Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series of exit interviews for District 65 board members.

Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Board of Education member Elisabeth “Biz” Lindsay-Ryan is ending her tenure on the board six years after being appointed in 2019 when a seat was vacated.

Lindsay-Ryan has spent her career working in equity, diversity and inclusion as a consultant and professor. She said her main priority was improving students’ school days. 

“When you improve student experience and have kids feel like they belong, that can lead to great academic results as well,” she said. 

Lindsay-Ryan spoke with The Daily about her time on the board and the future of District 65. 

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

The Daily: What went into your decision not to run for another term?

Lindsay-Ryan: There’s a lot of awareness of what’s going on in the district that happens with having kids in the district. Mine are now all in high school, so it’s important to give opportunities to folks who have younger kids to have a say in what’s happening for their children.

The Daily: What are you most proud of accomplishing in your time on the board?

Lindsay-Ryan: I’m proud we’ve added AVID and guidance counselors and different supports to address what was happening with middle school students — social emotional learning supports and restorative practices.

A motivation for me joining the board years ago was trying to address our racial disproportionality in discipline, and we’ve made a lot of progress in that space as well. 

I am proud of the conversations we’ve been having to make sure that our students who are struggling are at the center of what we’re doing.

The Daily: Is there anything you wish you had done more of in your time as a board member?

Lindsay-Ryan: We probably needed to make some cuts in 2021 that would have alleviated some of the financial challenges right now. But it was that moment right after the pandemic when folks had been giving their heart and soul to take care of other people’s children. That’s not the time to make cuts.

It’s easy to look at the numbers, and not the people, and not the experiences, and the school board job is having to do both, so there’s not a lot of decisions I can’t live with. 

The Daily: When you ran in 2021, one of your goals was to make District 65 a welcoming, respectful space for all students. Looking at recent data, student belongingness for grades 5 to 8 increased from 51% to 58% this school year, but about 21% of Black third and fourth graders feel less belonging than any other racial group. What are the next steps the district should take to bridge the belonging racial gap? 

Lindsay-Ryan: That is one of the more concerning data points I’ve seen. There are so many challenges that grow out of kids not feeling like they belong, both in their own mental health and their well-being, but also academic outcomes.

We did put a lot of attention on middle school in the last few years, (so) how do we need to think about third and fourth graders? I think this is related to the pandemic. We need to think about what grades were third and fourth graders in when the pandemic happened, what things did they not get?

The Daily: When you ran for the board, you cited one of your focuses as a 5th Ward school. When construction costs were $25 million over what was expected, you helped make the decision to build a K-5 school instead of a K-8 one. Even though you won’t be on the board, what is your vision for the school about a year and a half out from its opening?

Lindsay-Ryan: The premise of dividing up that neighborhood and busing kids to five different schools, there’s significant generational harm.

My hope is for that to be a hub for community life, for folks to not feel the burden of diversifying schools as their responsibility. My hope is that belongingness is through the roof at that school.

The Daily: When voting to begin the process to potentially close Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies, you voted in favor. What went into your decision?  

Lindsay-Ryan: Previous iterations of our board needed to be having conversations about closing buildings a long time ago. There is a larger realignment that needs to happen, and frankly, Bessie Rhodes was just the first in that process. So part of my decision-making was understanding what that means for the long game.

There are all of these different pieces that come together that made Bessie Rhodes the first school, but it was not a targeting of Bessie Rhodes as the only school. 

The Daily: What advice do you have for the candidates running to be District 65’s next board members?

Lindsay-Ryan: It’s always more complex than you think it is. It’s hard to be in a community that’s not just critical, but often vitriolic about your decision making. And it’s not even about the decisions, it’s about your integrity. The guiding post has been that I have tried to make decisions that I believe are right with the information that I have at any given time. 

Email: anaviprakash2027@u.northwestern.edu 

X: @anavi_52

Related Stories:

— Q&A: D65 candidate Maria Opdycke talks financial transparency goals 

— Q&A: D65 candidate Andrew Wymer talks student belonging, strategic plan 

— Q&A: D65 candidate Chris Van Nostrand shares academic rigor, clear communication goals