The Evanston Township High School District 202 Board of Education unanimously approved a tentative budget for fiscal year 2026 on Monday, marking the district’s 19th consecutive balanced budget amid growing uncertainty over federal funding for public schools.
The $118.4 million budget reflects a 4% increase from last year. Superintendent Marcus Campbell said breaking even was “very, very, very difficult this time around.”
Kendra Williams, the district’s chief financial officer, explained the Department of Education has yet to release grant information that typically arrives by this time of year, prompting the district’s “conservative” approach.
If federal policy changes necessitate mid-year adjustments, Williams said the district will aim to make cuts “as far away from the classroom as possible,” in keeping with its “values-based budgeting” framework.
“We’re working through what changes we can start implementing now that will hopefully reap enough savings to weather the storm,” she said.
Williams added the final budget will be approved in the fall.
The tentative budget’s approval followed sharp criticism during public comment over the district’s decision to reprimand Andrew Ginsberg — a social studies teacher at ETHS — for displaying a “Jewish acts of dissent” poster in his classroom.
Earlier this year, Ginsberg, who is Jewish, said administrators asked him to take the poster down after a complaint called it offensive. Ginsberg replaced the poster with a letter to his students claiming it had been “censored at the insistence of the administration.”
The poster was designed by Jewish artist Liora Ostroff and was originally published in Jewish Currents, a magazine that describes itself as highlighting the Jewish left’s “rich tradition of thought, activism, and culture.”
The poster featured a menorah displaying the word “dissent” and included excerpts from Abraham Joshua Heschel’s essay of the same name. Heschel, a Jewish rabbi and close ally of Martin Luther King Jr., was a civil rights activist who strongly opposed the Vietnam War.
Ostroff told The Daily she chose to adapt “Dissent” because of its “prophetic” nature that resonates beyond anti-war movements. She said the essay’s “timeless” message feels very relevant to “the conversation that people have been having within the Jewish world about what is safe to say and when.”
According to Ginsberg, administrators pulled him out of class upon discovering his letter, handed him a written warning and instructed him to review policies on teaching controversial topics and maintaining appropriate contact with students.
At last month’s board meeting, 18 community members, including parents, students and Ginsberg himself, criticized the administrators’ decision. Ginsberg’s prepared remarks concluded with a list of demands, including that the district remove the warning from his personal file, publicly apologize and cease “its suppression of free speech about Palestine.”
In a guest essay published in the Evanston RoundTable nine days later, board members defended their stance.
“It is not the role of the Board of Education to take positions in international conflicts or advocate for changes to foreign policy,” the essay read. “We are charged with creating a school environment where every student feels safe, supported and seen.”
Fifty community members signed up to speak at Monday’s meeting, prompting the board to extend the public comment period and reduce the time allotted for individual remarks.
Most speakers opposed the district’s decision, with many invoking their own Jewish identities to express support for Ginsberg. Lily Aaron, who is Jewish and graduated from ETHS in 2022, attributed the administration’s decision to “shallow, amorphous dog whistles of uncomfortability in the face of genocide.”
“The response to the poster hung in Mr. Ginsberg’s classroom reflects nothing short than a descent into fascism,” Aaron said. “To think that these actions protect the safety of Jewish students is dead wrong.”
Still, other speakers praised the district’s decision. Some echoed the board’s essay, which argued that teachers’ speech “can be subjected to greater limitations to ensure that public schools maintain an environment that is inclusive, intellectually open and balanced.”
Brian Posner, the parent of two recent ETHS graduates, said he was “grateful” for the board’s decision to censure Ginsberg.
“Over the last two years, Mr. Ginsberg has fanned the flames of bigotry (and) widened the fissures in Evanston — you need to look no further than what you’re seeing this evening,” Posner said. “He has done his best to create a hostile school for kids who have the audacity to identify as Jewish and Zionist.”
Following public comment, Board President Pat Savage-Williams emphasized that while the board cannot comment on personnel matters, its “perceived silence can be difficult, particularly when emotions are high,” and encouraged community members to read the board’s essay.
Meanwhile, Board Vice President Monique Parsons argued the board was “elected to do more than just react” to public sentiments and acknowledged that some of its decisions will be unpopular.
After that, the board unanimously approved a resolution read aloud by Savage-Williams outlining “deficiencies in the conduct of (an unnamed) teacher, which if not remedied, may result in his dismissal” but skipped a separate resolution that would have authorized the dismissal of an unnamed “probationary teacher.”
The board did not clarify whether either resolution was related to Ginsberg.
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