In reality, 2-3 schools will ultimately be closed. The BOE and Admin are withholding truths; treating the community like children. They think we’re dumb (at worst) or just apathetic (at best). And I for one am so freaking tired of it. Many of us have taken big hits trying to wake up this town —but in truth, I’m not sure this community cares in big enough numbers to take back control. Maybe certain groups will wake up when their school is shuttered, but by then —what does this district look like? Holes, asbestos, mice infestations, lack of air circulation (hello COVID & fed $$ —ever wonder where those millions went?!), ADA compliance? Who cares, right. Whatevs….and don’t even get started on the screwed up curriculum situation and the lack of any meaningful progress for our most vulnerable student cohort showing up at ETHS’ doors not even close to anything resembling grade level…. I mean seriously, Tom & subscribers, what the hell is wrong with people in this town?! What is it going to take??!
1. I had a Zoom conference with Dr. Horton and Dr. Obafemi shortly before the vote to proceed with the 5th Ward project. They were at that point projecting only $1 million from the sale of Bessie Rhodes. I am pretty sure that was also stated in various Board meetings prior to the vote. Of course, market conditions change and both of these gentlemen have shown themselves to be liars of the highest order, so take that for what its worth. Anyone planning on the sale of BR providing meaningful funding should look elsewhere.
2. I have said it before and will say it again - how Cordogan Clark still has the contract for the project is completely beyond me. At a minimum, they should have let the Board know before they signed the lease certificates that the $40 million budget was not going to cut it. There were also multiple other opportunities for them to speak out as Horton continued to tell lies about the project, but they let him continue to spew nonsense about the project. They probably also should have told the Board that before they borrowed money for the project they should do some of the homework for the project like site suitability studies (the punchline to that story is that the soil conditions are subpar, adding something on the order of $6 million to the price tag). If I had a vendor that led me down the path the way that CC has, fired is a way too gentle word to describe how they would be gone. Instead they are billing this project out the wazoo and are trusted advisors to the District. I don't get it.
3. Sergio Hernandez's duplicity has not gotten nearly enough attention. He signed a letter to ISBE stating the transportation savings was going to be $5 million as part of the process of applying for an award. As we all know now, that number is actually $750K. In fact the entire D65 transportation budget was less than prior to 2022. (Source: https://evanstonroundtable.com/2024/02/12/district-65-prepares-for-budget-cuts-that-are-going-to-be-hard/) The net outcome of selling the 5th Ward financing project that was that D65 got an award, the communications team at D65 rolled out a press release right before the last election about all the awards the District was winning (nothing to see here ... ) and he snuck by John Martin.
4. The cost of the new building is $48M, they have $40M in the bank. No one is talking about how they are going to cover the hole between what they have and what they need to spend. That is something that they need cash for to pay contractors as the bills come due. My guess is that they will raid District reserves but so far, no one is talking about it.
5. There will be multiple school closures coming over the horizon. The District is talking about "consolidation" in public. The simple fact is that what they are going to do is going to change neighborhoods forever and this something that deserves robust public discussion. It will instead be delegated to the SAP Committee which is really a facade of public involvement.
6. The Board has no interest in seeing kids return to D65. Ed Finkel wrote an article a few weeks ago in the Roundtable where Sergio Hernandez claimed that they were doing outreach to families that left to bring them back. I am, ahem ... skeptical on that. The way that they are achieving reductions in expenses is through attrition. They don't need to replace folks who leave if there aren't students for them to teach. If people start using the schools that they are paying for again, that would be a disaster.
I am a real estate person and have financed a lot of commercial projects. Too many and far more complicated than this. Here’s the jist - this school will not get built. The sources and uses of the project do not match up meaning the money has not been raised to fund the full project costs. The only money raised to date are the lease certs - $10 million short of projects uses. You can’t consider Bessie Rhodes a source bc it’s hadn’t happened and won’t happen until the project is completed or close to it. Similarly the bus savings is a budget item not a source of equity.
These people (board and admins) are completely in over their heads have no business trying to complete a development of a new school. I guaranty the contractor and architects know this and are just milking it while they can, taking advantage of the hundreds of changes to the scale, etc. The architects have been paid $6.5m to date and there has not even been a shovel in the ground…that’s almost 15% of the total development cost. This is what happens when you deal with incompetence.
Mark my words - no funds, no school. And honestly that’s fine with me. Huge waste of time and money for something that is so far down on the list of what D65 needs. Glad the board bypassed a referendum only to end up wasting millions for nothing.
Don't forget that the teachers are negotiating a new contract. Based on inflation the last five years and what Evanston workers received last year, the teacher salaries should bump up 20-25%.
Does anyone even go to these meetings and ask questions about financial decisions? I would start with a simple wtf? I’m frightened at the outlook for this city. Both the city and D65 are in absolute dire straits, but no one seems to want to talk about it. Feels like both entities want to continue spending money like we print it. Am I wrong? Please correct me if I am.
Now I fear even the construction of the scaled back school will do more harm than good. We have to shoe horn in a school that will give us less than we had before (with the closing of Rhodes and most likely another school on the north side).
