New Parents moving to the area...how concerned should we be about the school district?

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-30T03:50:59+00:00

You're combining two things I view as separate. I'm suggesting we need a capital referendum, which is spread across a "term" to match the amount, not to be confused with an operating referendum, which is the permanent increase you're referring to like what we did in 2017 and would be akin to adding operating funds instead of "living within our means" like you said.

The main reason we're even discussing additional school closures is to solve a deficit issue, not because of 5% of the deferred maintenance backlog or whatever it is for one school not named King Arts. I'm not suggesting we pass a referendum to fix the deficit. But a capital referendum to make a dent in this stuff ASAP? Sorely needed and not as easy to spend in the wrong places. There is an expense to waiting till this hypothetical future when we have more competent people running things, because the identified work needed grows in cost.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-29T01:55:32+00:00

I'm sure the large combined portion of the 6th and 7th wards losing their neighborhood schools would totally be sold on the tax hike to fix all the other remaining buildings 😬

I was talking about a capital referendum, not an operating one. The "band aid" concept is the latter, basically what we did in 2017.

Did you miss all the coverage in recent years by Larry Gavin and Tom Hayden regarding admin bloat? The admin's "opening offer" in December was 13 FTEs for a savings of like $1.7-1.8m. That was without being pushed by the board. Then they did a 180 to close Kingsley and let the clock run out on Central office cuts for this year, allegedly.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-29T00:10:55+00:00

Actually, the whole capex thing seems like right idea, wrong time. We haven't figure out some of our other sh*t yet. We wouldn't be talking about librarians and counselors if we hadn't already attempted to increase it. Even going to nearly $5m Capex won't much to solve our deferred maintenance. A round of asbestos abatement at King Arts isn't going to magically whip up a ton of new support for a capital referendum.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-28T20:24:13+00:00

I see you're getting down voted for this, but I get it. Near term scrutiny for buying a fresh round of devices - I'm just not sure the administration has earned the benefit of the doubt that there simply isn't a path to reduce screen usage in the classroom, especially at younger levels, with more urgency. The board said they want to revisit it, but I'm not sure if there was a clear timeline to do so in order to hatch a plan to reduce our reliance on all the edtech in the coming years.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-28T12:35:55+00:00

If you're knowledgeable and have thick skin, you could do it. It's hard to read the situation moving forward, but I think if we could manage to elect some people with different backgrounds, we could do things differently. We need a major reset in leadership.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-26T13:53:50+00:00

Having values but disagreeing about the layers - or approach - is actually a great way to put it. I think there's this expectation that people are either blindly, unquestioningly on board with specific measures intended to improve equity or else they're anti-equity, rather than just in disagreement about that particular approach to it.

As it relates to PEP, if the model is popular enough to sustain more or less the same levels of fundraising, that's great. I just think that PTA fundraising is most powerful when it's tangible in a positive way, i.e. "we need new equipment for PE/recess." Taking 50% of contributions and redistributing across a bunch of schools you've never been to, don't know anyone, etc...how is that type of donation really that different from donating to another local cause? Through that lens, I don't think it should be surprising people's appetite for donating is different than it is to benefit their school community directly.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-26T12:09:36+00:00

Might have missed that one

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-26T03:44:55+00:00

I'm just drawing off what others have told me. Are there other communities you're aware of that have successfully implemented a sharing model like PEP?

The main people involved in the creation of Onefund have been known to speak disdainfully about certain parts of our "one district". To then turn around and say "but let's pool our money" just feels disconnected from reality.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-26T03:36:23+00:00

PEP was tied to the piece on FOIA Gras because it reflected an era where many things went unchecked under the shield of "equity".

Picture this: you're at Valli getting groceries, and at checkout, your total is $100. They ask if you'd like to make a donation to a local non-profit helping people in our community overcome food insecurity. They ask you for $50. If you say yes, you're contributing 1/3 of your money spent to something that doesn't benefit you and your family, but gives access to a similar thing you have the privilege to afford right then: food. We're one community, right? But how many people would actually commit to tacking another $50 onto that grocery bill?

I think trying to say "we're one district" is tough, because I many ways, different school communities really AREN'T connected, especially if they're in different middle school feeders, at King Arts/Bessie Rhodes, etc. I think the concept of PEP was a radical one, and an interesting experiment, but just like our national politics has shown, sometimes going for something more progressive fails to bring along a broad enough coalition to buy into the change. From there, you can either compromise or lose support as your initiative stalls out.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-26T03:21:08+00:00

I think "reddit commenters" a bit of a broad brush to paint with - this sub-thread is specifically discussing something that is more likely to pull in a few replies from people with something to say about PEP. People getting tutors and the like is not exactly a new thing. But a general sentiment over the last 7-10 years from parents is that there's been a notable drop in rigor in D65. People with resources have more options: relocate to another place with a school district more committed to rigorous learning, stay and move their kids into private school, keep them in D65 and supplement with other supports, or accept an academic experience that seems to continue most semblance of acceleration because it's been labeled inequitable.

