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Month: June 2023

If You’re Going To Close Schools, Do It This Way

Written by Katie Morrison-Reed on . Posted in Effective Governance, K-12 Education.

Across the country, many school districts have seen continuous declining enrollment trends, with a steep loss during COVID that doesn’t show signs of fully returning, along with declining birth rates and shrinking Kindergarten cohorts. School closings are already here, and data indicate many more on the horizon.

When I hear these rumblings, I’m taken back over a decade to my time at Chicago Public Schools, when the district faced a whopping operating budget deficit, over 100,000 empty seats (roughly the size of the 20th largest district in the country), buildings in need of significant improvement, and lagging student outcomes. Ultimately, as is now known and written about often, CPS decided to tackle the capacity challenge in a big wave of 50 school consolidations in 2013. While excess capacity still remained, it was the largest single year consolidation in history – an effort that allowed the district to consolidate its focus on the schools that remained and, in the process, at least partially address some of the financial predicament it found itself in. I’m not going to opine on this process – if it was the right decision, what went right and what went wrong, or the long-term impact. Those articles and opinions readily exist. But as the Director of Transitions at the time, responsible for pulling together the people, plan, and process to implement CPS’ school action decisions with the guidance of our leadership team, I do want to share reflections from having been through it.

Fact: Closing schools isn’t a process anyone ever wants to be a part of. You don’t get into public education to close schools. It’s gut-wrenching work, and it’s heartbreaking and often devastating to the those most impacted. In a perfect world, our schools would be adequately funded and retain or draw families back into them with appropriate resources, well-compensated and supported staff, and excellent programs. This can happen, like in the successes in Washington, D.C. Closures should not be our first answer, and creative solutions can help. But sometimes, like when demographic shifts leave a plethora of under-enrolled, under-resourced schools, the painful solution can become the necessary one. And when it does happen, we have an obligation to minimize the pain felt by all stakeholders involved. Ideally, we are harnessing the opportunity to offer stronger – albeit fewer – schools. With that as context, I offer these reflections for districts facing the prospect of school closures.

  • Know the why. Be clear on why you are considering closures and what you expect the outcomes will be. Understand the context and stories of the schools and communities at risk of closure and understand deeply the consequences of any actions you might take before you take them. Balance that with an understanding of the opportunities a closure may present. But don’t lead with closures being solely about solving a financial crisis. While consolidations can support long-term financial sustainability, it often doesn’t save as much money as we expect, and it costs a lot to do well. And importantly, it’s not a compelling argument to your community, even if it is true. Stakeholders will – sometimes justifiably – push this argument back on poor district decisions or management. Instead, how might a smaller number of schools enable more equitable resourcing and better schools for all students? Is rightsizing a lever to be able to do this more effectively? “Better schools” is a conversation communities can engage in. Fixing a budget hole is not.
  • Know the how. Going into the work, have a clear decision-making process and “rules” for how decisions will be made, ideally done with a representative community body. Have a single empowered leader, and a cross-functional team at least partially freed up from existing responsibilities to focus on fidelity of planning and implementation. Have a solid process to execute, be overly prepared to do it, and have contingency plans for your contingency plans. Be fully prepared with a plan to track and monitor progress and outcomes and have a quick response system for issue resolution during and after the transition. Be prepared to monitor each impacted student – where they go, how they do through the transition, and how they fare on the leading indicator metrics you monitor for outcomes and growth. Know what will happen to the space that is left behind or the process you’ll use to figure that out, again involving the community. And on the note of buildings, understand that you can separate ‘school’ from ‘building’ – good schools can exist in bad buildings. Be diligent yet creative in your solutions.
  • Prioritize people. Know who will be impacted specifically and how. What’s the population of students in temporary housing situations? Students with limited or interrupted formal education? Racial and ethnic demographics of students and teachers? Community groups with connections to schools? Has anyone in the school been shuffled through a school closure before? Know the human stories. Also know the stories of the schools to be closed and ensure there is a plan to honor them. Support schools that are receiving impacted students to prepare students, teachers, and staff and merge school cultures ahead of time. Give them and the school community time, flexibility, and resources to prepare in a way that is informed by students and those closest to them. Prioritize maintaining meaningful student and staff connections where possible and have a thoughtful staff transition plan in place. Whatever you do, lead with empathy.
  • Communicate transparently. Invite people to the table; closed doors put up walls. With engagement and transparency, while everyone might not agree on the decisions, you can agree on the validity of the process to make those decisions. Align with stakeholders and co-create solutions where you can (ex: supports students and staff will need for the transition). Communicate effectively – in language that is accessible and respects the human element of this, and through communication modes that work for the people you are trying to reach. Make a clear timeline so stakeholders know what to expect when, and follow through. Get ahead of the issues and stories by knowing them authentically.

