Hinsdale D-86 Officials Walk Out Of Meeting

BURR RIDGE, IL – The minority on the Hinsdale High School District 86 board walked out near the end of last week's meeting.

The three members gathered their belongings and announced their departures. The board still had business to get done.

After they walked out, the board meeting could no longer continue because it lacked the legally required number of members to do business.

The minority's action was apparently over edits to three sets of closed session meeting minutes from February.

The closed meetings were held during the height of many residents' objections to Superintendent Tammy Prentiss. She was criticized over the mask mandate and an anti-racist consultant who called Hinsdale dangerous.

The board plans to hold another meeting Thursday to take care of two items that it had planned to vote on last week. One is the extension of a contract with the company that is managing the district's building projects; the other is an agreement for nursing services.

In a brief interview Monday, board member Peggy James, a member of the minority, said she planned to attend Thursday's meeting. That means the board is likely to have enough members to proceed. She declined to discuss the issue that led to the walkout.

Patch left messages with the other minority members, Jeff Waters and Debbie Levinthal, to see whether they planned to show up.

At Thursday's meeting, James spoke during public comments about the closed meeting minutes. But she revealed no details about what happened during those sessions.

She was the board secretary at the time, so she drafted the minutes, which she called "accurate, comprehensive and thorough."

She said the board majority declined multiple requests to place them on the agenda for a vote until Thursday's meeting.

James said board President Erik Held informed board members the weekend before that he made "technical edits" to her minutes.

She said she later received his edits. She said he characterized his changes as "relatively small edits overall, "a little grammar polish" and the addition of a few dates and attributions.

But she said Held's edits consisted of material changes. She said she compared the originals to Held's version and found nearly 100 to more than 200 changes in each document. The district's past practice, she said, was to consult with the author of minutes before making changes.

"Instead, Mr. Held determined that he had the authority to make those changes himself," James said. "I find it wildly ironic that while Mr. Held hijacked closed session meeting minutes, he is refusing to accept any suggestions for a document that he and (board member Cynthia) Hanson have drafted summarizing another recent board conversation."

Board Vice President Kathleen Hirsman then interrupted. She was presiding over the meeting because Held was attending remotely.

"Excuse me," Hirsman said. "I'm going to ask you to stop at this point because you're getting into–"

Members of the audience protested the interruption, noting that James was only given three minutes to speak.

"Stop the clock!" a couple of audience members yelled.

Hirsman replied, "Excuse me, I'm the chairman of this meeting, not the audience."

A man shouted, "You answer to us!"

Hirsman pointed her finger at the man, "Excuse me, you are out of order. I'm going to ask you to leave if you can't be quiet right now. I mean it. Don't talk."

Hirsman then told James, "You cannot discuss anything that is confidential information that this board would consider in closed session."

Hirsman gave back James the time she lost.

During the debate, member Hanson shook her head a number of times and got up from her seat. She returned a moment later, asking whether James was speaking as a board member or resident.

Later in the meeting, when the board was preparing to vote on the three sets of closed session minutes, James, Waters and Levinthal prepared to walk out.

In her interview with Patch, James said the minutes to be voted upon were hers, not Held's version.

At the meeting, Held asked for the minutes to be voted on separately from a package of items known as a "consent agenda." James told Patch that Held's request opened the possibility that the board majority would vote for his minutes.

James got up first, saying she was leaving the meeting as of 9:05 p.m.

Levinthal started walking away. Hirsman asked whether she was departing.

"Yes, member Levinthal is leaving," Levinthal said.

Then Waters said, "Please reflect in the minutes that at 9:06 p.m., board member Jeff Waters is also leaving the meeting."

He said that because of his absence, the meeting could no longer legally continue.

The audience applauded, with one person shouting, "Bravo!"

Hirsman immediately adjourned the meeting.

Because the documents in question are closed session minutes, they are not subject to the state's open records law.