Elmhurst School Board Closes Doors 44% Of Time

ELMHURST, IL – Elmhurst school board members have spent more than 40 percent of their time together in closed-door meetings over the last six months.

Since July, the board spent nearly nine hours in open sessions and more than seven hours in closed meetings, according to a Patch analysis. The doors were closed 44 percent of the time.

Patch left a message for comment Monday with the board's president, Athena Arvanitis.

In July, Patch reported that the Elmhurst School District 205 board spent more of its time behind closed doors in the previous year than six other government bodies surveyed, including two school boards.

Under the state's Open Meetings Act, public bodies are only allowed to meet in closed session for limited purposes. Among them are discussions about specific personnel, union negotiations, the sale of real estate, private student matters and litigation.

The law bars a majority of a public body's members from meeting to discuss public business outside an advertised meeting.

In the first half of 2025, the Elmhurst school board held closed sessions discussing a credit card scandal involving Todd Schmidt, the former facilities director.

Publicly, though, school officials have said little. Nearly all the information that Patch has obtained has been through public records requests.

Just last week, an Elmhurst police report revealed that the district suspects Todd Schmidt used district trucks for personal commutes to his Rockford house.

The report also disclosed that some employees had been "exempt from oversight" for their credit card spending.

If board members have discussed these matters, they have done so behind closed doors, keeping the information away from taxpayers.

The attorney general handles complaints about violations of the open meetings law.

In 2019, the attorney general found the Elmhurst school board violated state law when it held a closed session to discuss its contentious negotiations with the city of Elmhurst for an agreement over stormwater projects and tax increment financing districts.

A year earlier, the board talked about an administrative reorganization behind closed doors. That, too, broke state law, the attorney general said.

The attorney general's findings in both cases were in response to complaints from a watchdog, Edgar Pal.