He can say whatever he wants but the facts speak for themselves. Consider the timeline in Skokie, for a much larger school at 124k square feet.
- January 14, 2020 - D69 signs lease certificate
- April 2020 (+3 months) - Construction begins on new school, including demolition of old school
- October 2021 (+21 months) - School finished and is open for students
Here we are in Evanston:
- March 2022 - D65 signs lease certificate
- May 2024 (+26 months) - Still haven't even put things out for bid
Skokie had the similar community and financial issues as we do and this school is literally like 2 miles west of Evanston's borders, so it's not like they're dealing with any technical differences in architects, contractors, soil conditions, etc.
The board can blame the administration all the want, but ultimately *THEY* are the ones in charge here. Sergio himself ran his re-election campaign literally on this very issue. The board should be absolutely GRILLING Cordogan-Clark at these meetings but instead just let them off the hook. In April 2024, the only update was "looks like permits are good to go" - like .. that's it? That's all they did during the whole month at the beginning of construction season is make a few calls to city hall? I really do not understand this board's aversion to actually standing up for the people they care about.
The whole community engagement and due dilligence bit is so farcical. Horton said in some interview that the first thing the board president asked him to do was to bring a new school to the fifth ward.
This was just a few years after the community rejected it. The whole community engagement effort was a farce since the end goal was already determined.
One reason the building hasn’t even been started is that they keep on hiring inexperienced folks. Neither Horton nor the new person had ever run a school district before.
One wonders why the board is so bad at hiring. Any number of public searches show there are lots of experienced candidates out there.
Yet the Board unanimously voted to hold secret searches. I can think of no good reason to do this other than as a reflection of their contempt for the public.
He can say whatever he wants but the facts speak for themselves. Consider the timeline in Skokie, for a much larger school at 124k square feet.
- January 14, 2020 - D69 signs lease certificate
- April 2020 (+3 months) - Construction begins on new school, including demolition of old school
- October 2021 (+21 months) - School finished and is open for students
Here we are in Evanston:
- March 2022 - D65 signs lease certificate
- May 2024 (+26 months) - Still haven't even put things out for bid
Skokie had the similar community and financial issues as we do and this school is literally like 2 miles west of Evanston's borders, so it's not like they're dealing with any technical differences in architects, contractors, soil conditions, etc.
The board can blame the administration all the want, but ultimately *THEY* are the ones in charge here. Sergio himself ran his re-election campaign literally on this very issue. The board should be absolutely GRILLING Cordogan-Clark at these meetings but instead just let them off the hook. In April 2024, the only update was "looks like permits are good to go" - like .. that's it? That's all they did during the whole month at the beginning of construction season is make a few calls to city hall? I really do not understand this board's aversion to actually standing up for the people they care about.
The whole community engagement and due dilligence bit is so farcical. Horton said in some interview that the first thing the board president asked him to do was to bring a new school to the fifth ward.
This was just a few years after the community rejected it. The whole community engagement effort was a farce since the end goal was already determined.
One reason the building hasn’t even been started is that they keep on hiring inexperienced folks. Neither Horton nor the new person had ever run a school district before.
One wonders why the board is so bad at hiring. Any number of public searches show there are lots of experienced candidates out there.
Yet the Board unanimously voted to hold secret searches. I can think of no good reason to do this other than as a reflection of their contempt for the public.