Curious if there is something that can be done to address the teachers union endorsement of this past election now. Maybe some groundwork can be done before the next election starts sneaking up. I'm also quite upset with the Democratic Party of Evanston and how their endorsements - I have always trusted those two organizations, and this past D65 school board election really opened my eyes. Both organizations were just completely oblivious.
I would like to also point out that the 5Es do not give teachers any opportunity for feedback on district administration. Although there are certainly problematic principals in the district, there are also schools where the principal's hands are tied because of district policy and directive. Over the last few years, district admin has fully embraced a top-down, micromanaging, hierarchical approach to teachers & building staff.
How did I miss this comment. Everything you mentioned is true about the micromanaging and the top down approach etc...It's not just teachers leaving the district but support staff too!
It's disappointing but unsurprising to hear about those statistics. However, I want to take a moment to acknowledge Mr. McHolland, the Principal who deserves recognition for his exceptional leadership style and calm demeanor. Hopefully McHolland stays but I wouldn't blame him if he jumps ship.
Sad to see Chute in the middle of the pack...Mr. Mac is a great principal, and he was very helpful to us last school year when we had an extended family issue impact our student, as well as the social worker we worked with, Ms. Flores...they are absolutely great members of the D65 team, and I hope they stay as they're doing a lot of good.
I cannot overemphasize how deep my respect is for the man, and what a leader I saw him be at the school over the three years my kid was there. He ran an incredibly tight ship, and was able to deal with many of the same issues that caused Haven to crack. While the issues Chute faced weren't quite as grave as Haven, he brought the school through with grace and professionalism. I don't know how he survived the previous administration, but I am glad he did.
That being said, his schtick of ending everything with "buckle up, it's the law" did cause my eyes to roll so hard into the back of my head as to cause severe strain in them. :D
What s really heartbreaking is that we just had a school board election and the turnout was abysmal. After three years of Devon Horton at the helm during which the board members gave him an extension on his contract those that bothered to vote gave the board another 4 years. This isn’t some far away place like the senate in Washington DC. This is our community schools that are being run into the ground. The good teachers and principals can only tread water so long.
Not only that - the teachers union (DEC) actually *endorsed* the board candidates in the last election that were responsible for creating the very culture that is now resulting in staff leaving! That endorsement 100% tipped the election.
The Lincolnwood number is interesting, the scores went up in 2023 with a new principal. I knew teachers weren’t happy with the former principal, I didn’t realize how deep that went.
FYI I may have to delete this post because its dragging too many private citizens by name but I also want to allow these types of arguments, in general. I just do not want to open myself to liability. Nothing personal.
Horton just put the building of a new school in DeKalb on hold saying "We are fully aware of our responsibility to use our resources wisely and ensure that any school construction projects can be adjusted to align with current and projected enrollment needs."
Lolz! Where was that responsibility when looking at the "Fifth Ward" school? Especially rich given the budget situation he left the district in when he fled to Georgia.
You have to wonder if he's going to try again but this time use a more complicated financial scheme like what we're doing with the new Fifth Ward school. I was never really able to follow the money when it came to the Raymond James Financial Products that D65 bought..
Tom, can you do a deep dive on the numbers surrounding the use of cabs which the District claims is partly responsible for the current budget deficit? They claim they have to use cabs because there aren't enough bus drivers. Shouldn't there be a provision in the contract for the bus vendor that THEY cover the costs when they can't get enough bus drivers. The whole point of privitizing services is to outsource these costs to the vendor.
Are there any documents available that look at their projections of cost cutting related to building the new school and transportation? According to today's Roundtable article they currently are spending $4.3 million on taxis for special ed kids who are transported due to discipline and safety. Are these costs impacted by the new school? What are the projected savings?
And RE "Are there any documents available that look at their projections of cost cutting related to building the new school and transportation?" - there basically are no documents. There is a couple of slides that Raymond James presented and nothing else. That $3m savings number in the lease certificate is backed by absolutely no real data or information or reports I can find. I asked multiple times for clarification regarding this and received no response from the District.
Yes, will do. Off the top of my head: one of the reason for the cabs is the shortage thing but the District also started centralizing more services and shuttles way more kids around intra-day than they used to.
My understanding is the only savings will come from the bussing they do specifically for the fifth ward kids. Special Ed and McKinney-Vento kids live all over town, I can't imagine the new school would save us that much $ on those costs.
