District 41 to destroy recordings of closed-door meetings despite objections

Glen Ellyn Elementary District 41 will destroy audio recordings of school board meetings held behind closed doors, despite objections from two members who question whether the original discussions on the tapes should have been conducted in public.

The board asked its attorney, Todd Faulkner, to listen to the confidential recordings after members Kurt Buchholz and Stephanie Clark raised concerns about a possible Illinois Open Meetings Act violation before their tenure on the board.

Faulkner found no such violation, board President Erica Nelson said. The closed-door session in question dates to February 2014, when the board met to review the performance of Superintendent Paul Gordon, she said.

Within that midyear review, Nelson said, the then-board discussed Gordon's goals and staffing considerations that he and his administration might have for curriculum initiatives.

"Personnel matters are allowed under one of the conditions for the Open Meetings Act, and I believe that's an appropriate place to have personnel discussions," said Nelson, adding that there was no decision made about hiring or staffing.

But Buchholz and Clark disagreed with Faulkner's findings. They said the discussion involved adding several coaches for the district's problem-based learning program.

"If you want to be a little gray and say, 'Oh it was his goals, and we were talking about his goals,' but when you get detailed as to making decisions about the budget, how you're going to do things, that's not gray, and you need to bring it forward to a public forum," Clark said.

Buchholz and Clark have said the district needs to do a better job of publicly vetting decisions such as extending the school day. Last February, the district announced it was negotiating the longer day with its teachers union but didn't provide specifics at the time until March, officials said, because of ongoing bargaining talks.

"It's important for the board to start operating transparently and not repeating the same things we've repeated," Clark said.

Buchholz and Clark sought to listen to months-old, closed-session tapes after they took their seats on the board in May. A memo from Faulkner to Gordon at the time said the two allies were entitled to listen to the audio, but only if authorized to do so by the rest of the panel. The board then granted access.

In a 5-2 vote Monday, the board approved destroying the recordings of meetings - at least 18 months old - that also have written minutes.

Buchholz called Faulkner's legal opinion "somewhat wishy-washy" because he said the attorney also suggested in a letter that the board "should hold to a stricter process." He said he wanted the tapes turned over to Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office instead of the district's attorney.

"I'm sure he's a great legal mind, but in the end, he's collecting paychecks from this school district, which is controlled by a certain element and that makes him compromised," he said.

But Nelson, Gordon and board member Patrick Escalante stood behind Faulkner.

"You're calling Todd Faulkner's ethics into question? A stalwart of this community?" Gordon asked Buchholz.

"What was not wishy-washy was the outcome of the conversation," Nelson said. "And again your intention is, let's use this as an opportunity to get better, and certainly I think that's the intention of this board. Having the conversation is important. You may disagree with the outcome, but I believe that his intention was to provide for us an opportunity to tighten up as we talked about."