Hinsdale D86 May Pick Special Counsel

HINSDALE, IL – The Hinsdale High School District 86 board may select a special counsel Monday.

The board plans to meet at 5:30 p.m. at its main office, 5500 S. Grant St.

It is set to start with a closed session, with the board expected to emerge to vote on a special counsel, who is not named in the meeting agenda.

Once the vote is taken, the seven-member board plans to close the doors again for another session.

The board last selected a special counsel, Chicago-based Robbins Schwartz, on May 15. At the time, the board said it was doing so to provide legal services related to a "current employee."

That employee was then-Superintendent Tammy Prentiss, whom the new board majority wanted to let go. Prentiss was ousted with a severance pact in late June.

Behind closed doors at the same May meeting, the board decided to suspend Prentiss and name an interim superintendent, a decision that wasn't announced until the next day. (Patch later filed a complaint with the attorney general, arguing the decisions should have been made in an open meeting.)

It is unclear why the board needs to vote on a special counsel again. On Monday, Patch left a message with board President Catherine Greenspon, who hasn't responded to Patch's inquiries since taking the helm in early May.

Meanwhile, the board is preparing to file a request for proposals for legal services. Itasca-based Hodges Loizzi has been the district's main firm for at least a decade.

"It's a responsibility of the board to review these services periodically," interim Superintendent Linda Yonke told the board last week. "There was a story in the paper that we're going to oust our law firm. That's not what's behind this. This is to examine all the firms that are interested in working with us and deciding if we want to change firms."

Yonke was referring to a Patch story titled, "Hinsdale D86 May Oust Law Firm."