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Community Conversation - Nichols 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 6 p.m.
  • Location: Nichols Middle School
  • Approximate number of participants: 140

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.

  • What considerations are being made to ‘grandfathering’ or allowing selective enrollment to current students who are impacted by a school closure or rezoned?
  • In scenarios where Washington is closed, Lincoln picks up a TWI strand. Does Lincoln even have the facilities/students to support that program?
  • Has D65 researched the savings and detriments of former CPS school closures? That % of closures was far less than what Evanston is considering. 
  • Washington is the largest school and would ultimately cause the most number of kids to depart and divided schools. It also has the most number of twi classes and is a bilingual friendly school. There would be a large detrminetal impact if it were closed. I am wondering why this isn't counting for more in regards to closing a school. 
  • What options, aside from school closures and reduction of admin staff were considered, and why were they found not viable? 
  • In looking at the data included on the data hub on and added up the amount of students with IEPs, TWI, and Low-income students that are each school that is slated for closure.  According to these statistics, for schools in the closure scenarios, Washington has the most students in TWI, the third highest amount of students with IEPs (which doesn’t account for King Arts being k-8), the highest amount of low-income students (again, aside from King Arts), and yet every student impact rating with us is “1”.   The three school closure scenarios increase the amount of transitioning students from ~200 students with IEPs to 290 (3b), ~383 (3d), and ~595 (4f).    In 4f, the STEP program from Lincoln is being taken from the building it has operated in for decades to be put into a building that’s never had a specialized program so RISE  can be put in. Bilingual STEP will be placed moved to a school that has never had STEP.  now there is discussion of placing a STEP program in a building that has a rating of 1.0 for ADA compliance.  As a special education teacher who transitions students to other buildings on a yearly basis, I can tell you that transitioning  each student takes hours.  Building an inclusive community around specialized programs takes years.  What is the plan to assure the students will be redistributed equitably? What services will be put into place for ALL of these vulnerable populations? It was mentioned in the board meeting that a plan exists, but what is the plan?
  • Has the Board received any interest from private/charter schools to lease any of the closed school buildings? Have there been any other groups expressing interest in these buildings? If so, please provide details. 
  • Please address the fact that the last two meetings did not have adequate representation from the Hispanic population. What are you doing to ensure that our Hispanic families are part of this discussion?
  • Why is academic achievement and student experience not represented in any scorecard?  Isn’t that the central purpose of this district?
  • For three school closure scenarios, which scenario without a Title 1 school in it scored the lowest and how much money is saved in that scenario? 
  • Why wasn’t the “impact on students” figure calculated to include the impact on middle school student school change in the Washington closure scenario?  Why was the impact not calculated based on where the students go to school today (instead of calculating it based off of the recently approved boundary change that has not yet been implemented? Why was a school with one of the highest utilization rates (Washington) considered for closure when the messaging we have heard in the meetings all talk about underutilized schools needing to close?
  • After cutting some admin jobs why are there still more admin jobs than in 2017?
  • What is the plan for current students with disabilities who will lose ADA accessibility to their school if Dawes closes (which is fully ADA accessible). 
  • ICE was in south Evanston this weekend causing AYSO to cancel games and is becoming a consistent  violent presence both here and in surrounding communities. Washington school has the largest Latinx student community in the district and a robust network of families well known to each other in support of safety - how is the board taking into consideration the experience of this community in this moment in time?
  • Can the full list of questions received during these sessions please be made available to the public? This list should be easy to extract from the online tool we submitted to, and would go a long way to transparency.
  • Why should parents believe the $10-$15M necessary reductions and $2M per school savings projections when the district has proven to be grossly incorrect, by over $10M, both with the Foster school building costs as well as the 2025 and 2026 budgets?
  • Our community supported the building of the Foster School for the quality of life and education that comes from having a walkable neighborhood school, even if it didn’t make the most quantitative and financial sense for our District. Why is that same rationale not being considered for the Lincolnwood/Kingsley neighborhood, where closing BOTH adjacent schools in the same neighborhood (instead of just one of them, which is reasonable) severely impacts the walkability and quality of experience for these children?  
  • The Roundtabe is reporting that D65 admin staff is 61 vs 46 in 2017. Does this reflect cuts that occurred in SDRP II? Seems like an opportunity to cut further and close fewer schools.
  • Why are we not raising money to avoid closing schools? There are several options including selling bonds, private donors, partnerships with other governments like the city or state, and yes referendum. We are making the same mistakes this board made with Dr Horton when you chose to build a new school without raising revenue. What assurances do we have that we will actually save the money you say we will if we close a school?
  • - [ ] Closing 3 or 4 schools is a big decision that will impact the district for many years, yet it is driven by a short term need for $6 million to construct the foster school. How do you reconcile this?
