La Grange 102 Nurse Sent Business Leads To Board Member: Official

LA GRANGE PARK, IL — A school nurse in La Grange School District 102 passed leads for business opportunities to a school board member earlier this school year, another board member said Thursday.

During a board meeting, member Brian Anderson said other school districts called the nurse seeking more information about the coronavirus surveillance testing program at District 102. Those inquiries were referred to the board's vice president, Ed Campbell, who started a business in mid-September to conduct testing for other districts.

Campbell volunteered his time to help set up the program in District 102, but two other board members suggest Campbell, an immunologist, had a conflict of interest in using his role with District 102 to help build his business. At least 30 other Illinois school districts have contracted with Campbell's company, SafeGuard Surveillance, to do coronavirus testing, according to District 102's attorney.

At the meeting, Anderson said the district's nurse, Kelli Kalata, collected the inquiries from other districts and built a spreadsheet with the information.

"This information was then shared with Dr. Campbell," Anderson said.

In response, Campbell said he answered questions from districts needing help during a pandemic.

"Are you suggesting that Kelli shouldn't have put them in touch with me?" he said.

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Anderson said Campbell should have told the board he started a business. Campbell formed the company in mid-September, but did not tell the board until Oct. 29.

Board member Leah Werab said Kalata wasn't doing recruitment for Campbell. The other districts, Werab said, were reaching out for information on how to start testing programs.

Kalata couldn't be reached for comment Friday. No one answered the phone at the district's central office.

In January, Kalata was quoted several times in an ABC News story titled, "How 1 Chicago school district got kids back in the classroom during COVID-19."