District 211 board member has missed half of her meetings

Since her election to the Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 board of education in April 2015, Lauanna Recker has attended exactly half the 38 scheduled meetings - and none since Jan. 19.

There's been no public explanation by Recker or other board members about her frequent absences. Phone calls seeking comment from her were not returned.

District 211 board President Mucia Burke declined to comment on the situation or whether the board planned to address it.

"I'm not comfortable speaking about a fellow board member," Burke said.

Board member Pete Dombrowski, who won a first 4-year term at the same time as Recker, similarly declined to comment.

But he did talk about the effect of regularly having six board members to conduct district business when seven are expected.

"Anytime you're down a board member, you're down an opinion and lose discussion," Dombrowski said.

District 211 board races have been among the most hotly contested in the Northwest suburbs in recent years.

This year's April 4 election featured six candidates for three seats. In 2015, Recker was one of four candidates who prevailed in an even more crowded field of eight.

Since her election, Recker's term has been marked by inconsistent attendance at meetings, of which there are generally one or two per month.

She has missed 19 meetings, including six of 18 during her first year in office, according to records obtained by the Daily Herald through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Among the more high-profile board discussions she's missed came in July 2016, when Recker was the only member to not attend two hourslong special meetings to draft a new five-year strategic plan for the district.

So far in 2017, she has missed seven of eight meetings, and her attendance is by far the worst on the board.

The next lowest attendance rate after Recker's 50 percent is board member Will Hinshaw's 92.1 percent; he has missed three meetings since May 2015.

Anna Klimkowicz has a 94.7 percent attendance rate after missing two meetings in the last two years, while both Dombrowski and Robert LeFevre Jr. score 97.4 percent, missing one meeting each.

Burke and former board member Mike Scharringhausen, who stepped down in April, scored 100 percent - as has Edward Yung since his return to the board that month after a previous term from 2009 to 2013.

Dombrowski, Burke and Hinshaw have each attended a couple of meetings by phone during that period.

Responding to somewhat similar circumstances, the Mundelein village board was scheduled Monday to discuss the removal of Trustee Dakotah Norton, who'd missed all five board meetings since his last appearance March 27. Norton resigned just before their Monday meeting.

The Mundelein board had sought use of a state law specifically applying to municipalities of fewer than 500,000 residents to remove Norton.

However, Jackie Matthews, director of media and external communications for the Illinois State Board of Education, said there appears to be no statewide law governing removal of a school board member for poor attendance. Rather, it would be up to each individual district to enact a policy as it saw fit.

District 211 spokesman Tom Petersen said while the district has a policy on how to handle a board vacancy caused by resignation, death, moving out of district or an illegal conflict of interest, it does not address the declaration of a vacancy through absences.