- At the start of the 2024-2025 School year D65 will be on it's 7 superintendent. That's less than a two year average for leadership.
- Look at the number of central office leaders who were in place in 2012 and look at the number now.
- The BOE has known for more than a decade schools were crumbling and have chosen to do nothing to fix infrastructures and basic needs of buildings which are nearing 100 years old.
- In 2017, the campaign around the referendum was to keep programs, improve buildings, and make upgrades to expand 21st century learning and opportunities none of which has happened... just more spending and less accountability.
- How is it that the BOE can say building a new school on the back of equity is the right thing to do with deficit spending, low test scores, and no one holding anyone accountable at a leadership level is the right thing to do... not to mention what do the Northwest Evanston schools look like when you eliminate the students who are bussed to those schools from the fifth ward? Not very diverse... what does the demographic of Haven look like if you take away the fifth ward students?
- One more question.... how many of the vested leaders who were moving D65 in what was seemingly a better direction 7-8 years ago are still in those positions at the district and/or building level? D65 used to work hard to build capacity within buildings and the community and now you are left with a large constituency of individuals who know nothing about Evanston, are not vested in the community and think they know what Evanston is, but have not taken the time to learn REALLY about the needs of the community and its children.
The sad thing is the loudest voices have chosen to stop talking and, as you noted, pull their children out of Evanston schools. They love the community, love the environment, love the interactions, but would rather pay for private school then deal with trying to change what is the worst Evanston schools have been in many many years.
The thing that stands out the most to me is the allocation of the COVID relief ESSER funding. The District essentially received $10m to address learning loss and improve building ventilation/hvac. The money went towards all sorts of Dr. Horton pet projects: CREATE65, administrator hires, etc. And here we are now, the money is about to expire with absolutely nothing to show it, except we helped Dr. Horton land his dream job.
And he is doing the same thing there... proposing new schools, additional administrative hires , spend spend spend, and no track record to do anything, pitching the same plan (M.I.R.A.C.L.E.S.) that he did here... with what will inevitably be the same result... a lot of money, time, and young minds lost to REALLY BAD leadership...
And one more thing.... Why is it taking the BOE so long to hire a sup? Horton left in May. A strong superintendent search with a reputable search firm with a good timeframe should take 6 months, start to finish. But instead here we are 9 months later and they are just starting interviews????!!! Not to mention they still have two more cabinet level positions to fill... They will end up gong with Dr. Turner because she is there, not because she is the best candidate. Similar to what D202 did, which probably wasn't the best decision either... whole new story there....
You gotta give the guy credit, he certainly has a playbook to enrich his friends and himself. We were just stop number 3 on his way thru.
I haven't gotten any good info on the search. The search firm presented their survey findings back in November and then the Board didn't do anything in December or January meetings on the subject. My guess is that since the District lost the CFO, head of HR, and other misc admin folks that there was a bunch of delays related to that. If you know anything, though, let me know :)
Here's what I have found out. There are two finalists, but the board is keeping them quiet. The DEC President was not even informed of who they were until the last minute. If you look at the most recent job postings they have posted Dr. Cristofaro's position with a new title, which leads me to believe they are going to hire the current interim Dr. Turner... why would they change the title of a current position and post without allowing the new Sup. to make that determination, unless they already knew who it was?
Another poor process to hire the most important position in a district, while they continue to bleed money and lose leaders and students. Unreal
That would be something because she lives in Homewood and they'd have to change the rules to allow her to live there. Time to check the meeting agenda..
They will always be willing to bend the rules, rewrite them, or ignore them. They would probably even be willing to give a housing stipend... they have done that before!
It’s time. It’s time for the board to resign en masse. It’s time for the administration to turn over to a group of people that actually knows what they are doing. It’s time for the reasonable/rational Evanston tax payers to stop being bullied by a group of people that shouts “Racism! Inequity!” at views that are counter to their beliefs.
I urge readers of this blog to write/call the school board and demand change. This group of people has completely mishandled the finances of the district, choosing to ignore challenges staring them in the face while focusing on coming up w land acknowledgment statements, non-academic curriculum and justice circles causing a mass exodus of students and families (of which my family was part of).
There is not one sector in the country where people could individually and collectively screw up their duties and responsibilities so poorly and remain in their positions, keeping the status quo. Look at those building maintenance costs! Look at enrollment! Look at our costs! Look at all of Tom’s exceptional, meticulous reporting on the missteps along the way!
It’s clear. Change is needed immediately to avoid even more damage. Please demand it.
