Evanston/Skokie School District 65 sent out the following email about Haven Middle School on Monday morning:
Dear District 65 Parents and Families,
I wanted to take this opportunity to provide you with an important update related to Haven’s ongoing culture and climate issues. District and school leaders are very aware of the challenges that Haven students and staff members are currently facing and that these issues have been long-standing. These are situations that we are collectively concerned about and we recognize that Haven’s landscape must be intentionally addressed.
The safety of our students and staff remains the District’s highest priority. We have observed that students have been engaged in a few physical altercations at Haven and remain just as concerned for Haven staff who may have been impacted during these incidences. Even within the last two weeks, our district leadership has seen two explicit conflicts between students – the most recent of which was a spillover of a community incident at the Robert Crown Center.
In thinking about student behavior and a school’s culture and climate, it is important that data is used as a key figure in centering these ongoing conversations. Upon reviewing the reported incidents at Haven over the past year, it is important to note that a bulk of the behavioral issues at Haven stem from two main factors. First, it should be noted there appears to be a small percentage of students experiencing behavioral issues at Haven and this group seems to be tied to the bulk of the challenges that staff and their student peers are facing. Secondly, as a community, we must acknowledge the impact that the pandemic continues to have on all of our students and staff.
Diving deeper into this data, it should also be noted that even prior to the pandemic, student behavior and discipline has been a continued problem for Haven. This data tells the clear story that this targeted group of students needs deeper social and emotional support and resources and that these situations are not necessarily representative of a wider District 65 issue, but that this issue is localized and specific to the Haven community. How we, as a community, respond to this data will influence our path moving forward in helping to create a more positive, safer climate for all of Haven.
The District is dedicated to enhancing collaboration with Haven families and staff in redefining this climate. Our leadership teams have committed to providing further staffing support for students, including the addition of two new school counselors, eight hall monitors, and a third assistant principal that has been added to Haven’s leadership team. I am also happy to share that we are training 40 staff members across the district to implement a refined model of our Restorative Practices framework. This will see that two staff members will be trained to be certified leads at each of our schools and the creation of a sustainable pipeline of trainers to come.
Traditionally, the District has been able to partner with a former city program, Youth and Family Support, wherein this group served as a liaison for Haven and its students and families to bridge any gaps in intervention services. While these services are no longer available, we are seeking to find a way to reignite a similar structure with our current community partners. At the district level, I would also like to share that this past year, 30 staff members across the district were engaged in Crisis Prevention Interventions (CPI) training to learn about effective de-escalation strategies and tactics in better managing student conflict and behavioral incidents. Currently, only one staff member at Haven is trained in this practice. I recognize that this number may appear low, and for context, the CPI recertification is required every two years and must be completed on-site. Due to obstacles presented by the pandemic, this training was not offered until this school year. We will train an additional eight staff members, at a minimum, at Haven to increase our de-escalation efforts. Staff that are trained in CPI are better equipped in supporting de-escalating incidences and supporting physical altercations. It should be noted that, unfortunately, the one individual who is trained in CPI was supporting other students when recent events escalated at Haven.
A school’s environment tells a layered, intricate story – one that cannot hide past conflicts and current challenges. While challenges at Haven have been hard to face, I am confident that the school’s culture and climate will improve drastically, largely in part due its strong administrators, compassionate educators, and understanding parents and families. I look forward to working with the Haven community to build this stronger narrative and learning environment together.
Warmly,
Dr. Devon Horton (he/him)
Superintendent
Source: Evanston/Skokie School District 65
This letter is so indirect as to be opaque. I had a writing teacher who once read one of my essays, put it down, looked me in the eye and said, “What is it you’re trying to say?” It was a revolutionary moment in my writing education. Brevity is not only the soul of wit, it is the soul of clarity. I’d like to ask that exact question here. What is it he’s trying to say?
I have long disliked what I call Pontificus Communicus. People use this windy style of bs when they aren’t confident about what they are saying. I suspect this letter masks an admission of the district’s failure to balance staff and student safety with its mandated responsibility to serve all students as they come, including those who have a legal right to an education despite their ticking time bomb personalities.
As much as my heart goes out to those kids (I worked with that population in a different district), some of them are just unsafe in public school settings, with deviant personalities and emotional disorders that severely impede learning and put other people at risk. I don’t have all the answers here; many districts struggle with this intractable problem. I’d rather hear that, honestly and plainly, than this disingenuous word salad.
For one thing, children are more than data points. And don’t talk down to us in professional jargon either.
If if were a Haven parent, I’d be very skeptical about this letter, and would certainly be pushing for more specifics and concrete explanations.
Perfectly said!
While I agree that there is obfuscation going on, I think the more plausible explanation is the most simple one: the superintendent is a poor writer and communicator.
See the comment below on the multiple grammatical mistakes in this letter.
There are many examples of poor wording, excessive use of jargon, and grammatical errors in many of his communications going back to his earliest days in the district.
Heck, just look at his resume! It is replete with weird capitalizations, a clear lack of proofreading, etc…
https://www.district65.net/cms/lib/IL01906289/Centricity/Domain/60/Horton%20resume.pdf
I know that this is elitist, but our last two superintendents had doctorates from Stanford and University of Texas, Austin. Horton’s is from Chicago State.
This is nothing personal against him. As residents we should be more upset with the Board that hired him. If you remember, it was a process that was closed to the public. Final candidates names were not released to the public and in the initial round of interviews two of the three candidates dropped out.
Even though by all accounts this would be considered a “failed search”, the board persisted and hired Horton without ANY open public meetings. Taxpayers and residents were not able to give feedback. His identity was not known until he was hired.
This is extremely problematic since there was plenty of public information about his background that would raise cause for concern. In fact in 2018 & 2019 he was brought in to at least three other communities for public interviews (Rochester NY, Patterson NJ, Grand Rapids MI) and was rejected by all of them.
It would have been useful to allow residents to learn about his background before he was actually given the job.
The whole search is evidence of a board that is out of control. Hopefully we will get a sensible slate of candidates next year who will go up against the current folks so we can start to clean house.
I stopped substitute teaching at Haven years ago because I did not feel safe in the hallways nor in the classrooms. There was virtually no support for substitute teachers, much more so than at most District 65 schools.
“Supporting physical altercations” -come again? Whatever happened to detention and expulsion as disciplinary tools? A little discipline would be a lot easier on us taxpayers than padding the staff with extra hall monitors and principals. And how is D65 going to attract or keep good teachers if they need to minor in martial arts? No wonder enrollment is down.
The superintendent’s letter provides a good example of blame deflection and responsibility avoidance while providing very little insight into what the actual problems at Haven are.
An intense blend of blaming others (including kids and teachers!), passing-the-buck and promising resources that the district actually can’t afford.
Why was his contract extended?
Is it too much to ask for the Superintendent to use proper grammar in his missives?
FYI, Dr. Horton: “data” is the plural form of datum. He makes the mistake of using improper subject-verb agreement multiple times throughout the essay.
You would think that Chicago State’s august Educational Leadership program would train its students to write properly.
I am not trying to be nit-picky. But this guy is a highly-paid administrator of an organization that is meant to teach our kids to read and write–assuming that is still part of the curriculum.
It is a bit of an embarrassment when you see this type of statement being circulated by the head of the District.
Dr Horton and those who hired him should consider enrolling in a college freshman writing program. Then they should all resign. Pay off his entire contract even if it bleeds district 65 budget. It will be worth it in the long run.