LTHS Explains Secrecy On Superintendent Finalists

LA GRANGE, IL — Lyons Township High School will not release the names of the finalists for the superintendent's job, the school said Wednesday.

"In an effort to secure the strongest candidate pool possible, confidentiality throughout the process was critical," Jennifer Bialobok, the school's spokeswoman, said in an email.

Her email was in response to a resident's public records request for the names of the candidates for superintendent. In denying the release of the names, Bialobok said revealing them would be "an unwarranted invasion of privacy" as described under an exception to the state's Freedom of Information Act.

On Tuesday, the school board unanimously promoted the school's principal, Brian Waterman, to become the superintendent starting July 1, replacing the retiring Tim Kilrea.

In her email, Bialobok said the search firm, which was paid $23,000 for its work, received nearly two dozen applications for the position and presented eight of them to the school board. Seven were selected for interviews, she said.

Bialobok said the firm's national search resulted in "a strong and diverse" pool of candidates from a number of states and backgrounds.

She also said the firm, Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, spoke with more than 100 "stakeholders" and held 18 focus group meetings and two community forums about the kind of superintendent that the public wanted. A community survey, she said, drew nearly 1,700 responses.

In Illinois, school districts can decide whether to reveal finalists' names. They nearly always choose secrecy. In states such as Wisconsin and New Mexico, the law mandates the release of superintendent finalists' names upon request. The theory is that this allows the public to judge whether a school board made the right decision.