  • If Orrongton’s boundary is expanded in a Washington closure, what is the bussing rate compared to an Orrington closure?
  • If you close Washington, how will you accommodate the 12 strands of TWI at newly assigned schools? What are the exact numbers of TWI students that will be moved and to which schools? Further, if you don’t close Washington but boundary changes displace TWI students currently at Washington, where will the displaced TWI students be placed? 
  • Have you modeled financials for one or two school closures? 
  • Why do you call it a misconception that parents are unhappy with a process. And not a reality that parents are unhappy?
  • Has the financial impact of making the other schools fully ADA accessible been taken into account specifically regarding scenario 3B and the impacts of a Dawes closure on our children with disabilities? 
  • If the student enrollment continues to decline, and we shut schools, why would anyone feel Evanston is a place for a family to move? 
  • How does the closure of K-8 King affect the utilization percentages of the middle schools? How do the percentages of IEP, free/reduced, ELL change?
  • Why not Washington move to Chute feeder in scenario where Dawes closes? 
  • schools can get money from the government through Title I funding. Does this mean that if a Title I school closes our district could lose some of our current funding? Is this factored into the models?
  • 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. I would like to hear more about this, especially about rebuilding community trust.
  • Have you studied the impact of breaking up TWI strands? Those kids depend on the community and connections for their language learning. 
  • Hey hi. Thank you for all you’re I’m a lifelong Evanstonian, a Latina and I write for Sesame Street. I’m also a therapist. I just moved back from California and I would just love to say something I’ve written. It’s super short. Like a minute. Will there be a moment for me to speak? I would love that. Thank you. 
  • Why is an additional scenario allowed at this late stage when no modeling info has been provided and we’ve had much more time to review the others prior to the vote?
  • In 3D and 3B scenarios, it shows that Lincoln becomes a TWI school. What does that process look like? Will grades 1-5 of TWI at Lincoln be extremely small classes (primarily Dewey TWI students who were rezoned to Lincoln)? Or do additional TWI kids from other schools move to Lincoln to better utilize the TWI program at Lincoln?
  • In looking at the data included on the data hub on and added up the amount of students with IEPs, TWI, and Low-income students that are each school that is slated for closure.  According to these statistics, for schools in the closure scenarios, Washington has the most students in TWI, the third highest amount of students with IEPs (which doesn’t account for King Arts being k-8), the highest amount of low-income students (again, aside from King Arts), and yet every student impact rating with us is “1”.   The three school closure scenarios increase the amount of transitioning students from ~200 students with IEPs to 290 (3b), ~383 (3d), and ~595 (4f).    In 4f, the STEP program from Lincoln is being taken from the building it has operated in for decades to be put into a building that’s never had a specialized program so RISE  can be put in. Bilingual STEP will be placed moved to a school that has never had STEP.  now there is discussion of placing a STEP program in a building that has a rating of 1.0 for ADA compliance.  As a special education teacher who transitions students to other buildings on a yearly basis, I can tell you that transitioning  each student takes hours.  Building an inclusive community around specialized programs takes years.  What is the plan to assure the students will be redistributed equitably? What services will be put into place for ALL of these vulnerable populations? It was mentioned in the board meeting that a plan exists, but what is the plan?
  • How does the district reclaim building dollars from king arts closing when it’s a long term building lease through the water reclamation department?
  • The finance committee has said that the estimate given from the start is that $2M will be saved for each school closed, without clear breakdown of how that number was determined. Where does this number come from? Does it take into account the rigorous research conducted on the CPS closures showing that closing schools does not save much money? (ex: vacant building still need to be heated and have roof repairs until they are eventually sold; welcoming schools require much more money.) This hand-wavey number feels a) extraordinarily unrealistic and b) eerily similar to the argument we heard just a few years ago that transportation savings would pay for the new school.  For example, have you priced out the costs of some of the challenges from the scenario slides, like increasing transportation costs for students crossing hazards? Until everything is honestly costed out, we have no idea if this will even save any money at all!
  • How was closing JEH figured into the potential ways to recuse the deficit? 
  • Are other scenarios still be considered or just those presented and has there been discussion of increasing property taxes to help fund the deficit and reduce the need for number of school closings 
  • What would it take to incorporate energy savings into all d65 buildings and how can Evanston residents work to reduce energy costs to district buildings as a collective community?
  • How have you partnered with the city to promote the city of Evanston and coordinate this plan with envision evanston? Is there a coordinated approach to help attract new families to Evanston when all the headlines are about Dr Hortons corruption and closing schools, and our schools rank lower on Great Schools than the surrounding communities?
  • Students in STEP, RISE, ACC and TWI are counted in the attendance boundary based on their home address. This may help in modeling transportation costs but it does NOT give a full picture of the number of impacted students. Can the models please be run with these students counting in their CURRENT schools so that we can get a true picture of students impacted by these changes.
