Hinsdale D-86 Official Gives To GOP Lawmaker

HINSDALE, IL – A Hinsdale High School District 86 board member has given $900 to a lawmaker who aligns herself with a group that believes a nearby district is indoctrinating students with ideas such as Marxism.

Board member Jeff Waters' most recent donation to state Rep. Deanne Mazzochi, R-Elmhurst, was in mid-September, according to state Board of Elections records. It was $400.

Waters, a Hinsdale resident, also contributed $1,000 in September to Greg Hart, a DuPage County Board member from Hinsdale who is running for county board chairman.

In March, Waters donated $1,000 to Kari Galassi, who is running for county board in District 3, which includes Hinsdale. Both Hart and Galassi are Republicans.

The elections board's website gives no indication that any of the other six school board members have contributed to partisan campaigns.

Waters also gave $250 to Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso's campaign in 2019 and another $250 to the Vote 1-2-3 for Burr Ridge Trustee committee, which supported Grasso's allies in 2021. Grasso is a Republican, but village elections are nonpartisan.

In recent months, Mazzochi has attracted attention with her criticism of Elmhurst School District 205. She called for the superintendent to "clean house" and alleged lessons in certain high school classes were biased. And she singled out one teacher by name during an Elmhurst board meeting.

Additionally, Mazzochi told the board she struggled to obtain the "racial self-assessment" listed in a syllabus for a York High class. Records show the assessment was planned, but the teacher replaced it with a "civil rights assessment."

Mazzochi also allied herself with a local group, Elmhurst Parents for Integrity in Curriculum, which contends District 205 is indoctrinating students with critical race theory and Marxism.

Mazzochi has not had similar dealings in District 86. Earlier this year, she attended a school board meeting, where many in the audience denounced the board for enforcing the state's mask mandate. Mazzochi did not speak.

In August, Mazzochi spoke to the board about Gov. J.B. Pritzker's pandemic regulations. She is a critic of the Democrat.

Waters did not immediately return a message for comment Tuesday.

In October 2020, Patch found Facebook posts written by Mazzochi, an Elmhurst Republican, that, among other things, said a "white, male Republican" was best for liberty and that President Barack Obama wanted revenge against "colonialist white men."

She later called such posts "clearly sarcastic" and "ancient."

Mazzochi wrote them in 2016 when she was president of the College of DuPage board.