Hinsdale D86 Leader Knocks Predecessor

HINSDALE, IL – Tammy Prentiss, superintendent of Hinsdale High School District 86, listed the accomplishments under the district's "strategic plan" at a school board meeting last week.

After the report, board member Jeff Waters noted officials say the plan is grounded in the district's equity statement. He wondered how that could be the case when the plan was created in 2018 and the equity statement more than two years later.

Prentiss, who started as superintendent in May 2019, said Waters was correct about when the plan was developed.

"My predecessor didn't do anything with it for the first year. It just sat," Prentiss said. "So when I started in spring of 2019, nothing had been accomplished."

Her predecessor was Bruce Law, now the superintendent of Highland Park-based Township High School District 113.

He was District 86's superintendent from 2013 to 2019 and assistant superintendent for instruction from 2010 to 2013.

Prentiss worked with Law for more than five years, when she served as District 86's assistant superintendent for student services.

In an email to Patch on Wednesday, Law described what he was doing in his last year. In August 2018, the board voted to put a tax increase referendum on the ballot for major school improvements. He said his focus was to educate the public about the measure, though he noted state law prevents a school employee from advocating for or against a ballot initiative.

The referendum in November 2018 failed, but the board voted in January 2019 to put it on the ballot for April. Again, Law said, he was focused on educating the public about it. It passed.

In February 2019, District 113 named Law as its incoming superintendent, with his first day May 1.

The board approved the strategic plan in May 2018. Law said developing an implementation plan for the strategic plan requires engaging stakeholders, which can only take place during the school year.

"Given that I knew on February 1 that I would be leaving Hinsdale, I knew that the work to develop an implementation plan was better left to my successor," Law said.

Prentiss' report on the district's accomplishments is online.