  • Magnet schools potentially have grant money available, however, given the political climate, this money may never materialize. How is this factored into the calculations
  • What deficit reduction modeling did the Administration conduct as an alternative to school closures, in particular the drastic step of 3 school closures displacing at least 18% of students?
  • How will the district ensure reasonable feeder patterns and walk ability for middle schools? The potential change to the feeder patterns with a Dawes closure results in students in the neighborhood of Chute attending Nichols and vice versa. The priority for walkable schools does not end at 5th grade. 
  • What are the programming and staffing reduction options being considered?  
  • Have you considered using the low utilization of schools to allow for doing school renovations financed by a special bond 
  • As the previous administration increased the administrative staff despite declining student enrollment, many of us aren’t sure the administration is right sized. Could a scorecard be created for each administrative position to determine the impact on students if eliminated rather than solely focus on school closures? According to the Evanston Roundtable, admin increased by 15 positions since 2017. During the same period, K-8 student enrollment decreased by about 20%.
  • When will the 2025/2026 enrollment counts be available, and will they be bumped up against the 2024 projections before the board votes?
  • 3x seems like the least impactful. Dewey students already have a Walkability of 1, and I’m this scenario, they can opt into KA, or the kids will have other options that have the same walkability score. This keeps King Arts open for neighborhood kids, and the feeder pattern for middle schools seems to stay stable. This also means our schools with low income, schools with already lower student achievement outcomes, are not heavily impacted and at risk for worse outcomes. What is the impact score for the model? When will we see more information on this model?
  • 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 the previous administration? In scenario 3B R, are current 6th and 7th graders included in the ""students changing schools"" equity score?
  • The structural deficit is due to expenditures outpacing our revenues by 2.3%. Has the board considered any measures to increase revenues? If so, please describe. If not, why not?
  • Given the two scenarios roughly have the same impact (utilization and deficit reduction) what would be the determining factor between Washington and Dawes? 
  • In the 3-school closure scenarios, many K-5 students will be forced to cross Dempster Ave when they are displaced from Washington to Dewey. There is only 1 cross walk between Dodge Ave and Asbury Ave.  The single crossing is not a light; it’s just a flashing sign, and cars often exceed teje apples limit and do not heed the crossing. How many students will be forced to cross Dempster to reach their newly assigned school, and how are you going to ensure safe passage across this dangerous hazard? 
  • Where is the conversation about anything beyond financials?  These are students academic experiences we are impacting. Not just bank accounts. 
  • What does a scenario look like in closing Dewey solely?
  • What is the rush with closing 3 schools. In your opinion would waiting for that 3rd school closure to figure out official revenue make that much of a difference? SLOW DOWN!
  • What are the processes to reopen a school in the future? What other suburban school districts have had recent school closures?
  • Can you explain how the school utilization rates with TWI strands will impact the utilization of the building? For example, in 3D-R, the Dewey neighborhood utilization will be 103%
  • Can you expand on income potential? What assumptions are you making by way of purchase timeline; purpose  and how the profits would be reinvested into the district
  • Children whose school will remain open but will be re-routed to different elementary schools due to boundary maps—Will you prioritize permissive transfers so they may be grandfathered in to their original school to avoid split cohorts? 
  • Each scenario states specific schools. Is the Board discussing scenarios that would close for example two schools not shown together, for example Kingsley and Washington? 
  • How will the district manage extremely high utilization rates at Oakton, Lincoln and either Dawes or Washington? Oakton, Lincoln, and Washington or Dawes, are projected to have utilization rates above 80%. This seems to again place a higher burden on students receiving free/reduced lunch and Black and Latino students, since those populations are highest in those schools.
  • Have you modeled for how many children are in d65 vs private school? I imagine the boundary lines will change quite a bit in the new orrington/willard boundaries.
  • EQUITY - 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?
  • Why did slide 18 not have any financial models for 1 or 2 school closures? Seems like you already made up your mind.
  • How were boundaries redrawn? Will the process be shared to show transparency? 
  • Why not issue a bond and keep all schools open? 
  • Are there OTHER creative choices being discussed that are outside of closing a school? Instead of costs, are there focuses on revenue generation? Using the space at these schools to open pre-k classes? Getting Northwestern to pay property taxes? 
  • How will current middle school student be impacted- will they be moved to new school if the feeder changes? 
  • Is there any opportunity to redraw the middle school feeder patterns in the 3D scenario? It’s clearly not a good solution to have children living in the Nichols neighborhood going to Chute. And the impact is decisively dragging Washington down.
  • 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’s the data on twi for 7 strands vs 8? I know people who didn’t get into twi this year bc there wasn’t room.