I don't know - not much going to change until next election in 2025 and even then, it's not clear that the voters of Evanston really care that much about moving the needle on this subject. The best we can do is to keep beating this drum and hope the Board starts paying attention because this is serious fucking business.
The fact that the story is already pushed down on the RT landing page and that the story only has 6 comments tells you pretty much everything you need to know. Incredibly frustrating.
That's how the cookie crumbles .. but that doesn't mean things can't change. I've met most of the current board members and they are mostly good people who want to do the right thing but 1) I think are getting a lot of misinformation from the district administration and 2) have political objectives that may not always line up with fiduciary success. I think we have the ability to influence both of those things but especially #1. I know my reporting has driven some changes.
lolz. The RoundTable is such a strange site. About 80% of it is written by high school and college kids with a smattering of PR pieces for local businesses. The actual news articles get lost in the mess of other stuff.
It doesn’t help that they don’t really edit their pieces. I find Larry Gavin’s 20,000 word treatises on MAP scores useful but tedious.
I am sure for most readers it is easy to skip over most of the essential stories and info since it exists in a large pool of superfluous stuff that few people have time to wade through.
This news is both not surprising and appalling. We need more than good intentions from school board; we need courageous people who don’t cower from honest and tough discussions. Our discourse should deal with facts. When Horton was superintendent , facts were ignored . Who was helped? Certainly not D 65 students. Resignations would suit this situation.
Thanks Tom for all the work you've been doing. I am a new parent in Lincoln school area and it's very disheartening to learn about the state of the schools. This is complete negligence on the part of the Board.
It makes no sense to me why none of the board knew any of this. How is this a surprise? Do they understand basic economics, like interest? How can we trust these people to solve the problems?
I am a little late to the game on some of this stuff. There is a lot of discussion about the 5th ward school. I think it's an admirable way to right wrongs of the past and heal the community. But I am concerned it will encourage gentrification rather than meet the needs of the 5th ward. Were there more pragmatic/innovative options on the table? The mismanagement of the situation again points negligence. I could go on......
I know you are winding down the substack posts, but I hope there will be a forum to organize and hold the Board accountable. A cohesive opposition rather than individual candidates is worth a shot in the next election.
Welcome to the neighborhood! I live at Hinman and Keeney. The tldr is that we elected a board of activists, instead of a board of practicians. Then when it comes to implementing the activist agenda, they ignore some of the harsh realities, like budgets.
When I say new parent I mean that I have a toddler, haha. I have lived at Hinman and Kenzie for many years. Here's hoping this is all worked out in 5 years! Activism on the board, in the administrations, and curriculum are also concerns of mine. But that is a much more systemic issue without a clear solution.
Personally I think what we're seeing is a symptom of a much larger problem that is plaguing America, in general. It's a bipartisan crisis of institutions being run by people that have no intention of being a good caretaker for the institution and have secondary objectives (activism, power, money, etc)
Thanks so much for the update, despite the grim outlook. Is terminating work on the new school even possible? I thought we were locked in due to the nature of the lease certificate or can we pay the penalty to cancel it? I assume the penalty will be less than the overall cost. I am really surprised they haven't broken ground at this point.
This is a complicated question that has a complicated answer. I still believe they might as well proceed with the new school and close another building or two and transfer students around. It's going to be a big mess that was completely avoidable with some foresight.
RE: backing out - the answer I've come to is "maybe probably not" - I think it would be hard and probably unlikely they could get out of the lease certificate. BUT .. my rough understanding is that there may be secondary market options, but I am not sure on that. They better hurry up on breaking ground because there are tax implications on the certificate at some point - school districts are not allowed to act as a hedge fund, arbitraging low interest rates like they are with this pile of money.
As a retired school social worker who has worked for quite a few superintendents I can tell you that they read the qualifications the school district puts out and deliver just that during their interview So they become proficient in the use of educational jargon. They use words like “through the lens of equity we will deliver……..”. Neither the Board nor the parents/community have listed basic competency. as a priority You wouldn’t hire a doctor or a pilot without putting competency first Let me give you an example. The district is spending $416,000. per day to put students in cabs! Why? I assume these students come under the purview of the special education administration. How many students with an IEP need cabs? When I worked on the special education team we always wrote goals to address disruptive behavior Again it comes down to competency. You can’t just attend meetings in the administrative building never seeing a student. Most administrators attend meetings. They go months without seeing a student. I can pretty confidently say that the candidates they are interviewing know exactly what this community wants. When I go to a doctor I want someone who knows what tests to run, what they mean, what meds to prescribe and to know what symptoms can mean etc.
