I went to see the musical at ETHS last weekend and if the stellar arts programming is part of what my taxes go for, I have no complaints. I guess I feel (and feelings have little basis in fact, but nonetheless) that d65 offers little to such a wide swath of their population, they don’t deserve any more of my hard earned dollars. In 8 years, my mortgage payment has gone up almost $1000 per month. This is at 3% interest rate. Yes, some of it is an increase in insurance, but the rest is taxes. I know it’s not all d65, but everyone keeps touting d65 as a reason to live here and bear the higher cost of living. It’s unaffordable. One more increase and I’ll have to sell up and get out. But hopefully I will be able to go somewhere that the local school district isn’t run by complete boobs and I won’t have to deal with the additional expenses of private school. That certainly was never part of the plan when I purchased a home here.
I was curious since foundation fundraising came up here in a previous post and had a guess. The auditorium improvements and lighting was funded by the ETHS foundation.
We sat behind lighting tech and it is truly amazing. This not some kid moving a spotlight around at the stage. It is duly impressive. So thanks to the foundation for that! In all, ETHS has always been super impressive. With 27 gyms, the field house, the athletic fields, the literal building of houses on site, the auto center, the culinary program, the music and arts offerings- very strong theatre programming. And some world-class educators and robust academic offerings. And imho sped is better at ETHS, too. But also things like driver simulation lab and just the cars and ability to take drivers Ed, language and science labs, computer technology, graphic arts, the robot lawn mowers, the list goes on. Hell, even the faculty lunch room is impressive. I would be proud to serve another Saturday detention in Bacon Cafeteria this week. Of course that’s the flip side- the kids don’t know what a Saturday is because apparently there is no discipline going on in the schools these days. I just can’t list impressive things off the top of my head about d65 in this same way and I know it’s actually an apples to oranges situation. But ETHS has all of this amazing stuff that requires the $$ and d65 still has an IMMENSE budget for only 6500ish students and yet…
I wonder if some of the difference is for equipment. Ever seen the auto shop at ETHS? Absolutely incredible - basically a jiffy lube in a high school. And I wonder if high school science labs are more expensive than those in the junior high schools.
My takeaway is a little different. If you think of there being 20-25 kids in a class (I’m guessing here), that’s $400,000-$500,000 for a classroom of kids. That’s a ton of money. For context, St. A’s charges around $10,000 for non parishioners K-8. Perhaps we should outsource to them.
I know in the past you have written about high school teacher s salaries vs grade school teacher salaries. It is again mentioned briefly here. It is thought that high school teachers should be paid more because they need more expertise. In reality the opposite is true. If you are teaching honors or AP classes the students have self selected themselves. They have study skills, motivation to do well, have social skills, can manage their behavior and are performing at and above grade level. In contrast students in grade are functioning at all levels. A fifth grader might be reading at the eighth grade level, have great study skills and great social skills. They can manage their behavior. Along side them are students barely reading. Some cannot manage their behavior and lack the foundation of math and reading skills. So some need to be challenged and some need remediation. It is a challenge for any teacher. I would urge people to try it.
When Fritz Kaegi took over as Cook County Assessor, part of his platform was shifting around assessed values so that commercial properties and persons with higher value homes saw increased in their assessed values. The bottom line is that some homeowners in Evanston are paying much more than they were just a few years ago. Reliance on local property taxes to fund schools is a much larger issue that the State will never get around to addressing.
You have previously written about high school teacher salaries being a lot higher than elementary school teacher salaries, which would help to explain some of the past difference.
Hey, Tom! I appreciate your district accountability work. I was at the Niles 219 board meeting, and was just wondering what your comment was going to be. Thanks!
Sorry, I wasn't paying attention when watching the stream and thought you came up for a second! Evidently, not you. Interested on seeing your reporting based on your Calvin Terrell request.
