No criminal charges will be filed against Naperville District 203 School Board member Melissa Kelley Black as a result of the eavesdropping complaint filed by the district with the Naperville Police Department and the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office.
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The complaint stemmed from comments Kelley Black publicly made at a June 2 meeting in which she alluded to recording a Citizens Finance Committee meeting in May. The committee is made up of five community members, two administrators and two board members and is not subject to the Open Meetings Act. Under state law, any participants would have to be told and agree to being recorded.
No charges will be filed and the investigation into the complaint is now closed, Naperville police Cmdr. Rick Krakow said. The department was unable to establish whether an audio recording was ever made, he said.
The attorney general’s office did not provide the department with an answer on whether the committee falls under the Open Meetings Act, Krakow said.
In July, Kelley Black denied any wrongdoing and said she did not engage in any unlawful conduct. Her actions have been consistent with her responsibilities as a board member, she said, and she believed the district was trying to intimidate her when it filed the charge that resulted in police officers coming to her home just before the school board’s self-evaluation session.
Speaking Wednesday, Kelley Black said her job as a board member is to take copious notes and she had an “extensive paper record” of the committee’s discussions that she showed to police, but not an audio recording.
Board President Charles Cush said the district provided the police with information based on the belief of “when you see something, say something.” An investigation would protect the integrity of the district, he said.
“This was not something that anybody on the board accused member Kelley Black of,” Cush said. “She made those statements publicly on her own. And this was simply creating an awareness (with) the appropriate authorities of someone who admitted to doing something that looked like it was illegal. (The district) put it in the hands of the appropriate individuals and let them handle it. Nobody on the board accused member Kelley Black of anything. It was based on her own self reporting.”
Cush said he can absolutely work with Kelley Black as colleagues on the board.
“We each ran for this office … because we felt we had something to contribute to the community,” he said. “Each of us has a right to the seat we are in because the community put us there, and that’s who we are there for.”
Kelley Black said she hopes to move past the issue and work alongside fellow board members to build better relationships. The volatile tone sometimes on display during board meetings is not something that should be modeled for students, Kelley Black said. People with differing viewpoints can be respectful when they disagree, she said.
“We are equals. We represent different voices,” she said. “We all lose when we fight. We are better when we get along.”
Kelley Black, elected to the board in 2023, has faced criticism from her fellow board members.
In January, the board voted to censure Kelley Black for “unprofessional conduct detrimental to District 203” after conducting six separate self-evaluations, asking the Regional Office of Education for guidance and issuing two private remedial directive letters.
According to the censure resolution, Kelley Black’s public statements on the district’s personnel and staffing needs harmed the district in ongoing bargaining negotiations. She was also accused of spreading false statements, disparaging the board and administration, and divulging confidential and privileged information learned during closed session.
Kelley Black has denied any wrongdoing.
Board members have also called Kelley Black out during meetings for not fulfilling her responsibilities to review the district’s bills and claims alongside the district’s finance staff. Each board member is part of a rotation in which they are required to examine district bills before they are brought to the board for approval.
While Kelley Black has been stripped of her committee and adopt-a-school assignments, she is still on the rotation to review bills although she says she’s made it clear she does not like the way the process is handled.
Kelley Black said she would like to be reissued adopt-a-school and committee assignments and has put out an open invitation to the district’s schools saying she wants to attend Home and School meetings and visit classrooms, events, clubs or programs with the advance approval of the district superintendent.
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Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.