At the Aug. 18 Evanston/Skokie District 65 Board of Education meeting, district staff summarized summer engagement for the "SDRP 3 and beyond" master facilities process and described next steps for scenario modeling around potential school consolidations.

Staff said the district received 865 online survey responses and about 90 in-person participants during June and July engagements. The summer outreach included translated materials and community partner outreach aimed at improving participation from historically underrepresented families. Northwestern University provided an independent analysis of survey results, which the district posted publicly.

Staff said three core problems drive the facilities process: long-term financial sustainability, needed building repairs and improvements, and declining student enrollment — a trend the district characterized as continuing for several more years based on demographic projections. Melissa (staff) and Dr. Beardsley reviewed engagement data and explained how the district developed scorecards to compare schools.

Staff described how criteria will be calculated: criteria within each category will be equally weighted and then normalized to a 1–5 scale so the score reflects relative distances across schools. A 1 indicates the least impactful to close, and a 5 the most. Staff said questions about how students in historically marginalized groups would be counted were resolved so that a student would be counted once if they belong to any relevant group, rather than multiple times across categories.

Following consultation with legal counsel and the school board, staff removed race from the upfront equity criteria used in the initial scorecards. Staff said the facilities subcommittee will continue to monitor for disproportionate impacts during scenario modeling and that a data table will be used to assess outcomes for students and families under each modeled scenario.

Staff outlined the timeline: district staff plan to present a set of scenarios in September showing options that could include zero to four closures; those scenarios will then be discussed with the community and the board hopes to be positioned to make a decision by November. Staff noted that if the board moves to close schools, required closing hearings would need to happen before the winter break.

Board members and staff emphasized iterative engagement and monitoring; staff characterized the process as coming back repeatedly for feedback and adjustments rather than making decisions in secrecy.