001I call to order the May 1st, 2025 special meeting of the board of education of Hinsdale Township High School District 86. We are meeting in the district administrative center. The time is 5:31 p.m. De, please call roll. Member Greenspun here. Member James here. Member Aris here. Member Carsunes, she's available uh by phone. Member Raman, member Walker here. Member Waters. Yes. Yeah. Member Roman here. Perfect. Please, please stand if you are able and join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Excuse me. You want to dial on her number? Yeah. 51 and then the board will now hear audience. No. Once the board the board
002will now hear audience comments for up to a total of 45 minutes. Speakers will have three minutes to address the board. Board meetings are meetings of the board held in public not sorry open forum town hall meetings. Board members will not engage the public during public comment. The board will keep this in mind as we conduct our meetings, allowing the public to provide input at the time allotted on the agenda to ensure that the multiple voices of the community inform board deliberations. When the board deliberates, it will be a time for the board to listen and learn from each other, taking the public input into consideration, not a time to re-engage with the public. The board will consistently abide by our formal processes relating to this issue so that all persons are treated fairly and
003equally. Our first speaker is Chase Spirit. Are you gonna uh wait for the call? Okay. Uh good evening members of the board. Uh my name is Chase Barrett and I'm a proud student of Hinsdale Central's music program. Um I'm here tonight with a deep concern for the future of our mo music program. uh because with the staffing change at the meeting last month that I attended and spoke at is one of the many clear signals that our program is unfortunately being dismantled and defunded in favor of areas that are better understood and more widely celebrated. Our uh despite our program's achievements such as producing numerous all-state musicians and cultivating a culture of discipline, creativity um and teamwork, our successes are have not been recognized in the same way as our athletes and um participants of
004other competitive activities. Um when our sports teams and other activity groups win championships, they're celebrated with hallway parades, social media shoutouts, banners, and the full backing of the sport. Um, in contrast, when our musicians achieve high honors um of equivalency, we receive little more than just uh a brief mention via blast email to most of our staff. While in contrast, most other most other schools do significantly more to give proper recognition. Uh, for example, no significant recognition was given to our all-state musicians at all this year or years in the past. um except for again just a brief blast email to the staff that a lot of them just let sit in their inboxes with thousands of unwrite emails. Anyway, um they were also ignored in a hallway parade that uh was meant to celebrate
005them along with our water polo and forensics teams, but in the end everyone just mistook us for part of the forensics team. This, among many other instances of disparity and recognition, not only undervalues the hard work of our music students, as months of rigorous preparation is required to reach the state level for music, but it also hinders our ability to uh feed information on what our program does to uh incoming freshmen. Uh because it is important that we feed information to our freshmen to have them continue doing music um uh as they transition into high school. This uh lack of trans uh this lack of recognition and advertisement has consequences such as contributing to a shrinking program from a deflation of incoming freshmen uh who participate in our music programs each year which in turn
006affects everything from staffing decisions such as the one with Miss Grace Ducey last month to the willingness to the sport to fund our program which will cause a cyclic effect until our program essentially fades out. Again, another consequence is the undervalue of our hard work in the music program, as we are often overlooked by our peers, teachers, and administrators. We're not asking that you diminish the value of the accomplishments of others. We just want the students of our music department to receive the acknowledgement they deserve. I urge you members of the board to realize or to realign the priorities of this district with those of districts that better value arts education. A well-rounded uh education must balance activities, academics, sports, and the arts equally. I invite you to visit our music program sometime when you're
007available and understand why investing in the growth of our music program is investing in the holistic development of our student body. Recently, the music central uh music department held a meeting for constructive criticism to make the program more efficient and effective. But many of the needed changes that were addressed at that meeting cannot occur without the support of this board. Let's not let this program fade away the way it has been more recently because at this rate I promise to continue success such as with our all-state musicians. Uh we'll have its months numbered if we do. We just ask that you recognize our accomplishments, value our music educators, and preserve our ed education as an essential element of a balanced and humane school community. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Dale Clover. Good
008evening. Um, I'm Dale Clever. Um, been in Hdale for 34 years. I guess there's so many places I I could start, but I'm going to start with the agenda. Um, because the agenda doesn't cite any uh exceptions to the Open Meetings Act. And therefore, if you go into a closed meeting right now, you'll be doing so unlawfully. You'll be violating the Open Meetings Act. The uh guidance from the uh attorney general's office on MA specifically states the public body must also publicly site the specific exception in OMA that applies and authorizes the closure of the meeting. The exception may be identified by its statutory subsection or by reciting or paraph paraphrasing the language of the exception. Now, if you'll look at your agenda, you'll have to tell me where there's any any uh exception cited