That’s what I don’t get. The $3 million was portrayed as savings from re-districting kids to their local school within walking distance making bus transportation unnecessary. Now we see that the district uses cabs and alternative transportation at a cost of at least half that. Does that mean the “savings” is only $1.5 million? And on another note, because the 5th ward school $$$ is coming from the general budget (via redirected transportation funds) that puts services and teachers in the breach if (when) unforeseen transportation overruns occur. Seriously, this whole thing smells all the way down from Horton’s hire to todays budget report.
Yes. Even $2.0m for bussing fifth ward kids is a generous estimate. I believe that the $3.25m number they just made up to get the funds. This is absolutely going to be coming out of money allocated to education without the law-mandated required referendum.
The other thing to point out is that there are lots of empirical studies by academics to suggest that the availability of school-provided bus options reduces absenteeism. There are also studies that suggest there is no statistically significant relationship between transportation modes and educational outcomes.
In Evanston, we have a natural experiment where we currently have students of different demographic backgrounds who both walk to school and take the bus. The first thing the district should have done before even contemplating building a new school was to analyze student performance based on whether the student takes the bus or not, controlling for race and student lunch eligibility status.
If you saw a statistically significant difference in grades or test scores between those taking the bus and those not (with the demographic controls) you could then justify opening up the discussion.
I personally asked Sharita Smith (the staffer in charge of the reassignment process) whether this analysis had been done and she told me she didn't know. That is a major red flag.
The lack of analysis--and the lack of the Board exercising fiscal oversight by asking basic questions--is resulting in a $30 million + expenditure and a raiding of operating funds to finance a school that will not likely have any measurable impact on student performance.
I've gone through a lot of documents from that time in 2021-22 when the school was being proposed and financed and I think student outcomes were largely not a consideration. This was (and is) a political project, not an educational one.
Curious if there is something that can be done to address the teachers union endorsement of this past election now. Maybe some groundwork can be done before the next election starts sneaking up. I'm also quite upset with the Democratic Party of Evanston and how their endorsements - I have always trusted those two organizations, and this past D65 school board election really opened my eyes. Both organizations were just completely oblivious.
I would like to also point out that the 5Es do not give teachers any opportunity for feedback on district administration. Although there are certainly problematic principals in the district, there are also schools where the principal's hands are tied because of district policy and directive. Over the last few years, district admin has fully embraced a top-down, micromanaging, hierarchical approach to teachers & building staff.
How did I miss this comment. Everything you mentioned is true about the micromanaging and the top down approach etc...It's not just teachers leaving the district but support staff too!
It's disappointing but unsurprising to hear about those statistics. However, I want to take a moment to acknowledge Mr. McHolland, the Principal who deserves recognition for his exceptional leadership style and calm demeanor. Hopefully McHolland stays but I wouldn't blame him if he jumps ship.
Sad to see Chute in the middle of the pack...Mr. Mac is a great principal, and he was very helpful to us last school year when we had an extended family issue impact our student, as well as the social worker we worked with, Ms. Flores...they are absolutely great members of the D65 team, and I hope they stay as they're doing a lot of good.
I would say middle of the pack with scores in the 80s is pretty good!
I cannot overemphasize how deep my respect is for the man, and what a leader I saw him be at the school over the three years my kid was there. He ran an incredibly tight ship, and was able to deal with many of the same issues that caused Haven to crack. While the issues Chute faced weren't quite as grave as Haven, he brought the school through with grace and professionalism. I don't know how he survived the previous administration, but I am glad he did.
That being said, his schtick of ending everything with "buckle up, it's the law" did cause my eyes to roll so hard into the back of my head as to cause severe strain in them. :D
What s really heartbreaking is that we just had a school board election and the turnout was abysmal. After three years of Devon Horton at the helm during which the board members gave him an extension on his contract those that bothered to vote gave the board another 4 years. This isn’t some far away place like the senate in Washington DC. This is our community schools that are being run into the ground. The good teachers and principals can only tread water so long.
Not only that - the teachers union (DEC) actually *endorsed* the board candidates in the last election that were responsible for creating the very culture that is now resulting in staff leaving! That endorsement 100% tipped the election.
