Controversial Dist. 158 session wasn't recorded

The controversy over a closed-session meeting in which the Huntley Unit District 158 school board decided to appoint Mike Skala to a vacant seat may never be resolved -- now that district officials have revealed that the meeting wasn't recorded.

After board member Larry Snow accused fellow board members of not giving every candidate proper consideration, board President Shawn Green pledged to expedite the release of an audio recording of the meeting.

But it now appears that only the first two or three minutes of the Nov. 13 closed session were recorded, district officials say.

"There isn't any audio because the recorder ran out of memory," Green said.

The digital device wasn't the only recorder that failed at the meeting. The video recorder that tapes open-session meetings and a backup video recorder both shut off before the end of the meeting, district officials said.

"We've had that happen a couple times before," Green said.

The audio recorder, Green said, can only record three hours of audio and was almost full after a closed session earlier that evening.

"The first closed session was so long that we ran out of memory in the first couple of seconds," Green said.

After the closed session in which the board decided on Skala, Snow and board member Aileen Seedorf said three of their colleagues announced their intention to support Skala's candidacy at the outset of the meeting.

The four board members who voted to appoint Skala all disputed Snow and Seedorf's account, saying all four applicants got a fair shake and citing the one hour, 25 minute meeting as evidence.

Both Snow and the board members who voted to appoint Skala said they welcomed the release of the audio recording, hoping it would resolve the dispute.

"I would love it," Snow said last week.

But it now appears that the board and the public will have to settle for closed-session minutes, which give a general account of meetings but rarely provide a word-for-word transcript.

"I don't know if that's going to satisfy anybody's curiosity," Green said.

Green said the district will buy a 30-GB iPod that can hold hundreds of hours of audio to replace the low-capacity digital recorder. He also said the administration is trying to fix the problem with the video recorders that tape the open meeting.