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 believe this already exists as I was on the student programmings committee for SAPIII and we spent a good 6 weeks on out of school time (OST) programs (which included summer programs) and had detailed cost breakdowns. I have yet to see any of the recommendations from the student programmings committee about OST programs come in front of the board. I have emailed the board about some of our recommendations (one of which saves the district $1M yearly without any impact to students) and received a one-sentence reply from one board member.
Hi! and why are you not seated yet? Biz (I don't support her in any way lol) brought this up - to make the program self sustaining - (youtube, 1/13/25- 3rd hour, 12 minutes (3:11:55). But of course this Admin did nothing to promote it so people wouldn't know to sign up/pay for it. It's laughable, like Maria said, the city program signup is 3 weeks away for 2026. If it had been attractively marketed earlier, telling us what counselors were involved and what field trips, etc, it would have had signups. But, in case you're like me and have cancelled streaming channels to watch d65 board meetings, I recommend everyone to re-watch all of 1/13/25 (it was a full audience!!) as well as all of the 2025 school board meetings, its a wild ride!
Also re-watch, PMA lease certificates, Bob Lewis - (D65 youtube, 1/13/25, 2:09:00). I've watched this at least 6 times :( I also want to point out PMA should have showed up onsite, not zoom on a video call. All these big numbers were in sort of a bubble.
Yes they absolutely need to be marketing this! I can’t remember if it was in the recreational guide book or not. The only reason it was on our radar is because we had relied on SACC for after school care. I think there was a webpage for it, but there was almost nothing about it aside for a few email contacts. No pictures, no schedule of field trips, nothing that shows you what a typical day looks like. It was a real gamble when we did this camp in 2024!
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.
Let's also not forget how long it took D65 to get their act together this time last year. I know anecdotally at least three families (with a total of 5 kids) who would loved to have sent their kids to the D65 SACC program, but the Board's indecisiveness forced them to find other alternatives.
Great piece, Tom. This administration seems to be killing off beloved programs by slowly suffocating them. The fate of SACC sounds similar to what is happening to TWI. Bessie Rhodes lost 30%+ of their students in the year since its closure was announced. More Bessie Rhodes students may leave TWI program (either for their neighborhood school or private school) when it moves to Foster. Before winter break we got the unilateral decision from the administration that they have decided to close Willard TWI without Board approval. About half of the 100+ kids in the program won't move to Foster or will go private. Next year they will see reduced program headcount again and I won't be surprised if they set their sights on Oakton's TWI. All of these problems in SACC and TWI are of their own making. At this point I want to 'reimagine' a new Superintendent and leadership team.
I've tried to stay neutral on Turner, but the "Get Salty" shirt at the school closing meeting was disgusting. Her lack of caring about the community she serves and being "over it" shows a clear need to fire her.
Somewhere out there I heard there are MIRACLES varsity jackets. If anyone knows where I can obtain one, let me know and I’ll auction it off for charity.
According to AI (which is consistent with my understanding) a “salty person" is slang for someone who is annoyed, bitter, resentful, or angry, often over something minor, a loss, or a perceived slight, like getting beaten in a game.
So…yeah pretty ridiculous to be worn by the Superintendent at a board meeting.
But to add upon further search there’s a T-shirt sold for being salty to mean making kids thirsty for education. So I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt I guess that it means that. Not the judgment I’d use though when it can be so easily misconstrued.
Not that I know of. I've always known being salty as being overly upset about something and people are making fun of you for it (eg. Packers fans are so salty about that loss). To me (and I think many others) this seemed like a clear message about people being salty about their school closing. It would be nice if there could be some clarification and apology if this was not the intent, but I doubt it.
Thank you for this. It’s very frustrating! From sports, to middle school debate and accelerated math for middle schoolers at the high school. All worked well before but have been basically abandoned by d65.
One of the big issues that I feel over and over again is that d65 really doesn’t care about the family’s that it’s supposed to serve. From the random scheduling of half days to starting school on Tuesday after winter break rather then everyone else starting on Monday. All are huge issues for parents who have to work.
The thing that really gets me is parent-teacher conferences during 9-5 hours. For a district that yammers on non-stop about "equity", it seems pretty inequitable that working class people can't attend their own kid's parent-teacher conferences, board meetings, or even curriculum night.
Confused on the parent-teacher conferences 9-5 comment ... our conferences at 1 school ALWAYS went to 7pm one night & 6 pm the other. Still do. If memory serves, this is contractual via DEC. Splitting hairs, I know, but I want to clarify. (I do agree with the spirit of the comment - despite rhetoric, massive inequities in every area of this district/admin.)
Oh I totally forgot about the debate thing - I have a story I never published on that. Maybe I’ll revive it because that situation was bad and depressing
Why are Sergio and Mya still on this board? Off with their heads! The news never gets good at d65. I’m shocked more of the north side families haven’t left already to private, given that half the schools over there are probably going to close. And I wouldn’t be excited about leaving Kingsley, with all its lovely green space to go to a school 50 feet away in a packed square that shares environs with two other entities and historically has had some violent crime right there. At this point, I’d be pissed if I moved here from CPS for the schools. Which we did, but those kids are long gone. Only a couple more years of tuition for the caboose for us now!!
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.
Chris Van Nostrand 4 school board!!!
I believe this already exists as I was on the student programmings committee for SAPIII and we spent a good 6 weeks on out of school time (OST) programs (which included summer programs) and had detailed cost breakdowns. I have yet to see any of the recommendations from the student programmings committee about OST programs come in front of the board. I have emailed the board about some of our recommendations (one of which saves the district $1M yearly without any impact to students) and received a one-sentence reply from one board member.