The Lincolnwood number is interesting, the scores went up in 2023 with a new principal. I knew teachers weren’t happy with the former principal, I didn’t realize how deep that went.
FYI I may have to delete this post because its dragging too many private citizens by name but I also want to allow these types of arguments, in general. I just do not want to open myself to liability. Nothing personal.
Horton just put the building of a new school in DeKalb on hold saying "We are fully aware of our responsibility to use our resources wisely and ensure that any school construction projects can be adjusted to align with current and projected enrollment needs."
Lolz! Where was that responsibility when looking at the "Fifth Ward" school? Especially rich given the budget situation he left the district in when he fled to Georgia.
https://decaturish.com/2023/08/dekalb-schools-cancels-dunwoody-chamblee-elementary-construction-contract-after-spending-5-3-million/
You have to wonder if he's going to try again but this time use a more complicated financial scheme like what we're doing with the new Fifth Ward school. I was never really able to follow the money when it came to the Raymond James Financial Products that D65 bought..
Tom, can you do a deep dive on the numbers surrounding the use of cabs which the District claims is partly responsible for the current budget deficit? They claim they have to use cabs because there aren't enough bus drivers. Shouldn't there be a provision in the contract for the bus vendor that THEY cover the costs when they can't get enough bus drivers. The whole point of privitizing services is to outsource these costs to the vendor.
Are there any documents available that look at their projections of cost cutting related to building the new school and transportation? According to today's Roundtable article they currently are spending $4.3 million on taxis for special ed kids who are transported due to discipline and safety. Are these costs impacted by the new school? What are the projected savings?
And RE "Are there any documents available that look at their projections of cost cutting related to building the new school and transportation?" - there basically are no documents. There is a couple of slides that Raymond James presented and nothing else. That $3m savings number in the lease certificate is backed by absolutely no real data or information or reports I can find. I asked multiple times for clarification regarding this and received no response from the District.
Yes, will do. Off the top of my head: one of the reason for the cabs is the shortage thing but the District also started centralizing more services and shuttles way more kids around intra-day than they used to.
My understanding is the only savings will come from the bussing they do specifically for the fifth ward kids. Special Ed and McKinney-Vento kids live all over town, I can't imagine the new school would save us that much $ on those costs.
That’s what I don’t get. The $3 million was portrayed as savings from re-districting kids to their local school within walking distance making bus transportation unnecessary. Now we see that the district uses cabs and alternative transportation at a cost of at least half that. Does that mean the “savings” is only $1.5 million? And on another note, because the 5th ward school $$$ is coming from the general budget (via redirected transportation funds) that puts services and teachers in the breach if (when) unforeseen transportation overruns occur. Seriously, this whole thing smells all the way down from Horton’s hire to todays budget report.
Yes. Even $2.0m for bussing fifth ward kids is a generous estimate. I believe that the $3.25m number they just made up to get the funds. This is absolutely going to be coming out of money allocated to education without the law-mandated required referendum.
The other thing to point out is that there are lots of empirical studies by academics to suggest that the availability of school-provided bus options reduces absenteeism. There are also studies that suggest there is no statistically significant relationship between transportation modes and educational outcomes.
This study published last year from a Brown University economist is a good example: https://www.daniellesandersonedwards.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Another-One-Rides-the-Bus-AEFP-2021.pdf
In Evanston, we have a natural experiment where we currently have students of different demographic backgrounds who both walk to school and take the bus. The first thing the district should have done before even contemplating building a new school was to analyze student performance based on whether the student takes the bus or not, controlling for race and student lunch eligibility status.
If you saw a statistically significant difference in grades or test scores between those taking the bus and those not (with the demographic controls) you could then justify opening up the discussion.
I personally asked Sharita Smith (the staffer in charge of the reassignment process) whether this analysis had been done and she told me she didn't know. That is a major red flag.
The lack of analysis--and the lack of the Board exercising fiscal oversight by asking basic questions--is resulting in a $30 million + expenditure and a raiding of operating funds to finance a school that will not likely have any measurable impact on student performance.
Good work!
I've gone through a lot of documents from that time in 2021-22 when the school was being proposed and financed and I think student outcomes were largely not a consideration. This was (and is) a political project, not an educational one.
I am so glad that my kids just graduated from Chute. The difference in score is quite something. They need to clone Jim McHolland as a principal.