Staff Listen & Learn - School Leader Collaborative

Thank you to all of the individuals who invested the time to engage in our Listen & Learn 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.

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 to questions 1 and 2 were transcribed directly from the chart paper provided from the various groups. Identifying information has been removed and responses to question 3 are provided in summary form (not verbatim quotes).

An asterisk indicates that the idea was supported or named by other individuals within the session. The total number of participants does not include district facilitators.

Meeting details:

• Date and time: December 12, 2024 at 3 p.m.
• Location: Joseph E. Hill Education Center
• Number of active participants: 26

Question 1: As difficult decisions lie ahead to balance the budget, what are the top three priorities that you believe must be protected?

• More intentionality in improving teaching and learning (in-house professional development to support all of our kids with diverse needs, high quality curricular materials)
• Alignment of curriculum from birth through high school
• Interventions for Tier 2 and Tier 3
• Comprehensive implementation of restorative practices (includes CPI training for all staff members; professional development to build skill and knowledge to handle the most minor to most significant infractions)
• Bilingual STEP program
• Sustainability of full-time supports put in place in our schools has been more comprehensive than ever (instructional coach, IES coordinator, interventionist, social worker, etc - remains critical for level of growth we’ve been achieving)******
  • Creates a highly effective system and structure of school leadership
  • This includes a full-time assistant principal
  • Sustainability of supports to ensure instructional leadership
• Need full time APs in buildings***
• Having an IES Coordinator is necessary to support our schools and the needs of students; these roles have a significantly positive impact and is a needed resource within schools******
• Social workers are a key support 
• Park staff to student ratio is critical (maintains instruction/individualized learning)
• Student to staff ratio in early childhood being low is important

Question 2: When thinking about your experience in District 65, what programs, services, or shared values make you most proud?

• School counselors and AVID (significant reduction in suspensions and referrals, improved culture, climate, etc.)
• Dual language and the collaboration that exists between educators, seeing strong growth
• Individualized education services
• Park School staff are deeply committed to students; they want to keep growing and learning as a team
• Proud of student growth and having a staff who is willing to be vulnerable to continue learning; putting systems in place to support students at all levels
• Intervention system for students between 10-25th percentile
• Wraparound services are high quality
• Amount of differentiated services to bolster capacity of leaders; greater and higher quality of professional development within building
• ACC - high sense of identity for African American students
• TWI - proud of the quality of the program with new levels of academic accountability
• Data driven decision making
• Districtwide work to improve classroom environments and SEL work (reworking of SEL curriculum and responsive classrooms)
• More kids feel safe and a sense of community in classrooms
• Values of the district in being student centered; avoiding reductions in classrooms
• Structure of school leadership team (referenced in question 1) is such a strong, well rounded model. With budget reductions, concern over this model changing and impacting student growth***
• Partnerships with content team; really great work happening and support with all the new curriculum that has rolled out over the past several years
• Autonomy for departmentalized learning (3-5); believe this is significantly contributing to growth
• Attendance improvement and building connections among families 
• Response time to student and staff crisis and the individuals within the building that can support that allows teachers to focus on instruction and student needs continue to be prioritized
• So many students with unique needs who have the services they need at Park and within Evanston
• Having a schools team leader has been instrumental in keeping our school up to date with important issues, keeping us aware of things that we need to know from the district office, and finding answers for anything else that we ask.
• MTSS support at the district level
• Support of literacy department

Question 3: Please share any additional information that should be considered as we prioritize budget reductions.

• Consideration of Park School budget 
• Being clear with staff and the process to determine staffing reductions; a lot of uncertainty and people potentially looking for other jobs 
• Continuum of services for special education across the district
• Efficient continuum of services in each building, especially for early intervention
• Schools have different needs with different students and programming.*
• Amount of paper wasted within buildings; need to tighten practices to reduce waste
• Consideration of impact/community perception when supports are not equal across the district
• Title I schools have different needs
• Big shift within north Evanston schools with the opening of Foster School and thinking about the bigger, long term picture.