Evanston/Skokie School District 65 is seeking community feedback on its financial challenges and anticipated budget reductions now through next Wednesday, Jan. 13.
The district is using a crowdsourcing tool called ThoughtExchange to gather the comments.
District officials say they anticipate having to make budget reductions of roughly $1 million for the 2021-2022 school year and additional cuts in years to come.
“This is an extremely difficult but necessary step forward in addressing the structural deficit that has plagued the district for years,” Superintendent Devon Horton says. “The District 65 Administration and School Board are committed to bringing all voices to the table, including those who have historically been underrepresented in these conversations.”
Once participants have joined ThoughtExchange, they can respond to open-ended questions, rate the ideas of others, and discover the top thoughts in real-time and what themes are emerging.
Once the comment period closes, a report on the results will be provided later this month. The platform uses Google Translate to allow for real-time engagement across multiple languages.
ThoughtExchange is a product of Vancouver, British Columbia, based Fulcrum Management Solution Ltd.