As the Elgin School District U46 Board met Monday, the tensions that had surfaced between its two post-election factions remained mostly under control. But they came to the surface when several of the newly elected board members argued that they should have the right to listen to audio recordings of closed-session meetings held before they were on the board.
Under the Illinois Open Meetings Act, such “executive” sessions can be held only to talk about certain specific confidential topics, such as student expulsions and suspensions, employee evaluation and discipline, lawsuits, labor negotiations and land-purchase negotiations.
Minutes are written up based on the conclusions of each such meeting that are available only to board members, and those written minutes have been made available to the four new members who were elected on April 7. But during this week’s open meeting new member Jeanette Ward asked for the right also to listen to the audio recordings from before she, Cody Holt, Phil Costello and Sue Kerr were elected.
“All board member should have the ability to listen to past meetings so they can come up to speed with what’s going on,” Ward said. “When board members are elected, voters have given them the trust to look into past actions.”
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“I definitely agree,” said Holt.
“Getting up to speed without (listening to the recordings) could take a year,” Costello said.
But Traci O’Neal Ellis, who was reelected on April 7 after serving four years on the board, said she thinks that would be “overstepping the bounds.”
“If a personnel matter or a student disciplinary matter is over and done with, what is there to catch up to speed on?” Ellis asked.
Opinions on the question did not entirely split along either old/new lines or ideological lines. One of the newly elected people, Kerr, said that while she could see some advantages to allowing access in the case of something like a lawsuit that has not been resolved, she sees “privacy issues” in allowing full knowledge of past discussions about student and employee discipline. And one of the continuing board members, Veronica Noland, said that when she was first elected, she would have appreciated hearing about “how some decisions had come down” in closed sessions before she joined the board.
Chief Legal Officer Miguel Rodriguez said state law requires boards to keep executive-session recordings for at least 18 months, but after that the board usually votes to destroy them. He said he wasn’t sure how other school districts handle access by new board members.
Board President Donna Smith finally asked Rodriguez to research the issue and said it will be on the agenda for the next meeting.