School Official's Dismissal Gets Unanimous Vote

HINSDALE, IL — The Hinsdale High School District 86 board voted unanimously on Thursday to dismiss Carol Baker, assistant superintendent for academics. Board members did so without giving a reason. Meanwhile, one resident blasted the decision, saying the board was retaliating against her for trying to correct longstanding inequities between Central and South high schools.

The board adopted a resolution stating the district would not renew Baker's contract for the next school year. She also is barred from working as a teacher next school year. Her last day is June 30.

According to Baker's LinkedIn page, she has been an educator in Illinois for more than three decades, which should mean she is eligible to retire. Baker hasn't returned calls for comment.

When the issue came up at the meeting, board President Nancy Pollak asked whether any board members wanted to discuss it. No one spoke up. She read the same statement that the district issued to Patch for a story the previous day.

Pollak said the district would not comment on Baker's termination because it was a personnel matter. She also said Baker's exit would not alter the district's planned phased-in changes to the science curriculum, which has sparked controversy in recent months.

During public comment before the decision, Burr Ridge resident Alan Hruby took the board to task for the proposal to dismiss Baker.

"Dr. Baker has provided immense service to our community in identifying inequities in our schools, inequities that have languished year after year during the tenure of her predecessor," Hruby said.

He said she stepped into a hornet's next when she "exposed District 86 dirt that has been overlooked for decades. Make no mistake, that is the root of the complaint against her tonight, the prosecution of a whistleblower."

Hruby said Baker provided a "solid and workable" proposal for the science curriculum that will improve Advanced Placement science programs and correct "a ridiculously imbalanced school enrollment."

"You cannot profess a commitment to curricular activity and fail to appreciate her contribution. You should not be meeting tonight to discuss Dr. Baker's termination, you should be meeting to discuss how large a bonus to award her," Hruby said. "She is trying to fix problems that other staff members have created."

Baker has been at the Hinsdale district since the summer of 2018. Previously, she was the superintendent of the Lyons Elementary School District from 2016 to 2018.

According to the Riverside Brookfield Landmark newspaper, Baker got the Hinsdale job after the second year of her three-year Lyons contract ended. Her exit was likely because a new majority had taken control of the school board in her first year, the newspaper said.

At the time, the Lyons board's president, Marge Hubacek, who was elected in 2017, said she was not disappointed in Baker leaving, according to the newspaper.

"I couldn't answer that any other way," Hubacek told Landmark. "If I said, 'Yes, I was disappointed,' people could call me liar."

Lyons board member Shannon Johnson, who was elected in 2017, told Landmark the new job was a good move for Baker, given her background in science education at the high school level.

"I think her area of expertise is more on the curriculum end, and I think she'll be more in her zone of comfort," Johnson told the newspaper. "She was always a very nice person, she just wasn't meant to be a superintendent in an elementary school district."

For the last nine years, Baker has been involved with the effort known as Next Generation Science Standards, working as a presenter and writer, according to her LinkedIn page.

She also took part in the recent discussions in the Hinsdale school district on controversial changes to the high school science curriculum. Under the plan approved in November, students would take physics as freshmen, chemistry as sophomores and biology as juniors. That is a reverse of the traditional sequence of science classes.

In mid-December, Superintendent Tammy Prentiss issued a public statement apologizing for her administrative team's "ineffective job" in communicating changes to the district's science program. She didn't identify members of the team.

"By not undertaking these efforts until a few months ago, we created a great deal of unnecessary confusion, concern and angst for our current and future families," the superintendent said.

Prentiss was named superintendent the year after Baker's hiring. She was the district's assistant superintendent for student services before that.