Two new Glen Ellyn District 41 board members want access to closed-session tapes
Two new Glen Ellyn Elementary District 41 school board members want to listen to audio recordings of closed-session meetings going back months, but district officials have so far been reluctant to grant their request.
Kurt Buchholz and Stephanie Clark were sworn in Monday night as board members and on Tuesday morning both were at the district's administrative offices asking to listen to the tapes.
Instead, they met with Superintendent Paul Gordon, who told them to give him another day to try to resolve the issue, according to Buchholz.
District 41 spokeswoman Erika Krehbiel said the decision about whether to release the recordings rests with the board and not the superintendent or district.
A memo from District Attorney Todd Faulkner to Gordon said the new board members are entitled to listen to the closed-session audio recordings, but only if authorized to do so by the board.
Outgoing board President John Kenwood suggested the new board have a discussion about the request at its next meeting on May 11.
New board President Erica Nelson, an eight-year board member who was sworn in to another term Monday, said such a discussion is possible, but she'll reserve her opinion on the matter until that time.
The new board members say they shouldn't have to ask the board for permission.
"We have consulted an attorney who ... found there is no legal reasoning for this 'required approval,' it is merely your attorney's opinion after loosely tying statutes together that pertain to the general public, not elected board members," Clark told the board Monday night before being sworn in.
Buchholz and Clark ran as part of a slate that raised questions about a number of district initiatives, such as facilities concerns with a proposed all-day kindergarten program, the length of the school day, and whether district officials and the board are being transparent about their decisions with the public.
The two new board members have been attending board meetings for some time, but now that they've joined the board, they say they want to listen to the closed-session discussions to get a fuller picture of the old board's decision-making process.
"We want to get up to speed on things," Buchholz said. "Some things make illogical sense to me. Maybe I'll hear (the tapes) and it'll make some sense to me. ... There were moments where we'd be sitting and they'd be talking about something and Steph and I would look at each other and say, 'When did they talk about this?'"
Both say they've talked to elected officials on the village board and park board, as well as former District 41 board members, who said they were able to listen to closed-session tapes of old board meetings upon joining their boards.
Buchholz and Clark filed a complaint with the attorney general's public access counselor last August about a potential Open Meetings Act violation by the board. The district accidentally posted audio of a closed-session meeting online, and after listening to the tape, Buchholz and Clark alleged that board members talked about items they shouldn't have discussed behind closed doors.
Buchholz said the intent of listening to the other closed-session tapes isn't to look for Open Meetings Act violations but to get information as board members.