School consolidations are coming. We need to study the past, take what worked, and improve where we can. I believe by knowing our why, knowing our how, prioritizing people, and communicating transparently, school districts and communities can collaboratively address the systemic challenges in front of them. Our team at Afton is here to support your district and community in this process.

North Chicago CUSD 187: Progress after Injustice

Written by Afton Group on . Posted in Effective Governance, Financial Sustainability, Resource Equity.

When the state put forth its new education funding system in 2018, it calculated each of the state’s ~850 school districts’ funding adequacy targets. North Chicago Community School District 187 had just 54% of the funding it needed to serve its students. Meanwhile, the surrounding communities of more affluent and whiter students had 288% (Rondout), 158% (Lake Forest), 137% (Lake Bluff) of their education funding adequacy targets.

North Chicago is a city about 35 miles north of downtown Chicago and has a population of around 30,000 people. The city is home to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, which is the largest training installation for the United States Navy. Despite its proximity to some of the wealthiest communities in the state, North Chicago’s school district serves over 80% low-income students. The community has significant racial and ethnic disparities in poverty rates, with Black and Hispanic residents experiencing high rates of poverty.

In that context, it is not surprising that this school district failed its students as the community became more impoverished in the 1990s and early 21st century.

The state took over the schools in 2012. While there is much more to do, graduation rates have increased from 56% to 82% and 9th grade on track has soared to 94% today, compared to 2012. In particular, those graduation rate improvements have no significant gaps by race, and North Chicago Community High School has among the highest graduation rates for Black students than any other high school in Lake County (among 28 high schools). North Chicago is now home to a preschool which has received the state’s Gold Level of Quality two review cycles in a row. Further, the district has achieved the highest rating level of financial sustainability from the state for six years running.

What are the ingredients to progress, and what will it take to go much further for students? We are introducing you to Mrs. Dora King, chairperson of the school district’s independent authority, to tell this story. Our team at Afton has experienced Mrs. King as a North Chicago community hero.

Mrs. King, as a long-time community member of North Chicago and the chairperson of the North Chicago Community Unit School District 187 Independent Authority for the last decade, please tell us about your personal story.

My family came to North Chicago from Mississippi during the Great Migration in the 1950s seeking jobs at the factories. My street in North Chicago was full of strong Black men and women who were working hard and providing for their families. The community was segregated as were the schools. My church was my strength – it is where activities and structure were provided, and my church educated me and other children as much or more than the public schools did. In the 1960s, as young people in our church, we grew up in The National Baptist Convention around Baptist preachers and social justice advocate, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and others. I saw parents and community members going to school board meetings, advocating for a better education opportunity for all of the children. So, I learned how to advocate for change from the adults around me. I went on to raise my three children, all of whom have been accepted into PhD programs and are a physicist, an educator, and a biologist. I, myself, went on to get my college degree.

What led to you becoming the chairperson of the state’s independent authority over the school district?

