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Community Conversation - Staff #2

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 10, 2025 at 4 p.m.
  • Location: Joseph E. Hill Education Center
  • Approximate number of participants: 7

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.

category
(see above for description)

 criteria # of stickers
FA / EQ / FI ADA *****
EQ / FI / FA Cost of making non-ADA-compliant schools ADA-compliant  
FI / EX / EQ Consolidation of neighborhood schools **
FI Delineate the need of repair for each school: cost analysis for "high" vs. "moderate" vs. "low" *
FA Land size: not letting go of land mass, can land be an addition  
FI / EX / EQ By feeder schools, by elementary, by middle — attendance boundaries, maintaining mindset that everyone has a walkable schools, transportation capabilities of our families  
FA Classroom sizes, actual square footage, necessities vs. "nice to haves," e.g. sink, quiet space ****
EQ Community + equity: equity of resources (library, shared spaces), sense of belonging and identity (is it a new identity?) *****
EX Enrollment by grade (grade-level centers like PreK-2, 3-5 or PreK-8 - implications for feeder schools?) *

 

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?

  • Focus on energy savings within buildings, including solar panels (district should continue to pursue grants)
  • Grade level centers - what could these look like? This could include expansion of preK within buildings.
  • Think broadly about magnet programs and difficulties when there is only a single strand (eg only one strand of TWI within a building)
  • Leverage benefits of shared resources when prek is embedded within a k-5 school
  • There is currently lower enrollment for school age child care (SACC) with increased fees; could families be better served through community partners providing programs instead of the District?
  • Rent unused space
  • Start charging Northwestern taxes