachers. This will impact the academic success of the district. Why has the financial aspect of this plan not been presented in tandem with how this ladders into the academic strategic plan. The community, and board,  needs to have this visibility. This is not just a business transaction.
• Be sure to answer the REAL questions —- don’t cherry pick the easy ones! Be brave!!!
• Have we looked into new revenue streams 
• When and where can we explore creative solutions that do not involve school closures?
• What is the benefit of closing King Arts Magnet status and making it a regular neighborhood school? 
• Why are we not investigating the sale of other assets, like the D65 facilities building on Greenleaf?
• What is the plan for supporting students and families after the school closing decision has been made?
• Do we have research if vacant buildings Will be rented?? Or sold? Do businesses have interest in building that need so much work
• How does the district justify maintaining a king arts magnet program in most scenarios when you have heard that the community prioritizes neighborhood schools?
• Was the fact that King Arts has received magnet school accreditation/recognition even factored into the closing of King Arts as a magnet school and reopening it as a King neighborhood school?
• Are moving and other associated closure costs considered in the savings?
• Is delaying the opening of Foster being considered?
• Are we selling Bessie Rhodes building?
• Has the board considered whether under enrollment can be addressed (and revenue could be created!) by making a school a "preK- 5" instead of just a K-5?
• Why do all of the multiple school closure scenarios involve closing two closely adjacent schools (Lincolnwood and Kingsley)? This leaves a large vacuum /lack of neighborhood schools in NW Evanston where we previously had 2.
• Can you please elaborate on $8.6 million additional deficit from the deferred lease debt payment of $3.2 million to the $11.8 million deficit? Is this the operating expense of the Foster school?
• Why is weighting being done based on percentages that do not reflect the communities values?
• Can you please explain why the decision to close the schools in one feeder pattern was made?
• How much under enrollment is due to student attrition to private and homeschool options?  School closures will likely increase this attrition.  Will the board be taking action to identify and address the specific factors driving families away from our public schools? 
• The demography report shows that the only schools with a growth in the number of students are Lincolnwood and Kingsley - both around 7%. Have you taken this into account?
• Why was RISE protected from a move versus STEP?
• If the programs at King Arts are so special and valuable, why can't d65 roll out those same programs to all neighborhood schools, to give every child these opportunities? Today these are not available to all. 
• Maintaining KA is a great benefit to the few specific families that are selected to attend. How does maintaining this magnet school benefit the entire district? 
• What if King Arts ends up filling up? Then it’s no longer a choice school, correct? 
• Can you please explain why there is such a big rush to make a school closure decision in 2025 considering that deficit $372k in 2025 represents less than 1% of the total annual operating budget AND the projected annual budget defect next year of roughly $3.2M representing LESS THAN 2%?
• The King Arts magnet program is the only program on the chopping block. Every other program at a closing building has a plan for relocation. This is not really a question, just a point that I want to make sure is not missed.
• Can we sell off district assets like the facility building on Greenleaf to raise money?
• King Arts is not hoarding the arts programming, everything they do is available to anyone who wants to see and replicate the model. (Stop perpetuating these fallacies). We’d be happy to share any information about how to do something similar. The uniqueness of king arts is the K-8 arts programming model, the students who choose to be there, and the buy in from the school and its community. There has been intense investment from the school teachers and administrators and school families in making the program successful. In addition the programming strongly supports students with disabilities and those students are thriving where they weren’t thriving in their home school. It is that small format that makes it possible to meet the needs of those students who don’t thrive in the standard school model. In addition RISE is different from STEP. They are not necessarily interchangeable . 
• Why the rush to close schools and risk well founded criticism of the outside consultants used to make the models on the heels of troubling allegations involving the former superintendent and previous consultants that have been hired by the district? People are distrustful and we have loads of smart people in Evanston. We should use models created with data collected and evaluated by community members. 
• I work in special education and I hear there is a concern about splitting RISE into K-5 and 6-8 if King Arts adjusts to K-5. However, I have worked in many special education programs in the North Shore and I’m not aware of any K-8 self-contained programs. Where is the data showing this is the gold standard?