About 40 community members gathered Monday morning at Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center for the third and final preliminary listening session for residents to give Evanston/Skokie District 65 leaders their takes on the structural deficit reduction plan in the works, which is aiming to cut $13.2 million from the budget for fiscal year 2026, which starts on July 1, 2025. (The first two meetings happened last week at Chute and Nichols middle schools, respectively.)
Like the first two meetings, attendees got a chance to write down the educational values and programs most important to them. Many of the responses mirrored the most popular answers provided last week, with families most focused on maintaining rigorous courses, high-quality teachers, robust enrichment opportunities and equitable access to specialized services for students who need them.
Interestingly enough, for the second time one of the most popular pieces of feedback involved encouraging a “reduced reliance on technology,” like moving away from providing devices to every single student or eliminating the use of things like iPads in the youngest grades. At Nichols on Dec. 12, people gave a widespread thumbs-up to the phrase “keep kids challenged through participation and engagement opportunities (not just worksheets and iPads).”
The gallery below shows the responses that Monday’s group at Fleetwood-Jourdain came up with. The district gave each attendee three dots to stick next to answers that resonated the most with them, creating an informal index of recurring themes across different discussion groups and meetings (“FAPEL” stands for fine arts, P.E. and library, “TWI” refers to two-way language immersion classes taught in English and Spanish and “ACC” is African Centered Curriculum). All colored dots indicated the same thing — a signal that you agreed with that response.
Each poster is labeled “Question 1” or “Question 2” for the following prompts posed to the audience by Superintendent Angel Turner:
- 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?
During the open discussion portion at the end of the meeting, though, the crowd turned its attention to the importance of the district rebuilding lost trust with the community and continuing to communicate transparently about the realities of the budget crisis.
“The administration and board just need to re-establish trust with the community. I think all of this will make the decisions — the tough decisions that we have to make — much easier to digest, even though it’s going to hurt a lot of people. It’s going to hurt everyone,” Ernest Chang said. “Trust is what’s going to drive this forward.”
Chang’s sentiment ultimately became the theme of the morning, with a number of people saying they know that adverse impacts from the necessary budget cuts are inevitable, but they could be bearable if students and families are able to understand what’s happening and why.
One parent, Genie Albina, a former District 65 teacher and support specialist with other districts, also added that, from the perspective of someone working in education, closing a few schools and having to move her kids to a new building would be “far better” than dealing with the Illinois State Board of Education taking over the district because of fiscal insolvency.
Another parent agreed, noting that losing a school community would be devastating, but if that’s what’s necessary, then he could get on board with it.
Chang expressed some concern that no active school board members were on hand Monday, though a few candidates running for open seats in this coming spring’s election were present. “The people that are going to vote on this aren’t here,” he said. “They’re going to hear it [our feedback] secondhand.”
Board member Omar Salem did attend the Chute meeting, and his colleague Soo La Kim attended the one at Nichols, which Turner mentioned in response. The other five board members, who will join Salem and Kim in voting on a slate of $13.2 million in cuts in late January, did not appear at any of the three meetings, though most of Turner’s administrative team was at every session.
Even without them, though, “today’s important for the people who are hear now, for their voices to be heard,” said Lionel Gentle, one of the vast group of 17 people running for four open seats on the school board this election cycle. The more transparent the board is with the community, Gentle argued, the fewer rumors there will be and “the less anyone will look like the bad guy.”
Melissa Denton also thanked Turner for setting up these public input opportunities and for saying honestly that “we’re in trouble,” and “this is what that trouble looks like from a financial perspective.”
“What breaks my heart in all of this is we are such a rich community of resources. … If we are not utilizing public and private [institutions] to address this financial hole that we’re in, then we’re doing our children a disservice,” Denton said. “I look at this K-8 journey as foundational, and if we don’t get it right here, they’re not going to strive and excel at high school. So this is why we’re here — it’s for our children.”
District 65 consultant Student-Centered Services is scheduled to present three to five options for the $13.2 million in budget cuts at a school board committee meeting at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 13 at the Joseph E. Hill Early Childhood Center, 1500 McDaniel Ave. The board is slated to officially choose one of those options at its regular meeting Monday, Jan. 27.
Families talk of rebuilding trust at last District 65 budget feedback meeting is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.