  • There seem to be cultures that have developed in North Evanston, mid-Evanston, & South Evanston. Which scenario best protects kids from experiencing extreme experience shifts in their learning experience?
  • What other cost saving options have you considered? 
  • For each scenario, what are the exact # and % of students changing schools, using the new boundary maps presented yesterday? (Not just a number 1-5, exact numbers and percentages.) This will help the whole community understand how large the impact would be if 3-4 schools are closed. (Include Bessie Rhodes in all numbers, please.)
  • How did the District figure out how much each of the closed schools would generate in income? How long would that take? Has the District contemplated the costs associated with maintaining these empty buildings into the analysis? 
  • Has the Administration begun bargaining with the DEC unions regarding the many issues related to closures? How will that be accomplished in time for closing 3 schools by SY26-27.
  • Given the $50m investment in Robert crown, what are the boards thoughts on how closing Washington will affect both the community center utilization rate and the neighborhood overall 
  • By closing Washington, you would be displacing the largest and most diverse elementary school in the district. How does this square with the stated mission of equity?
  • 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?
  • 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?
  • Are you confident that we will see savings from closing these schools? You were confident bussing would pay for foster and it is not. 
  • How will the district ensure students in marginalized groups don't bear the heaviest burden in any school closure scenario? The current 3-school scenarios significantly change the boundaries of Oakton, Lincoln and either Dawes or Washington, depending on the scenario. Those are some of the biggest schools in the district by enrollment, with high percentages of students receiving free/reduced lunch and high numbers of Black and Latino students.
  • You have shared a lot of info. Will you gather feedback during this phase of the engagement? Do you know where what people are thinking now? Will you respond to this as part of your process?
  • There is a strong push among several board members and the community to slow this process down and not rush to close so many schools. Is the administration hearing this? Or is the intent to continue its push to close 4 buildings (including Bessie), open a new one, move many kids and programs and staff all in a limited window with reduced staffing in the district? 
  • Who is the district partnering with to check the accuracy of the scorecard data analysis?
  • What is the plan for the 4 schools that will potentially close?  Is leasing or selling four school building realistic?  Are the carrying costs of these properties included in the budget numbers?   When can we see projected class sizes for each school based on the proposed school closure scenarios?  Was JEH evaluated from a scorecard perspective?  It seems likely that the preschool and district offices could be moved to one of the more underutilized school sites. If it wasn’t evaluated why wasn’t it?
  • What is the justification for opening a new school while the closure of up to 4 existing schools is being contemplated?
  • What supports will a school like Dewey get for students and staff that is not currently Title I but will likely become Title I when attendance lines are redrawn?
  • The community has had opportunities to weigh in about the process and scorecard methodology and weights multiple times throughout this process. Board reviewed and approved. Why all the push back now from the community questioning  the calculations and outcomes? What changed? Whys the methodology bad? What are you seeing that others of us are not? 
  • Is the lease certificate supporting the construction of Foster School part of the allegations against Horton?
  • - ] Do changes in feeder patterns impact students who are already in the middle school? Or when the impacted 5th graders go to middle school 
  • 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? 
  • - ] Do changes in feeder patterns impact students who are already in the middle school? Or when the impacted 5th graders go to middle school 
  • Has there been any collaboration with the City of Evanston on projected demographics and population?  
  • how can the board and district justify balancing the budget and responding to the north evanston student exodus on the backs of south Evanston community pillars where there are thriving schools that have maintained socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic diversity serving as safety-nets for our most vulnerable immigrant families? How can you justify breaking up these communities ?
  • The middle school feeder pattern change has a significant impact on the number of students who will have to change schools. Can you provide more detail on what the utilization is if middle schools stay the same? Is there opportunity for special programs to split? 
  • How much does fascism cost?
  • What is the plan for creating a safe, traffic controlled crossing for Dempster?
  • Can you share more detail about what the revenue and expenditure levers included in the last slide in the presentation on budget represent? For example, in the 0 school closure scenario you list $8M in programming levers - what would that include? What about the $1.XM in the other scenarios? Are the revenue levers assuming empty buildings are immediately leased, and if so, can you share more about how we would find tenants for those buildings before the beginning of the next school year?
  • What is the rationale in the undeveloped scenario for the removing middle school out of the established k-8 magnet?
  • Why is there a  plan to close a fully ada accessible building (Dawes) but there’s not a plan to make buildings fully Ada accessible. 
  • How much of our problems with D65 have to do with Devon Horton and building a a new, expensive school on Foster? Seems like a lot. 
  • Who hired the consultant that made the scorecards and are the meeting recordings, statement work, and contract publicly available? 
  • Dr. Beardsley said last night that additional consultants and counselors would be needed for closure of a Title 1 school. Were transition costs factored into the financial modeling? 
