Legion of Data Nerds
Did closing schools save what was promised?
The SDRP closure process, what the Kingsley and Bessie Rhodes closures actually changed, and the new proposal to close Lincolnwood and Dewey.
The District credited the two closures with $3.0M a year in savings and proposed closing Lincolnwood and Dewey on the same basis. On the SY2026-27 staffing data so far, the realized staffing savings appear to be a fraction of the $2.0M stated.
Interactive maps of the District’s Oct 23, 2026 boundary draft, which closes Dewey and Lincolnwood. They use the District’s own lines and its Oct 28, 2026 counts of students who change school.
The District projected about $2.9M a year in savings from closing the two schools. Tracking those 17 budget lines in the monthly Treasurer’s reports, only part of it shows up in the FY27 budget so far.
Questions to bring to the District’s Sept. 22–24 sessions on its plan to cut $20M and close at least two schools.
A recap of what we learned analyzing SDRP Phase III data and methods, with a request to meet on data, methodology and process.
What Kingsley families told us about new boundaries, transition support and whether they plan to stay in D65.
For each elementary school and middle-school feeder pattern, the share of students within a 0.75-mile walk of school under closure scenarios 1AR, 1BR, 2DR and 2FR.
Two surveys went to the Kingsley community two hours apart, which will lower response rates. We also list problems in their design, from a single open-ended question to no limit on responses per person.
Victor Filippini’s memo on the deed restrictions that apply to the Lincolnwood school site.
Our statement to the Board urging evidence-informed decisions, and our concerns about how modeling choices predetermined the results.
How the 95% utilization benchmark and the scorecard’s measures constrained which answers were possible.
Our first statement to the Board: do the data actually support this plan? We urged caution over acceleration.
Our guest essay in the Evanston RoundTable.