District 65 to End Summer Care Program
Long running and beloved program, killed by bad decisions
I’ve got some stories coming on the school closures and FOIA Gras 2.0, which is going to be very interesting. Stay tuned!
Last year at this time, the District 65 Board considered eliminating the SACC (School Aged Child Care) summer program. I wrote on the subject and gave a public comment at the meeting. Here we are again, and I’ll be at the meeting tomorrow night to comment on this year’s plan to terminate the program.
I am a huge fan of the SACC program - it’s a lifesaver for Evanston working parents in the summer - a great affordable summer program run by amazing staff. It’s safe, they feed the kids, and they go on field trips and have a great time. My argument was that the SACC summer program was very close to break even and all they needed was a small increase in cost.
The minutes for the January 2025 meeting cover the Board’s discussion that it was “too close to summer to cut the programming” and that the Superintendent would “reimagine” the program before the next meeting.
Since it is too close to summer to cut summer programming - more strategic planning and communication are needed to map out the future of summer learning in the district. The board agreed to keep the summer programming for the coming year if the program cost was lowered and to consider aligning with the 5-6 summer programming schedule being enforce by district buildings. The board realizes that there are different models for summer programming and the SACC is all in so you can have childcare and have a job. The Superintendent agreed that the team will reimagine what the program looks like with the SDRP in mind along with what before and after program care looks like - the proposal will be brought to the board at the next meeting.
Despite the promises, the proposal wasn’t brought to the board at the next meeting - neither the February 2025 nor March 2025 agendas contain anything related to the SACC summer program. But the changes were made anyway.
Summer 2024:
Cost $1,800
8 weeks
8am - 6pm
61 Students
Any Evanston Student
Summer 2025:
Cost $2,500
6 weeks
7am - 6pm
24 students
District 65 Registered Students only
The program was cut by 2 weeks, cost $700 more and was limited to District 65 students only.1 Given these drastic changes, it’s no surprise that the number of registered students plummeted from 61 → 24.
So here we are again, the District wants to end the program, citing the enrollment and financial crisis (that they created) and claiming there are plenty of alternatives;
The City of Evanston and other community organizations offer a range of summer programs that provide structured, camp-style experiences for students. Many of these programs include sliding-scale tuition options, scholarships, and accept DHS and Action for Children subsidies.
Yet, anyone with a child knows how registration for City of Evanston summer camps go - I hope you have a robot that can enroll the second they open up. The reality is that all the alternatives are hard to get in, much more expensive, and have even more limited hours. This program was a lifesaver for so many dual income and working families.
I’m feeling less optimistic this year - they’ve been successful at rendering the program a financial mess. I will have to add this to the list of District 65 programs that were working perfectly fine but ended due to maladministration. I’m working on a separate story involving the volunteer tutoring program, which met a similar end in 2023.
The Board is discussing this at the meeting tomorrow and I’d love to give a public comment. However the meeting is scheduled at 5:00pm - a difficult time for those who have 9-5 jobs not in the District 65 administration building.
There is no formal place where this is documented for District 65 registered students only. However, when I tried to register my own kid for the summer program, I was told it was for “registered District 65 students only” and I would have to register him back into District 65. Which I did and he was then permitted to attend the camp.
I would like to see the admin run a break-even analysis and then determine if we can work towards those enrollment numbers. We now have data at two different price points and program design, so it should be feasible.
I would love to see a new era where D65 works to increase enrollment, rather than the reactive stance we’ve been in. We’ve relied on this program in the past. It’s one of the few full time camps that isn’t wildly overpriced or hard to get into. There are lots of camps, but not many that cover the whole day/ full summer for working parents. Sad to see it go this way.