Hinsdale D86 Broke Law In Suspending Prentiss: State

HINSDALE, IL – The Hinsdale High School District 86 board violated state law when it suspended the superintendent on May 15, 2023, a state agency found.

In a letter dated Friday, the Attorney General's Office responded to a complaint that Patch filed a month after the decision to put then-Superintendent Tammy Prentiss on paid administrative leave. Patch asserted the law required that the board take the vote in public.

In the letter, Senior Assistant Attorney General Shannon Barnaby said the board violated the Open Meetings Act by taking final action in a closed meeting. The board also failed to give the public the required notice that it planned to take action on Prentiss.

Barnaby noted the board took a public vote on the suspension nine days later.

At the time of the votes, the board was being advised by attorney Joseph Perkoski of the Chicago-based Robbins Schwartz law firm.

His firm defended the board's closed meeting by saying the board's original vote did not constitute final action.

But Barnaby said the effect of the vote was immediate, so it constituted final action. She pointed to past court rulings – some of which the district's lawyer cited – as precedents demonstrating what final action is.

The board announced its decision to suspend Prentiss in a public statement the following day. It also revealed the acting superintendent was Chris Covino, then-assistant superintendent of academics.

In its complaint, Patch also said the board should have voted on Covino's appointment in public.

But Barnaby said in her letter that the district informed the attorney general in a "confidential" written answer about the process with which an acting superintendent is appointed.

Because that response was provided confidentially, she said, the attorney general could not divulge it.

In its public response to the attorney general, the district's lawyer wrote, "Dr. Covino assumed the role of acting superintendent by nature of his position and consistent with his employment contract. No action was taken to select him as acting superintendent."

Barnaby found no violation of the open meetings law in the appointment of Covino. Nine days after Covino took the helm, the board voted in public to make it official.

Six of the seven current board members did not respond Monday to Patch's emailed request for comment on the attorney general's letter. Member Jeff Waters acknowledged the inquiry, but declined to comment.

The May 15, 2023, meeting was a dozen days after a new board majority took control. At the same session, the board hired Robbins Schwartz to help it oust Prentiss. Invoices show that the firm was paid $457 to prepare for the May 15, 2023, meeting, even before it was officially hired.

In late June 2023, the board struck a deal with Prentiss. She agreed to leave in return for receiving another year's salary, amounting to $277,000. She is now retired, pulling in a $19,000-a-month pension.

The old school board majority supported Prentiss. Asked Monday about the attorney general's decision, former board President Erik Held said it was the expected outcome.

"The brief five-member Board majority that came into being in May 2023 existed for one purpose and one purpose only: firing Tammy Prentiss," Held said in an email. "Following the rules wasn't a requirement."

Held said it didn't matter to the new board that a valid superintendent's contract existed or that an investigation into Prentiss' handling of an anti-racist consultant showed no wrongdoing to warrant a firing. (The district spent nearly $40,000 on the inquiry, but both the old and new boards have refused to release the report.)

"The Board operated in haste and sloppily, cutting corners and discounting any previous legal advice given by (former law firm Hodges Loizzi) just so they wouldn't have to work with someone they personally disliked," Held said.