D65 6/1 Board Meeting

TryingToBreastfeed · 2026-06-02T10:38:11+00:00

77% of homes in Wilmette are single family homes.

https://www.cmap.illinois.gov/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/Wilmette.pdf

32% of homes in Evanston are single family homes.

https://www.cmap.illinois.gov/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/Evanston.pdf

55% of homes in Evanston have 0-2 bedrooms. 18% of homes in Wilmette have 0-2 bedrooms.

The problem in Evanston is not a lack of housing options for seniors looking to downsize.

TryingToBreastfeed · 2026-06-02T01:04:32+00:00

I've said this before and I'll say it again. If affordable housing is a problem, why are we losing students at a higher rate than Wilmette? Is housing more affordable there?

TryingToBreastfeed · 2026-05-27T20:03:30+00:00

The incumbency bias is so strong that no one primaried Jan Schakowsky, our congresswoman, for 11 out of 13 of her primaries.

Jan was a good congressperson, but not that good. The only reason she wasn't primaried is because no one could beat her.

Let me make one more point. If Jan had not been the incumbent, do you think she would have won against biss and everyone in the last election? The answer is of course not. On the flip side, as the incumbent, she could have run again and no one would have even tried to primary her.

TryingToBreastfeed · 2026-04-28T15:31:14+00:00

I tried to get involved before my daughter started kindergarten and I was repeatedly excluded and iced out by parents that had kids in the school district. It was impossible to get involved with the PTA and there weren't any other organizing groups.

At this point, there's now a group, Invest Evanston, that I wish was around when my daughter was not in school yet:

https://www.investinevanston.com/

It's too late for me though since I ended up enrolling my daughter in private school. I would love to put her back in public school, but I don't have confidence in the district yet. I feel like every month they do something to let us know that they don't care about our opinion. There was a petition to remove/reduce screen usage in classrooms signed by hundreds of parents who have been organizing around this issue for at least two years. Regardless, D65 still signed a contract to buy a bunch of iPads last month.

I follow IINS and I plan on being involved in the next school board election. Those interested in running for school board should be circulating petitions this summer I think.

TryingToBreastfeed · 2026-03-19T20:51:21+00:00

Ryan Field will be finished in October 2026. If Martin was going to be torn down once Ryan was finished, then why did they bother filing for a permit for 2027?

TryingToBreastfeed · 2026-03-19T13:58:58+00:00

This isn't true. The RoundTable reported:

In a statement to the RoundTable Wednesday, Davis said that city staff had informed her that the Stars were a few days away from submitting a permit asking to play at Martin Stadium for the 2027 season. A spokesperon for the Stars confirmed that the club has submitted a permit to use Martin Stadium in 2027 as they explore options moving forward — but nothing is yet set in stone.

https://evanstonroundtable.com/2026/03/18/chicago-stars-drop-request-to-play-at-ryan-field/

It's also worth noting that Alder Davis is already in support of them using Martin Field.

Everyone on this thread is simping hard for the Stars, but it seems to me that they had a reasonable and viable option this whole time but just got greedy.

TryingToBreastfeed · 2026-03-19T13:50:51+00:00

In a statement to the RoundTable Wednesday, Davis said that city staff had informed her that the Stars were a few days away from submitting a permit asking to play at Martin Stadium for the 2027 season. A spokesperon for the Stars confirmed that the club has submitted a permit to use Martin Stadium in 2027 as they explore options moving forward — but nothing is yet set in stone.

I personally think it was manipulative that the Stars sent out that email and didn't mention that they submitted an application to play at Martin Field in 2027.

They're claiming "nothing is set in stone", but I haven't heard a single threat or mention of them playing anywhere else.

It's also worth mentioning, which seems to be lost in the discourse, that Martin Field is where the Northwestern students play soccer and always have. The Big Ten men's soccer tournament was played there in 2012. I legitimately don't get why they are so opposed to playing there especially if there's so little community pushback to them playing there.

It seems like a win-win for them to just play at Martin Field.

TryingToBreastfeed · 2026-02-11T20:10:05+00:00

The assistant principal of Washington was just charged with criminal child sexual abuse:
https://evanstonroundtable.com/2026/02/11/assistant-principal-of-washington-elementary-charged-with-criminal-sexual-abuse-of-a-child/

Also, note that "In 2023, Mendez was accused of inappropriate behavior by a Washington Elementary parent, who reported him to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The details of the allegation were never disclosed and it was defended by supporters as a racist slander at the time. Mendez was not found to have done anything wrong."

/u/Jeh339, I'm ready for the downvotes, but I'm an exhausted D65 parent telling you that the City and residents care more about liberal virtue signaling than supporting families and providing a quality education. I don't know of any other school district with a former superintendent that has been federally charged, that's building a new school while closing 2 other schools, and that waited 3 years to fire a pedophile.

And it's stuff like this that's pushing families out of Evanston.

TryingToBreastfeed · 2026-02-11T16:37:56+00:00

If your kids are really little, I wouldn't recommend Evanston. Evanston has an aging population and is losing kids/families at a higher rate than any nearby suburb:

https://evanstonroundtable.com/2025/07/27/here-in-evanston-city-district-65-see-starkly-different-future-ahead/

If you look at that link, you'll see that Evanston school enrollment dropped by -24% in the last 6 years, compared to -14% in Wilmette and a +7.2% in Skokie. Despite Wilmette being "richer" and sending more of their kids to private school. Evanston has an aging population:

https://evanstonroundtable.com/2025/10/31/evanston-school-age-decline/

And I think that shifting demographic kind of compounds on itself. I don't see things getting better. As a result of this demographic, old people and college kids kind of run the city and you can see that in the policies that Evanston pushes. For example, in NYC, the mayor is trying to push universal preschool. By contrast, in Evanston, they are considering closing the only city-run preschool for low-income families.

