Lyons Township High Backs Down On Survey Secrecy

LA GRANGE, IL – At first, Lyons Township High School resisted releasing its student, teacher and staff survey results to the public.

But the school changed its mind after Patch questioned the secrecy.

Students, teachers and staff are surveyed twice a year with the help of a private company, Panorama Education.

In November, the school denied Patch's Freedom of Information Act request, citing an exception under the law.

"Panorama owns the intellectual property rights to the survey questions," the school's records officer, Mary Lin Muscolino, said in an email.

But a Panorama executive indicated to Patch that the company had no issue with its school clients divulging the survey questions.

"(T)hat decision to publish or not belongs to the school district client," Michael Reynolds, senior director of legal and government affairs, said in an email.

Patch forwarded Reynolds' email to Muscolino, who did not respond.

A few days later, the high school quietly posted to its website all the survey results going back to 2022. Hinsdale High School District 86 has released its results online for years.

Despite the public records request, the high school did not inform Patch that the information was available. Unaware of the posting, Patch filed a complaint with the attorney general's office, which decided this week to pursue the matter.

Once it was informed, the school told the attorney general that it had posted the survey results a month earlier.

In its response to the attorney general, lawyer Kevin Gordon of the Fagen Friedman & Fulfrost law firm said the school initially reviewed its contract and determined it could not release the survey questions under copyright law.

Gordon said the school changed its position after Panorama's Nov. 19 email to Patch that the company disclaimed its intellectual property rights to the documents. He said the records were posted Dec. 3.