Lake Forest High School Stonewalling Must Stop!

LFHS Stonewalling Must Stop!

I am extremely disappointed that District 115 is, once again, hiding behind Illinois FOIA exceptions to deny the public documents that are clearly subject to disclosure under the Act. In my opinion, the District is attempting to shield the public from important information, hoping that residents will give up on their legitimate requests through wearing them down with frivolous denials requiring appeals which, if they are ever addressed, take months or years to resolve until which time the issues have become stale. For example, I still have appeals pending for documents the District denied regarding the 2011 Steinert scandal, allowing former Superintendent Harry Griffith to retire without the public scrutiny he was due concerning his role. I also still have an appeal pending from post-union negotiations in October of 2012 when the district refused to produce documents I requested, including production of any “strike plan” the District had in effect. The failure of the District to respond and the appeal to be resolved allowed yet another set of negotiations to come and go without public scrutiny of the prior one.

There are many members of the Lake Forest/Lake Bluff community who believe that Superintendent Simeck and the Board were derelict in their duties by selecting Dr. Holland as the LFHS principal. The public has the right to know, on a timely basis, what information District 115 had at its disposal in making that controversial hiring decision. Yet it has refused to disclose pertinent and relevant information to FOIA requesters. This has to stop. I propose that the District hire a paid Inspector General to oversee the Superintendent and the School Board. It should be someone who has the time to devote and resources at his or her disposal (like legal counsel) to fight this nonsense. We shouldn’t simply be reliant on our own resources or independent websites like www.lakeforestschoolswatch.com as we attempt to serve the District by forcing full-disclosure of facts that all residents and taxpayers are entitled to.

The days of the elitist “Just trust us and stop bothering us” is over. My and others’ FOIA requests and results, as well as other pertinent information is supplied at www.lakeforestschoolswatch.com. While that is a good watchdog group, as I understand it, it is run by parent/taxpayer volunteers who will no doubt suffer the same stonewalling I have. What our District needs is an Inspector General who will eschew arrogance and elitistism and who has the authority and responsibility to investigate District controversies and give a full and fair disclosure to us all.

Nancy Thorner, Lake Bluff