“The system we happen to live in has been built on stripping black and brown people of their identities SO THAT they can experience our white normed world. The 5th ward school is a great local example. It was closed SO THAT the white schools could be integrated. …We currently, at a 4.3 million dollar expense bus black and brown students (not all, my white kids ride a bus) all over town as a result of that school closure which was stripped from the residents of the 5th ward. This is the only ward in Evanston without a neighborhood school.
Discipline policy punishes blakc and brown students at least three times more than white students. We changed that policy for the better
Dress codes police black and brown bodies more than white students to a similar degree. We changed that policy for the better.
Middle School Math Acceleration after a decade or more resulted in classes being taught by level with regular classes being black and brown students and accelerated being predominantly white. The textbooks were the same, the syllabus were the same. The teachers came to a board meeting asking for us to help them integrate the classes because the only difference was what they were called. We changed the policy for the better.
Bullying policies are in place and I would recommend your friend write a note asking for a bullying investigation if this is truly happening. Be careful, they are big and uncover a lot, but when bullying is happening the school must do something. Again, we have policy for this (7:180).”
This board member is right that much of our world is built on the labor of black and brown folks. If you view the bussing as something done *for* white people and believe this rights that wrong, then you should be in favor of building this school using honest financials. This is what I am advocating.
Nobody benefits when the school isn’t built and we have a ton of debt!
As for board policy 7:180, your interpretation as it *requiring* the board to listen and honor your complaints is wrong.
The biggest PR coup the Board was able to accomplish was to suggest that Ward boundaries have something to do with the schools. They are totally arbitrary and have no bearing on the schools.
If you really wanted a "Fifth Ward School" why didn't the district at least talk with the City about re-converting the Civic Center back into a school? It is in the Fifth Ward and the city doesn't need the space. You also could justify avoiding a referendum more plausibly by repurposing an old building.
If the Board is going to use this ridiculous "Ward" framing, they should at least be honest about it. The Board member is totally wrong in their assertion that "This is the only ward in Evanston without a neighborhood school." There are no District 65 schools in the First Ward. I live in the Second Ward and the only District 65 school we have is a magnet school, not a neighborhood school. Kids in the neighborhood are not guaranteed admission to the school. Of course the Wards in Evanston hardly correspond to neighborhoods. How can Second Ward businesses Sam's Club and the Hilton Garden Inn downtown be in the same "neighborhood"?
My kids have to travel to another ward for school! God Forbid!
Of course, NEVER, in the discussion about the school was an assertion that having a neighborhood school somehow translates to better educational outcomes. What we are going to have is a neighborhood school with big class sizes and overworked teachers because of the funding hole that the board is digging. It wouldn't be unwise to bet that educational outcomes will actually suffer as a result of this reckless spending.
And, of course, most "black and brown" kids in the city don't even live in the Fifth Ward. They will be going to other under-resourced schools in the district.
OK, well that still doesn't make sense when you look at the reality on the ground.
The African American population is higher in the eighth ward than the fifth ward. The fifth ward ONCE was the predominant black ward, but that is no longer the case. And that is the crux of the problem: the board and admin are operating without engaging with the contemporary reality.
IF we really think race is important, we should ask if there markedly different educational outcomes between the African American kids in the eighth ward--the predominantly black ward WITH a neighborhood school--and the fifth ward? Probably not. Where is the analysis?
They use the "Fifth Ward School" terminology and link the need for a new school to the closing of Foster in the 70s is because they are ENTIRELY driven by nostalgia. There is a small group of long-term residents who remember back to their childhood with fondness and want to replicate those halcyon days of yore. They don't like the changes that have occurred in the ward over the last 20 years--especially the ethnic diversification and gentrification in the ward. They want to "Make The Fifth Ward Great Again."
Nostalgia is a natural human sentiment. We all have it to some degree.
It is not, however, the sentiment that should guide education funding and investment. A $30 million dollar construction project that is taking money from the operating budget is irresponsible and--most importantly--will likely result in poor outcomes for the kids they purport to want to help as the district has to service this debt for years.
And of course, the ironic thing is that many of my friends in the real estate business here are predicting the new school will intensify the gentrification pressures in the fifth ward, which will cause further anxiety amongst the MFWGA crowd.