  • How can the district incorporate community members—volunteer hours, career expertise, and all other resources and abilities of community members to reduce overall operational costs to d65 so school closures are not essential to balancing budget?
  • 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 score cards recalculated before considering what the second school for closure should be?
  • At yesterday's meeting, board members asked questions regarding additional 2-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's 85% utilization along with its connection to Robert Crown and the field names it a community hub. How was that considered in the scenario? 
  • What do we gain by closing 4 schools and reopening King Arts as something worse?
  • Why does 3X close Dewey and keep King Arts as a neighborhood school instead of closing King Arts entirely?
  • While we understand the need to minimize disruption to students repeatedly year after year due to an outstanding deficit, wouldn’t it make more sense to start with ONE CLOSURE (eg of a non-neighborhood school) to assess what the board and community can do in terms of creative solutions in 2026-2027? Consider how the entire city is FIRED UPz Believe in our power. We are a brilliant and resourceful city. 
  • What happens to students in 4th or 5th ? Can they choose to finish at their current schools if their schools close? Is this decision being based solely on the data, ultimately ? Or on the number of tShirts / jeers in the rooms? When do you start fixing the buildings?
  • Are the raw data that went in to estimating the scorecards publicly available? I have not seen them posted on the D65 website. If not, why? 
  • WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO TRANSPORTATION. 
  • I find it troubling that Cordogan Clark has done both the master facilities assessment and the design and construction of Foster School. What outside accountability do we have for our future building upgrades?
  • Considering each closure scenario, what are the overall plans the district expects to use each of the properties for? Has the board considered realistic salability, historic status for certain properties and restricted property changes, long term rentability? If renting is one of the main options for income, who are you expecting to rent these spaces on a long term basis?  Additional question- How much of these closure decisions are due to the new foster school opening along with previous board’s unethical behaviors?
  • Can you take a moment to explain to the audience the benefits of Magnetization and why that is a big deal? 
  • The city of Evanston is operating under different assumptions about projected population growth. Why aren’t you using the same datasets? 
  • If you move the students who are in walking distance from Nichols, how are they expected to get to Chute (in that scenario). Will they be buses from south east Evanston? I am a working parent and can’t drive 
  • Kinder-5th grade sets the social emotional regulation skills for students. Has the district considered how class sized over 20 will negatively impact social emotional regulation? 
  • Why spend so much money on remodeling Washington school and now close it ? 
  • What about all of the assumptions that are explicitly included in these scenarios? What is the logic behind starting with closing nearly a quarter of our schools in one year?! What if these assumptions are wrong? 
  • Why weren’t any scenarios chosen for consideration that had fewer than 2 schools from the northern part of the city included?
  • It sounds like the subcommittee process was data-driven, thorough, and collaborative. Can you tell us why it would be a good idea to move forward with the scenarios already presented and a bad idea to go back to the drawing board?
  • If you close 3 schools and change the Dewey boundary south of dempster, has the board considered the safety of the children and the increased congestion to the vehicle traffic on an already busy street, especially where demspster is only two lanes -1 each direction in their calculations
  • 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? 
  • - [ ] What is the plan for Bessie Rhodes building and why have you not included ithd impact of its closing into the district financial projections.
  • Will there be formal feedback on scenario 3X as it isn’t currently on the Google Form?
  • What is the percentage of permissive transfers that are granted to go to a different neighborhood school versus what is the percentage granted to go to King Arts?
  • Can you explain what the 8 million in cuts look like? And can you break out year by year instead of aggregated five year plan to understand what a slower process could look like?
  • Why are we denying children the option to choose attend their neighborhood schools, tearing apart communities, in favor of kids having the opportunity to choose to attend a non-community school?
  • In the spirit of minimizing student impact, why force middle school attendance to be dictated by “feeder schools” instead of doing a fresh geographic assignment approach?  I recognize it would lead to student social changes when moving into 6th grade; however, that’s inevitable in the face of the elementary to middle move -and- doing so maintains walkability and community proximity for students, seemingly lessening total impacted students district-wide.
  • Thinking about the equity markers— more than how many students require transportation, we need to see who those students are.  Whose families will need to travel how far for activities, conferences , or to pick up sick kids? To travel from the southwest side of Evanston on Howard to walk to Oakton is 42 minutes— several families affected by that scenario have no personal vehicle, and are marked by more than one of the 3 equity markers
  • Can you explain the “structural deficit?” How big is it? Will 11.8M in reductions erase it or merely lower it?
  • Are the schools in question being chosen based on attendance of kids that live in proximity of these schools? Have you considered which of the schools would be best suited for repurposing as housing? 
  • Please explain the process as to how we would close Washington when it has the largest enrollment. Has any thought been given to bringing other schools or two strands into Washington? Let's be creative here. 
