Anti-Cop Tweet Led To D-86 'Equity' Consultants' Exit

DARIEN, IL — The Hinsdale High School District 86 board voted unanimously Thursday to terminate its contracts with "antiracist" consultants, one of whom apparently issued a tweet that was perceived as anti-police.

Despite the unanimity, the board's debate over the agreements showed a lack of unity. At the end of the meeting, a 4-3 board majority voted to close the doors to discuss personnel issues related to the contracts.

Last month, the board approved contracts with Saxman Consulting and Anew Collective Consulting to provide training to staff on "equity" and "racial consciousness."

But officials said at Thursday night's meeting that Christine Saxman of Saxman Consulting tweeted an anti-police message. She retweeted a message by "damned sinker" that read, "Cops quitting because they won't get vaxxed feels like a real two-birds-one-stone situation."

She deleted the retweet and gave an explanation in a later tweet.

"I deleted a retweet that was clearly misinterpreted by anti-racial equity instruction communities," she wrote Sept. 8. "I didn't delete (because) of their feedback. I deleted it when I heard from antiracists I care about ... and how it affected them. I'm here for any dialogue about my integrity and loving accountability."

That dialogue with Saxman may become more difficult. She has since made her Twitter account private.

At the meeting, board President Terri Walker acknowledged she and Superintendent Tammy Prentiss met with teachers about the consultants.

Walker said the teachers were not pleased with the tweet, but they felt it was perhaps misinterpreted. She said the consultants were possibly a mismatch for the district.

She characterized the teachers as happy with the work of the consultants, but disappointed with the tweet.

At the same time, she said the district's equity work continues and that the district would find a new consultant.

The consultants signed the agreement to terminate earlier this week, with the document stating that the district owed them no money.

Last month, board members Jeff Waters and Peggy James voted against the contracts, saying they wanted a presentation from the consultants first. At Thursday's meeting, Waters said Saxman was "clearly inappropriate."

Waters asked for a closed session on the matter to discuss personnel issues related to the contracts. He said he wanted to know exactly how the district found the consultants.

Board member Kathleen Hirsman questioned the purpose of such a discussion.

"As you acknowledge, the agreement has been terminated. What are we going to do? Agreements in the future have nothing to do with the mutual termination of this contract," Hirsman said. "Let's move on."

Waters and Hirsman cut each other off in the discussion, with Waters saying at one point, "Excuse me, excuse me, if you choose not to interrupt me."

Walker agreed with Hirsman.

"Had we fired them, we would have owed them money," she said. "This works out to be a good decision for both parties. I think we should be able to move forward."

Waters said the board could understand the issue more in a closed session. Under Illinois law, the justifications for a closed session are limited. Most public business must be conducted in the open.

Waters said he had a number of questions, but Walker ended the discussion. The board then voted for the termination, to applause in the audience.

One man yelled out, "Thank you!"

At the end of the meeting, the board voted to go into closed session. Waters, James, Debbie Levinthal and Cynthia Hanson voted for the session, while Hirsman, Walker and Erik Held were against.

Hanson's vote was surprising, given that she often votes with Held and Hirsman. All three are holdovers from the board before April's election. In the roll call, Hanson's name came up first, so she may not have known how her allies would vote.

After the vote, Hanson said the discussion should be no more than five or 10 minutes and that it should be limited to the one topic, but Held speculated it would last two hours. At that point, the board had been meeting for nearly four hours.

Waters said it was public business and that if they needed to hash out the issues for two hours, that would be fine.

Under Illinois law, a governing body can talk about specific personnel behind closed doors, but not contracts or consultants.

Patch has been unable to reach Saxman or Anew for comment this week.