LTHS Could Have Avoided Embarrassment: Resident

LA GRANGE, IL – Under pressure from the attorney general's office, the Lyons Township High School board voted unanimously Monday to release the recording of a meeting that was deemed illegally closed.

Board President Dawn Aubert gave no opportunity for the board to discuss the issue before the vote.

This follows the custom of her predecessor, Kari Dillon, who also called for immediate votes on certain matters, particularly those seen as uncomfortable.

Despite the tradition, the procedure appears to violate the board's own policies, which call for Robert's Rules of Order as its guide. Those rules require a motion, a second and then an opportunity for discussion.

Last month, the attorney general's office ruled the school must reveal the recording and minutes from the Jan. 23 closed meeting. It said the board had no right to close the doors to discuss a land deal, unless it was about setting the price.

While the board president apparently considers the topic off-limits for discussion, three residents submitted comments for Monday's meeting that took the board to task for the Jan. 23 closed session.

One of them was resident Melissa Grisoni, who was among those filing complaints with the attorney general. Grisoni, whose comments were read during the meeting, said she asked the board in February to release closed session minutes on the controversial effort to sell the school's land in Willow Springs.

But she said she only received a generic response that directed her to visit the board's website. She said the board could have avoided the embarrassment of a binding opinion from the attorney general if it did a better job communicating with residents.

"The board was under the misguided impression that you had to discuss the land deal behind closed doors," Grisoni said.

She said the attorney who was present in the closed sessions about the land deal apparently lacked knowledge about the state Open Meetings Act. That was clear when it took another lawyer to defend the board on the recent complaints.

Grisoni did not name the lawyer who joined the closed meetings. His name is Ares Dalianis of the Chicago-based Franczek law firm, which represents many school districts.