009whatsoever. So, right now, going into closed session, because you have not notified the public of what the exceptions you're relying on, going into this closed meeting is unlawful. And I'll remind two of you that the last time we were in this room back in August 2022 under the held Eric held majority board, I also addressed the board and said if you go into a meeting to discuss the uh the goal setting for the superintendent, you are doing so illegally. Um the Eric indicated that oh they had some guidance from their attorney. I think uh Peggy James said, "Well, I'd like to see it." He never produced it at the meeting or subsequent to that. And it turns out that a humble lawyer who doesn't practice education law beat the board's uh law firm. And the
010attorney general ruled that in fact I was correct. The meeting was unlawful. They uh indicated to the minute what portions of the meeting had been held unlawfully and closed. And as you know, this board didn't release all those. They basically thumb their nose at the attorney general. So, I'm telling you right now that this meeting, if you go into this meeting, it's illegal. Secondly, because this I have such a short period of time here. I'm looking at the uh statement from the board of education that was put out on Friday and I have so many questions about that. First of all, the board I don't know who authorized it. I don't know who voted on it. I don't know who was in favor of it. It was certainly nothing discussed publicly. I assume you probably
011discussed it and closed. There's a tendency of this board historically to discuss things they shouldn't discuss and closed. I don't know if you did discuss it and closed. I don't know what exemption you're relying on. Um it's it's a statement you release publicly so it shouldn't have been discussed in closed meetings. Uh and you know the first the first sentence you contradict yourself. You say we're unable to comment directly on the recent allegations. And then in the same sentence you say, "But we believe they're unfounded." Well, you did comment on that. And you know, why did you send this out to every student and every parent in the district? You talk about putting the best the putting students first. You talk about in in this document that we're serving that we remain committed to the
012best interests of our students. And yet what this document did, it arrived unannounced in student email addresses as as my understanding in parent email addresses understanding. There were lots of discussions like what is this all about? What is this? It's was on social media. Was this something having to do with sexing or you know what is this? You've drugged the entire all the students in district 86 into a matter that should be reserved for board discussion. There's no reason that a ninth grader needs to hear about this. Um, so that frankly is colossally bad judgment. Um, in terms of uh the propriety of this, you say this the the allegations are unfounded and yet they're documented. The the the letter the the litigation hold letter was produced. the the allegations from the Levthal's lawyers and
013I don't remember the exact time frame those are all on on all all are on paper and documented. This board has done nothing nothing to refute any of those. We just say it's unfound it's unfounded and then we send it out to all the all all the students who have no idea what what what it even relates to. You know, you used the Levventhal student cho child to be a pawn to Tammy to fire Tammy Apprentice. And I I advise many of you that you had other grounds to do it because her extension by the held board was unlawful. The board did not uh certify that she had met her performance goals before they gave her a raise and extended her contract. You cannot do that under Illinois law. But apparently this board decided it
014was more expedient to use the uh improper and unlawful disclosure of student records by Tammy Prince. That that was a better way to do it. Um you didn't have to do that, but you you have not refuted anything that the Levventhalss have had to say. So, you know, this board likes to likes to do things kind of behind the scenes. We we we've had massive amounts of transparency violations and I don't have time to detail all those. Um, and you know this is open up. If you think the 11th's allegations are unfounded, tell the public why you think that. Don't just cram it into somebody's email by, you know, students, teachers, administrators. Frankly, you're coming close to calling the Levventhalss liars. You probably don't meet the test for death, the legal test for defamation, but
015everybody knows who you're talking about, and you're basically saying their allegations are unfounded. That's that's not quite defamatory as as a legal action, but it it's getting close. And then the other thing that I think is particularly offensive to me is you use taxpayerf funded infrastructure. You press a button and you can communicate to all students, all parents, all teachers, and everyone who subscribed to D86 emails. and you're giving them your particular point of view political issue in a in a in a dispute. And frankly, I don't think you should be doing that with taxpayer funded infrastructure. Let the schools run, let the superintendents, let the principles use the emails to the students. I don't think the board has to get involved in that. And frankly, in terms of fairness, you know, we have something
016that used to have called the fairness doctrine where if a broadcast media came out and gave their opinion on something, they had to have let the other side give their opinion. That was law. I'm not suggesting that it's applicable here, but I am suggesting that the principle should apply. you you've given a very one-sided thing and you've used something that taxpayers have paid for to do it to take your to your side and in fact your allegation that their allegations are unfounded have absolutely no basis. You haven't said anything about it. Their allegations are far more founded than the board's claim that they're unfounded. So, you know that this this is just this was colossally bad judgment and I personally would like to know who authorized this. I didn't see any vote. I didn't see
017any board member vote on it. So, so where did this come from? And how was it decided? I'm sure I've overextended my three minutes. Uh I I could have a lot more to say on a lot of issues. Um I won't I I I guess I will miss you mentioned last thing. When I looked at, you know, I'm an attorney. I've I've issued litigation hold letters. I've I've implemented litigation hold letters as a defense attorney. I've issued evidence preservation letters as a plaintist attorney and I will tell you I've I've done depositions and interrogatories and the precision of the language is very very important. When you're responding to interrogatories, you only answer the question and no more. And lawyers sweat every comma, every word meaning, every synonym. They know exactly what that language is. very
