Are D-86 Taxpayers Paying For 2 Human Resources Directors?

HINSDALE, IL — Last Thursday, the Hinsdale High School District 86 board voted to hire a former Barrington school official to become the local district's interim human resources director. But the district's website indicated it still had a director, Domenico Maniscalco, who started seven years earlier.

In fact, Maniscalco's photo and name were still on the human resources page of District 86's website Tuesday. When Patch asked about that, the district removed Maniscalco's information and replaced it with that of the interim director, Mary Dudek, who retired from human resources in Barrington School District 220 in January.

While Maniscalco's name is removed from the website, it remains unclear whether he is still getting a paycheck. He was originally set to resign in mid-September, and public records show he was taking sick time at least through June.

When Patch asked district spokesman Chris Jasculca on Tuesday whether Maniscalco is still being paid, he recommended submitting a public records request to get an answer.

Dudek is set to get paid $750 a day for serving as human resources director, for a total of 156 days, which works out to six-tenths of the usual number of annual workdays. The total salary over the time is $117,000.

According to OpenTheBooks.com, Maniscalco's pay was $175,000 in 2018, the latest year available on the website. That pay was a $43,000 jump from three years earlier.

On June 18, the school board meeting held a special meeting to discuss Maniscalco behind closed doors and then emerged to vote to accept his resignation. In a letter three days before, he informed the district he would resign Sept. 15. But the district announced immediately after the meeting it would search for an interim director.

According to a June 24 Hinsdalean story, Maniscalco said he emailed Superintendent Tammy Prentiss saying he was rescinding his resignation. He told the newspaper that he thought it would be the subject of a board vote at a meeting the following week after the original vote. It was not discussed during that meeting's open session.

Patch has filed a records request with the district for Maniscalco's email. Previous records requests yielded no information indicating the reasons behind his departure.

Maniscalco has not returned repeated messages from Patch.

Read other stories on Maniscalco's resignation:

District 86 Official Leaving Amid Unclear Circumstances

4 Questions About D-86 Official's Departure

D-86 Official Leaves Months Earlier Than Expected

D-86 Official Away From Job When Resignation Accepted