More Layoffs / Reimagining in District 65
An amended FOIA response and a petition to save someone's central office role
Last night, I got an addendum to a FOIA request I submitted earlier in the month regarding layoffs. You can view the amended FOIA response here. It included a new person who was not in the original set. This person is a Instructional Technology Facilitator who had been with the District since 2008.1
Evanston Now published a piece this morning on attempts to save this person’s job and I’ve many emails regarding this as well. According to Evanston Now there is a petition with more than 120 signatures to save the job of Wilfred Ortiz.
Mr. Ortiz’ job was listed on the eliminated central office positions in the last finance meeting. The below slides are from Dr. Grossi’s presentation;
And then on the Union side;
Not all these positions were eliminated, some are being reimagined and those roles are listed on the District Careers Website. For instance, the Sustainability role, which previously did “concrete things, like light bulbs” is now combined with a Science Education Coordinator as an administrative central office role.2
I’m trying to keep my spreadsheet tracking layoffs accurate but it is tricky, because there are more positions listed by Dr. Grossi than what the Board has voted on (and supplied me with via FOIA). So, for instance the CREATE65 team was laid off, but I haven’t seen any of their names in a resolution - so it is possible in a lot of cases the District asked for resignations and received them or not all the records are being made available. I will update it as information comes in. Notably, one position that did survive this round of layoffs is the Manager of Guest Staffing, a position that did not exist prior to 2022 and is currently occupied by Dr. Turner’s sister.3
I should note that he seems vastly underpaid for someone who has been with the District since 2008 at $74k/year. Many, if not most, of the Horton-era administrative hires all started in the six figures.
There is a metaphor in here for the general shift away from doing material things to improve the lives of students/teachers and replacing it with discussions about language, equity, and activism. You can see this again in the fifth ward school discussion, where the Board is now starting a committee to name the building again .. before a single hole has been dug.
My understanding is that prior to 2022, substitutes and temps were filled by a single central office individual and after 2022 this was expanded to a full team.
Having worked with Fred Ortiz for many years, I can attest that his loss will adversely affect both teachers and students. Without his technological expertise and support, teachers will not have the time or resources to craft the engaging and critical-thinking lessons and activities that we were able to do with Fred's help. When it comes to the decisions this district is making, if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention. But based on the last BoE elections, way too many are simply not paying attention. Thank you for your continued efforts to shed light on d65.
Thanks for this deep dive into the doings in District 65. You keep finding important information that I, for one, would never have the patience to ferret out on my own.
In my experience, when administrators come up with lofty slogans about “Re-imagining,” “envisioning” (looking at you, Mayor Biss), or (in the 1990s and first decade of this century) Northwestern’s use of “excellence” as a buzzword, it’s a way to avoid the boring work of solving specific, difficult problems, while appearing to engage in transformative long-range planning. In short, a license to B.S. the public. Sorry to be so cynical. Still waiting to be proven wrong, which would be delightful. But not holding my breath.