Parents in Evanston, Illinois, are pushing district leaders to rethink closing schools, asking for other solutions to balance the district budget.

Families from all 10 of the elementary schools in Evanston/Skokie School District 65 attended a rally on Sunday, ahead of a school board meeting Monday night, calling for leaders to find another way close their budget gap that doesn't come at the cost of their children's education.

"I hope we've shown our daughters and our sons how you can get involved in the community and really make change," said Lincolnwood Elementary parent Katie Armistead.

Armistead and fellow Lincolnwood Elementary parent Liz Wolens said they are teaching their kids to stand up for whats right. In this case, they said it's standing up to District 65 in an effort to keep schools open.

"They're looking at quotas and percentages, and not really thinking about how the space is used, and how we meet the needs of the most number of people," Wolens said.

District officials have said they're facing big financial challenges, and need to cut $10 million to $15 million to balance the budget after several years of deficits. They also need millions for building maintenance and repairs.

The district pointed to declining enrollment, saying elementary schools are below capacity.

"We've put forward a bunch of questions to the district and we're still waiting on answers," said Washington Elementary parent Lauren Greenwood.

Greenwood and other parents said there's a way to balance the budget without closing schools: 

"We as parents have come together as a community to say, 'We think there's a better way. Let's try to limit the number of school closures and work together so we can solve this problem," Greenwood say

That includes cutting administrative payroll costs, transportation costs, and programming audits; which they believe could save the district cash

The district has already approved closing Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies.

Three possible plans are now being considered—each involves closing three or four other schools for the 2026-2027 school year.

The district said it can save about $2 million in operating expenses for each school they close.

"That's close to 1 percent of our budget. Surely there are better places to find 1 percent of our budget than to be closing multiple neighborhood elementary schools," Armistead said.

"We hope that the board shows us something new tonight," Wolens said.

The budgets come as former district superintendent Devon Horton was indicted on federal charges for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars in a kickback scheme.

A formal vote on the budget is set for Nov. 17.