In reality, 2-3 schools will ultimately be closed. The BOE and Admin are withholding truths; treating the community like children. They think we’re dumb (at worst) or just apathetic (at best). And I for one am so freaking tired of it. Many of us have taken big hits trying to wake up this town —but in truth, I’m not sure this community cares in big enough numbers to take back control. Maybe certain groups will wake up when their school is shuttered, but by then —what does this district look like? Holes, asbestos, mice infestations, lack of air circulation (hello COVID & fed $$ —ever wonder where those millions went?!), ADA compliance? Who cares, right. Whatevs….and don’t even get started on the screwed up curriculum situation and the lack of any meaningful progress for our most vulnerable student cohort showing up at ETHS’ doors not even close to anything resembling grade level…. I mean seriously, Tom & subscribers, what the hell is wrong with people in this town?! What is it going to take??!
There is so much to say on this topic:
1. I had a Zoom conference with Dr. Horton and Dr. Obafemi shortly before the vote to proceed with the 5th Ward project. They were at that point projecting only $1 million from the sale of Bessie Rhodes. I am pretty sure that was also stated in various Board meetings prior to the vote. Of course, market conditions change and both of these gentlemen have shown themselves to be liars of the highest order, so take that for what its worth. Anyone planning on the sale of BR providing meaningful funding should look elsewhere.
2. I have said it before and will say it again - how Cordogan Clark still has the contract for the project is completely beyond me. At a minimum, they should have let the Board know before they signed the lease certificates that the $40 million budget was not going to cut it. There were also multiple other opportunities for them to speak out as Horton continued to tell lies about the project, but they let him continue to spew nonsense about the project. They probably also should have told the Board that before they borrowed money for the project they should do some of the homework for the project like site suitability studies (the punchline to that story is that the soil conditions are subpar, adding something on the order of $6 million to the price tag). If I had a vendor that led me down the path the way that CC has, fired is a way too gentle word to describe how they would be gone. Instead they are billing this project out the wazoo and are trusted advisors to the District. I don't get it.
3. Sergio Hernandez's duplicity has not gotten nearly enough attention. He signed a letter to ISBE stating the transportation savings was going to be $5 million as part of the process of applying for an award. As we all know now, that number is actually $750K. In fact the entire D65 transportation budget was less than prior to 2022. (Source: https://evanstonroundtable.com/2024/02/12/district-65-prepares-for-budget-cuts-that-are-going-to-be-hard/) The net outcome of selling the 5th Ward financing project that was that D65 got an award, the communications team at D65 rolled out a press release right before the last election about all the awards the District was winning (nothing to see here ... ) and he snuck by John Martin.
4. The cost of the new building is $48M, they have $40M in the bank. No one is talking about how they are going to cover the hole between what they have and what they need to spend. That is something that they need cash for to pay contractors as the bills come due. My guess is that they will raid District reserves but so far, no one is talking about it.
5. There will be multiple school closures coming over the horizon. The District is talking about "consolidation" in public. The simple fact is that what they are going to do is going to change neighborhoods forever and this something that deserves robust public discussion. It will instead be delegated to the SAP Committee which is really a facade of public involvement.
6. The Board has no interest in seeing kids return to D65. Ed Finkel wrote an article a few weeks ago in the Roundtable where Sergio Hernandez claimed that they were doing outreach to families that left to bring them back. I am, ahem ... skeptical on that. The way that they are achieving reductions in expenses is through attrition. They don't need to replace folks who leave if there aren't students for them to teach. If people start using the schools that they are paying for again, that would be a disaster.
I am a real estate person and have financed a lot of commercial projects. Too many and far more complicated than this. Here’s the jist - this school will not get built. The sources and uses of the project do not match up meaning the money has not been raised to fund the full project costs. The only money raised to date are the lease certs - $10 million short of projects uses. You can’t consider Bessie Rhodes a source bc it’s hadn’t happened and won’t happen until the project is completed or close to it. Similarly the bus savings is a budget item not a source of equity.
These people (board and admins) are completely in over their heads have no business trying to complete a development of a new school. I guaranty the contractor and architects know this and are just milking it while they can, taking advantage of the hundreds of changes to the scale, etc. The architects have been paid $6.5m to date and there has not even been a shovel in the ground…that’s almost 15% of the total development cost. This is what happens when you deal with incompetence.
Mark my words - no funds, no school. And honestly that’s fine with me. Huge waste of time and money for something that is so far down on the list of what D65 needs. Glad the board bypassed a referendum only to end up wasting millions for nothing.
Don't forget that the teachers are negotiating a new contract. Based on inflation the last five years and what Evanston workers received last year, the teacher salaries should bump up 20-25%.
Does anyone even go to these meetings and ask questions about financial decisions? I would start with a simple wtf? I’m frightened at the outlook for this city. Both the city and D65 are in absolute dire straits, but no one seems to want to talk about it. Feels like both entities want to continue spending money like we print it. Am I wrong? Please correct me if I am.
When is the next election for Board members? I hope many, many Evanstonians are paying attention to what you've been explaining.
Now I fear even the construction of the scaled back school will do more harm than good. We have to shoe horn in a school that will give us less than we had before (with the closing of Rhodes and most likely another school on the north side).