Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Evanston District 65 board narrows school‑closure options, asks staff to model King Arts as neighborhood K–5
Summary
After a two‑hour presentation and public comment period on Sept. 29, the District 65 board signaled consensus to focus further work on three‑school closure scenarios to close a projected structural deficit and asked administrators to model King Arts as a neighborhood K–5 option and to refine boundaries and program placements. Administrators will return with tuned scenario packets and community outreach dates.
Evanston — District 65 administrators presented a range of school‑closure and consolidation scenarios on Monday as part of Phase 3 of the district's Structural Deficit Reduction Plan, and the school board instructed staff to narrow the work to three‑school scenarios and to model King Arts as a neighborhood K–5 option.
Administrators led the board and the public through the modeling framework the district used to generate more than 30 draft scenarios. Dr. Beardsley and Tamara, the district's finance lead, said the modeling relied on five equally weighted categories and subcriteria — equity, geography, building functionality, potential property income and building costs — and baseline scorecards that incorporate projected enrollments, utilization and program placement. "We needed to take responsibility now to put this district on the track to financial sustainability," Dr. Turner said as she introduced the Phase 3 presentation.
The scenarios range from no additional school closures to packages that close one, two, three or four K–5 schools. In the single‑school…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
