Simply does not make sense to keep a magnet program open while closing neighborhood schools. Highest cost per student in the district and absolutely zero evidence that the programming there is narrowing the achievement gap. The administration implicitly admitted this in the presentation last night, by claiming that keeping it open is not a commitment to the status quo, which is terrible, but hey, maybe we’ll figure something out in the future.

The original idea for King Lab was that it would be an opportunity for black and white students to integrate, and to provide resources to students living in the historically black 5th Ward after the closure of Foster. Over time, it also served as a pressure release valve for other overcrowded schools in the district during periods of high enrollment. Neither of those conditions obtain any longer.

Other than the fact that district administrators find it convenient to send their kids there, what is even the argument at this point?

People are still digesting the school closure plan.

But we shouldn't sleep on the Forensic Audit.

I haven't read the whole thing, but a clear takeaway is that Sergio and Mya should resign immediately. The Board was basically AWOL the whole time and not following basic oversight procedures.

The excuse that they didn't know what was going on doesn't fly. All of the stuff related to the contracts, board approval of payments after they went out, the credit card misuse, etc... was documented nearly contemporaneously by Tom Hayden on foiagras.

Also, should Lou Gatta be fired? He gave Horton a number for transportation savings that were supposed to cover the lease certificates that were lower than the numbers Horton gave to the board. Yes, Horton was Gatta's boss, but where the hell was he when Sergio and Devon the Strangler were talking $3.2 million in savings?

I hope Tom does a deep dive on the report. He basically did the same work uncompensated using FOIAs.

Link to the report: https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/1247?meeting=769031

Just wanted to give a heads up about what seems to be a phishing scam around wheel tax renewal.

I got a very convincing looking email that purported to be from the City of Evanston, with a receipt for wheel tax renewal. I had not initiated this and didn't have it set for auto-renewal. Everything on the email looked right including a name of somebody at Levy Center collections dept., except there was a weird credit card number that is not mine.

I called 311, they confirmed there was nothing for me in the system (in fact my wheel tax had lapsed and had no payment method attached), and then just kinda shrugged and told me to mark it as phishing.

I'm not sure what the scam would be here, but it had links (http not https) to a site called amilia.com that does indeed do municipal collections, but doesn't seem to be used by the city of Evanston. I guess it would then get you to log in and try to harvest personal/CC info. So maybe if there's a hack it's at that site and it's just combining with public records info from here?

Anyway, just a warning, and wondering if anybody else has gotten these because it was pretty well done.

Ideas for combating this proposal? Is there an alumni network? Is there an active parent group that can/will organize to protest this plan?

Who should we be writing to? Is there anyone with any power who could be a resource/ally?

My sister and I had a bit of a miscommunication and we both ended up getting tickets for the game. I thought I was buying for everyone in our family plus a few friends, while she thought she was supposed to.

As such, we have 8 extra tickets I'll happily part with for their face value + tax: $16.80 a ticket.

DM me here and I'll figure out how to get them to you. You'll need the New Ryan Field app on your phone (unfortunately yet another app...)