The Context: Under-resourced and under state oversite
The North Chicago Community Unit School District 187 serves a predominately Black and Hispanic community, and students from low-income households make up over 90% of the student body across the District. Due to insolvency and struggling academic progress, the Illinois State Board of Education replaced the school board with an Independent Authority and Oversight Panel in 2012. Shortly thereafter, Afton Partners began supporting the District through transformative improvements in financial structuring, strategic planning, school and facility improvement, and– most recently– an evaluation of grade-level reconfiguration. Each project had a distinct scope of work and goals. This case study aims to show the holistic impact of a long-term, multifaceted partnership built on trusting relationships and thorough contextual understanding.
The Goal: Sustained improvement through systematic and strategic action
Initial work together launched in 2013 to identify structural deficits, reduce costs, and implement operational changes that would improve the District’s stability. Academic improvement plans also took place alongside the financial and structural improvement initiatives. Later work sought to:
- complete a strategic planning process,
- develop systems for strategic resource allocation,
- chart a path of financial stewardship in light of Illinois’s new funding formula,
- incrementally build processes for District-wide school improvement, and
- attract diverse streams of investment through philanthropic and corporate partnerships to further bolster the student experience.
The Approach: Centering justice and inclusive collaboration
At the beginning of our relationship, we started by investigating student profiles across schools to understand needs as they related to cost structures. That is, we wanted to get beyond salary and benefits and move deeper into the day-to-day experience of how dollars were spent. This inquiry led to an evaluation of everything from personnel use to schedule configuration. We learned that, while it appeared to the state that the District received a lot of money, certain pieces of the cost structure soaked up considerable resources, leaving less for the classroom due to no fault of leadership. The finding allowed us to develop a case for incremental funding and make structural changes to improve efficiencies so that the new dollars could have an optimal impact.
In the midst of our financial restructuring and improvement initiatives, the District received an unsolicited charter application from the LEARN Charter School Network. Concerned with cost neutrality and fiscal responsibility, the District’s leadership engaged Afton Partners to advise the negotiation process. We provided analysis and recommendations, ultimately leading to a universal need-based funding formula that would ensure student-centered funding equity regardless of what school environment families chose within the district.
In Spring 2018, the District completed a strategic planning process. Afton worked alongside District leadership to quantify the financial impact of district-wide priorities that came from the process. While they could not afford every priority within the insufficient funding environment at the time, we helped them prioritize towards progress and position other initiatives to attract philanthropic investment over time.
To evaluate the options the District named as possible avenues to improve student success, Afton developed a dynamic, site-based, multi-year forecast model that allowed for scenario planning at the school, position, and resource line item level. The model incorporated the resources required and mapped to components of the District’s strategic plan. With the ability to understand the cost implications of both steady-state operations and individual strategic plan components on a site-level basis, the District was equipped with a tool to inform the trade-off decisions they faced. One important example of this work related to the District’s early childhood priority, where Afton supported the District in quantifying the investment required across their birth to 5 plans, setting the stage for philanthropic and state grant investments to open their early childhood and preschool program.
Our most recent work together involved a community engagement process to explore grade span reconfigurations within the District. We facilitated an advisory group and assisted with the development of a set of scenarios to consider. By analyzing a robust set of district data, conducting stakeholder focus groups, and interviewing peer districts for insights and lessons learned, we were able to devise a set of community- and research-informed possibilities. We then analyzed the financial, demographic, programmatic, and community impacts of each proposal and synthesized our analysis with their respective stakeholder feedback. Once we arrived at the top few proposals, we pressure tested them with key stakeholders.
The Outcomes: Strong leadership and sustained, systematic efforts propel improvement
At the outset, our work revealed the extent to which public funding was failing to meet students’ needs. Our analysis allowed us to successfully build a case for incremental funding outside of the pre-2015 formula. The District also came away from our engagement with a new financial structure and efficiencies that would allow them to make the best use of new dollars that came with the rectified state formula in 2018.
Altogether, the District has demonstrated significant academic progress in recent years, even exceeding the goals set forth in their five-year strategic plan. Graduation rates have increased from 56% to 82% and 9th grade on track sits at 94%, with no significant gaps according to race. Further, North Chicago Community High School boasts a higher graduation rate for Black students than any other high school in Lake County (out of 28 high schools). North Chicago’s new preschool also proudly received the state’s Gold Level of Quality for two review cycles in a row. Importantly, the District has achieved all of this while remaining financially strong, achieving the highest rating level of financial sustainability from the state for six years running.
Our strong relationship with the state, deep expertise on state funding policy, and commitment to inclusive collaboration allowed us to come alongside North Chicago leadership, bolstering their capacity to assess the District’s current state, solve problems, and strategically plan for improvements. Our expertise combined with the District’s stable leadership created the momentum that led to new opportunities with corporate and philanthropic partners. Thanks to the work and new partnerships, the District is now home to a brand-new middle school and students are being equipped to pursue bright futures.
At Afton, we put people first. Doing so results in stronger research design, more nuanced insights, and better decision-making. We are proud to come alongside communities to co-create both problem-solving processes and actionable solutions in a way that respects and engages those who stand to be most impacted. Ready to get started on yours? Get in touch.