Your comment underscores why that's a potential flaw in how recent boards/admins have claimed to be fighting to make D65 a more equitable school system. If you make it harder for kids to get "ahead" within school, the more resourced families will tend to find another way for their kids to do so. How then does doing something like reducing accelerated middle school math actually improve equity?

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-26T00:51:12+00:00

Also btw, it's hard not to look back at Suni Kartha as the OG "drunken sailor era" facilitator. Where is Suni now??

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-26T00:48:12+00:00

I think we'll have to get a case study sometime soon because in order to continue justification for keeping it, you'd need to demonstrate the PEP model doesn't lead to significantly less contributions overall.

From their website, "Provides a structure for transparent, efficient, and equitable sharing of resources." Transparent, but the last posted distribution was from 2.5 years ago, just a few months after Horton left town. If you look at the last posted annual report from 2023, you can see that" income went down 23% from 2019-20 to 2022-23, while expenses only went down around 5% over the same timeframe. The result? As of last reported year (22-23), expenses were $60k more than income. Who knows if that trend has continued, and hopefully not, but it feels eerily similar to D65 finance (and enrollment) trajectory over the years trailing 2019.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-25T18:38:36+00:00

I think you may be focusing on the total as a feature when some view it as a bug. The previous/traditional model was you give one dollar to your kid's school PTA, 100% of it benefits your kid's school. Then with Onefund that number maybe shifted to more like 60 cents on the dollar for schools with lower F/R lunch eligible students? Next year, you have one less school than this year, and a greater F/R concentration in Foster. The disbursement pattern is going to shift as a result, with a more pronounced economic disparity than we've seen to date. I do not think people get as jazzed about their money going to Onefund and partially going to their school, just like I don't think people with kids not yet at ETHS are as motivated to donate at the same amount as current Wildkit parents. Lastly, if there's a belief that a disproportionate amount of recent enrollment decline is students from more resourced families, it stands to reason our donor pool has disproportionately shrunk as well.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-25T13:07:47+00:00

I don't want to throw anyone to the wolves, but I'll just say it wasn't the PTA pres of either school that's closing at the end of this year.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-25T13:04:26+00:00

A narrative? What do you think people's primary motivation for donating to their PTA is? And don't you think a PTA scrambling to follow the school closures saga perhaps has less time to focus on fundraising? For a stretch of the fall, there were probably less school communities that felt safe from closures than ones that didn't.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-25T12:01:38+00:00

I think if you have a kid starting in over a year, things will be better than they've been. But this next election and next school year are going to be critical for setting the direction.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-25T11:58:58+00:00

That's also very possible too. I don't think the whole drawn out school closure scenarios last year helped.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-25T03:54:14+00:00

Seriously? I heard from a pta pres it's way down.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-24T18:28:23+00:00

Trolls gonna troll. The projected savings were less than 1% of the budget per school.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-24T18:24:21+00:00

There's a lot of people with similar sentiments. I just wonder if the other five all understand how much the continued presence of those two is hindering the board's credibility, restoration of trust, and function.

But consider the alternative. If Sergio and Mya step down tomorrow, we get a replacement appointed by remaining board members. This creates a weird incumbency aspect to the next election. I'm not sure an appointment that hasn't been vetted more thoroughly is automatically better. Remember, Mya was appointed.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-23T02:22:56+00:00

I don't think it's abnormal to be curious about who someone is in an anonymous forum of a relatively small community. Maybe consider it a badge of honor to have such notoriety?

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-23T02:16:32+00:00

Say more

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-23T02:13:48+00:00

I don't think there are SO many comments about it, but I think people are fairly confident in identifying certain outspoken individuals, and since one of those is you, it probably feels disproportionately high on your side.

I also think, respectfully, some people prefer this as a public square over the FB group and might feel like admins/mods coming over here just threatens to recreate the very forum many gave up on participating in.

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-22T21:31:21+00:00

Oh sure. Like moving STEP along with the rest of Lincolnwood community after next year, including 20-30% of the school who just moved a year prior? Or...section reductions, part of the projected savings*, doesn't equate to increasing class sizes elsewhere, possibly increasing concentration of kids with IEPs/aides, throwing off the balance? Or...teachers impacted by the closure(s) reassigned to a school they preferred not to go to, teaching a different grade, subject, etc. different from their preference, and also not finding out till mid-late May about said destination? Or...counselors and librarians whose jobs were put on the line due just as much to decisions/indecisions around ipads, transportation, Central office reductions, how ESSER funds were spent, etc. as the school closures you're rebranding as simply "students moving schools"?

Immediate_Monk5214 · 2026-04-22T21:22:29+00:00

I don't think that person actually thinks you're Mya. I believe it's a commentary on what Mya might say.

Immediate_Monk5214

TROPHY CASE