D-86 Board Members Disagree Before Closing Doors

HINSDALE, IL — Typically, a governing body's votes to go into closed session are routine and uncontroversial.

But that was not the case Thursday for the Hinsdale High School District 86 board, which was prepared to discuss personnel issues in closed session.

Before the board was to vote to shut its doors, member Peggy James said she wanted to make a statement.

"Pursuant to our closed session in a few minutes, I've requested that the board president share responses from all board members at tonight's meeting regarding the documentation we will be reviewing. I've made that request twice, and those requests have not been honored. In order to have a well-informed discussion, we should have access to—"

Board President Terri Walker interrupted. She said she would move forward with the roll call, saying James' comments were irrelevant to the vote.

The board's vice president, Kathleen Hirsman, agreed.

"That is out of order," she said. "That is not germane to the motion."

"I disagree," James said.

The roll call proceeded. But when board member Jeff Waters, an ally of James, was asked to cast his vote, he said he wanted to know from the board's attorney whether James could make her comments.

Attorney Tony Loizzi said that if the comments were about whether to go into closed session, he guessed it would be applicable.

"I'm not sure where she is going with this," he said.

James said it was applicable to the materials and discussion that the board would have behind closed doors, to which the attorney responded, "Well, that should be done in closed session."

Waters then joined the others in voting to close the doors.

Walker said the board would take action following the closed session, but that did not happen.

The board had originally intended to meet for 1½ hours behind closed doors, but it blew past that deadline by nearly 20 minutes.

Apparently, the board did not finish its business. The next day, the district announced members would hold another closed session at 6 p.m. Monday. After the session, the board is set to vote on Superintendent Tammy Prentiss' performance goals for the 2021-22 school year.

A closed session scheduled for last Monday was canceled just hours before.

In the April election, a new board majority swept out incumbents, with three holdovers remaining.