Thrive65

Board Meeting Recaps

The $20 Million Sustainability Plan

October 13, 2026

Tuesday’s Board meeting was a heavy one, and this email is a long one, summarizing
lot of the detail I’ve culled from district materials to try to help understand the numbers better, particular how long will the $20 million dollar plan hold.
If you don’t like scrolling, I’ve provided a set of links to each section below to make it easier to navigate.

Given that next week is quickly approaching, we want to first highlight the various ways to participate in the Superintendent search process. Please lend your voice to these discussions because the person leading our district will shape what it looks like for generations to come.

There are several ways you can engage:

School Closure Impacts to Middle School Boundaries

Many families felt caught off guard when we learned that the administration was proposing Dewey and Lincolnwood for closure. Dewey had not been in any of the scenarios of last year’s Structural Deficit Reduction Plan (SDRP). Lincolnwood was in the scenarios last year, but the proposed boundary changes mean some northwest families would move to Walker, which is nearby, but feeds into Chute middle school on the south end of town, a drastic change for families who in the past few years have been zoned for Lincolnwood/Haven, and now Walker/Chute.

Each middle school’s boundary has been changed in the past three years, particularly impacting families currently at Dewey, Lincoln, Lincolnwood, and Washington. A group of parents, not affiliated with Thrive65, have put out a survey on boundaries. They hope to use it in their advocacy efforts.

Middle School Boundaries Over Three School Years:

We’ve done some back of the napkin analysis of the walkability impacts. By our rough estimate, many children who would lose their <0.75 walk to school. Given the limits of our method, we believe it is important that the district publish its own estimates based on address-specific data.

Some questions to ask

The $20 Million Sustainability Plan

The administration proposed about $20.9 million a year in reductions, starting July 1, 2027. After new revenue, a one-time transition cost and $5.5 million reinvested in buildings and curriculum, the net improvement is about $14.9 million, $14.25 million of that being recurring savings in future years.


That recurring savings is significant. A conservative estimate of 3% annual inflation means we save over $75 million dollars in just the first 5 years.

A deeper dive in the categories of cuts:

Staffing and compensation: 11.3M

Includes a reduction of more than 200 positions, a health-plan redesign and less overtime. The district says no school-based role or in-school program is fully eliminated.


The staffing numbers in the detail don’t exactly line up with the FTEs summarized in the first image. We think the rest would be reflected in the Special education line in the detail here, but it would be worth asking the district for confirmation.

Closing Lincolnwood and Dewey: $2.9M

About 713 students would change schools. Both sites would be kept for possible rebuilds on Lincolnwood site and Washington site, tied to a facilities referendum being explored for November 2028. As noted earlier, the boundary changes for kids across the district are significant. Between school years ending in 2026-2028, not a single school boundary has been untouched. Most schools lost students and all schools not designated for closure gained other students. We have seen and will see more changes to the number of staff in our schools and where staff are assigned. This is a profoundly disruptive period for families and staff, and we hope the admin means what they say that this will be the last time anything close to this magnitude happens to our district. More on the future financials.

Our initial analysis on enrollment and capacity.

Questions to ask

  1. Many in the community have expressed concern about being rezoned from a school they can see from their house to a school further away. Given that no school is at the 90% mark, wouldn’t it be feasible to have fewer students move unnecessarily? Could the same be true for families whose middle school will otherwise change too?
  2. How many classrooms will STEP, RISE, TWI and ACC use at each school in fall 2027?
  3. At higher utilized schools, will music, small-group intervention and special education services (resource rooms, speech, OT) still have dedicated rooms or move to shared spaces? The capacity count reserves only one room per building, for art.
  4. How many students moving have IEPs? Has consideration been made as to the impact of changing schools, especially for those whose current school is not closing or for those close to middle school who would change feeder patterns?



Of note, the detailed breakout shows the savings of staffing is for Principal, Assistant Principal, Admin Assistant, Library Services, Interventionist, and Custodial support. We haven’t confirmed with the district, but it appears these total cuts do not represent teachers, as they will be reassigned based on the collective bargaining agreement, so any reductions to classroom educators is probably reflected in the other staffing savings broken out in the previous section.

The district also shared their updated savings for the closures of Bessie Rhodes and Kingsley.

Transportation: $2.4M

Includes limiting Preschool for All busing to children with special-education plans (IEPs) or free/reduced-lunch eligibility. The closures will lengthen walks for many families.

Non-Mandated Programs: $1.9M

Ends district-run before/after-school care (SACC) after this school year and hands off Head Start and Early Head Start in July 2028. It is unknown what organization will take over the Head Start services.

