"It doesn't have a good look to it," said one of the school board's supporters.
Patch Staff
|Updated Fri, Oct 11, 2024 at 2:07 pm CT
DARIEN, IL – A pair of allies of the Hinsdale High School District 86 board on Wednesday questioned the elimination of nearly a decade's worth of public records from the district's website.
The district is a rare public body that posts online the responses to most Freedom of Information requests. It's a tradition that goes back to 2013.
Recently, though, the district eliminated all the records from before 2022.
At Wednesday's board meeting, a member defended the decision, pointing to a policy committee meeting from August 2023. However, no one during that session suggested wiping away most of the online files.
Resident Linda Burke, who has publicly supported the board on most issues, recommended "flipping the switch" to bring the old records back online.
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"I'm suggesting the board take care to avoid even the appearance of holding back information that the public is entitled to," Burke told the board. "I'm concerned with the erasure of a vast amount of FOIA material. I don't know the rationale for it. I'm not a lawyer, but it doesn't have a good look to it."
Kim Notaro, a Hinsdale resident who staunchly backs the board, also questioned the decision. She said she attended the August 2023 policy committee meeting.
"We ask for an awful lot of data, and I do kind of want it back,” she said. "It would be nice if that (information) was forward-facing for everyone and not necessarily have it in the FOIA log. That would help a lot."
For her part, member Peggy James defended what happened. She noted the policy committee, which she heads, discussed the public records request process. During that meeting, she suggested creating archives for the records.
"The full committee agreed and provided guidance to the administration to review the FOIA log for continuous improvement opportunities and to archive older requests," James said.
A review of the August 2023 recording shows that most of the discussion involved which information to black out in records.
At one point, James said she was open to the district finding ways to streamline the process. She also noted a staffer said the requests go back to 2013.
"Maybe there's an archive possibility of information if that's an appropriate method," she said.
Then-member Kay Gallo said decisions related to the public records process do not need to come back to the board.
At the time, James did not indicate that she meant older record requests should be removed from the website.
In a recent email to Patch, District 86 spokesman Alex Mayster wrote, "In August of 2023, we developed a procedure for the FOIA log that includes displaying responses from the present year, as well as two years prior."
During Wednesday's meeting, Yvonne Mayer, a board critic, said she filed a public records request for all FOIA log information before 2022. She said she expected to be denied, with the district likely labeling her request as "unduly burdensome."
"That will be a damn shame if all you have to do is flip a switch and return everything back to the public FOIA log – public records that were requested by the public and now they're gone," Mayer said.
It remains a mystery who made the call to wipe away most of the archive. Patch has filed a public records request in an attempt to find out.
In an email to Patch on Thursday, James said she listened to the August 2023 discussion and that people discussed the limitations of the public records log.
"The prior FOIAs have been archived, not erased," James said. "My understanding is that the administration is working on a communication related to the archived FOIAs."