Did Election Sway LTHS Board On Willow Springs?

LA GRANGE, IL – In a discussion behind closed doors, a Lyons Township High School board member talked about the election as it related to the board's controversy in Willow Springs.

This week, the board followed the attorney general's order to release the recording of a closed session in which members discussed selling the school's 71 acres in Willow Springs. The attorney general said the board broke the law by closing the doors.

In the closed session, then-board member Julie Swinehart noted Willow Springs residents near the land were "pissed off" about the effort to sell it to an industrial developer.

Then she mentioned the timing.

"You know three board seats are up for election. And we've talked about that for some time," said Swinehart, who resigned June 1.

Swinehart did not elaborate or say when the board talked about the election as it relates to the land. But it was never discussed in a public meeting.

That may mean members discussed the election in other closed sessions. Under Illinois law, the board cannot talk about such a topic in private. It must be in the open.

From January to March, Willow Springs residents showed up at meetings to protest the sale of the land to an industrial developer. The village code bans such uses for the property in question.

The land is surrounded by houses, a park, a golf course, a school and a UPS facility.

After all that opposition, the board announced March 10 that it would abandon the effort to sell its land at a minimum price of $55 million, an amount geared toward industrial development.

That decision was announced 25 days before the election.

The opposition to the sale appeared to have no big effect on the election. Members Kari Dillon and Jill Beda Daniels, both supporters of selling, won re-election by considerable margins.