I agree, and believe that now is the time for the Board to establish a vision for D65. How do we provide the best educational system given our population and resources? What kind of system would attract the best educators?
Starting from that point clarifies the leadership and strategic direction. President Anderson and Superintendent Turner sharing a compelling reason to support public education in Evanston and Skokie looks very different from engineering who suffers the least from closing schools.
D65 has gone astray in many ways. The financial failures are an important part. Those failures have contributed to the need for school closings - but they are not the only cause.
D65 lost more students than other districts because it stopped focusing on providing an excellent education for all its students. Historically, Evanston schools worked well when they tried to work for everyone. Since at least the Horton years, D65 has cut back on the enrichment and other programing needed to attract and keep many parents. (Closing King Lab would be another step in the wrong direction.)
Pinkard and Opdycke recognized this week that D65 must focus on education, as well as buildings and finances. It’s gonna be a very tough hall to work on all 3 areas at once - but that’s where the incompetence of successive administrations and boards have left us.
Is the current administration up to it? Can sufficient changes be made to convince voters to trust D65 with a funding increase? President Anderson and the board need to find out. (By the way, Hernandez still needs to resign from the Board.)
Everything needs to change - so that an excellent education is provided to current and future students, and finances are made stable for the future. Perhaps merger is the only realistic way forward.
Regarding consolidation and finances, one thing I don’t think people appreciate is the structural disadvantage that D65 (or any K-8) district has. They have 17 facilities vs 1 campus, so they need to deal with all that redundancy - 17 principals, 17 APs, 17 buildings with leaky roofs and then all the central office staff to handle coordination. Thats 17 buildings with capital improvement needs and insane capital costs compared to say, 1948 when it was founded.
Then there’s transit - ETHS doesn’t have to deal with most of the bussing obligations, 17 sets of crossing guards, hazard routes, etc.
Then there’s private donations - ETHS fundraises super well and the ETHS fundraising people get mad at me when I say this, but they too have a huge advantage. I am sorry, but people don’t have the same fond memories for middle school that they did for high school.
And don’t even get me started on the fact we pay D65 teachers 20% less.
In 2025 things are expensive and having a larger district gives more economy of scale, especially on the administrative side. We are one town with duplicate sets of administrators.
I'm concerned about merger from the perspective that it may drag D202 down, rather than lift D65 up. Any talk of merger needs to be done within the context of strategic goals and governance that do their best to ensure postive outcomes. D202 is a very solid school district (as D65 used to be), but an analysis of why it is sucessful and D65 has turned into a dumpster fire (beyond the obvious of letting a wolf into the hen house) needs to be evaluated. I fear that D202 may not have the structural guardrails in place to prevent a D65-type outcome, and it's just been fortuntate to-date that bad-actors have not been put into a position to harm it.
It’s time to merge the districts. I understand that there are many people who worry that 202 is the only good thing in Evanston education and that by merging it will ruin 202. But I argue at this point that that the rot in district 65 is going to take down 202 regardless — if something real isn’t done. This is a systemic problem in 65 and has been going on for a very long time. It is obvious that we cannot trust neither the 65 board nor the 65 administration to do what needs to be done. They haven’t to date and they’ve shown nothing to indicate that they are capable of doing so in the future. When people or entities show you who they are, we must believe them. And in this case they’ve been showing us for years. I think we need to take off our collective rose colored glasses and see things very clearly for what they are. There are creative ways to merge. I understand that previous boards way back worked with Northwestern to come up with numerous scenarios on how this would work. IMHO, It’s time.
I understand the idea of 65 taking down 202. I just don’t want my kids anywhere near the nuts of 65. I don’t want the nuts of 65 taking over 202. They are insane and nobody except Tom will stop them.
We treat “politics” like a dirty word, but it isn’t. Politics is the soft science of reconciling competing needs and desires—an art of compromise aimed at outcomes people can live with. That’s true in government, in companies, in neighborhoods, even in families.
