Bid To Reduce Hinsdale D-86 Openness Fails

DARIEN, IL – A majority of school board members in Hinsdale High School District 86 rejected the idea of reducing the district's openness with public records.

One board member said such an idea appeared "punitive and retaliatory."

In 2018, a previous school board approved a public records portal on the district's website. That's where responses to most Freedom of Information Act requests are posted.

Few public bodies in Illinois follow such a practice. Hinsdale School District 181 is part of the tiny group that does.

At last week's board meeting, attorney Steve Richart of the Arlington Heights-based Hodges Loizzi law firm argued for eliminating the online portal.

He said the portal opened the district to unnecessary liability. This could be particularly troublesome if the district were to mistakenly post information that must be kept secret under the law, he said.

Richart said he came up with the idea in consultation with board President Erik Held and Superintendent Tammy Prentiss.

"A third party could post these documents to the internet, but it wouldn't be the district taking on the liability of publishing those documents," Richart said.

Board member Kathleen Hirsman agreed with the proposal. She said the district would follow the law by only providing records to requesters.

"What's so difficult about that?" Hirsman asked. "What does trouble me is that we will be responsible under the current practice of liability that arises out of materials that are released to the entire world through a FOIA log. This is a responsibility that this district doesn't need to accept."

Board member Debbie Levinthal said she "vehemently" disagreed. She said the portal contained a wealth of information that helps her do her job. She said she found Advanced Placement test data on the portal.

The elimination of the portal, she said, may be a conversation for another time.

"But when you're getting a significant volume of FOIAs when the community at large doesn't trust the government body potentially, now is not the time to eliminate it," she said. "The optics of it are punitive and retaliatory."

Members Peggy James and Jeff Waters also said they were opposed. Together with Levinthal, they make up the minority of the seven-member board on many issues.

But when member Cynthia Hanson spoke, it became clear the portal's elimination would not happen.

She noted the argument about liability, but she called it a "decent price for our district to pay." She said the portal was a "worthy log to keep."

Board member Terri Walker followed up by saying it would be difficult to take away the online access. She said the district should work to avoid situations where liability may occur.

With Walker's statement, it appeared five of the seven members were opposed to the elimination.

In the last few months, the district has endured a deluge of public records requests. This happened with controversies over mask mandates and the superintendent's handling of an anti-racism consultant.

In that time, the district has posted fewer of its responses to records requests to the portal. This week, it declined to release online its resignation agreement with Assistant Superintendent Brad Verthein. Patch requested the document through a public records request.

Board members did not discuss the recent trend at their meeting.