With a population ranging from around 1.1-1.2 billion people out of the global population of more than 8 billion, White people constitute around 15% of the global population
They never focused on anything except race, and don’t care if it costs a billion. Here’s what a board member emailed on sept 20,2021 (foia it if need proof). The bullying incident referenced was about a foreign family who’s 2nd grader was repeatedly being chocked unconscious on playground. It is interesting some of the most vocal board members (including the one who sent the below) were absent the groundbreaking build a statue to yourself event. https://evanstonroundtable.com/2023/06/20/evanston-d65-dedicates-fifth-ward-school-site/?utm_content=buffer865eb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
“The system we happen to live in has been built on stripping black and brown people of their identities SO THAT they can experience our white normed world. The 5th ward school is a great local example. It was closed SO THAT the white schools could be integrated. …We currently, at a 4.3 million dollar expense bus black and brown students (not all, my white kids ride a bus) all over town as a result of that school closure which was stripped from the residents of the 5th ward. This is the only ward in Evanston without a neighborhood school.
Discipline policy punishes blakc and brown students at least three times more than white students. We changed that policy for the better
Dress codes police black and brown bodies more than white students to a similar degree. We changed that policy for the better.
Middle School Math Acceleration after a decade or more resulted in classes being taught by level with regular classes being black and brown students and accelerated being predominantly white. The textbooks were the same, the syllabus were the same. The teachers came to a board meeting asking for us to help them integrate the classes because the only difference was what they were called. We changed the policy for the better.
Bullying policies are in place and I would recommend your friend write a note asking for a bullying investigation if this is truly happening. Be careful, they are big and uncover a lot, but when bullying is happening the school must do something. Again, we have policy for this (7:180).”
This board member is right that much of our world is built on the labor of black and brown folks. If you view the bussing as something done *for* white people and believe this rights that wrong, then you should be in favor of building this school using honest financials. This is what I am advocating.
Nobody benefits when the school isn’t built and we have a ton of debt!
As for board policy 7:180, your interpretation as it *requiring* the board to listen and honor your complaints is wrong.
The biggest PR coup the Board was able to accomplish was to suggest that Ward boundaries have something to do with the schools. They are totally arbitrary and have no bearing on the schools.
If you really wanted a "Fifth Ward School" why didn't the district at least talk with the City about re-converting the Civic Center back into a school? It is in the Fifth Ward and the city doesn't need the space. You also could justify avoiding a referendum more plausibly by repurposing an old building.
If the Board is going to use this ridiculous "Ward" framing, they should at least be honest about it. The Board member is totally wrong in their assertion that "This is the only ward in Evanston without a neighborhood school." There are no District 65 schools in the First Ward. I live in the Second Ward and the only District 65 school we have is a magnet school, not a neighborhood school. Kids in the neighborhood are not guaranteed admission to the school. Of course the Wards in Evanston hardly correspond to neighborhoods. How can Second Ward businesses Sam's Club and the Hilton Garden Inn downtown be in the same "neighborhood"?
My kids have to travel to another ward for school! God Forbid!
Of course, NEVER, in the discussion about the school was an assertion that having a neighborhood school somehow translates to better educational outcomes. What we are going to have is a neighborhood school with big class sizes and overworked teachers because of the funding hole that the board is digging. It wouldn't be unwise to bet that educational outcomes will actually suffer as a result of this reckless spending.
And, of course, most "black and brown" kids in the city don't even live in the Fifth Ward. They will be going to other under-resourced schools in the district.
I just think they mean fifth ward in the colloquial sense, referring to the predominately black neighborhood in Evanston
OK, well that still doesn't make sense when you look at the reality on the ground.
The African American population is higher in the eighth ward than the fifth ward. The fifth ward ONCE was the predominant black ward, but that is no longer the case. And that is the crux of the problem: the board and admin are operating without engaging with the contemporary reality.
IF we really think race is important, we should ask if there markedly different educational outcomes between the African American kids in the eighth ward--the predominantly black ward WITH a neighborhood school--and the fifth ward? Probably not. Where is the analysis?
They use the "Fifth Ward School" terminology and link the need for a new school to the closing of Foster in the 70s is because they are ENTIRELY driven by nostalgia. There is a small group of long-term residents who remember back to their childhood with fondness and want to replicate those halcyon days of yore. They don't like the changes that have occurred in the ward over the last 20 years--especially the ethnic diversification and gentrification in the ward. They want to "Make The Fifth Ward Great Again."
Nostalgia is a natural human sentiment. We all have it to some degree.
It is not, however, the sentiment that should guide education funding and investment. A $30 million dollar construction project that is taking money from the operating budget is irresponsible and--most importantly--will likely result in poor outcomes for the kids they purport to want to help as the district has to service this debt for years.
And of course, the ironic thing is that many of my friends in the real estate business here are predicting the new school will intensify the gentrification pressures in the fifth ward, which will cause further anxiety amongst the MFWGA crowd.
With a population ranging from around 1.1-1.2 billion people out of the global population of more than 8 billion, White people constitute around 15% of the global population
If your point is that you as a white guy are some kind of underprivileged minority, that is a very dumb argument.
OK? What's your point?