Community Meeting 9/20/2026
Thank you so much for attending Thrive65’s first community event on Sunday. It was rainy, chilly, and the Cubs, Sox, and Bears were on, but at least 35 community members still came out, including two D65 Board members (thank you Maria Opdycke and Chris Van Nostrand) and journalists from the Evanston RoundTable, Evanston Now, and the Daily Northwestern. You can see their coverage of the event here and here.
We presented a history of D65’s structural deficit (at least back to 2009), laid out examples of the inequitable cuts to our marginalized families throughout Evanston’s past, and discussed where we go from here and how to increase your advocacy. We also grappled with our current situation in community, with curiosity and respect for one another. Attendees asked questions and shared various perspectives.
One topic of discussion, “non-mandated programs”, was based on a slide we saw at last week’s board meeting:
Thrive65 confirmed in an email from D65’s CFO that non-mandated programming includes:
- Early Head Start and Head Start
- Preschool for All
- Transportation for these preschool programs
- School Age Child Care (SACC) before- and after-school care, and other childcare programming
- Optional components of magnet and choice programs (ACC, TWI)
- Athletics, clubs and other extracurricular activities
- Field trips and summer enrichment
- Transportation for magnet, choice and after-school programs
- Instructional enhancements beyond the state-required curriculum
We acknowledged that the magnitude of the cuts ahead mean every child will feel an impact. We’ve already seen this in school and programming closures, boundary changes, transitions to beloved educator roles, crossing guard cuts and more. The cuts finalized only this spring had the community out in droves to advocate for counselors and librarians, students with disabilities, and SACC programming. Those cuts were less than a third of what we will need to reach the $20 million target.
Some attendees questioned why revenue levers have not been presented. Others asked about updates on the sale of closed school buildings, the HR audit and the forensic audit. We noted we still don’t know who will be leading the district from February through June (the period of time after Dr. Witherspoon leaves and the new superintendent is expected to start). That’s when a lot of important budget-impacting deadlines happen. There are a lot of questions still waiting on answers for many in our community and not much time left to get answers before the plan is presented.
Dr. Witherspoon has said the details of the $20M budget reduction will be rolled out at the Oct. 13th Board meeting, so we encourage you to reach out to Administration and the Board to advocate for any programs here that you see as essential in not furthering disproportionate harm to our marginalized communities.
Administration can be contacted at: witherspoone@district65.net; beardsleys@district65.net; millere@district65.net; gordonm@district65.net; qureshia@district65.net, and the board can be contacted at: schoolboard@district65.net. Please refer to our board advocacy guide for communication tips, here’s a link to the written/email advocacy section.
We would also love to see you at one of the District’s Listening Sessions this week, starting TONIGHT at 6 PM at Chute Middle School. Childcare and Spanish interpretation will be provided. Please join us and bring along a friend or neighbor!
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!