As some District 65 parents call on board to slow down on proposed cuts, others ask to stay the course

While hundreds of Evanston/Skokie School District 65 parents have urged the board and administration to slow down proposed cuts and school closures, others told the RoundTable they back the cuts. “Nobody wants to cut, but we can’t even — we’re not even going to be able to pay our bills in a couple of years,” Oakton Elementary School parent and Thrive65 organizer Kelly Farley said in an interview. Thrive65, a recently formed community group focused on supporting the future of Evanston/Skokie School District 65. “Like, we’re going to be out of cash in a couple years if we don’t make these cuts. And so the community needs to wrestle with that,” Farley said. The district is proposing millions of dollars in cuts to address a structural budget deficit that has been an issue for years. At last week’s school board meeting, administrators apologized for accidentally overstating spending by millions in their five-year financial projections. But the district maintained it would not b