At its best, politics depends on leadership. Good leaders don’t just take positions; they study the issues, weigh the options, consider the consequences, and build consensus through a balance of empathy and reason. Most importantly, they accept accountability for the results.
District 65—and Evanston more broadly—has been running short on that kind of leadership. Over the past decade, I’ve watched a steady decline in the number of people willing or able to lead with both competence and integrity. Some of that reflects the small talent pool of a mid-sized city. But more of it reflects something cultural: we’ve made civic leadership feel like a thankless, bruising endeavor. The people who might do it well often stay away, while those drawn to the spotlight too often mistake attention for achievement.
Until we make leadership worthwhile again—by valuing truth, transparency, and shared responsibility—we’ll keep getting more noise than progress.
Can someone PLEASE get all or any of these ideas to the Board? Or to the IINS group Tom referenced? To anyone who's got the ear of a Board member? (Does anyone have the ear of a board member?) Was talking with a parent about this today who served on the facilities committee. She said every out-of-the-box idea she raised (i.e., something other than setting criteria for deciding which schools to close) was sidelined with the message that we need to focus on closures. Dragging the Mayor and NU into this is a great idea. What Evanston are we "Envisioning" exactly with a mayor who's had zero to say about this crisis? Have teachers had any voice whatsoever in narrowing in on what's necessary and what's possible? Where are there opportunities for revenue-generating partnerships? Evanston is a treasure trove of creative thinkers. Yes, the budget crisis is real, and seemingly urgent, but it's depressing to see this whole process completely gripped by a scarcity mentality. Thanks for your continued work, Tom!
I emailed Ann Tennes and our trustee last week (we're in Skokie). While we're only a small slice of D65, we're 1/4 of Skokie. I'm not overly optimistic but maybe she'll speak up or try to persuade Biss into a joint statement. I figured it was worth a shot!
Aw dang, I just checked our trustee map and turns out D65 is only 1/8 of Skokie. And I guess a large portion of the kids in our area go to the Jewish day schools. The mayor might not have much incentive to stick her head out for us after all :(
What is the optimal student/teacher ratio? Shouldn’t that be how class size is determined?
Northwestern should definitely be more involved. My grandson is in 4th grade at Somerset Elementary School in Mendota Heights, MN. He is considered gifted in math. My son-in-law is the “scientist in the family’. Genetics maybe? Anyway, my grandson goes to a small math class, away from the usual 4th grade math curriculum, where a small group of 4th grade students are being taught advanced math by a retired University of Minnesota professor. That’s just one example.
In your Financials at a Glance could you add headcount reductions of non-teaching/administrative positions as Larry Gavin mentioned in his letter to the Roundtable on October 14? Or, maybe you were just summarizing the school buildings that could be considered for closure?
There is not an either-or here. The technocratic approach that you describe is itself a political solution, on a continuum ranging from no-public-consideration-of-data-and-balancing-factors to balancing-all-the-relevant-factors-possibly-identifiable. It does not mean there is some outside-the-box solution that will work "better" than the options that are already on the table. It just means that someone has to stand up and pick, and the public has to learn to live with the outcome - which will always be "imperfect" to some people, possibly a lot of people, and that's what's involved in public service and trying to face hard problems.
You're right, I was thinking about this a lot last night. I think there are some problems with specific technical solutions: the special ed stuff for instance, I think we can solve by being smart. Some of the closure conversation, though, we need to think bigger.
Why are these Admin getting such exorbitant salaries from a district suffering huge financial problems:
I am posting this comment from Evanston Now Roundtable comment section so it gets noticed:
Ashley Bias, Senior Manager of Operations in Human Relations, also happens to be Dr. Turner’s sister!
She still has a job after all the cuts. She still has a full-time assistant as well.
Ashley Bias’s previous role at D65 was Manager of Guest Staffing, a position which, I can’t find records to suggest existed prior to 2022. According to compensation records, in 2023 her role paid a salary of $104,956.19 and in 2024: $114,842.89 (a 10% raise). Now in the new role I would like to know if she received another sizable raise.
