Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series of candidate profiles for the District 65 board election.

Skokie resident Brandon Utter is running for one of four open seats on the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Board of Education.

A clinical pharmacist practitioner for the Department of Veteran Affairs, Utter said he wants to help fix the “problematic arena” the district is in by increasing community communication and district data analysis. 

“Data should work as a tool to guide some of your claims and decisions, not necessarily something to support decisions that you’ve already made,” he said. “It needs to be holistic and contextualized for the whole district.”

He has also been active in conversations around the district’s decisions regarding the closure of Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies, which two of his children currently attend.

Utter spoke with The Daily about his goals for the district if elected. 

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

The Daily: What went into your decision to run for the school board?

Utter: I’ve spoken at many meetings, with all the board members, with a lot of people in the community about topics regarding the school board, and I’ve noticed a lot of room for improvement in the decision-making process and the interface with the community.

The Daily: What would your first goal be as a board member?

Utter: Making sure that we have a good set of criteria on which schools are going to be a higher priority for consolidation.

It’s not necessarily the selling of buildings that’s going to turn the financial page of the district. It’s going to be making sure that our school cost per student per year is balanced across the district at the same time.

The Daily: Phase 3 of District 65’s Structural Deficit Reduction Plan includes school consolidations. You called the plan “a good first step.” How would you approach these consolidations and Phase 3 of the plan as a whole?

Utter: When it comes to school closures (and) consolidations, the timing is important because when you open and close schools, there are downstream effects and these downstream effects can cost you a lot of money.

So, I think that if you have set criteria that you’re following and you’re being transparent about it and you’re taking input from those communities, then you can justify those decisions.

The Daily: During the discussions to close Bessie Rhodes, several community members — including you — said there wasn’t a lot of communication or transparency from the board. As a board member, how would you address that gap?

Utter: It’s important to note that communication is a two-way process, and I think that the board and the district have made attempts to collect information. However, it’s not been necessarily a two-way communication, and that’s how I would define more communication. It’s got to be back and forth a little bit.

Meeting with the schools directly because there’s people that don’t respond to surveys and there’s obviously limitations to collecting information via survey, so being at individual schools, having translators in the right place at the right time and having good translators is important.

The Daily: On your campaign website, you talk about further developing the district’s Two-Way Immersion and dual language programming in a way that allows students to reap its full benefits. What does this development look like to you? 

Utter: Spanish-speaking individuals remain (one of) the fastest growing populations in Evanston, (so) having a place for them to go is really important.

If we’re being a receptive community for migrants and folks that are coming from afar, I think it’s really important to have a landing site for them.

We’ve had teacher shortages, we’ve had interventionist shortages, so making sure a program is just well supported with the staff that it needs, the supplies that it needs and in a building that is not beyond overdue for maintenance repairs is important. 

Email: anaviprakash2027@u.northwestern.edu 

X: @anavi_52

Related Stories:

— Q&A: D65 candidate Nichole Pinkard talks collaboration, Foster School 

— Q&A: D65 candidate Lionel Gentle talks transparency, support for teachers 

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