018very precise and I know Joe Powski as you all know I know he's a fine attorney and I know that he had complete understanding when he issued that litigation hold letter and there's even questions as to why that was necessary who was destroying any of the documents I think your your records retention policy probably said none of those documents were going to be destroyed anyway so that's kind of interesting but what's more interesting is when you Use Levthal as a search term. It captures other kids named Levanthal. Other children of Dan and Debbie Levventhalss. You cannot tell me for an instant that that wasn't intentional. Joe's a good lawyer. If a lawyer was that sloppy, he'd have to go back to law school. Joe knew exactly what he was doing. That was an intent to
019intimidate. And so with that, I could go on. I won't. Um, thank you for your time and attention. very very disturbing. And again, my position is you you might as well fold up your laptops and uh and and and call it a day because this is an unlawful illegal closed meeting if you go into it. Thank you. Um and with that, I I feel like it's appropriate for me to jump in. And actually, you're not right. And the reason I'm sorry, I didn't I'm sorry. I'm Alicia Frasier. I'm I'm one of the attorneys for Murphy Frasier. Okay. All right. I'll educate me. Yeah. And so there are many times what what the misconception is is that if people are going into executive session and they're not coming out to take action that they can't go
020in. There are many times you won't even see an executive session on the agenda. And as long as when that body goes in and they state the reason that they are going into executive session, they can do that as long as they aren't coming out and taking any action. So even if it's there will be many times and you can since you're doing research research some of the pack opinions that tell you that if executive session is not on an agenda but the board states when they're going in why they have to go in and they may say hey I got to give you this this update. I forgot to tell you this litigation matter the last demand was $75,000. I just needed you to know that I'm going to court. and then you come
021back out and you continue with your agenda as long as you're not taking action to approve that $75,000 settlement, you are okay. And you can't you can't take action in executive agenda as long as you state the reason you're going in. And I haven't seen that yet. Where is it? Where's the reason? Where's the exception? The cited exception. Where is it? You don't have to site it on the agenda. You can cite it when you're going in. We're not going We're not What's Okay. So what's the what's the answer? What's the citation? No, before you go out. So what I'm going to ask you is that I can you please just not interrupt me? I'm sorry. It's hard for the tape to listen to both of us. So if we're going to when we go
022into executive session, as many times as I've been here, it's always been stated why the board is going into executive session before they go into executive session. We're not at that point in the meeting yet. So once we go into executive session, that reason will be cited and the board isn't coming out and taking any action. And if they wanted to, I would tell them they couldn't because there's no action item on the agenda. I think I would uh I understand what you're saying. I would say that most lawyers would probably tell you that and and you're a specialist in the field. I'm not. But best practices would be, and I know my wife has has been on the 181 board for 10 years and been president several times, best practices is to state your
023exceptions on the agenda. I'm not saying you have to do it, but you leave the public guessing if you don't do that. So, I I understand and I get that and that's something that some boards do. Some boards will say they will state the exceptions on there, and sometimes they won't. Sure. Um, but as long as like I said, as long as there's no action being taken. Well, there can't be now. Yeah. When they come out, right? Correct. So, but every time you go in, yes, they know they've got a they've got a cycle and then next, you know, we'll do it, of course, tonight when we get ready to go in executive session. So, it'll be, you know, noted by the public. I I would say I I understand your points. Um, I would
024say that, you know, when the reason or the need for executive session arises during a meeting, sure, cite your exceptions and go into meeting at at at that time. If it's known from the get-go, that's there's nothing else on the agenda except executive session. Best practices would be to disclose what the exceptions are. And I'll leave it at that. Was there anybody? I don't think so. I don't know. We need to do that. May I have a motion to adjourn to close session for discusser discussion under exception 5CS122C2 collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees and 5CS 122C11 litigation when an action against affecting or on behalf of the particular public body has been filed and is
025pending before a court or administrative tribunal or when the public body finds that an action is probable or im imminent in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting. May I have a motion? So move second. Motion Waters second Raman. Is there any discussion? Devil will please call roll. Member Greenspun I. Member James I. Member Aris I. Member Cartunes. Can you hold on? She's Okay. Just We're going to close. Are you I or Nate? We're going in to She doesn't She wasn't. No, she Oh, she heard. Okay. No, she didn't. I just had to put She You need to So, wait, Heather. Yes. We're going under closed into closed under five2C2 and 5 ILCS 122 C11. Okay. Okay. We're doing roll call in your
026name. This got called. I. Member Roman. Hi. Member Walker. I. Member Waters. Hi. Motion carries 70. The board will now adjourn to close session. The board will not take action following the close session as detailed on our agenda. Yeah. Here we go. Yeah. Bye, Chase. The time is 6:46 p.m. and the board now reconvenes the open session of the May 1st, 2025 special meeting. With no further discussion, the May 1st, 2025 special meeting is adjourned at 6:46. Thank you.