'She Played You': This Hinsdale D-86 Employee Made Comment

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale High School District 86 has cleared up part of the mystery involving a school board meeting video that officials refuse to post to the district's online archive.

At the March 24 board meeting, member Debbie Levinthal pressed for answers on why the district did not post the Feb. 4 meeting video.

The district's chief information officer, Keith Bockwoldt, said it was his mistake and promised to post it.

It was apparently posted for a time, then taken down.

During the March 24 meeting, Bockwoldt exchanged texts with another employee about the video issue. The messages came to light through a public records request filed by resident Yvonne Mayer.

But the text messages, which came from Bockwoldt's phone, did not indicate who the other employee was.

Mayer filed another request seeking the identity.

In response, Deb Kedrowski, administrative chief of staff, indicated Friday that she was the one who corresponded with Bockwoldt. Kedrowki, who is also the district's Freedom of Information Act officer, reports directly to Superintendent Tammy Prentiss.

In the texts, Bockwoldt asked Kedrowski to send him the video. But she replied, "It was never intended to be recorded and therefore not released."

Bockholdt told Kedrowski that he just stated in the meeting that he thought it was released.

Kedrowski replied with a laughing emoji, saying, "She played you."

On Saturday, Patch left a message for comment with Kedrowski asking who she was referring to. She did not respond.

She may have been speaking about board member Levinthal, who was seeking answers.

At the Feb. 4 meeting, the board held a closed session. Before and after that session, the board took public comments. Most of the commenters criticized Prentiss over her handling of an anti-racism consultant. Some called for her ouster.

The comments against Prentiss were no rougher than those at other recent meetings, which were posted to the meeting archive.

In March, then-board President Terri Walker told Levinthal in an email that the district doesn't post videos of meetings when closed sessions are the purpose.

Levinthal noted such a policy was not written down.

The district paid $165 for a vendor to film the Feb. 4 meeting. That was done in the absence of Bockwoldt, who usually handles the function but had the day off.

The video has been posted to the district's Freedom of Information Act online portal. That is a more obscure place on the website. Residents must go through a database with dozens of recent records requests before finding the video in question, unless they have a direct link to the footage.

Levinthal did not return a message for comment.