Do you remember when you emailed the board on this? I'd love to FOIA this one sentence reply
Would you mind sending me a copy? I’ll message you my contact info.
Hi! and why are you not seated yet? Biz (I don't support her in any way lol) brought this up - to make the program self sustaining - (youtube, 1/13/25- 3rd hour, 12 minutes (3:11:55). But of course this Admin did nothing to promote it so people wouldn't know to sign up/pay for it. It's laughable, like Maria said, the city program signup is 3 weeks away for 2026. If it had been attractively marketed earlier, telling us what counselors were involved and what field trips, etc, it would have had signups. But, in case you're like me and have cancelled streaming channels to watch d65 board meetings, I recommend everyone to re-watch all of 1/13/25 (it was a full audience!!) as well as all of the 2025 school board meetings, its a wild ride!
Also re-watch, PMA lease certificates, Bob Lewis - (D65 youtube, 1/13/25, 2:09:00). I've watched this at least 6 times :( I also want to point out PMA should have showed up onsite, not zoom on a video call. All these big numbers were in sort of a bubble.
Hour 2:11:24
Yes they absolutely need to be marketing this! I can’t remember if it was in the recreational guide book or not. The only reason it was on our radar is because we had relied on SACC for after school care. I think there was a webpage for it, but there was almost nothing about it aside for a few email contacts. No pictures, no schedule of field trips, nothing that shows you what a typical day looks like. It was a real gamble when we did this camp in 2024!
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.
So grateful that you're keeping your finger on the pulse! I can't thank you enough for all of your invaluable insight and fact finding hard work.
Let's also not forget how long it took D65 to get their act together this time last year. I know anecdotally at least three families (with a total of 5 kids) who would loved to have sent their kids to the D65 SACC program, but the Board's indecisiveness forced them to find other alternatives.
Great piece, Tom. This administration seems to be killing off beloved programs by slowly suffocating them. The fate of SACC sounds similar to what is happening to TWI. Bessie Rhodes lost 30%+ of their students in the year since its closure was announced. More Bessie Rhodes students may leave TWI program (either for their neighborhood school or private school) when it moves to Foster. Before winter break we got the unilateral decision from the administration that they have decided to close Willard TWI without Board approval. About half of the 100+ kids in the program won't move to Foster or will go private. Next year they will see reduced program headcount again and I won't be surprised if they set their sights on Oakton's TWI. All of these problems in SACC and TWI are of their own making. At this point I want to 'reimagine' a new Superintendent and leadership team.
I've tried to stay neutral on Turner, but the "Get Salty" shirt at the school closing meeting was disgusting. Her lack of caring about the community she serves and being "over it" shows a clear need to fire her.
What’s the story with the shirt? I don’t get it, is it a brand or something?
If you zoom in on the shirt it has the district 65 logo and the Horton “MIRACLES” slogan so it must be some swag from then.
In any case. Bad optics
Somewhere out there I heard there are MIRACLES varsity jackets. If anyone knows where I can obtain one, let me know and I’ll auction it off for charity.
According to AI (which is consistent with my understanding) a “salty person" is slang for someone who is annoyed, bitter, resentful, or angry, often over something minor, a loss, or a perceived slight, like getting beaten in a game.
So…yeah pretty ridiculous to be worn by the Superintendent at a board meeting.
But to add upon further search there’s a T-shirt sold for being salty to mean making kids thirsty for education. So I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt I guess that it means that. Not the judgment I’d use though when it can be so easily misconstrued.
I should come to public comment in a 90s NO FEAR shirt
Not that I know of. I've always known being salty as being overly upset about something and people are making fun of you for it (eg. Packers fans are so salty about that loss). To me (and I think many others) this seemed like a clear message about people being salty about their school closing. It would be nice if there could be some clarification and apology if this was not the intent, but I doubt it.
Thank you for this. It’s very frustrating! From sports, to middle school debate and accelerated math for middle schoolers at the high school. All worked well before but have been basically abandoned by d65.
One of the big issues that I feel over and over again is that d65 really doesn’t care about the family’s that it’s supposed to serve. From the random scheduling of half days to starting school on Tuesday after winter break rather then everyone else starting on Monday. All are huge issues for parents who have to work.
(Update: this comment is incorrect - see below)
The thing that really gets me is parent-teacher conferences during 9-5 hours. For a district that yammers on non-stop about "equity", it seems pretty inequitable that working class people can't attend their own kid's parent-teacher conferences, board meetings, or even curriculum night.
Confused on the parent-teacher conferences 9-5 comment ... our conferences at 1 school ALWAYS went to 7pm one night & 6 pm the other. Still do. If memory serves, this is contractual via DEC. Splitting hairs, I know, but I want to clarify. (I do agree with the spirit of the comment - despite rhetoric, massive inequities in every area of this district/admin.)
You are right - I stand corrected, I just went and looked at the schedule for this year's conferences and they did go beyond 5pm. 🤦
Tues, Oct 7, 4-7 pm | Parent-Teacher Conferences
Wed, Oct 8, 4-6 pm | Parent-Teacher Conferences
Thanks for this callout
Yes!
Oh I totally forgot about the debate thing - I have a story I never published on that. Maybe I’ll revive it because that situation was bad and depressing
Why are Sergio and Mya still on this board? Off with their heads! The news never gets good at d65. I’m shocked more of the north side families haven’t left already to private, given that half the schools over there are probably going to close. And I wouldn’t be excited about leaving Kingsley, with all its lovely green space to go to a school 50 feet away in a packed square that shares environs with two other entities and historically has had some violent crime right there. At this point, I’d be pissed if I moved here from CPS for the schools. Which we did, but those kids are long gone. Only a couple more years of tuition for the caboose for us now!!
Thank you for your coverage.