Hinsdale D-86 Board Again Closing Doors

HINSDALE, IL – The Hinsdale High School District 86 board plans to hold a closed session Thursday.

It is unclear why the board is holding the meeting. The district gave 15 possible justifications for closing the doors. Such reasons include issues involving specific employees, union negotiations and legal matters.

The board meeting is starting at an unusually late time – 8 p.m. It usually begins its meetings three hours earlier. The meeting is set for the library at Hinsdale South High School.

Public comments are set to be allowed before and after the closed session. Given the opposition to Superintendent Tammy Prentiss, residents are likely to take the opportunity to speak.

According to the board's meeting agenda, members plan to make no decisions. Under state law, the public must be given notice of any possible actions.

The board last held a special closed meeting on Feb. 4.

For that meeting, the district paid an outside vendor $165 to film the meeting, which included many public comments against Prentiss. The employee who usually handles the camera was off that day.

The district has declined to make the video available in the meeting archive on its website, as it usually does. Because of a Freedom of Information Act request, the district posted the video on the more obscure public records online portal.

Patch emailed the district's spokesman, Chris Jasculca, about whether the board plans to film Thursday's meeting.