Agenda
Minutes - not yet uploaded as of 8.30
The first meeting was a brief vote by the board authorizing the issuance of up to $22.97 million in interest free tax anticipation warrants through the Cook County Bridge Loan program.
Additional context on this from our preview written for this meeting:
Thrive65 Note: The TL; DR - Board is approving borrowing because Cook County will likely be late paying again. This meeting is evidence of the significant cash challenges the district faces. All Cook County schools are feeling the pinch due to the County’s continuing problems paying our school districts. The Illinois Federation of Teachers has sued over the impacts to students and educators.
However, not all Cook County Schools are feeling it like D65. When it comes to days cash on hand, D65 is in the bottom 5% of schools in the state. That means we are less able to draw from our own reserves when situations like this arise. The District will likely seek more borrowing in September.
This meeting’s agenda indicates a special meeting for a board vote to apply to Cook County’s Bridge Loan Program for tax anticipation warrants. Those are basically short term borrowing mechanisms to get cash while waiting on payments from Cook County.
It is not the first time District 65 has approved tax anticipation warrants. In 2025, the board approved them in September and December. What is different about the County’s bridge loan program, is that these would be interest free. Evanston Now reported that last year’s warrants cost the District about $180,000 in interest and fees. While it would certainly help to avoid those fees, the bigger financial impact from the delayed payments from Cook County are the lost interest the District would gain if it had those owed property tax dollars in the bank. That same article reported the District’s spokesperson indicted last year’s delays cost the district almost $1 million in lost interest income.
The board will vote on a resolution authorizing $22.97 million in warrants, interest free, through the County’s program.
Importantly, the memo from D65’s CFO says “Although the $22.97 million will help the District meet payroll and vendor obligations, it will not fully address the projected cash-flow shortfall. The District expects to issue additional tax anticipation warrants in the near future.”
A memo from the district’s external financial advisors, PTMA Financial Solutions, provides more detail on this; indicating that the board may need to approve additional warrants at the September 14th board meeting, in order to ensure the “interim liquidity to ensure it can continue meeting payroll, vendor payments, and other operating obligations without disruption.”
The second meeting on the 25th was the City School Liaison Committee Meeting. At public comments, three people spoke about the concerns of the reduction of crossing guards and the inadequate communication about the changes. Speakers also encouraged the City to rethink their agreement to fully put the cost of crossing guards on D65 starting next year.
The meeting then commenced, and attendees heard a presentation from the city on potential opportunities for TIF districts to provide additional resources to D65, either via closing TIFs early to return that annual tax revenue to the schools sooner, or through opportunities to expand districts to include certain schools (Foster, Lincoln, Park, and/or King Arts), who would then be eligible for funds for capital expenditures (including lease certificate payments). TIFs have different end dates, and some may be more likely than others to be considered for early termination of the TIF. The second option to put schools in the TIF could possibly free up a larger amount of dollars in a short term for a capital project (versus annual payments from regular tax distribution). Either option would require more deliberation and approval from the City Council.