ETHS Pays Full Salary For On-Leave Senior Staff Until End Of Year

EVANSTON, IL — Under the terms of separation agreements approved this week, the two most senior human resources officials at Evanston Township High School District 202 will resign together at the end of the school year — after having collected paychecks for more than 38 weeks without doing any work for the district.

Chief Human Resources Officer Toya Campbell and her longtime deputy, Yolanda Hardy, have been on paid administrative leave since Oct. 6, 2021, according to district records. Board members unanimously adopted severance deals with both of them Monday.

District representatives have not provided any explanation for their departure.

Five days after Campbell and Hardy were placed on leave last year, the school board approved the promotion of Angela Gardner from recruiting manager to the new position of "associate director of human resources," with an effective day of July 1, 2021, and an annual salary of $143,000.

The next day, Superintendent Eric Witherspoon notified school staff that Campbell would be on leave indefinitely, with an associate principal service as acting director of human resources in her stead.

Campbell, who joined the district in 2003, and Hardy, who was hired in 2004, previously worked together for the online grocery delivery service Peapod while it was based in the North Shore.

What's In The Agreements?

According to copies of the separation agreements unanimously approved by the board Monday, both Campbell and Hardy will continue to receive their full salaries and benefits through the end of the school year "as if actively employed by the District."

Both also agreed not to "be on District property in any official capacity or engage in any action on behalf of the District or communicate with anyone related to District business during [their] paid administrative leave" or after their resignation.

According to district compensation reports, Campbell's base salary for the 2020 fiscal year was more than $232,000. Hardy's was nearly $164,000.

The board also agreed to pay Campbell a lump sum payment of $116,057.37 by July 15.

Campbell's retirement agreement and general release with the board include another clause that Hardy's does not.

"With regard to media reports that relate to Ms. Campbell's employment and inaccurately impugn Ms. Campbell's reputation, the Board agrees to consider in good faith any request made by Ms. Campbell through her attorney to address such reports including, but not limited to, issuing a statement in response," it said.

The nearly nine months of paid administrative leave she and Hardy are due to receive — combined with Campbell's cash payment — comes out to more than $405,000.

In addition to their receiving their full paychecks through June 30, the agreements provide for Campbell and Hardy to both continue receiving health insurance, which is budgeted at more than $22,000 annually, as long as they do not become eligible through another employer.

Hardy is due to stay on the district's insurance through the end of 2022.

Campbell, who also provided notice of her retirement as part of the agreement, can continue to receive district health insurance through the end of 2026.

Both separation agreements include confidentiality and mutual non-disparagement clauses, as well as the typical pledges not to file post-resignation employment-related lawsuits.

Hardy and Campbell both agreed "not to take any action impacting the operation of the District and/or to discuss District business with anyone and/or to disclose confidential information acquired through the scope of her job duties to anyone other than the District upon request or as otherwise legally required," according to the agreements. And, should either be legally required to disclose any information about the district, both agreed to notify the superintendent first.

Both agreements included attached letters of resignation, although neither hinted at the reasons for their extended leave and impending departure.

"I have truly enjoyed by tenure at ETHS and am proud of the contributions I have made and the leadership I have shown in bringing the district to the forefront of other high-performing school districts," Campbell said in her letter. "The strong connections I have developed with the staff are invaluable and are connections I will carry forward with me into the next phase of my life[.]"

Hardy's letter was more brief.

"It has been a great honor and privilege for me to serve the District, the faculty, staff[,] students and all the residents [of] Evanston," Hardy said in her letter, "but I am looking forward to new challenges and opportunities."

Patch requested comment from Witherspoon and Board President Pat Savage-Williams regarding why the board opted to pay out the staffers. Witherspoon provided the following response.

"The matters involving Ms. Campbell and Ms. Hardy have been resolved to the Board’s satisfaction as displayed by the Board’s 7-0 votes regarding the agreements," Witherspoon said. "As required by the agreements and Board practice regarding personnel matters, neither I nor the Board are able to comment further."

Witherspoon will be departing the district at the same time as Campbell and Hardy. On Sept. 13, 2021, he announced his plans to retire upon the expiration of his contract.

What Happened Before They Were Placed On Leave?

Patch has previously reported on several incidents that took place during the approximately four weeks between Witherspoon's retirement announcement and HR officials being placed on leave.

Two days after the superintendent put in his retirement notice, ETHS's former color guard coach Lorenzo Medrano — whom Campbell and Hardy had cleared to return to working with students months earlier despite allegations of improper behavior toward female students — was arrested in Northwest Indiana and charged with the offense of child seduction.

Medrano is accused of groping a La Porte High School student, then 16, in 2019 and 2020. He has denied wrongdoing, and district officials have not publicly said whether the human resources shakeup was related to his arrest, the superintendent said "ETHS could have done better" in handling the complaints against him.

Later that same week, Evanston police investigating a reported financial fraud at the district finally received documents from Wells Fargo in response to a grand jury subpoena from a year earlier.

As Patch has previously reported, in that incident, the district paid out a fraudulent $48,570 invoice after the email account of David Futransky, the district's executive director of alumni relations and senior director of institutional advancement, sent a request for a "professional fee" to pay "Detailed analysis of current situation and development for Evanston Township High School."

Somehow that payment bypassed the vendor approval and auditing process described in district policies. District officials redacted the "Vender No." on the invoice, but said in response to public records requests that there are no records of any vendor approval forms associated with the payment.

According to a legally required data breach notification sent by the attorney general's office on behalf of the district, an internal ETHS investigation found that 10 email accounts were accessed without authorization between March 17, 2020, and June 14, 2020.

Witherspoon said Monday that someone outside the district had gained unauthorized access to the district's computer systems, and the resulting loss was fully insured.

"This district was hacked, and our insurance company actually hired expert national firms to do a forensic audit of that, and they found that an organization outside of this state created criminal activity," Witherspoon said Monday. "That was the result of that hacking, and they were so satisfied with that that they paid every penny of that loss. It cost this school district zero because we are insured against that kind of criminal activity."

Witherspoon told Patch the $2,500 insurance deductible was paid by the alumni fund, rather than out of district or taxpayer funds.

As for the audit he described, Patch has requested records of investigations into hacking incidents or reports generated by outside firms to investigate the fraud, but Futransky has declined to provide even redacted copies, citing exemptions to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act for attorney-client privilege and security vulnerability assessments.

And, in another personnel matter, two days after Campbell and Hardy were placed on administrative leave, an attorney for District 202 filed a notice in federal court that the district had agreed to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by a former student alleging that ETHS administrators knew, or should have known, about "widespread, frequent, ongoing and readily apparent" sexual abuse by employees hired as security guards at the school.

District officials have refused to provide a copy of that agreement, which was never approved by the board at an open meeting, or to disclose how much money was paid, suggesting that the fact its insurance provider covered the cost shields it from public disclosure.

Read more:

• Senior HR Staff Put On Leave At Evanston Township High School
• ETHS Defrauded Of Over $48,000 In 'Hack' That Exposed More Than 1,100 Identities
• Student Board Representative Criticizes Handling Of Complaints About Color Guard Coach
• Arrested Coach Faced Complaints But Cleared Of Wrongdoing At ETHS