MAP/Budget/McKay Scholarship

Before we can prepare our students for college or career readiness, District 65 must adopt the EXPLORE test to accurately measure all of our student’s academic progress.  Identifying where District 65 is falling short academically, is the first step to solving the problem.  As opined in the Evanston Roundtable, the SAT-10 to measure college readiness was not supported by any study or independent research and that those percentiles substantially overstate the percent of eighth-graders who were on track to meeting college readiness as measured by Act’s benchmarks. 

With the precarious financial position of Springfield, the number one priority for the School Board is the continued vigilance on balancing the school budget so our tax dollars are more effectively directed toward the classroom and academic excellence and not directed to the District 65’s bureaucracy.  I will advocate for having taxpayer workshops to provide ideas to the School Board and District 65 on ways to cut costs and trim the budget. I will also advocate that a performance or forensic audit of the school budget be conducted every 5 years to identify budgetary waste.

However, a major part of maintaining a balanced school budget is negotiating a 2012 Teacher Union contract that accurately reflects the budgetary constraints and the recent recessionary pressures that the District 65 may face in the coming years.  So, too, the School Board needs to negotiate with the Teacher’s Union for a longer school day and a longer school year.

Though I support returning an elementary school to the Fifth ward, the referendum is not comprehensive enough.   The referendum should state a broader plan in returning District 65 to a neighborhood school system by building a new school in the Fifth ward and realigning the magnet schools to become neighborhood schools.  I realize that this will require greater capital improvements to retro-fit many of our schools in the district to make this transition, but the time is overdue to rebuild and strengthen Evanston’s neighborhoods, get kids off buses, and set long lasting and common sense school boundaries in the district now and in the future.

Lastly, I would like to advocate for parents with special need children the McKay Scholarship, a voucher program that would allow parents the choice to place their special needs child in either a private or public school.