These are great ideas! If this was the real world, you'd put together a visionary/visioning team who can commit to the effort over an extended period of time and have resources to match those of the bureaucracy you are trying to reform. Somehow education has become this vestige of the past that is incapable of the kind of innovation required of real-world enterprises that want to stay relevant.
Yeah..I've been a fan of foie gras for quite some time and was sad to see you leave the game, but honestly...these ideas you have urgently spit out come off as desperate and borderline insane.
None are going to happen at any point in the near future. And the "near" future has some very tight limitations. I believe the board if they delay decisions by even like one week have been told that it will make it impossible to move forward due to things like contactual issues with say the unions for next year.
D65 does not have that time. They don't have the finances at all.
Northwestern doesn't give a flying crap about D65, why in the world would they launch a UC-style "Lab School." and what is the point of your idea? To launch ANOTHER private school in Evanston with a lab school like tuition of $40k+!?
You might notice the city gets almost nothing for Northwestern, why would a K-8 district become their golden child? All while they are also changing benefits for employees, reducing staffing/programs due to Cheeto Jesus in the White House?
D65 doesn't have years to set up these fancy ideas. Hell, it would be nice and it totally makes sense for d65 to merge with d202, but I believe a lot of Illinois has separate school districts and d202 isn't going to want to absorb d65, especially in a quick manner. It will never happen that way.
You got better ideas? Easy to hate. This attitude is exactly why we are in this horrible position - you assume everything thing big is too hard and complicated without doing a lick of research. “too hard never happen” is the siren song of D65
Consider consolidation: it’s not hard - 50 signatures on a petition and it’s on the ballot in 2026. ETHS doesn’t have to consent and the ISBE does the work for the actual merger technicalities.
Or consider a referendum, plenty of time to put something together for March or November 2026 and run a campaign. They did it in 2012 and 2017. Earliest a school would close is June 2026
Northwestern doesn't even send student teachers into D65. That's insane. Is there any other college town in America where the local university doesn't send student teachers to the local schools? The board needs to re-engage with NU and I think they might already be doing so.
Northwestern loves their PR more than anything, how can we propose some kind of project where D65 and NU work together? They can brag about it in alumni magazine and we can get something for the kids.
People get mad at me when I bring Northwestern into this, and I I get it - they're not responsible for bailing out the bad management of D65. But also they're a non-profit educational institution that should, in theory, have an interest in education. Currently they do some stuff like the CTD but how can we encourage more?
talk to people at 202 who have established relationships with the School of Education. A lab school that could be self-sustaining should be a great proposition for NU when they are trying to tighten their budget. CTD is part of their Education School, and I believe it's a money maker for them. Another model is their Family Institute, which is also connected to their Clinical Psychology program.
also, CTD holds classes in random places on NU campus and in private schools in Chicago and suburbs. I bet they would love to have their own building that they can use for enrichment programs on weekends and evenings, much more clout.
I love this conversation so I don’t want to be a naysayer… but in my experience of living near NU and experiencing NU’s local community representatives spout half truths and while lies first hand many many times over… there best be some money in it for them (not just publicity) as any goals of being a nonprofit have long disappeared for that institution. It’s clearly all about the money for them unfortunately.
Oh trust me, I know. I adjunct there and they didn't even pay me on time this year. I think they have some real financial liquidity problems while this government fight goes on...
I agree, and believe that now is the time for the Board to establish a vision for D65. How do we provide the best educational system given our population and resources? What kind of system would attract the best educators?
Starting from that point clarifies the leadership and strategic direction. President Anderson and Superintendent Turner sharing a compelling reason to support public education in Evanston and Skokie looks very different from engineering who suffers the least from closing schools.
D65 has gone astray in many ways. The financial failures are an important part. Those failures have contributed to the need for school closings - but they are not the only cause.