Assuming this governance role for the school district is an extension of my entire life’s work. During the time after I raised my children in the 1970s and 1980s, a lot changed in the school system and in our community of North Chicago. Industry started leaving in the 1990s, and families immigrated from the City of Chicago’s housing projects to North Chicago. Around the same time, more Hispanic families moved in. The culture of the city changed as well as the differentiated needs of the children. And our school district was unable to effectively serve the needs of the children. The state did a takeover of the school district, which by then was insolvent, and they asked me to take on this responsibility. I accepted the role because I believe in building something excellent for our students and can do so as a fair-minded, honest, respectful leader.

Here at Afton, we met you soon after the state took over the school district in 2012. A lot was written about the problems of the district at that time and what the community had experienced with regards to school failures, mismanagement, insolvency, and fraud. Since 2012, the school district’s academic progress has been improving and its finances are more stable. The community opened a brand new Neal Middle School this past year, and Superintendent Dr. John Price is being named Lake County Superintendent of the Year. By 2027, the district will transition to a fully elected school board. All of this has been done under your leadership. Through your eyes, what should our society learn from this history to better our service to the children of tomorrow?

This is a story about establishing stable and credible leadership, being accountable for student programs and governance processes, and being laser focused on taking responsibility for the children. After the first few years of building that trusted and stable leadership as a foundation, the ability to serve our students improved dramatically – including being able to attract the resources to invest in student services. What has been lifted off today was out of vision at the beginning because the school system was in such disrepair. Now, our children are college-going. We welcome parents into the high school for training. We have established a robust early learning center. We have business partnerships and community partnerships that have led to a new school facility and various student-serving programs after school and beyond.

What are your dreams for North Chicago’s students? What will it take moving forward to see those dreams through?

My dream is that each student in North Chicago is prepared for whatever they choose to be in life. My dream is that our students can dream and are prepared to fulfill their own dreams. This will require a continued child-centered focus. It will require that the adults continue to see the child and care for the child, and that decisions are made in that context. We have more to do to attract the funding and build the talent to be at our best. Right now, we have a foundation to build from.

*Link to report graphic.

Summer Charter School Enrollment Scenario Budgeting Advice

Written by Afton Group on . Posted in Effective Governance, Financial Sustainability.

Summer recruitment can bring up to a 20% surge in enrollment depending on local context and organizations’ time, resources, and focus. To achieve that surge, it’s critical to invest in marketing and recruiting activities and in particular, to tailor your strategies to your greatest areas of need. Summer recruitment activities require discipline in a variety of proven recruitment strategies including immediate lead follow-up, family engagement activities, old and cold lead follow-ups, efficient and engaging family onboarding, and family referral encouragements.

No matter how well we enact these strategies, there are often forces that will prevent us from meeting our enrollment goals. There are significant financial implications to missing enrollment targets. From a fiscal health standpoint, our schools will suffer unwanted consequences if we wait until close to the beginning of the school year to plan for operational changes required by enrollment misses.

While it isn’t fun to prepare for the downside possibilities, doing so protects your school(s) and the quality of your student services in the long run. We recommend you:

  1. Develop your downside fiscal scenario – how much of a fiscal deficit might you have from enrollment shortfalls?
  2. Confront the reality – The downside fiscal amount is a leadership and communication tool – it is a brutal fact that requires buy-in before rallying to fix it.
  3. Identify your stakeholders and rally the team – Be clear on who owns what responsibilities in the process of planning for downside mitigation strategies, knowing often the finance team might inform rather than make the decisions.
  4. Set a timeline for decisions – What is your cutoff date to determine how many students you anticipate and when implementation of changes should start?
  5. Monitor and leverage data – Report daily and weekly enrollment by grade and by school; use the data to inform where changes might need to be enacted. Use student outcome data to guide trade-off decisions.

With the team and timeline in place and your values at the center, your school organization can identify budget mitigation strategies equitably and effectively. At Afton, we believe the answers lie within your school communities. They depend on your student needs, your organizational values, and instructional strategies. And, there are some common approaches to consider as starting points. Learn more about these approaches in our Enrollment Scenario Budget and Planning document.