Community Conversation - Haven 10/15 staff

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 4 p.m.
• Location: Haven Middle School
• Approximate number of participants: 40

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.

• How does the equity score for Washington drop so much from the single school to the three school scenario?
• How will you decide how staffing will shift between the schools, what schools teachers will be at, and their roles?
• Have you looked at the square footage/size of classrooms in regards to how many students will be in the classroom? Can they fit? Do learning spaces include office spaces for related services?
• How will king arts middle school movement be factored in to the scorecard? 
• What are we doing to keep kids in public schools and increase our enrollment?
• Have board members & admin come to visit the STEP classrooms - when is that happening if it hasn’t happened? 
• Have you considered the impact of moving special programs to different buildings that may not be ADA accessible ? Students in wheelchairs, students with sensory needs, adapted playground equipment, etc.
• Can you clarify about the  percentage of students/families impacted in K-5? 6-8? Who is being counted and how? 
• I’m concerned about learning spaces for traveling educators and related service providers to use. It is already hard to find space.  Being asked to work in closets is not putting our kids first.  These minutes are legally mandated 
• 1. What are the plans to ensure students with IEPs are getting the services they need and staffing is done appropriately for any groups coming from schools that are closed or consolidated? 2. Is the district aware of what service delivery models exist and how students with IEPs are currently being served in schools mentioned in the scenario? Are they aware that we lack a continuum of services for special education and need to expand service delivery offerings to best meet the needs of students at the requisite intensity of need in their IEPs per ISBE? 3. Who is responsible for aggregating and sharing information about special education? (We are on the third director of SPED in 3 years, so someone needs to be on top of planning/addressing concerns.) 4. Where is the data related to students with IEPs including specialized programs in special education (like STEP and RISE) for any schools mentioned in the scenarios?
• How are you going to reallocate staff?  Staff spend a lot of time and energy learning the curriculum and honing in on their practice for particular grade levels.  Some of us have spent countless hours on curriculum work.  What can be done to ensure displaced teachers feel a sense of security and safety?
• What will be the Reduction in force (RIF) process for tenured teachers at a closed school possibly being transferred/rehired at Foster or other district schools? 
• Will the class sizes of middle schools go over 28 if king closes?
• What is the plan for spaces for IES pull out, speech, OT, etc in buildings that are going to have additional classrooms put in?
• Will teachers know any earlier than the normal timeline where we might be going? This is a lot more stressful than a normal school year 
• Curious to the timeline of this spring for teachers both tenured and nontenured who will potentially  be impacted by their school closure or programming changing? Will that be before riffs and before foster hirings? 
• Why is Central Street going to be considered a hazard Street next year but not this year?
• When will teachers know their new assignment?
• What is the enrollment at Foster? Capacity cannot be known without enrollment at Foster. 
• Has the additional funds required to move teachers to new schools (ie- boxes, moving assistance, additional pay for maintenance workers, etc) been considered?
• Are teachers going to be given paid time to pack up the entirety of our classrooms?
• Why have you not included teachers in school closures scenarios until now when the scenarios have already been created? You trust the teachers to create curriculum, meet with parents, work with community organizations, develop programming yet we have be completely been left out of this process. 
• What will be done with the large green spaces? Will these properties be sold. If housing is built - where will these children go to school
• How does the news of the indictment affect this process? We need to slow down before we make HUGE changes that greatly and directly affect students.  Especially their SEL  
• Thinking about IES-when you are determine IES needs, will we continue to split students amongst multiple classrooms to maximize learning? I’m worried that the district will maximize students with IEPs in one classroom, which is financially efficient, but doesn’t support student learning.