As Mark Twain wrote “God created idiots for practice then he created school boards”
The transportation situation is a big mess .. but, a non-trivial percentage of that transportation expense is eventually covered by the federal government under McKinney-Vento. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but it's more than a million a year is reimbursed. I (hope) that is the case with a lot of the cab expenses, but I'm not entirely sure.
Good post Tom. A couple questions: the RoundTable and Evanston Now both reported that there was a memo or report in the board packet from the consultant which was then removed from the web after Fridays Evanston Now story.
Do you have a copy of that posted? Is there anything other than that slide deck that was prepared by the consultant?
On the penultimate slide they say reductions should be made based on return on investment and a “Racial Equity Impact Assessment.”
What are the criteria that inform the “Racial equity impact assessment “?
Did they make ANY mention about halting the new school at the meeting? At the very least they should have it as a scenario with cost estimates that can be compared with other scenarios.
Also, what is going on with the Superintendent search? It has been total crickets on that front.
One additional thought on the subject, the particular phrase is: "All expenditure reductions should be made through the lens of return-on-investment evaluation and the use of Racial Equity Impact Assessment."
I'm all for making the right decisions with whatever lens you want to use, but my understanding is that the BoE is legally a fiduciary to the taxpayers. Are they even allowed to make decisions and prioritize this assessment over financial issues? I need to find a finance lawyer to ask about this because my understanding is that they cannot. I can imagine a case where they are going to close a school and need to select the one to close, are they even permitted to make that decision based on anything other than the operations and finance of the District? I can very easily imagine a situation where this BoE is making decisions based solely on the race of students attending the school and literally nothing else...
Here's what we know...
- At the start of the 2024-2025 School year D65 will be on it's 7 superintendent. That's less than a two year average for leadership.
- Look at the number of central office leaders who were in place in 2012 and look at the number now.
- The BOE has known for more than a decade schools were crumbling and have chosen to do nothing to fix infrastructures and basic needs of buildings which are nearing 100 years old.
- In 2017, the campaign around the referendum was to keep programs, improve buildings, and make upgrades to expand 21st century learning and opportunities none of which has happened... just more spending and less accountability.
- How is it that the BOE can say building a new school on the back of equity is the right thing to do with deficit spending, low test scores, and no one holding anyone accountable at a leadership level is the right thing to do... not to mention what do the Northwest Evanston schools look like when you eliminate the students who are bussed to those schools from the fifth ward? Not very diverse... what does the demographic of Haven look like if you take away the fifth ward students?
- One more question.... how many of the vested leaders who were moving D65 in what was seemingly a better direction 7-8 years ago are still in those positions at the district and/or building level? D65 used to work hard to build capacity within buildings and the community and now you are left with a large constituency of individuals who know nothing about Evanston, are not vested in the community and think they know what Evanston is, but have not taken the time to learn REALLY about the needs of the community and its children.
The sad thing is the loudest voices have chosen to stop talking and, as you noted, pull their children out of Evanston schools. They love the community, love the environment, love the interactions, but would rather pay for private school then deal with trying to change what is the worst Evanston schools have been in many many years.
The thing that stands out the most to me is the allocation of the COVID relief ESSER funding. The District essentially received $10m to address learning loss and improve building ventilation/hvac. The money went towards all sorts of Dr. Horton pet projects: CREATE65, administrator hires, etc. And here we are now, the money is about to expire with absolutely nothing to show it, except we helped Dr. Horton land his dream job.
And he is doing the same thing there... proposing new schools, additional administrative hires , spend spend spend, and no track record to do anything, pitching the same plan (M.I.R.A.C.L.E.S.) that he did here... with what will inevitably be the same result... a lot of money, time, and young minds lost to REALLY BAD leadership...
And one more thing.... Why is it taking the BOE so long to hire a sup? Horton left in May. A strong superintendent search with a reputable search firm with a good timeframe should take 6 months, start to finish. But instead here we are 9 months later and they are just starting interviews????!!! Not to mention they still have two more cabinet level positions to fill... They will end up gong with Dr. Turner because she is there, not because she is the best candidate. Similar to what D202 did, which probably wasn't the best decision either... whole new story there....
You gotta give the guy credit, he certainly has a playbook to enrich his friends and himself. We were just stop number 3 on his way thru.
