CLAIRE COFFEY: The Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Board of Education weighed additional spending cuts while community members sharply criticized the decision to cut middle school librarians.
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CLAIRE COFFEY: From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Claire Coffey. This is a D65 board meeting Rapid Recap for Everything Evanston, a podcast covering all things Evanston.
Monday night, students, parents and staff rallied in support of the district’s middle school librarians during public comment. Superintendent Angel Turner announced on Saturday that the district would “reassign middle school librarians,” effectively cutting librarian positions from three middle schools.
Capturing many community members’ concerns, Evanston Township High School junior Harper Nowlin said that librarians were vital to establishing students’ critical thinking and media literacy.
HARPER NOWLIN: They don’t just check out books or organize shelves, they’re educators. They teach students how to research, how to evaluate sources, how to navigate the internet safely. They are essential for functioning in the modern world.
CLAIRE COFFEY: A Chute Middle School sixth grader voiced concerns about what would happen to their school library without the librarian.
CHUTE STUDENT: The plan to have libraries without librarians is honestly kind of ridiculous. You’re saying the library is still there, but if nobody is there to run it, it’s just a room with shelves.
CLAIRE COFFEY: Chute teacher Kris Himebaugh discussed how their school librarian’s decision to keep the library open during lunch has aided neurodivergent students.
KRIS HIMEBAUGH: This is where our neurodivergent students are. This is where they come to regulate, connect and feel safe. Where are those kids going to go?
CLAIRE COFFEY: District Library Media Specialist Tracy Hubbard compared the board’s budget cuts to a ubiquitous young adult novel.
TRACY HUBBARD: This past year seems like a type of Hunger Games. And the closure of a middle school library position reminds me of a quote from this dystopian series: “Destroying things is much easier than making them.”
CLAIRE COFFEY: Chute librarian Lori Martin roused the audience with a call to action for the board despite exceeding public comment time limits.
LORI MARTIN: Libraries save lives, do the right thing District 65.
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CLAIRE COFFEY: Monday night, the district also explored alternative funding cuts for Phase 3 of their Structural Deficit Reduction Plan, which now aims to cut $16 million to $18 million from the district’s budget by fiscal year 2030.
Last meeting, the board voted to cut two counselors across Haven and Nichols Middle Schools. After widespread public opposition, the decision came as an alternative to the board’s original plan to cut all nine middle school counselors.
However, the change of plans left the district more than $635,000 short of the estimated $6.3 million in reductions needed for fiscal year 2027.
Four budget reductions were proposed to fill the gap.
First, the district would revoke Chicago Avenue and Gross Point Road’s hazardous road designations. State law reimburses transportation for students living 1.5 miles or more away from their schools. However, for District 65 specifically, the distance requirement does not apply when students must cross a hazardous road to get to school, according to Assistant Superintendent of Accountability Stacy Beardsley. So the more hazards the district identifies, the more transportation they must provide, even if the costs are not reimbursed.
By retracting Chicago and Gross Point’s hazard status, the district would save a total of $160,000 in transportation costs, according to Chief Financial Officer Tamara Mitchell.
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CLAIRE COFFEY: The district is also considering eliminating busing to preschool programs at Joseph E. Hill Early Childhood Center. The cuts would account for about $1 million of the reductions needed for fiscal year 2027.
During public comment, numerous parents and employees advocated to preserve busing to preschool. JEH psychologist Lexi St. John, among others, argued the services are vital for upholding equity and are part of many special education students’ individualized education plans.
LEXI ST. JOHN: We have received direct feedback from families indicating that without district transportation, they’ll be forced to forgo essential IEP services. Are we really gonna make families choose between IEP services or their livelihoods?
CLAIRE COFFEY: JEH parent Sarah Forst proposed a sliding scale for parents, allowing families to pay as much as they can.
SARAH FORST: We all know cuts need to be made. I encourage the board to begin charging families on a sliding scale for the bus to eliminate some of this financial burden. I understand that many of the families using the bus are low-income and will not be charged, and that’s kind of the point.
CLAIRE COFFEY: The board moved forward with the idea, proposing that sliding-scale payments for all general education bus services could be implemented as an alternative to preschool bus cuts.
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CLAIRE COFFEY: Last meeting, the board introduced potential cuts to its crossing guard program. The board ultimately decided to reduce the program by $100,000, potentially eliminating around 24 crossing guard positions.
The remaining $300,000 in cuts fell to the district’s capital expenditure projects.
The district is no longer able to make administrative position cuts for fiscal year 2027 reductions. Administrative staff would have had to be notified of any layoffs before April 1, according to a district presentation.
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CLAIRE COFFEY: The board also considered, but did not finalize, cutting Family and Community Engagement liaisons, who support district families both academically and socially.
Seventy-three percent of Black students are connected with FACE liaisons, according to District 65 Director of Climate & Safety Bryon Harris.
BRYON HARRIS: They’re connecting with families, and they’re connecting with the most marginalized families in our district, which usually are families of color.
CLAIRE COFFEY: Lachisa Barton is one of the five FACE liaisons currently employed by the district. During public comment, she spoke about her work at the five schools she serves.
LACHISA BARTON: We are the only team entirely composed of Black and brown staff … We are consistently called on upon social workers, counselors, teachers and administrators to connect with families when others cannot. When communication has broken down, the trust is lacking. When relationships need to be rebuilt, we do this work because we have established authentic, meaningful relationships with the community.
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CLAIRE COFFEY: Thanks for listening to D65 Rapid Recap for Everything Evanston. For full coverage of the April 21 D65 board meeting, visit The Daily Northwestern’s website. This episode was reported and produced by Claire Coffey.
The audio editor is Wallis Rogin. The multimedia managing editors are Ruby Dowling, Isabella Jacob and Matt Wasilewski. The editor-in-chief is Anavi Prakash.
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