D65 lost more students than other districts because it stopped focusing on providing an excellent education for all its students. Historically, Evanston schools worked well when they tried to work for everyone. Since at least the Horton years, D65 has cut back on the enrichment and other programing needed to attract and keep many parents. (Closing King Lab would be another step in the wrong direction.)
Pinkard and Opdycke recognized this week that D65 must focus on education, as well as buildings and finances. It’s gonna be a very tough hall to work on all 3 areas at once - but that’s where the incompetence of successive administrations and boards have left us.
Is the current administration up to it? Can sufficient changes be made to convince voters to trust D65 with a funding increase? President Anderson and the board need to find out. (By the way, Hernandez still needs to resign from the Board.)
Everything needs to change - so that an excellent education is provided to current and future students, and finances are made stable for the future. Perhaps merger is the only realistic way forward.
Regarding consolidation and finances, one thing I don’t think people appreciate is the structural disadvantage that D65 (or any K-8) district has. They have 17 facilities vs 1 campus, so they need to deal with all that redundancy - 17 principals, 17 APs, 17 buildings with leaky roofs and then all the central office staff to handle coordination. Thats 17 buildings with capital improvement needs and insane capital costs compared to say, 1948 when it was founded.
Then there’s transit - ETHS doesn’t have to deal with most of the bussing obligations, 17 sets of crossing guards, hazard routes, etc.
Then there’s private donations - ETHS fundraises super well and the ETHS fundraising people get mad at me when I say this, but they too have a huge advantage. I am sorry, but people don’t have the same fond memories for middle school that they did for high school.
And don’t even get me started on the fact we pay D65 teachers 20% less.
In 2025 things are expensive and having a larger district gives more economy of scale, especially on the administrative side. We are one town with duplicate sets of administrators.
I'm concerned about merger from the perspective that it may drag D202 down, rather than lift D65 up. Any talk of merger needs to be done within the context of strategic goals and governance that do their best to ensure postive outcomes. D202 is a very solid school district (as D65 used to be), but an analysis of why it is sucessful and D65 has turned into a dumpster fire (beyond the obvious of letting a wolf into the hen house) needs to be evaluated. I fear that D202 may not have the structural guardrails in place to prevent a D65-type outcome, and it's just been fortuntate to-date that bad-actors have not been put into a position to harm it.
It’s time to merge the districts. I understand that there are many people who worry that 202 is the only good thing in Evanston education and that by merging it will ruin 202. But I argue at this point that that the rot in district 65 is going to take down 202 regardless — if something real isn’t done. This is a systemic problem in 65 and has been going on for a very long time. It is obvious that we cannot trust neither the 65 board nor the 65 administration to do what needs to be done. They haven’t to date and they’ve shown nothing to indicate that they are capable of doing so in the future. When people or entities show you who they are, we must believe them. And in this case they’ve been showing us for years. I think we need to take off our collective rose colored glasses and see things very clearly for what they are. There are creative ways to merge. I understand that previous boards way back worked with Northwestern to come up with numerous scenarios on how this would work. IMHO, It’s time.
Don’t even need Northwestern to work up numbers, the state ISBE has funds to do it for you!
I understand the idea of 65 taking down 202. I just don’t want my kids anywhere near the nuts of 65. I don’t want the nuts of 65 taking over 202. They are insane and nobody except Tom will stop them.
My kid is in fifth grade, so I’ve got skin in the game with ETHS soon 😂
We treat “politics” like a dirty word, but it isn’t. Politics is the soft science of reconciling competing needs and desires—an art of compromise aimed at outcomes people can live with. That’s true in government, in companies, in neighborhoods, even in families.
At its best, politics depends on leadership. Good leaders don’t just take positions; they study the issues, weigh the options, consider the consequences, and build consensus through a balance of empathy and reason. Most importantly, they accept accountability for the results.
