Elmhurst D205 May Strike Deal With Employee

ELMHURST, IL – The Elmhurst school board plans to vote Thursday on an agreement with an employee, but the district is not identifying the employee or whether it has anything to do with questionable credit card spending.

The board has set a meeting for 4:30 p.m. at District 205's central office.

No closed session is planned during the meeting. But the board convened behind closed doors during a special session last week and intends to do so again during its regular meeting Tuesday.

It is unclear whether Thursday's meeting is connected to the credit card spending by Todd Schmidt, the district's former facilities director, who resigned Dec. 9.

A couple of weeks earlier, Schmidt was arrested in Rockford on felony charges, accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from his mother.

Schmidt racked up $46,000 in personal charges on his district credit card for things such as booze, cigars, restaurants, country clubs, airfare for his family and a sorority, according to public records.

He reimbursed the schools monthly with checks, essentially benefitting from short-term loans from the district. Under district policy, employees are barred from using their public credit cards for personal purposes, with no exceptions.

The district has declined to say who approved the spending, which tapered off in 2022. In response to Patch's public records request Monday, the district said it had no documents that indicate who signed off on Schmidt's expenses.

Schmidt's supervisor was Chris Whelton, assistant superintendent of finance, who appears to remain on the job.

A message to the district's spokeswoman, Tonya Daniels, on Tuesday afternoon was not immediately returned. Patch has filed a records request for the agreement.

After its vote Thursday, the district may release a formal statement, with the board president reading it while the other members keep their lips sealed. This is how the board has handled previous controversies.

Last month, the Elmhurst Police Department told Patch it would wait to see the results of the district's third-party audit on the credit card spending before deciding what it would do.