Ahead of looming budget cuts Evanston/Skokie School District 65 will need to make, the district’s administration held three listening sessions with community members and parents.
Superintendent Angel Turner led a Dec. 9 meeting at Chute Middle School with about 30 attendees. Turner presented information on why budget cuts are necessary, and the participants were asked what they deemed as priorities and essential for the school system to operate.
In September, Turner announced the district would need to implement a strategic deficit reduction plan to cut $15 million in expenses a year, with cuts expected to result in school closings, teacher layoffs, reduced and/or readjusted transportation, and restructuring payments to special education.
“I believe in transparency, and I think it’s important that I’m having these sessions with you just so I can share the information with you,” Turner said. The district also hosted Listen & Learn events on Dec. 12 at Nichols Middle School and on Dec. 16 at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Center.
Community members gathered in groups of six to eight and were asked to ponder questions from the district, including “As difficult decisions lie ahead to balance the budget, what are the top three priorities that you believe must be protected?” and “What programs or services do you consider most essential to maintain the quality of our students’ education?” After participants individually wrote down their answers on sheets provided by the district, the groups spoke about their answers and wrote them down on a poster sheet.
After the groups wrote their answers on posters, the posters were hung on the wall for other participants to see, and they were able to place stickers after the points they agreed with to indicate their support for those items.
Lindsey White, of Evanston, said she placed her sticker in support of the district’s Two-Way Immersion (TWI) program, that allows bilingual students to strengthen both their English and Spanish, in hopes that the district do more to raise awareness of the program and boost its enrollment.
Andrew Schumacher, a parent of a third grader, said he supported fine arts in the district because he feels a well-rounded education is important.
“Oftentimes, there are the things that she (his daughter) comes home and tells us about… I know that’s impactful for her, for her classmates. I just can’t imagine school without those breaks in the day from regular (academic classes).”
Melissa Messinger, the district’s executive chief of strategic communications and project management, said the district will post on its website summaries of the listening sessions.
The next step of the process would be for the district to analyze stakeholder feedback on Jan. 9, and for the district to “fine tune those proposed reductions,” Turner said. On Jan. 13, the Board of Education will be presented three to five scenarios of what budget cuts could look like. An additional round of listening sessions will take place from Jan. 14 to Jan. 23. On Jan. 27, the Board is expected to approve the first phase of expense cuts, with July 1, 2025 being the first day those cuts are implemented.
In response to a question from a parent, Board Member Omar Salem said no schools will be closed in the 2025-2026 school year.
Turner also said budget cuts have already begun this school year, with $6.5 million in cuts resulting in staff reductions and services not being being purchased. “The reductions have been happening, they’re just getting ready to get a little bit more massive than 6.5 million,” Turner said.
According to previous reporting, the Board of Education approved its budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year in September with a $13 million deficit. According to Robert Grossi, the district’s financial consultant, the budget deficit began to exceed $10 million in 2022 after the costs of transportation and special education rose dramatically.
Grossi advised the board to make “bold and immediate” cuts to the budget to avoid a takeover by the Illinois State Board of Education, which could mean that the D65 Board would lose control of the district and an independent authority would administer in its stead.
Turner said pausing construction or cancelling construction at Foster School would not be a significant enough approach to close the budget gap. In 2022, the Board of Education approved borrowing $40 million in lease certificates to pay for the construction of Foster School. Starting this year, the district will make an annual $3.2 million payment on those lease certificates and will do so every year until 2042, according to Grossi.
The Board was previously asked to consider pausing construction in September by Grossi, records show. The district was told that pausing construction, however, would raise costs or create sunk costs of millions of dollars.
