Evanston/Skokie District 65 Superintendent Angel Turner wanted to set the record straight on Thursday night, when she hosted the second community meeting on upcoming budget cuts required because of the district’s financial woes.
In opening the public input session, she stressed that the district had already started working on reducing the budget last year, when the school board approved $6.5 million in immediate cuts that went into effect July 1, 2024.
“I just want to really call that out, because the misconception is that we’re just starting this, when the work of the structural deficit and really being thoughtful about how to reduce our spending actually began coming into this fiscal year,” Turner said to a group of about 25 residents, parents and students gathered at Nichols Middle School.
Introducing how the district is approaching budget cuts, she presented the four major areas where the administration is hoping to save money: staff, school closures or “consolidations,” transportation and special education.
But Turner also wanted to make it clear that “there’s this misconception that the district is cutting special education.” The idea, according to Turner, is to make special education and transportation services more efficient in District 65, without cutting any programs that the district provides to students who need support.
“Here’s an example,” she said. “We have about 66 kids in this district that we outplace to other schools because we don’t have a continuum of services in this district to support their needs. As a result, we need to be thoughtful about how we’re providing a continuum of services that support the diverse needs of all the students that come into this district … so that we won’t have to pay for someone else to provide those services.”
Community feedback
After Turner’s intro, the bulk of the meeting mirrored Monday’s session, where administrators asked attendees to answer these two questions:
- As difficult decisions lie ahead to balance the budget, what are the top three priorities that must be protected?
- What programs or services are most essential to maintain the quality of students’ education?
Attendees got a chance to pick the responses that most resonated with them. For the first question, these were the most popular responses:
- Retaining and supporting quality and experienced teachers
- Maintaining walkable community schools
- “Keep kids challenged through participation and engagement opportunities (not just worksheets and iPads)”
- Longterm fiscal sustainability
- Student safety and protecting the most vulnerable student populations
And as for the second question, the crowd found these programs the most important:
- Early childhood education
- Arts and enrichment (music, arts, physical education, debate, sports, etc.)
- Social emotional learning and support
Moving forward
At the end of the meeting, Turner asked the group for any suggestions or questions about topics she didn’t address.
A number of people brought up fear, anxiety and general concern about the possibility of school closures down the road, which would potentially go into effect during the summer of 2026. The administration and school board have said that no closures will take place this coming summer.
One Dewey Elementary parent urged Turner to take school closures very seriously, and to consider talking to people involved with the Chicago Public Schools decision to close dozens of buildings a little over a decade ago to learn what they would do differently today.
Christian Sorensen, one of 17 candidates running for District 65 school board in this election cycle, also suggested partnering with neighboring districts and/or Evanston Township High School to provide transportation and special education services jointly to save some money.
“Rumors are flying. It’s bad for the community to have a lot of anxiety about whose school is closing and where and why,” said Michelle Bezark. “So I think the more transparency and the more opportunities for feedback, the better.”
Another parent, Kate Morris, also brought up a concern that the negativity surrounding the budget deficits and the reduction plan could make attracting good teachers much more difficult going forward. Because of that, she encouraged the district to highlight the positive stories and the benefits of the Evanston community amid a bad situation.
Fielding other questions, Turner also said she hasn’t had any conversation with ETHS District 202 about a merger, “but it could be something that is thought about,” she said.
She also explained what she sees as the difference between a school closure and a “consolidation.” A closure, according to Turner, is the complete dissolution of that building and school community, while a consolidation might involve putting students from two schools together in one building while another building is being renovated, for example, depending on the needs of those students.
“You could consolidate, do the repairs needed on a school, then, when that school is ready, we could move kids into a newly renovated school and do it again,” she said. “It’s different ways it can be done. We need to lay out all of the things in terms of what makes sense for us here in this community.”
District 65 superintendent addresses community concerns at latest budget meeting is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.