I haven't gotten any good info on the search. The search firm presented their survey findings back in November and then the Board didn't do anything in December or January meetings on the subject. My guess is that since the District lost the CFO, head of HR, and other misc admin folks that there was a bunch of delays related to that. If you know anything, though, let me know :)
Here's what I have found out. There are two finalists, but the board is keeping them quiet. The DEC President was not even informed of who they were until the last minute. If you look at the most recent job postings they have posted Dr. Cristofaro's position with a new title, which leads me to believe they are going to hire the current interim Dr. Turner... why would they change the title of a current position and post without allowing the new Sup. to make that determination, unless they already knew who it was?
Another poor process to hire the most important position in a district, while they continue to bleed money and lose leaders and students. Unreal
That would be something because she lives in Homewood and they'd have to change the rules to allow her to live there. Time to check the meeting agenda..
She could also move like all the external candidates likely would need to do.
They will always be willing to bend the rules, rewrite them, or ignore them. They would probably even be willing to give a housing stipend... they have done that before!
It’s time. It’s time for the board to resign en masse. It’s time for the administration to turn over to a group of people that actually knows what they are doing. It’s time for the reasonable/rational Evanston tax payers to stop being bullied by a group of people that shouts “Racism! Inequity!” at views that are counter to their beliefs.
I urge readers of this blog to write/call the school board and demand change. This group of people has completely mishandled the finances of the district, choosing to ignore challenges staring them in the face while focusing on coming up w land acknowledgment statements, non-academic curriculum and justice circles causing a mass exodus of students and families (of which my family was part of).
There is not one sector in the country where people could individually and collectively screw up their duties and responsibilities so poorly and remain in their positions, keeping the status quo. Look at those building maintenance costs! Look at enrollment! Look at our costs! Look at all of Tom’s exceptional, meticulous reporting on the missteps along the way!
It’s clear. Change is needed immediately to avoid even more damage. Please demand it.
I don't know - not much going to change until next election in 2025 and even then, it's not clear that the voters of Evanston really care that much about moving the needle on this subject. The best we can do is to keep beating this drum and hope the Board starts paying attention because this is serious fucking business.
The fact that the story is already pushed down on the RT landing page and that the story only has 6 comments tells you pretty much everything you need to know. Incredibly frustrating.
That's how the cookie crumbles .. but that doesn't mean things can't change. I've met most of the current board members and they are mostly good people who want to do the right thing but 1) I think are getting a lot of misinformation from the district administration and 2) have political objectives that may not always line up with fiduciary success. I think we have the ability to influence both of those things but especially #1. I know my reporting has driven some changes.
lolz. The RoundTable is such a strange site. About 80% of it is written by high school and college kids with a smattering of PR pieces for local businesses. The actual news articles get lost in the mess of other stuff.
It doesn’t help that they don’t really edit their pieces. I find Larry Gavin’s 20,000 word treatises on MAP scores useful but tedious.
I am sure for most readers it is easy to skip over most of the essential stories and info since it exists in a large pool of superfluous stuff that few people have time to wade through.
Journalism in 2020s is about story telling more than it is analysis
They censor comments pretty hard there imo. It was revealing how many comments and the content they/Duncan allowed on this one for example though https://evanstonroundtable.com/2023/12/13/police-investigate-antisemitic-graffiti-found-at-haven-middle-school/
To be fair: They do much less censorship than Evanston Now. I also do a lot of censorship too
This news is both not surprising and appalling. We need more than good intentions from school board; we need courageous people who don’t cower from honest and tough discussions. Our discourse should deal with facts. When Horton was superintendent , facts were ignored . Who was helped? Certainly not D 65 students. Resignations would suit this situation.
Vikki Proctor
Thanks Tom for all the work you've been doing. I am a new parent in Lincoln school area and it's very disheartening to learn about the state of the schools. This is complete negligence on the part of the Board.
It makes no sense to me why none of the board knew any of this. How is this a surprise? Do they understand basic economics, like interest? How can we trust these people to solve the problems?
I am a little late to the game on some of this stuff. There is a lot of discussion about the 5th ward school. I think it's an admirable way to right wrongs of the past and heal the community. But I am concerned it will encourage gentrification rather than meet the needs of the 5th ward. Were there more pragmatic/innovative options on the table? The mismanagement of the situation again points negligence. I could go on......
I know you are winding down the substack posts, but I hope there will be a forum to organize and hold the Board accountable. A cohesive opposition rather than individual candidates is worth a shot in the next election.