  • Parents have offered to do an independent audit of your data; would you be willing to stop advancement of closure work to allow for an independent audit of all your data.  Also, has the JEH building ever been factored into a scenario to sell to bridge the financial gap?
  • Closing a neighborhood school will re-route a community group together to a new neighborhood school. If king arts closes, students are scattered around Evanston and will all go to different schools. They will not only loose their school of choice, they will also be torn apart from their friends, support group and other trusted parents and caregivers. How is this uniques impact being studied and considered. 
  • What is the plan for current students with disabilities who will lose ADA accessibility to their school if Dawes closes (which is fully ADA accessible). Has the financial impact of making the other schools fully ADA accessible been taken into account specifically regarding scenario 3B and the impacts of a Dawes closure on our children with disabilities? 
  • If King Arts is closed as a K-8 and reopened as a K-5, how does this affect the overutilization & overcrowding of all the district's middle schools? 
  • What will happen to the closed school buildings — will they be sold, leased, or repurposed? How will maintenance, security, and safety be managed for empty buildings?How will siblings be affected — will they be kept together in reassigned schools? How will progress and community feedback be reported to ensure ongoing transparency?
  • How have you considered transition plans for kids close to the end of elementary school, e.g., 4th and 5th graders? Would they have an option to stay at their current school or select what school they go to if their school closed? Could the Foster model be used?
  • What are pros to keeping schools open that are underutilized? 
  • I acknowledge that King Arts is doing special work, however, why are we holding space for a special opt-in lottery placement school which is essentially telling kids who aren't selected that they don't deserve such quality programming?
  • What is marginal difference between the financial modeling for the 3 school closures compared to 2 school closures.
  • How is the board and administration willing to make sacrifices to benefit the financial viability of the district buildings as they stand? Is anyone willing to take salary cuts?
  • There’s been discussion about slowing down the timeline for initiating school closures- is it realistic for the board to consider that? Relatedly- if the board were to take more time with its considerations would we run up against a deadline for the state to choose the schools for us? 
  • Will the payments (or garnishments) that Dr. Horton makes to pay back the district be added into the budget?
  • - Do changes in feeder patterns impact students who are already in the middle school? Or when the impacted 5th graders go to middle school 
  • How much of a consideration is MSA accreditation applied closing KA?
  • Can you give some insight into the scenario just presented that had 0 school closures, what kind of programming/staffing reductions would be required to achieve that $8M figure?  Do you have any reactions to the Evanston Roundtable article that indicated that in a period of time that saw enrollment decline 20%, teacher staffing only reduced 4% and admin roles increased by 33%?
  • Given that the largest proportion of enrollment decline was due to shifts to non-public schools since Covid, what has been done to support bringing families back to the district (such as market research, marketing budgets, etc)? Although an expected decline from an aging population is understandable, has a sensitivity analysis been done to show the impact of families coming back to the district in the next few years (even if a quarter “bounce back”, that could be a 5% increase in enrollment numbers.
  • When did the Board vote to present only three school closure scenarios to the community engagement sessions? Was this vote conducted consistent with the Open Meetings Act?
  • What happens to students on permissive transfer due to family situations if their school remains open?
  • Is the district considering moving all TWI programming to the largest school that has the capacity to house them like Washington rather than reducing the TWI strands?
  • Can you speak to what the 8m or 1.6m staff/programming reductions would practically look like?
  • If the community has such a strong preference for walkable neighborhood elements schools, why isn’t there a higher priority on closing King Arts?
  • Who was responsible for drawing attendance lines? I heard it was someone/a department at Northwestern. Can you give more information?
  • How will proceeding hearings of former super intendant impact costs to district , and will it provide any potential financial return to d65?
  • How are amenities such as proximity to the Robert Crown Community Center taken into consideration for the scorecards?  It is a huge asset for the library space, fields, community center, etc.
  • How are other criteria - like attendance, magnet status, and impact on students having to change schools - for King Arts families? If you close the magnet program, we lose the K-8 aspect and the ability to attend a special magnet school and you impact families in every part of our community. 
  • Explain and show data for how Scenario 3d resulted in a 1.0 equity score?
  • Does the budget include transition costs? If not, why?
  • Since the board has approved the consolidation and closure planning process at every step of the way, why are new scenarios being added now, at the 11th hour? 
  • Why did the  various committees not get an opportunity to meet together with one another?
  • Do the board president stepping down from leadership impact this process and timeline? 
  • What is the plan to complete the $188M in deferred building maintenance?
  • Can you speak to what financial decisions resulted in putting us in this problematic financial decision and why we should believe that the district is making better educated and informed decisions in the process to close schools than it did that landed us in this level of debt?  How can we trust you?
  • Was a 2-school scenario considered with one school closed in the Haven feeder area and one in the south (either Chute or Nichols elementaries)? There wasn’t one on the Hub.
