A note from Dr. Eric Witherspoon

Dear District 65 Community,

At the beginning of this school year, I shared a simple idea: the best way to predict the future is to create it. Serving various school systems as a superintendent over nearly four decades, I have come to believe deeply in this idea. I believe this is one of those moments for District 65.

Tonight, we shared with the School Board and our community a proposed path toward a more financially sustainable future for our district. It is a path that will require difficult decisions, including approximately $20 million in FY28 reductions and the closure of two additional schools, as we better align our staffing, programs, operations, and facilities with the students we serve and the revenues available to support them.

I know my words carry a heavy weight. Our community has been through tremendous challenges over the past several years. Our staff have experienced reductions and uncertainty. Families have navigated school closures, boundary changes, and transitions. These decisions are not simply a budget balancing act. They affect people, relationships, honored traditions, and the sense of community that I know many of us hold so deeply.

The toll this has taken weighs heavily. It is one of the reasons I believe, and my team believes, that we need to move forward differently.

For too long, D65 has been operating in a cycle of annual financial crisis management. This has meant making round after round of reductions and then returning a year later to confront many of the same structural challenges. With each year that passes, the financial challenge becomes greater and the options available to address it become more difficult.

This cycle creates uncertainty for our staff and families, makes thoughtful long-term planning more difficult, and distracts energy and attention from the work that should always be at the center of our vital school district: educating and supporting the children of our community.

Our financial challenges are very real and our structural deficit is not new. Our costs continue to grow faster than our revenues. Enrollment has declined while many of our staffing and operating structures were built for a larger district. We maintain more school buildings and space than our current enrollment requires, while also facing significant needs within our aging facilities.

Although substantial reductions have already been made, our current trajectory remains unsustainable. Continuing to manage these challenges one year at a time is not a plan for the future. The path presented tonight is intended to change that trajectory.

It calls for a significant reset now so that we can move away from repeated, crisis-sized reductions and toward a district where financial decisions are more predictable and sustainable. And while this work begins with our finances, it cannot end there.

The presentation tonight focused on the why, not necessarily the how, which we will present a comprehensive solution at the Board Meeting on October 13. Most importantly, this is an opportunity to think more broadly about what District 65 should look like for generations to come.

We have an opportunity to build upon our strengths and create an even stronger District 65 for the future. Our students have access to terrific learning experiences, social emotional growth, specialized programs, and opportunities to discover their interests and strengths. They learn alongside an incredibly diverse community of peers and are supported by a talented group of educators and staff who care deeply about their success.

Financial sustainability is ultimately about protecting our ability to provide those experiences and not just for the children in our schools today but for the children who will enter them five, ten, and twenty years from now.

There will be much more work ahead before final decisions are made. In the coming weeks, we will host several community meetings designed to help families, staff, and residents better understand our financial reality and the proposed path forward. These meetings are intended first and foremost for sense-making and building shared understanding.

I know there are difficult conversations ahead. There will also be questions, concerns, and different perspectives about how we move forward. That is both understandable and important. But I also hope we do not lose sight of the opportunity before us.

We can continue reacting to the future as it arrives, or we can begin creating it together. We can make critical decisions now that bring greater stability to our schools, allow us to invest our resources where they have the greatest impact for students, and position District 65 to remain a strong and vibrant public school system for generations to come.

That is the future I believe is possible for our beloved District 65. And that is why this work is necessary. Thank you for your continued partnership.