Fired Faculty Member, Fencing Coach Faked Residency: Settlement

GLENVIEW, IL — Nearly a year after Glenbrook High School administrators accused him of residency fraud, former driver education teacher and fencing coach John Skorupa has been fired.

According to documents obtained through a Patch public records request, the Glenbrook High Schools District 225 board executed a settlement agreement in October with Skorupa that withdraws any challenges to his firing and acknowledges the 16-year district employee should have paid more than $60,000 in non-resident tuition fees for the two and a half years his child attended Glenbrook South High School.

Skorupa, 47, who owns a home in 600 block of East Golf Road in Des Plaines, claimed to be a Glenview resident in affirmations he signed in May 2016, August 2017 and June 2018, according to the initial list of charges. Presenting false information to enable students to receive non-resident tuition is a class C misdemeanor, it said.

In the fall of 2018, administrators opened an investigation after receiving a tip that Skorupa and his child were not living within the district's boundaries, according to the district.

Surveillance of where Skorupa was reportedly living showed him and the student leaving the house in Des Plaines every morning and coming to Glenbrook South. The investigation also showed that Skorupa, the month before signing the first false affirmation, changed his living address in internal district computers to a Glenview address that differed from his mailing address, according to the charges.

Administrators interviewed Skorupa in October 2018, according to the charges presented to him later that month. He admitted his family had not been living in Glenview while his child had been attending Glenbrook South starting in the 2016-17 school year, according to the district. The following month, the charges allege, Skorupa's spouse admitted the same to the District 225 and "implored" the district to make an exception for him.

Following a closed-door discussion at a December 2018 special meeting, the board adopted a resolution suspending Skorupa without pay or benefits. The charges "demonstrate Skorupa has engaged in irremediable conduct and actions that constitute grounds for immediate dismissal," the board found unanimously. The tenured teacher still had an opportunity to request a hearing, and the district continued to investigate his conduct.

A disciplinary hearing had been scheduled for May. But before it could be held, administrators presented supplemental charges based on evidence of "additional wrongdoing" uncovered by Glenbrook South administrators in early 2019, according to the district.

"The School District has learned that Skorupa knowingly falsified information provided to the School District, the [Illinois State Board of Education] and to the Illinois Secretary of State regarding the completion of required Driver Education classroom instruction by certain Glenbrook South students," according to the supplemental charges.

According to the district, Skorupa, coach of the GBS Fencing Club since 2011, faked documentation showing at least three boys he coached had taken a required 30-hour classroom instruction course between January 2017 and December 2018. As a result, the students risked revocation of their licenses and were required to complete the course in order to graduate. The board agreed that the misconduct, separate from the residency fraud, would also have constituted grounds for immediate termination.

"Skorupa's unlawful conduct compromised and circumvented School District policies and protocols, placed the students at risk of harm, demonstrated a lack of ethics, revealed deceptive practices used in the grading process and carved out a select group of students to unjustly receive favorable treatment," the charges said, accusing Skorupa of "allowing unprepared and unqualified students to gain licenses to drive."

The teacher's misconduct exposed the district to liability for damages to students and penalties from the secretary of state, according to the charges, which said providing the false information qualified as common law fraud and could be grounds for a class 3 felony charge. Glenview police said they have no open criminal investigations into Skorupa's conduct.

At a March 14 meeting where he was joined by his attorney, Skorupa denied falsifying the records, according to the district. The district said he was one of only two Glenbrook South employees who had passwords to input information into the secure web portal operated by the state education board.

The dismissal hearing before a neutral officer from the state education board was rescheduled to begin on Sept. 23, records show. That same day, Skorupa and the board agreed to a settlement agreement ending his employment.

In the settlement, Skorupa acknowledges a three-day evidentiary hearing found he was not a resident and owed 110 percent of the non-resident tuition cost for the period of time his child attended Glenbrook South. He further acknowledged that Regional School Superintendent Bruce Brown affirmed the board's determination of non-residency in May, the same month he received a bill for $61,628.

Despite Skorupa's acknowledgment he owed the full amount, the board agreed to allow Skorupa to pay about $23,500 instead, according to the terms of the settlement. A first installment of $13,200 was due by Nov. 5. The second installment of nearly $12,400 is due by Dec. 31. District 225 Communications Director Karen Geddeis confirmed Skorupa made the first payment. Skorupa's attorney, Steven Glink, has not responded to a request for comment on the matter.

Read more: Complete charges and settlement agreement between fired Glenbrook South teacher John F. Skorupa and the Glenbrook High School District 225 Board of Education.