District 65—and Evanston more broadly—has been running short on that kind of leadership. Over the past decade, I’ve watched a steady decline in the number of people willing or able to lead with both competence and integrity. Some of that reflects the small talent pool of a mid-sized city. But more of it reflects something cultural: we’ve made civic leadership feel like a thankless, bruising endeavor. The people who might do it well often stay away, while those drawn to the spotlight too often mistake attention for achievement.
Until we make leadership worthwhile again—by valuing truth, transparency, and shared responsibility—we’ll keep getting more noise than progress.
Can someone PLEASE get all or any of these ideas to the Board? Or to the IINS group Tom referenced? To anyone who's got the ear of a Board member? (Does anyone have the ear of a board member?) Was talking with a parent about this today who served on the facilities committee. She said every out-of-the-box idea she raised (i.e., something other than setting criteria for deciding which schools to close) was sidelined with the message that we need to focus on closures. Dragging the Mayor and NU into this is a great idea. What Evanston are we "Envisioning" exactly with a mayor who's had zero to say about this crisis? Have teachers had any voice whatsoever in narrowing in on what's necessary and what's possible? Where are there opportunities for revenue-generating partnerships? Evanston is a treasure trove of creative thinkers. Yes, the budget crisis is real, and seemingly urgent, but it's depressing to see this whole process completely gripped by a scarcity mentality. Thanks for your continued work, Tom!
I emailed Ann Tennes and our trustee last week (we're in Skokie). While we're only a small slice of D65, we're 1/4 of Skokie. I'm not overly optimistic but maybe she'll speak up or try to persuade Biss into a joint statement. I figured it was worth a shot!
Aw dang, I just checked our trustee map and turns out D65 is only 1/8 of Skokie. And I guess a large portion of the kids in our area go to the Jewish day schools. The mayor might not have much incentive to stick her head out for us after all :(
What is the optimal student/teacher ratio? Shouldn’t that be how class size is determined?
Northwestern should definitely be more involved. My grandson is in 4th grade at Somerset Elementary School in Mendota Heights, MN. He is considered gifted in math. My son-in-law is the “scientist in the family’. Genetics maybe? Anyway, my grandson goes to a small math class, away from the usual 4th grade math curriculum, where a small group of 4th grade students are being taught advanced math by a retired University of Minnesota professor. That’s just one example.
In your Financials at a Glance could you add headcount reductions of non-teaching/administrative positions as Larry Gavin mentioned in his letter to the Roundtable on October 14? Or, maybe you were just summarizing the school buildings that could be considered for closure?
There is not an either-or here. The technocratic approach that you describe is itself a political solution, on a continuum ranging from no-public-consideration-of-data-and-balancing-factors to balancing-all-the-relevant-factors-possibly-identifiable. It does not mean there is some outside-the-box solution that will work "better" than the options that are already on the table. It just means that someone has to stand up and pick, and the public has to learn to live with the outcome - which will always be "imperfect" to some people, possibly a lot of people, and that's what's involved in public service and trying to face hard problems.
You're right, I was thinking about this a lot last night. I think there are some problems with specific technical solutions: the special ed stuff for instance, I think we can solve by being smart. Some of the closure conversation, though, we need to think bigger.
Why are these Admin getting such exorbitant salaries from a district suffering huge financial problems:
I am posting this comment from Evanston Now Roundtable comment section so it gets noticed:
Ashley Bias, Senior Manager of Operations in Human Relations, also happens to be Dr. Turner’s sister!
She still has a job after all the cuts. She still has a full-time assistant as well.
Ashley Bias’s previous role at D65 was Manager of Guest Staffing, a position which, I can’t find records to suggest existed prior to 2022. According to compensation records, in 2023 her role paid a salary of $104,956.19 and in 2024: $114,842.89 (a 10% raise). Now in the new role I would like to know if she received another sizable raise.
These are great ideas! If this was the real world, you'd put together a visionary/visioning team who can commit to the effort over an extended period of time and have resources to match those of the bureaucracy you are trying to reform. Somehow education has become this vestige of the past that is incapable of the kind of innovation required of real-world enterprises that want to stay relevant.
