The Education Council at the Evvanton/School of 65 indicated at a meeting of the board of directors on Monday that he is inclined to close three primary schools – Lincolnwood and Kingsley, as well as Washington or Daws – as part of the plan for reducing the structural deficit of the district. Nevertheless, the district officials are still considering seven scenarios, including the closure of up to four schools. One of them may be Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Literary and visual school.
The Education Council did not make the final decision on the closure of any schools at his meeting of the board of directors, but used it to communicate with parents, students and community members. The options that he suggests to raise the area that did not have many years of financial deficit, which almost led him to the verge of state absorption last year. The decision may come in November.
Four schools are scattered all over Evanston, Kingsley and Lincolnwood in the North and Washington and the King of Art in the West. The listed schools almost correspond The document of the school district leaked This was transmitted on social networks a few weeks before the meeting on Monday.
The closure of four schools can save okrug $ 9.18 million. The United States, according to the financial director of the district Tamara Mitchell and send about 28% of the students of the district 65 to another school. Secondary school employment throughout the district will grow from 58% to 81%.
Administrators also shared scenarios of what it would be like to close one, two or three schools. Kingsley and Lincolnwood have repeatedly reached the recommendations of district staff as schools for considering closing.
If the district had only to close Kingsley, it would save $ 1.9 million, and if it only closed Lincolnwood, this would save $ 2.1 million. School employment in the district will increase from 58%to 66%, if Kingsley only closed, and up to 67%, if only Lincolnwood was closed.
After the discussion, the members of the school council asked the superintendent of the district administrators of the Angel Turner, Mitchell and the assistant superintendent Steisi Berdley to hone the closure of three schools that will be Kingsley and Lincolnwood plus Dawes or Washington.
The closure of Lincolnwood, Kingsley and Washington will raise the average level of employment at school to 75% and save the district $ 6.3 million. The closure of Lincolnwood, Kingsley and Daues will increase employment at school to 74% and save the district $ 6.2 million.
Predictable savings for closing the school do not include income if the district sold the building. More information about the closure of schools can be found on The site of the districtField
At the meeting, the School Council approved the budget for the 2025-26 school year in the amount of 188 million dollars. In August, the financial consultant D65 Rob Grossy told Pioneer Press that the district deficit will increase again this year from a new contract with new teachers and aging, and a further reduction in the budget will be required.
Two years earlier, The area also missed a deficit above $ 10 million And ate in his reserve funds. This put the area in a financially bad place, where it might have required short -term borrowing through tax expectations only in order to cover daily operational costs that Mitchell, financial director, compared with a loan to salary. The area never did this, she said, and instead reduced millions of dollars.
State records show that the enrollment of students in the district has also been reduced for many years. Data on tablets with one in Illinois It shows that the district has experienced seven years of setapal enrollment. In 2018, there were 7,943 students in the district; This fell to 6193 students enrolled in 2024, for reducing enrollment in the district by 22%. This does not include Park School, a special education school, which the area shares in the Evanston Township secondary school, as well as KIDS Center Rice, the center for the treatment of residential premises and the school, where the district supplies educational staff and non -profit Manages the function of housing of the building.
Among the future closures of schools, the plan for reducing the structural deficit of the district requires additional abbreviations to transport, special education and the possible sale of school buildings.
The district is also on the way to the closure of the K-8 magnet Dr. Bessie Rhodes the School of Global Research at the end of the school year.
He also plans to re-open a long-closed school of the district as a K-5 school in the 5th branch of Evanston by the beginning of the next school year.
The financial consultant of the district once called on the school council Review the Foster buildingBut the report of the construction manager at the Foster school says that a break, in order to allow the district to ask taxpayers additional funds for the construction of a school, will further increase the cost of building a school.
Parents and members of the community will receive a chance to express their opinion at three upcoming public meetings. They will be held in high school is sensitive on October 14 at 18:00; In the public center of the Flitwood-Zhurdinan on October 15 at 9:30 in the morning and in the secondary school of Nichols on October 15 at 18:00.
