Hinsdale D86 Wipes Away Records From Public Log

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale High School District 86 is a rare government body that posts many of its responses to public records requests to an online log. So does Hinsdale School District 181.

Recently, though, District 86 removed all Freedom of Information Act responses before 2022. It's unclear why. By contrast, District 181's public records log goes back a decade.

At a meeting of a school board committee earlier this week, resident Yvonne Mayer noted the elimination of public documents from the website.

Asked about the elimination, district spokesman Alex Mayster said, "In August of 2023, we developed a procedure for the FOIA log that includes displaying responses from the present year, as well as two years prior."

Two years ago, the district's former law firm, Itasca-based Hodges Loizzi, proposed doing away with the log, saying it opened the district to unnecessary liability. A board majority opposed the idea.

During the debate, then-board member Debbie Levinthal said she "vehemently" disagreed with the log's elimination. She said the portal contained a wealth of information that helped her do her job.

A couple of months ago, the district transitioned to a new system for its meeting agendas and minutes, but the new arrangement only includes documents going back to November. The old system contains the records involved in the school board's business going back to 2015.

In an email last week, the district's spokesman, Mayster, told Patch the older information "won't be up forever, as we need to move away from that platform."

On Thursday, Mayster confirmed the district transferred the documents since 2015 to the new system. "It remains available, but now lives on a different platform," he said.

Hinsdale District 181 has an online database of agendas and minutes dating back two decades. Elmhurst School District 205's documents go back to 2008, while Lyons Township High School's date back to 2019.