  • Depending on schools close, does that mean staff reductions go along with that building or will they be repositioned?  
  • Why are we just talking numbers and not the impact thos has on the children, the community? If it’s just about the financials,  why don’t we ask Northwestern to start paying a very small tax fee that goes towards the 2 school districts? It will be a win-win for both Northwestern “Saving D65” and D65.
  • When the District built the scorecard with the five criteria, it was assumed that the closed school building(s) would be sold, thus ending the operating costs, eliminating the need for further capital building investment, and earning the District the revenue dollars from the sale. Since the Board has stated that not all, if any, closed buildings will be sold, then the basis to include these criteria no longer exists as the building expenses will continue, the capital investment need will still exist, and the revenue from a sale will not be realized. So, can the District do a reanalysis for all school closure scenarios with just the valid remaining criteria of Equity, Geography and Building Functionality?"
  • Has the district considered preserving historical landmarks as schools and using those facilities during off hours for historical tours to bring in revenue and tourism?
  • Are we mandated by the state to close schools right now.  Do we have other alternatives to school closures since this is all incredibly disruptive to our community.   Especially breaking up communities and making our schools less walkable .
  • If Lincoln gets a Twi strand from Washington, why wouldn’t bilingual step move with it to keep it with STEP AND TWI?
  • Have you modeled the impact of closing two adjacent schools (Kingsley and lincolnwood)? I understand that each school individually scored low but it makes sense to consider the impact of closing both.
  • Don’t we project increased density in South Evanston due to zoning changes? Has this been projected in the model?
  • When you break up programming of Rise and other similar programs you will significantly disrupt their emotional and social development. How will you make up for this disruption not just in learning but in development for social development.
  • How are you approaching minimizing disruptions to students? For instance - I’m thinking about my 4th grader at Dewey, which is on one of the list. They’ll have to change twice in two years (once when their school is closed and then when they enter middle school). How are we currently weighting this and is there any way to bound or minimize it? And then similarly - is there a place to account for community fracturing to many places? If a school closes and most of the kids go to one place, that feels less disruptive than a school closing and the kids being scattered to 4-5 different schools. Sorry you have to deal with this very tough situation and thanks for your service to the community!
  • How will class sizes be impacted by these closures?
  • My worry is Washington being potentially divided into 4 schools. Can more effort be given to keeping kids at least grouped together with their peers. Particularly for those in upper grades. 
  • after that parent input phase, the school boundaries were drawn by the Northwestern data team. the boundaries don’t fully capture the reality of Evanston’s neighborhoods or the human connections that make our schools so special. The new lines often slice through communities and friendships in ways that data alone can’t see. What is the opportunity for community and input engagement that will result in actual changes to those boundaries?
  • What efforts are being made to increase D65 enrollment, such as by bringing back families who left for private schools?
  • What are the alternatives to closing schools that have been discussed? What has the consultant added to this process? Where are the consolidation proposals that were supposed to be part of the process? 
  • Does revenue modeling include selling school property to developers?
  • how is d65 partnering with the City of Evanston to find support for financial shortcomings? Mayor Brandon Johnson was able to find millions for CPS schools. What can the city do for partnering with the district?
  • Can you speak more about the application demand for King Arts and the district capping enrollment there. How does that affect the overall scorecard.  
  • In the special board meeting last night, it sounded like the revenue coming is not closely connected to the number of students enrolled - which, if true, means there is little benefit to maintaining or even returning enrollment to former levels. Is this true, or could it help the D65 budget if a positive “recruitment” effort were undertaken that could increase the student population? If so, has that been discussed?
  • Why not sell buildings?!
  • Has the closing of the JEH building been considered seriously?
  • Can we appeal to the state of Illinois for emergency funding given the corruption of Horton to keep schools open in D65?
  • 1. What are the plans for retaining and supporting talented educators and administrators as the school closures move forward? 2. What, if any, plans does the district have in place to evaluate the consequences of relocation on students and school communities? Relatedly, what kind of support may be provided to students and families who are relocated to help with adjustment?
  • Why have you not asked anyone for money?
  • How many teachers stand to lose their jobs when schools close? 
  • Is it too much to ask to have a new school board that has no members from the time when Dr Horton was the superintendent vote on this? Frankly there are currently members that I do not trust?
  • K-8 rise reduces transitions and builds inclusivity. 
  • What is the plan for how to message these school closures to the public, especially to families interested in moving to Evanston? How does this help Evanston compete with other communities on the North Shore?
  • The central Evanston school children  — of Washington and Dewey— are each being divided into 4 schools as a result of either of the 3 school closure scenarios. What thought was given to limiting the fragmentation of individual schools to reduce community disruption?
  • Why isn’t the preschool at admin building being considered for closure?