I went to see the musical at ETHS last weekend and if the stellar arts programming is part of what my taxes go for, I have no complaints. I guess I feel (and feelings have little basis in fact, but nonetheless) that d65 offers little to such a wide swath of their population, they don’t deserve any more of my hard earned dollars. In 8 years, my mortgage payment has gone up almost $1000 per month. This is at 3% interest rate. Yes, some of it is an increase in insurance, but the rest is taxes. I know it’s not all d65, but everyone keeps touting d65 as a reason to live here and bear the higher cost of living. It’s unaffordable. One more increase and I’ll have to sell up and get out. But hopefully I will be able to go somewhere that the local school district isn’t run by complete boobs and I won’t have to deal with the additional expenses of private school. That certainly was never part of the plan when I purchased a home here.
I was curious since foundation fundraising came up here in a previous post and had a guess. The auditorium improvements and lighting was funded by the ETHS foundation.
We sat behind lighting tech and it is truly amazing. This not some kid moving a spotlight around at the stage. It is duly impressive. So thanks to the foundation for that! In all, ETHS has always been super impressive. With 27 gyms, the field house, the athletic fields, the literal building of houses on site, the auto center, the culinary program, the music and arts offerings- very strong theatre programming. And some world-class educators and robust academic offerings. And imho sped is better at ETHS, too. But also things like driver simulation lab and just the cars and ability to take drivers Ed, language and science labs, computer technology, graphic arts, the robot lawn mowers, the list goes on. Hell, even the faculty lunch room is impressive. I would be proud to serve another Saturday detention in Bacon Cafeteria this week. Of course that’s the flip side- the kids don’t know what a Saturday is because apparently there is no discipline going on in the schools these days. I just can’t list impressive things off the top of my head about d65 in this same way and I know it’s actually an apples to oranges situation. But ETHS has all of this amazing stuff that requires the $$ and d65 still has an IMMENSE budget for only 6500ish students and yet…
I wonder if some of the difference is for equipment. Ever seen the auto shop at ETHS? Absolutely incredible - basically a jiffy lube in a high school. And I wonder if high school science labs are more expensive than those in the junior high schools.
Chicken and the egg thing again - does ETHS have nicer stuff because they have more money or do they have more money because they use it wiser
My takeaway is a little different. If you think of there being 20-25 kids in a class (I’m guessing here), that’s $400,000-$500,000 for a classroom of kids. That’s a ton of money. For context, St. A’s charges around $10,000 for non parishioners K-8. Perhaps we should outsource to them.
They aren’t top heavy with administrative people
I know in the past you have written about high school teacher s salaries vs grade school teacher salaries. It is again mentioned briefly here. It is thought that high school teachers should be paid more because they need more expertise. In reality the opposite is true. If you are teaching honors or AP classes the students have self selected themselves. They have study skills, motivation to do well, have social skills, can manage their behavior and are performing at and above grade level. In contrast students in grade are functioning at all levels. A fifth grader might be reading at the eighth grade level, have great study skills and great social skills. They can manage their behavior. Along side them are students barely reading. Some cannot manage their behavior and lack the foundation of math and reading skills. So some need to be challenged and some need remediation. It is a challenge for any teacher. I would urge people to try it.
When Fritz Kaegi took over as Cook County Assessor, part of his platform was shifting around assessed values so that commercial properties and persons with higher value homes saw increased in their assessed values. The bottom line is that some homeowners in Evanston are paying much more than they were just a few years ago. Reliance on local property taxes to fund schools is a much larger issue that the State will never get around to addressing.
Fritz absolutely nuked a bunch of us in SE Evanston, I saw my taxes go up 28% a few years ago and they deny all the appeals now
You have previously written about high school teacher salaries being a lot higher than elementary school teacher salaries, which would help to explain some of the past difference.
Chicken and the egg problem. Teachers get paid more because better funding or vice versa?
Hey, Tom! I appreciate your district accountability work. I was at the Niles 219 board meeting, and was just wondering what your comment was going to be. Thanks!
Wait - which meeting??
Sorry, I wasn't paying attention when watching the stream and thought you came up for a second! Evidently, not you. Interested on seeing your reporting based on your Calvin Terrell request.
Oh if I do come up, let me know. The CT story is coming soon but bigger fish at the moment!