According to an ECRA Group survey, School District 65 is a viable, high performing district with "nothing radically inconsistent" when compared to other suburban school districts of the same high-performing caliber.

 "Dist 65 is a very strong school district supported by its people, and people believe that they're receiving a quality education," stated Dr. John Gatta of ECRA Group, a consulting outfit who polled respondents in the district last spring.

The survey results, which were presented to the Evanston/Skokie CC District 65 Board on Monday evening, represented the responses of some 933 parents, 400 community members and 360 administrators and faculty within the school district.

Ranking high on the survey was parent satisfaction with the quality of school teachers and faculty as well as the safety and diversity of their children's schools. Among a list of issues, the items seen as "most important" by faculty and parents alike included hiring and retaining quality teachers and maintaining low class sizes, while the three items seen as least important were establishing a school within the 5^th ward, expanding the world language program and addressing environmental concerns in facilities planning.

The point was made, however, that many of these apparently "lower on spectrum" issues could actually serve to improve issues deemed as most important.

"The whole reason we even talked about LEED Certification initiatives or anything like that is because there's data that suggests that it improves the learning environment, provides a better place to learn and is a recruitment tool to hire better teachers," sated board member Andrew Pigozzi.

Although according to Gatta the overall results of the survey "looked a lot like other suburban districts," members of the board did not seem content being consistent with only achieving the status quo.

"We're a lighthouse district and we need to be in the excellent category," stated board member Kim Weaver on the fact that community opinion of the overall quality of education within the district was shown to be largely average.

A few members of the board and parent Jackie Muhammad raised skepticism over the validity of the survey, stating that the demographics of the voluntary respondents, such as income and race, might be skewed.

"We know that African American parents and Latino parents in general have a different level of engagement in the schools, all you have to do is go to the PTA meetings and see who's volunteering," said Superintendent Hardy Murphy, addressing the issue. "We already know that we have to do a better job of it."

Concern was also re-ignited over the projected growth of the school district and the need to meet an increasing demand.

"The numbers predict that within 10 years we're going to have an additional 700 students going to these schools," stated George Mitchell, who spoke on behalf of the NAACP. "We have to face that problem now."

Speaking before the board, Mitchell stated that the addition of classrooms to Dewey and Willard elementary schools would not be enough to face that problem, and that a new school in the 5^th Ward and a re-districting proposal needed to be added to a spring referendum for Evanstonians to vote on.

"Where is the common sense and logic in needing 10, 20, or 30 classrooms and delaying action on a more complete solution," he said.