Hello everyone,

I hope you have been enjoying our first few days of winter weather (and, of course, the late start day on the 10th).

On November 10, the ETHS school board held its monthly meeting. There were many interesting developments at this meeting, and if you’d like to watch the entire meeting, it is available on the ETHS YouTube page. Here are some highlights:

• Congratulations were given to the fencing conference champion, Lily Brosnan, and the boys’ golf team on their second-place finish at state. Congrats again!
• The quarterly data report: this report detailed statistics about ETHS attendance, discipline, student involvement, and well-being. There are no notable statistics in this report; however, if you are interested in viewing them, they are available on the ETHS data dashboard, which is on the ETHS website.
• The next two reports were the opening of school report (school year 25-26) and the year in review report (school year 2024-25). Some interesting statistics from these reports include: 91% of freshmen are on track to graduate; 85% of students taking an AP test passed (scored 3 or higher); the class of 2025 had an average unweighted GPA of 3.25. This report is also publicly available.
• 2025 tax levy hearing: A tax levy is the amount of money that the district requests each year from property taxes. Every year, a hearing is held to confirm the tax levy for that fiscal year, and this year’s hearing was held at this board meeting.

I choose to write this column in the Opinion section instead of the News section because it’s important to me to be able to speak my opinion in my letters. And after the events on October 31st, I have a lot to say. Regardless of how you feel about immigration in our country, the suffering that the presence of federal agents has caused here in our community is undeniable. We are fortunate to go to a school that does its best to protect us, but what about the rest of the country? The implications of this sudden and seemingly random overreach of power are frightening. The path to progress, efficient governance, productive conversation, or democracy itself will never, and can never, be marked by scare tactics. As Evanstonians, I urge us to continue standing together, find common ground, and keep our beautiful community strong.