Community Conversation - Nichols

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

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: April 15, 2025 at 6:30 p.m.
• Location: Nichols Middle School
• Approximate number of participants: 68

What criteria should be considered when making possible recommendations for a school to be closed or consolidated?

At this point, we are asking for your input on criteria that you believe are most valuable in future decision making around potential school closures or consolidations. To guide stakeholder discussion, criteria have been categorized into four categories. Please note that these are a starting point, not set in stone.

• Excellence (EX): Striving for high-quality education and student outcomes

• Equity (EQ): Ensuring access and opportunities for ALL students

• Effective Use of Resources - Finances (FI): Maximizing financial and operational sustainability

• Effective Use of Resources - Facilities (FA): Optimizing facilities, space, and infrastructure to best support student learning and community needs

• Participants were encouraged to create an additional category if needed to capture criteria that may not fit in our existing categories.

Robust conversation took place across sessions and content from the meetings were summarized based on high level themes that emerged. In community and parent/caregiver advisory sessions, the responses were transcribed directly from the chart paper provided from the various groups. Identifying information has been removed and responses to question 2 are provided in summary form (not verbatim quotes).

Participants were given three stickers to vote for the criteria that they believe are most important on their groups’ chart. Those votes are reflected in the righthand column of the chart below.

Knowing that difficult decisions are required, what creative solutions do you believe should be considered as an alternative or alongside potential school closures and/or consolidations?

• Leasing out unused space to preschools within the area and/or expand district prek into neighborhood schools
• Bolstering special education services so there is less busing out of Evanston; and possibly the ability to bring in tuition by serving out of district kids
• Rent out district facilities; partner with community theaters, summer camps, etc to host their activities and garner revenue
• Raise taxes to build Foster School
• Move prek programming into neighborhood schools
• TWI and ACC programs could have better marketing to bring more families in; better communication about the programs offered
• Bring community organizations or services that also serve children and families into district schools
• Consider different grade configurations (eg K-8, K-2, 3-5)
• Selling plots of land to build housing for families; doing so would also increase the number of families available to enroll in the district
• Adjust job descriptions to have a commercial mindset; incentivize employees to bring revenue in the district
• Consider different grade configuration with K-6 schools; consolidate middle schools to 7-8 grade
• Consolidation of D65/D202 to reduce costs
• More collective responsibility for the care of schools among families (eg janitorial services, volunteering)
• Approach Northwestern with tangible investment opportunities (invest in certain program, fleet of purple buses (could be used by NU on weekends)
• Rather than closing vibrant school community that is already established; can we save the money from Foster School which isn't built yet; use money for capital expenses for other schools? 
• If walkabillity is a challenge, could there be a fundraising opportunity or donation to support such as an overpass over Green Bay?
• Market Evanston as a destination for families (magnet programs)
• Tap Northwestern to support in a bigger way
• District should engage expert fundraisers; could there be a dedicated position to raise significant funds?
• Creating more guardrails on fundraising and how funds could be spent; consider investment potential
• Engage a professional fundraiser
• If early childhood is moved into other buildings; could the District sell JEH which could be a desirable space for another business/organization?
• Engage directly with families who chose to leave District 65 for private school and why? Increase outreach
• Further reduce administrative roles; offer more aggressive performance based pay/bonuses for school and district leaders 
• Selling properties is a nice one time injection of revenue; however, rental costs would be ongoing and coud be beneficial; could provide flexibility for the district down the road if enrollment needs change and the district needs to reopen a building
• Empower seasoned or tenured teachers to engage in leadership opportunities to offset administrative reductions
• Could you move King Arts into neighborhood school? Retain magnet school and neighborhood school in one space
• Haven is down several hundred kids and could absorb Kingsley? Consider moving schools intact without losing a school or community
• Importance for students and community to have consistency and stability; District and school board need to have a well-communicated plan, next steps, and timeline