They can say whatever they want. As if coming there does anything. They are emboldened based on the last two election cycles. They are arrogant and act like they are untouchable. The only thing that will shake them (maybe) would be a state/federal investigation and/or a lawsuit naming them all —every board member, every administrator tha…
They can say whatever they want. As if coming there does anything. They are emboldened based on the last two election cycles. They are arrogant and act like they are untouchable. The only thing that will shake them (maybe) would be a state/federal investigation and/or a lawsuit naming them all —every board member, every administrator that facilitated all of this. They’ve stolen our money (anyone know where the Covid millions have gone??!), destroyed our school district, harmed kids (most importantly). So much destruction. So much trashing of their fiduciary duties.
I have an answer to the COVID million thing. D65 took about $10m in ESSER funding. A little under a million of that went to the CREATE65 boondoggle, of which about $330k of that went to a friend of Dr. Horton:
As far as I know, none of it was stolen in the technical sense.
I should add - this is actually a major national problem right now, especially in CPS. All these School Boards are waking up this year, when the ESSER money runs out and asking "hey what happened" - only to learn their administrations burned all the money on headcount and pet projects. This is the main issue why CPS is a mess right now.
This is correct. The ESSER money came in rounds and each round had different spending requirements defined by the ISBE (if you google it you can find their list of permitted expenses). I've seen the list, by ESSER2 it was pretty much most stuff allowed except major capital improvements and teacher salaries.
I have yet to find any school district in America that used it for HVAC upgrades. This is just absolutely mindbogglingly stupid considering that when we had those hot days a month or two ago, even some of the nicer Districts north of us had to close because they .. didn't have air conditioning. None of this makes any sense because all the buildings were closed, so it would've been ideal for HVAC improvements.
Many, including D65 did use it for tutoring. D65 spent more than $2.5m of the ESSER money on tutoring, but that includes a lot of headcount on tutors, administrators, programming, etc that is hard to get rid of after the money is gone. This is the big issue facing a lot of Districts now.
I can verify that nothing was done where I taught in D65. The only HEPA filter you would find would have been purchased by a teacher for their own room. I was told by our custodial staff that the heating system could not handle the enhanced filters without burning out the motors.
Thanks Tom. I’ll check out the links you provided over lunch. I Appreciate the quick reply and am really grateful to see that you’ve found accounting for that $$.
Every school district in America except the most judicious (there are a few in IL that used it purposefully) pissed this money away. It's really quite sad.
I know this is crazy but we should expect our school district to be one of the judicious ones, like literally everyone in this town has a masters degree. We should expect and demand better governance.
I am so sick of people pointing to national averages, or distant school districts of similar enrollment numbers but quite possibly differently composed populations, land coverage, etc. and claiming being average or a little below average is what we should aim for.
I hope the aspiring candidates for the coming election aren't setting the bar at simply balancing the budget. What's on the back end of those measures that will actually lay the ground work for thriving vs. surviving?
They can say whatever they want. As if coming there does anything. They are emboldened based on the last two election cycles. They are arrogant and act like they are untouchable. The only thing that will shake them (maybe) would be a state/federal investigation and/or a lawsuit naming them all —every board member, every administrator that facilitated all of this. They’ve stolen our money (anyone know where the Covid millions have gone??!), destroyed our school district, harmed kids (most importantly). So much destruction. So much trashing of their fiduciary duties.
I have an answer to the COVID million thing. D65 took about $10m in ESSER funding. A little under a million of that went to the CREATE65 boondoggle, of which about $330k of that went to a friend of Dr. Horton:
https://www.foiagras.com/p/district-65-teacher-residency-program
The rest was mostly spent on misc programs and headcount, some COVID related, some not. Here is the District's own breakdown:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10IMDecU2cDKnSV3T3I4mL15UyCqBUMBd/view
As far as I know, none of it was stolen in the technical sense.
I should add - this is actually a major national problem right now, especially in CPS. All these School Boards are waking up this year, when the ESSER money runs out and asking "hey what happened" - only to learn their administrations burned all the money on headcount and pet projects. This is the main issue why CPS is a mess right now.
I thought the ESSER funds were supposed to be used for HVAC upgrades in buildings and tutoring services for learning loss.
This is correct. The ESSER money came in rounds and each round had different spending requirements defined by the ISBE (if you google it you can find their list of permitted expenses). I've seen the list, by ESSER2 it was pretty much most stuff allowed except major capital improvements and teacher salaries.
I have yet to find any school district in America that used it for HVAC upgrades. This is just absolutely mindbogglingly stupid considering that when we had those hot days a month or two ago, even some of the nicer Districts north of us had to close because they .. didn't have air conditioning. None of this makes any sense because all the buildings were closed, so it would've been ideal for HVAC improvements.
Many, including D65 did use it for tutoring. D65 spent more than $2.5m of the ESSER money on tutoring, but that includes a lot of headcount on tutors, administrators, programming, etc that is hard to get rid of after the money is gone. This is the big issue facing a lot of Districts now.
I can verify that nothing was done where I taught in D65. The only HEPA filter you would find would have been purchased by a teacher for their own room. I was told by our custodial staff that the heating system could not handle the enhanced filters without burning out the motors.
Unrelated but maybe related. Remember when Horton gave all the teachers a $500 check in Sept 2022 and cost $700k?
https://evanstonnow.com/district-65-to-give-employees-500-bonuses/
I wonder if that came out of ESSER money they had to discharge before a certain date. Gonna have to do some research on that.
Thanks Tom. I’ll check out the links you provided over lunch. I Appreciate the quick reply and am really grateful to see that you’ve found accounting for that $$.
Every school district in America except the most judicious (there are a few in IL that used it purposefully) pissed this money away. It's really quite sad.
Now that you said that, cue one of the board members or their apologists saying "this is a national problem, not our board's!"
As if it was unknown that ESSER funds had an expiration date we could plan for.
I know this is crazy but we should expect our school district to be one of the judicious ones, like literally everyone in this town has a masters degree. We should expect and demand better governance.
THIS!
I am so sick of people pointing to national averages, or distant school districts of similar enrollment numbers but quite possibly differently composed populations, land coverage, etc. and claiming being average or a little below average is what we should aim for.
I hope the aspiring candidates for the coming election aren't setting the bar at simply balancing the budget. What's on the back end of those measures that will actually lay the ground work for thriving vs. surviving?