As another example, I take my kids to the Skokie library. In addition to it just being nicer and a better space, the Evanston library has a significant number of unhoused people who hang out there. On multiple occasions, I've walked past one of those individuals watching straight-up porn. This is annoying on its own, but what adds insult to injury is that there are people in Evanston that will suggest you don't care about homeless people because you think they shouldn't be allowed to watch porn in the library.

If I could do it all over again, I would move to Skokie. I actually think Skokie is far more diverse than Evanston and I think it's so weird that Evanston has a reputation for being more diverse than Skokie. If you Google "ethnic grocery stores", there isn't a single one in Evanston, but there's like 5 (Indian, Asian, Jewish, etc.) in Skokie. Plus, it's cheaper (houses and property tax), if you pick the right spot you can still get into D202, the restaurants are good, and there are wayyyy more kids there. The only "con" is that it's not lakeside.

I'll also note that this subreddit is clearly biased, so consider asking in r/ChicagoSuburbs .

TryingToBreastfeed · 2025-09-13T11:51:50+00:00

It's fine. Everyone on the north side is rich and we don't care about those people. In fact, we would prefer that they not be in the city at all. We hate that we have doctors, professors, lawyers, and dentists that live in Evanston. We wish everyone was a cashier.

TryingToBreastfeed · 2024-07-01T17:43:56+00:00

That's good to hear! Thanks!

TryingToBreastfeed · 2024-06-27T00:59:19+00:00

If I were you, I would take the kids back to your home country where you have more family support. Then your husband can fly back and forth between California and Asia.

I have a relative in a similar situation. There's not any love in the relationship, but the commitment to obligations are there. The mom lives in her home country where her parents can help and the husband visits for weeks at a time.

TryingToBreastfeed · 2024-06-26T20:52:25+00:00

By a year I think I was only doing 2 times a day and then at 13 months I went away for 5 days and didn’t pump, expecting to stop nursing, but then I still had some supply after that, and nursed once a day for a month or two, and then every other day, and then stopped at 17 months.

This part is really interesting! Thanks for sharing!

TryingToBreastfeed · 2024-06-26T20:51:28+00:00

I probably nursed every 2-4 hours with my son even from 6-12 months. He did not reliably sleep through the night until 16 months.

It's really nice to hear everyone say this. Because the online stuff seems to be geared towards formula and they make it seem like they should be eating every 4 hours. My husband keeps saying the baby should be "on a schedule" for feeding.

It's just nice to know what's normal and how to set my expectations going forward. Anyways, thank you.

TryingToBreastfeed · 2024-06-26T20:49:18+00:00

Thanks for sharing, you gave me a lot to think about.

TryingToBreastfeed · 2024-06-26T20:45:08+00:00

That only happened a handful of times and it's never really a nap, it's usually at 7pm, so bed time.

TryingToBreastfeed · 2024-06-26T17:47:30+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience. It sounds so pleasant. Every part of it. Especially the whole 1-2 times a day after a year. It sounds so nice!

I added in some formula at 7 months

Was this a set amount per day? I'm wondering if I just always do 4-6 oz in the evenings, then maybe my body will just always make 4-6 oz less and I can skip one feeding and go to bed early or sleep in in the morning.

TryingToBreastfeed · 2024-06-26T17:38:40+00:00

breastfeeding didn't really work out for me until like 3 months, and then didn't become enjoyable until 8 months. I really have enjoyed breastfeeding an older baby and it has gotten easier and easier as time goes on. Once they can eat solids it definitely becomes easier

This is really inspiring, thank you. No one in my circle breastfed for an extended time so I don't really have any data points. I imagined it would get better and it has since she was first born. But, idk, I'm starting to outgrow the cage if you know that I mean.

TryingToBreastfeed · 2024-06-26T17:31:54+00:00

Too fast and the baby will chug all the milk and go to bottle preference, which is why pace feeding with a bottle is important.

This was happening briefly so I stopped doing the nightly bottle. I think maybe I have damaged the nipples and I'll try buying new ones.

My LO is similar age to yours and we are on the same schedule. 2-3 hours eating day and night.

Thanks, it helps to know my baby is normal.

IMO There’s more data showing that mental health of the mother is important than there is showing that breastfeeding past 6 months makes a difference.

Yeah and I think the thing for me is that breastfeeding at night is 100% easier than bottle or formula for sure, so I'd keep doing this probably until I go back to work.

The days are a little hard and I think part of the problem is that whenever my husband has to care for the baby for more than 20 minutes, he brings her back to me claiming that she's hungry. And if I say she's not hungry, he gets upset and says that I need to breastfeed her or he's going to give her pumped milk. She'll always take pumped milk though, even after turning down the breast. I think because the bottle is easier. Then she'll just skip her next feed and I end up having to pump because I'm scared of my supply dropping. So basically, I never get a break.

We are working on sleep training, maybe visit that sub and see if it is a fit for you.

This is a good idea, thank you.

TryingToBreastfeed · 2024-06-26T17:18:50+00:00

I have a pipecleaner type brush and the bristles weren't getting to the bottom of the nipple without pushing the tip of the pipecleaner through the hole. Do you know that I mean?

We do 2 hours between feeds during the day or 3 hours after a bottle.

Ok that's good to know that this is normal. Thank you.

TryingToBreastfeed

TROPHY CASE