State Orders LTHS To Release Recording

LA GRANGE, IL – The Lyons Township High School board broke state law in January by meeting behind closed doors to discuss the sale of the school's land in Willow Springs, the attorney general's office said Tuesday.

In a letter, the office directed the board to publicly release the recording from the Jan. 23 closed session. The letter was a binding opinion, which the attorney general rarely issues.

The school had priced the land to sell to an industrial developer, despite Willow Springs zoning rules that bar such uses. Residents and a number of public bodies have opposed the school's plan.

The board has stayed silent at meetings about the land since Jan. 23.

School officials could not be immediately reached for comment on the attorney general's binding opinion. They can appeal the ruling in Cook County Court.

To justify its closed session, the board cited the exception under the state Open Meetings Act that allowed going behind closed doors to discuss setting the price of the land.

But the attorney general's office said it listened to the recording and found that the discussion was about the market and sale of the 71-acre wooded property.

The discussion, the attorney general said, only included brief mentions of changing the price in the future. But the office said the board did not actively consider that possibility.

"Thus, the discussion cannot be accurately described as 'setting the price' for a sale of property when that term is narrowly construed in accordance with the General Assembly's clear intent," Chief Deputy Attorney General Brent Stratton wrote.

The $55 million minimum price was set at a board meeting a month earlier.

The complaint that triggered the attorney general's review was by resident Melissa Grisoni.

"It’s unfortunate that the only way the community has learned significant details of the land sale was through (Freedom of Information Act) requests and this (Open Meetings Act) investigation," Grisoni said in an email to Patch. "Too much of the board’s approach to the sale, including positioning the property for industrial purchase unbeknownst to the community and Willow Springs officials, was improperly conducted outside the public eye."

She noted the attorney general issues thousands of nonbinding opinions each year.

"They only issue about 10-15 binding opinions each year," Grisoni said. "It tends to be in the most egregious violations and when the AG’s office is absolutely confident in their findings."

The attorney general's ruling comes just ahead of a Friday meeting in which high school officials hope to make peace with the sale's critics. They are the village of Willow Springs, Pleasantdale School District 107 and Pleasant Dale Park District.

The entities allege the high school kept them out of the loop in the effort to sell the land, which is surrounded by a school, a park, houses, a country club and a UPS facility.

High school officials say they involved the others.