  • Has D65 considered becoming a non for profit, and make Administration staff non paid volunteer only and you all take 100% pay cuts?
  • What are the forecast average class sizes in these models?  While scenarios deliver cost savings through building closures and affiliated admin reductions, how will the net number of teachers be affected?
  • Closing 3 schools (plus Bessie Rhodes) and opening a new school all in one year seems an overwhelming task, with enormous risk of mis-steps that could further demoralize the public school community, incur costs far beyond the savings projections, cause high quality teachers to flee the district, and cause even more families to shift to private schools. Has a risk assessment scenario been conducted so that this impact/risk can be modeled in with these scenarios (3 closures vs 1 or 2; phased closures vs step-wise; etc)
  • Can you speak more about the application demand for King Arts and the district capping enrollment there. How does that affect the scorecard? 
  • Closing schools does not mean that you will stop heating and cooling the buildings. You are still responsible for the upkeep it doesn’t seem that building closures will save money 
  • What steps has the district taken to ensure their definition of equity score is relevant? Washington’s overall 2.0 score is very obviously due to its normalized equity score of 1, which is absurd given what we know about Washington.
  • Was walkability to middle schools considered in the scenarios? I’m specifically wondering about the scenario that sends Lincoln to Chute and Walker to Nichols. Must the K-5 populations remain intact when transitioning to middle schools, or would it be possible to have different boundaries for middle schools that would allow for both balanced utilization and better walkability? 
  • Closing schools does not mean that you will stop heating and cooling the buildings. You are still responsible for the upkeep it doesn’t seem that building closures will save money 
  • How much money has the district made from Bessie Rhodes building?
  • Many of these scenarios seem to sacrifice student safety / walkability for balancing utilization rates (boundaries straddling Emerson, Dempster, or Main). In the final boundaries for the eventual scenarios, will the board be able to look more closely at boundaries and allow some schools to naturally be smaller or larger if it helps with safety and walkability of the school’s boundary area?
  • How do you assume that a building closure will save money if you’re still responsible for it.
  • when looking at the financials for a large school like washington are the costs pro rated per student? 
  • More families would move to Evanston if there was more affordable housing. Is the school district working with the city of Evanston to increase housing to address the financial crisis?
  • Should the board members affiliated with Horton’s term still hold their positions? There is a larger level of mistrust within the community than you may realize. 
  • Is the district looking to file a civil suit against Horton for financial losses? related to his alleged embezzlement and his financial malfeasance related to construction costs. 
  • If administrative staff won't speak to things just because you weren’t here, how do we learn and understand from past mistakes? That is concerning and I want to give benefit of the doubt, but that is not a helpful or appropriate stance for the district at this point. 
  • Have calculations been made as to the economic costs that come with each school closure? Are there plans for the hiring of the social workers and counselors that will be needed to facilitate this process? 
  • How can you possibly skip to 3 school closures with zero community support behind this drastic measure? The board is not representing the interests of the families they serve. START SLOW. GET IT RIGHT is what we deserve and demand.
  • ETHS is considering issuing an $80M bond that would cost $65 per $500K home value in additional taxes. Why can’t D65 issue a bond to cover this deficit and keep our schools open?
  • Has D65 and the Mayor/city council collaborated on the issue of school closures?  D65 anticipates a decline in enrollment yet Envision Evanston expects our population to increase.  This does not make sense.
  • Can you tell me with the King Arts scorecard related to capacity/enrollment, how has the district accounted for the decision to cap enrollment in past years and eliminate sections, which now plays a part in their scorecard as it  relates to % of building utilized?
  • Have limitations to closures, like restricting the proximity of schools to each other, been considered? Closing Lincoln and Kings let is similar to closing oakton and washington. This is too large an impact on one area?
  • When we moved here 10 years ago the schools, and their reputation, were a huge driver. I will say that I have seen a noticeable degrading in quality of the education, where my children have been overlooked, and not given challenges to meet their needs. The kids that once challenged them leaving the school, as families opt out of d65 in favor of private education (often through scholarships). What is being done to bring a quality education to all, supporting diversity and a variety of range of needs including and not ignoring high academic achieving students? How can we get d65 to be a school district that families seek out? How are we accounting for declining enrollment due to families opting out and how that has become more prevalent? 
  • Closing Foster has been an expensive mistake. Why repeating the same mistake twice but this time hurting mostly the Latin community which is not represented, nor heard. Washington is one of the most racially and economically diverse school that has many classrooms filled and is easy to commute to. The proximity to Robert Crown makes it easy for many families for after school activities. What will the building be used for? Does the close proximity to Robert Crown (which generates income from renting fields and facility) has anything to do with this decision? Why only the 3 school closure option was discussed, with “favoring” Washington closure? Why there’s no conversation what will happen to the buildings and the surrounding areas of the schools? Are they going to be sold?