Welcome to the neighborhood! I live at Hinman and Keeney. The tldr is that we elected a board of activists, instead of a board of practicians. Then when it comes to implementing the activist agenda, they ignore some of the harsh realities, like budgets.
When I say new parent I mean that I have a toddler, haha. I have lived at Hinman and Kenzie for many years. Here's hoping this is all worked out in 5 years! Activism on the board, in the administrations, and curriculum are also concerns of mine. But that is a much more systemic issue without a clear solution.
Personally I think what we're seeing is a symptom of a much larger problem that is plaguing America, in general. It's a bipartisan crisis of institutions being run by people that have no intention of being a good caretaker for the institution and have secondary objectives (activism, power, money, etc)
Also, congrats on the new baby! The pre school years simultaneously take forever and go by in a flash.
Thanks so much for the update, despite the grim outlook. Is terminating work on the new school even possible? I thought we were locked in due to the nature of the lease certificate or can we pay the penalty to cancel it? I assume the penalty will be less than the overall cost. I am really surprised they haven't broken ground at this point.
This is a complicated question that has a complicated answer. I still believe they might as well proceed with the new school and close another building or two and transfer students around. It's going to be a big mess that was completely avoidable with some foresight.
RE: backing out - the answer I've come to is "maybe probably not" - I think it would be hard and probably unlikely they could get out of the lease certificate. BUT .. my rough understanding is that there may be secondary market options, but I am not sure on that. They better hurry up on breaking ground because there are tax implications on the certificate at some point - school districts are not allowed to act as a hedge fund, arbitraging low interest rates like they are with this pile of money.
As a retired school social worker who has worked for quite a few superintendents I can tell you that they read the qualifications the school district puts out and deliver just that during their interview So they become proficient in the use of educational jargon. They use words like “through the lens of equity we will deliver……..”. Neither the Board nor the parents/community have listed basic competency. as a priority You wouldn’t hire a doctor or a pilot without putting competency first Let me give you an example. The district is spending $416,000. per day to put students in cabs! Why? I assume these students come under the purview of the special education administration. How many students with an IEP need cabs? When I worked on the special education team we always wrote goals to address disruptive behavior Again it comes down to competency. You can’t just attend meetings in the administrative building never seeing a student. Most administrators attend meetings. They go months without seeing a student. I can pretty confidently say that the candidates they are interviewing know exactly what this community wants. When I go to a doctor I want someone who knows what tests to run, what they mean, what meds to prescribe and to know what symptoms can mean etc.
As Mark Twain wrote “God created idiots for practice then he created school boards”
The transportation situation is a big mess .. but, a non-trivial percentage of that transportation expense is eventually covered by the federal government under McKinney-Vento. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but it's more than a million a year is reimbursed. I (hope) that is the case with a lot of the cab expenses, but I'm not entirely sure.
Good post Tom. A couple questions: the RoundTable and Evanston Now both reported that there was a memo or report in the board packet from the consultant which was then removed from the web after Fridays Evanston Now story.
Do you have a copy of that posted? Is there anything other than that slide deck that was prepared by the consultant?
On the penultimate slide they say reductions should be made based on return on investment and a “Racial Equity Impact Assessment.”
What are the criteria that inform the “Racial equity impact assessment “?
Did they make ANY mention about halting the new school at the meeting? At the very least they should have it as a scenario with cost estimates that can be compared with other scenarios.
Also, what is going on with the Superintendent search? It has been total crickets on that front.
You may be surprised to learn that the "Racial Equity Impact Assessment" is a product that the District purchases from a vendor: https://sites.google.com/district65.net/district-65-equity-glossary/home
One additional thought on the subject, the particular phrase is: "All expenditure reductions should be made through the lens of return-on-investment evaluation and the use of Racial Equity Impact Assessment."
I'm all for making the right decisions with whatever lens you want to use, but my understanding is that the BoE is legally a fiduciary to the taxpayers. Are they even allowed to make decisions and prioritize this assessment over financial issues? I need to find a finance lawyer to ask about this because my understanding is that they cannot. I can imagine a case where they are going to close a school and need to select the one to close, are they even permitted to make that decision based on anything other than the operations and finance of the District? I can very easily imagine a situation where this BoE is making decisions based solely on the race of students attending the school and literally nothing else...
There is a memo that I didn’t share. Let me dig it up and share.
Here's the one I have but maybe it's an updated version? https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DZx-byHPJJsr2D6nxq5zgJ4FUY6Bhya3/view?usp=drive_link