The district estimates a savings of $400,000 for SACC. While they note directly operating aftercare is not typical for public school districts, the alternatives in Evanston are less affordable and often not directly at the school. One of the district defined peers, Orland Park, does provide district-run care that costs about 19% more per month than us.

The district said they would need to increase SACC fees by 35% with no sliding scale to cover the $400k. SACC currently costs $336 for aftercare. The YMCA costs $495 a month. Increasing SACC 35% would still be less than the Y, and housed at local schools while supporting students with disabilities. In fact, you could increase by 50% and it would be less than $10 a month more than the Y. Perhaps parents who can afford an increase would be willing to pay a little more to have onsite SACC that their children are familiar with and that meets their needs? That increase could perhaps still allow the district to subsidize income-eligible families.

We’ve created a summary of what other districts do for before/after care, and what that costs, including the ones defined by D65 as peers. From our research, it appears only Evanston and Orland Park’s district-run care would be legally required to support IEPs.

Purchased services and technology: $2.4M

New revenue: $0.6M

Includes a $100 student fee increase ($75 off for early registration) for families who don’t qualify for free/reduced lunch.

How long do we have until we’re back here?

The district provided this slide, which indicates with all $20 million cuts, school year 2031 is the last year we are better off than we are today. We’re currently in school year 2027, which I note to emphasize that we are likely to continue to see more cuts in the not so distant future to preserve fund balance, and even faster if unanticipated expenses outside of our control emerge.

Another district slide shows FY29 as the year our expenses begin to exceed our revenue again.

Using the detail provided by the district, our analysis estimates FY2033 as going down to under 70 days cash on hand. What that indicates is that there will still be regular conversations about cuts and tradeoffs. We feel it is important to document this to ensure that our new superintendent is not unfairly blamed for a challenge we can easily forecast now. It’s important the district maintains regular projections for future years like this, that include fund balance, so the community feels informed and prepared when these conversations are needed.

The Forensic Report

The Board released an independent review by Crowe Advisory of district spending from FY2021 to FY2024 (July 2020 to June 2024).

Former Superintendent Dr. Devon Horton has pleaded guilty to federal charges tied to a kickback scheme involving district contracts. Sentencing is set for January 5, 2027. The report confirms weak financial controls during that period, especially FY2021 to FY2023: missing contracts, bills approved after payment, and undocumented stipends.Outside the matters tied to Dr. Horton, Crowe found no evidence of fraud or personal benefit by any other employee, Board member or vendor.

The report could not find support for the $3.25 million a year in savings that was used to justify financing the new Foster School. The district’s own transportation director had estimated $500,000 to $800,000.

Crowe noted that the district began adding contracting and purchasing safeguards in FY2024 and found the new credit-card procedures working as designed. The rest of the new controls were not tested, and the report covers only one year under them. It would be worth periodically asking the board and admin for updates on the improvements to its financial controls. FOIA Gras did a deeper dive into the forensic report as well.

What’s Next

Tues, October 20 - D65 community gathering with Alma Advisory Group to hear your thoughts on the superintendent search. Chute Middle School, 6-8 PM (childcare and Spanish interpretation available on site)

Weds, October 21 - Thrive65 focus group for Superintendent search with Alma Advisory Group. JEH, 12-12:45pm. All are welcome!

Weds, October 21 - D65 community gathering with Alma Advisory Group to hear your thoughts on the Superintendent search. Foster Elementary School, 6-8 PM (childcare and Spanish interpretation available on site)

Thurs, October 22 - D65 community gathering with Alma Advisory Group to hear your thoughts on the Superintendent search. Nichols Middle School, 6-8 PM (childcare and Spanish interpretation available on site)

Mon, October 26, 6pm - Board meeting @ JEH

Mon, November 9, 5pm - Board meeting @ JEH. The Board votes on whether to move the plan forward. This starts the formal closure process; it is not the final closure vote.

Early December - Public hearings on the school closures.

January to March 2027 - Community planning on academics and facilities.

July 2027 - Most changes take effect and new Superintendent likely officially starts.

Online survey: Take the survey here, open through October 30 in English and Spanish.

How to Weigh in on the Plan

Email the Board, speak during public comment on Oct. 26th or Nov. 9th, or send us your questions and we’ll help if we can. Use our Board Advocacy Guide for tips.

As always, thank you for your interest in helping our district thrive. However you advocate on the issues that matter most to you, whether it’s at board meetings or the playground after school, committed communities make a difference!