LTHS Asked Not To Repeat 'Poor Actions'

LA GRANGE, IL – The Willow Springs administrator on Monday urged Lyons Township High School to get an appraisal of its land in the village before seeking the public's feedback.

The failure to do so, he said, would be repeating past mistakes.

"I don't think anyone can make an educated decision until they know what it's worth," Administrator Ryan Grace said at a school board meeting.

In an email to Patch on Tuesday, Grace said the appraisal should be done before the board hires a "community relations" consultant to gauge what the public wants to do with the vacant 70 acres.

He said he understood why the board was "scared" to decide, noting its previous failed attempt to sell to an industrial developer.

"(Board members) are elected to make decisions in the best interest of the entire Lyons Township high school district and given how poorly they have behaved over the last several years, I understand why they are scared to move forward on this sensitive subject," Grace said in the email. "However, if they continue without an appraisal, they are just repeating their poor actions of the past.

"I’ve never heard of anybody attempting to sell a piece of real estate without knowing what it is worth," Grace said.

At the board meeting, members Jill Grech, Michael Thomas, Tim Albores and Elvia Nava said they wanted an appraisal while the consultant was gathering the public's feedback. But Jill Beda Daniels and Kari Dillon objected to an appraisal anytime soon.

Board President Dawn Aubert, who was absent, has indicated before she wants an appraisal.

Albores called the appraisal a "major piece of missing information" in the discussion about the land.

"It may be valuable to us in the engagement with the community," he said.

However, Daniels said she wanted to keep an open mind on the property as the board seeks the public's feedback.

"The appraisal assumes the community wants to sell it," she said.

In March 2022, the school received an offer from developer Bridge Industrial for the land. The board then secretly got an appraisal for industrial uses and quietly courted the developer for eight months before revealing to the public that it wanted to sell the property.

Willow Springs' zoning permits housing and small stores, not industrial uses.

It's never been entirely clear why the board chose to only get an appraisal for industrial uses.

At the time, the board was meeting behind closed doors about the property. Under state law, such meetings should have been held in public, the attorney general found. Only price-setting discussions can legally be held in private.

Last spring, the attorney general's office ordered the school to release recordings of its January 2023 closed meetings.

The recordings showed the school board wanted to keep Willow Springs and other public bodies out of the loop.

At the time, the board's lawyer advised the board that it would likely succeed in changing the zoning, even though village officials opposed such a move. After abandoning the effort to sell to Bridge, the board replaced its attorney.