Hinsdale D86 Legal Bills Mount With Prentiss Exit

HINSDALE, IL – The Hinsdale High School District 86 board spent $16,841 with a law firm in its first 19 days of work.

On May 15, the board voted 5-1 to hire the firm, Chicago-based Robbins Schwartz, to investigate then-Superintendent Tammy Prentiss, who was suspended the same day.

This week, the district posted online its heavily redacted legal bills in response to a public records request from the Hinsdalean, a weekly newspaper.

As it happens, board President Catherine Greenspon had two phone calls with Robbins Schwartz three days before the board hired the firm. The calls totaled an hour and cost about $300. (The bills list one of the calls as happening May 2, a day before Greenspon took office, but attorney Joseph Perkoski said that was an error. The firm forwarded Patch a corrected invoice.)

The firm also was paid $457 to prepare for the May 15 meeting, even before it was officially hired.

Robbins Schwartz logged four hours for that night's meeting, at a cost of $1,200.

The firm is likely to send the bill for its June work later this month.

The spending likely continued at the same pace in June. Near the end of the month, the board struck a severance deal with Prentiss.

The district's main law firm is Itasca-based Hodges Loizzi; the board has not indicated whether it wants to make a change. Both firms specialize in educational law.