Ten Prior D65 Board Members Author Open Letter to Current D65 Board

Prior D65 board members demand transparency and financial accountability

Ten previous District 65 Board members wrote an open letter to the D65 Board today. You can read the letter over on Evanston Roundtable. The letter was signed by former board members Jonathan Baum, Omar Brown, Eileen Budde, Walter Carlson, Candance Chow, Lindsey Cohen, Claudia Garrison, Mary Rita Luecke, Rebeca Mendoza, and Richard Rykhus. If you’re curious when those folks served on the Board, my summer intern Caroline put together a list.

Seriously, go read the letter.

The letter criticizes current District 65 Board members and administration for a lack of transparency and requests more openness in the deficit reduction process.

We write today to request a series of public conversations and a decision-making timeline for recommended cost reductions to be considered and voted upon by the current District 65 school board.

Some of the authors were on the board in 2017 and regarding the 2017 referendum, which passed 80-20, they write;

With administrative guidance, the board unanimously passed a resolution highlighting how subsequent boards were to use these critical funds in the years ahead. District leadership also negotiated five-year contracts with our teachers and staff, to meet their needs while solidifying District 65’s financial position. The board crafted a roadmap for fiscal responsibility given the overwhelming trust expressed by the community.

That roadmap has not been followed by subsequent administrations and boards.

You can view a copy of the 2017 Resolution regarding referendum funds. Page 2 includes a brief road-map for the money, which I’ve included below:

Subsequent boards seemingly threw this resolution out the window. For one, the reading specialists were terminated in 2021 by Dr. Horton for “a more collectivist, equitable approach to interventions.” Second, the District has not been contributing $1 million per year into the fund since the 2022-23 budget year. I’m suspect they didn’t intend for those funds to be used to purchase fancy security vehicles. Lastly, the District has a reserves policy they reference - the link in the resolution doesn’t work but I presume they are referring to Board Policy 4:22 which states:

The School District seeks to establish, over time, a fund balance of 25% of the annual expenditures in the operating funds. The finance committee will meet by December 31st of each year to review the status of this fund balance goal. The date of measurement shall be June 30 of each fiscal year, and the measurement shall be consistent with what reported in the District’s Annual Financial Report filed with the Illinois State Board of Education.

As Dr. Grossi pointed out, the current Board may be non-compliant with this policy as soon as January 2025.¹

You gotta stay above the RED LINE

January 2025 is also when the Board and Administration will deliver the output of the deficit reduction plan to the community, with help of the consultant they hired on November 5th. Until then, it’s just a broad set of non-specific concepts of a plan² presented back in September. There is virtually no transparency into any of this - something the authors of the letter acknowledge;

We have too much at risk in the coming weeks and as a result the next set of decisions must be made with significantly more transparency and rigorous inquiry and analysis so that the residents of Evanston and Skokie understand their impact. We urge the board to communicate their decisions and next steps directly to the residents of Evanston and Skokie, through live, in-person discussions, to ensure transparency and accountability. The superintendent and her top deputies should join the board in engaging our residents as a first step to rebuild trust.

I couldn’t agree more. This whole situation feels like - instead of having hard conversations in public, the D65 Board expects some kind of deus ex machina in January. Similar to SAP1, SAP2 and SAP3 I just can’t comprehend why these conversations need to be done in private - these things majorly impact families and many of the folks making decisions do not live here. The Board has been able to have some of the hard financial conversations with Dr. Grossi in public, so why do we need to wait?

Teachers Going into Federal Mediation

Speaking of contracts, the District 65 Teachers still do not have a contract for this year and it looks like it’s going to go into federal mediation. Looking at prior contracts, we’re already behind the ball, even on sending it to mediation.

• 2016-2019 Collective Bargaining Agreement (Approved 12/5/2016) - Teachers went 1/2 year with no approved contract.

• 2019-2024 Collective Bargaining Agreement (Approved 6/10/2019) - Contract was approved over the summer and finally signed in October 2019.

Back in 2016, the contract went into mediation in September, you can read about that in an older Evanston Roundtable story. But by November 21st they had reached an agreement, signed in early December. Seems like this is likely to go into the new year.

More to come on this story involving the teachers. I will be at the Monday meeting to make a public comment in support of teachers and the wage gap not just between D65/ETHS but also between D65 teachers and administrators. Stay tuned.

1. Grossi calls it 90 days vs 25%, but I think that’s about the same thing.

2. The plan as far as we know: 1) Reduce Staffing Levels, 2) Plan to “Right Size” facilities, 3) Plan to Fund Major Capital Needs, 4) Efficiencies in Individualized Education Services, 5) Efficiencies in Transportation