We don't invest in long-term opportunities any more. This is late-stage capitalism at its worst.
Yeah..I've been a fan of foie gras for quite some time and was sad to see you leave the game, but honestly...these ideas you have urgently spit out come off as desperate and borderline insane.
None are going to happen at any point in the near future. And the "near" future has some very tight limitations. I believe the board if they delay decisions by even like one week have been told that it will make it impossible to move forward due to things like contactual issues with say the unions for next year.
D65 does not have that time. They don't have the finances at all.
Northwestern doesn't give a flying crap about D65, why in the world would they launch a UC-style "Lab School." and what is the point of your idea? To launch ANOTHER private school in Evanston with a lab school like tuition of $40k+!?
You might notice the city gets almost nothing for Northwestern, why would a K-8 district become their golden child? All while they are also changing benefits for employees, reducing staffing/programs due to Cheeto Jesus in the White House?
D65 doesn't have years to set up these fancy ideas. Hell, it would be nice and it totally makes sense for d65 to merge with d202, but I believe a lot of Illinois has separate school districts and d202 isn't going to want to absorb d65, especially in a quick manner. It will never happen that way.
You got better ideas? Easy to hate. This attitude is exactly why we are in this horrible position - you assume everything thing big is too hard and complicated without doing a lick of research. “too hard never happen” is the siren song of D65
Consider consolidation: it’s not hard - 50 signatures on a petition and it’s on the ballot in 2026. ETHS doesn’t have to consent and the ISBE does the work for the actual merger technicalities.
Or consider a referendum, plenty of time to put something together for March or November 2026 and run a campaign. They did it in 2012 and 2017. Earliest a school would close is June 2026
Northwestern doesn't even send student teachers into D65. That's insane. Is there any other college town in America where the local university doesn't send student teachers to the local schools? The board needs to re-engage with NU and I think they might already be doing so.
Northwestern loves their PR more than anything, how can we propose some kind of project where D65 and NU work together? They can brag about it in alumni magazine and we can get something for the kids.
People get mad at me when I bring Northwestern into this, and I I get it - they're not responsible for bailing out the bad management of D65. But also they're a non-profit educational institution that should, in theory, have an interest in education. Currently they do some stuff like the CTD but how can we encourage more?
talk to people at 202 who have established relationships with the School of Education. A lab school that could be self-sustaining should be a great proposition for NU when they are trying to tighten their budget. CTD is part of their Education School, and I believe it's a money maker for them. Another model is their Family Institute, which is also connected to their Clinical Psychology program.
also, CTD holds classes in random places on NU campus and in private schools in Chicago and suburbs. I bet they would love to have their own building that they can use for enrichment programs on weekends and evenings, much more clout.
As someone who took their kid to CTD today… can confirm the seemingly random campus location aspect 😂
We've got a couple of buildings I think the city should lease to them; namely the former Civic Center and the Noyes center.
I love this conversation so I don’t want to be a naysayer… but in my experience of living near NU and experiencing NU’s local community representatives spout half truths and while lies first hand many many times over… there best be some money in it for them (not just publicity) as any goals of being a nonprofit have long disappeared for that institution. It’s clearly all about the money for them unfortunately.
Oh trust me, I know. I adjunct there and they didn't even pay me on time this year. I think they have some real financial liquidity problems while this government fight goes on...
Great point. Here are a few examples I like-
https://news.uci.edu/2024/08/22/school-of-education-to-enter-university-assisted-partnership-with-santa-ana-district/
https://education.uw.edu/academics/program/seattle-teacher-residency
https://www.gmu.edu/news/2024-12/george-mason-partners-local-school-systems-two-lab-schools
https://www.uttua.org/about/index.php
https://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-charlottesville-schools-partner-lab-school-project
https://coehs.unm.edu/departments-programs/teelp/teacher-residencies/index.html