Elmhurst School Board Often Closes Doors

ELMHURST, IL – The Elmhurst school board has met behind closed doors more than 40 percent of the time in the last year.

That was the highest rate among six government bodies that Patch surveyed.

During the last year, the Elmhurst School District 205 board met for 42 hours.

At least 43 percent of the time was spent in closed sessions. The percentage is likely much higher because the board's records did not document the length of six closed sessions, so those meetings were uncounted in Patch's analysis.

By comparison, the boards for Hinsdale High School District 86 and Lyons Township High School were both just under 30 percent.

The Elmhurst City Council and the La Grange Village Board were at 18 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

The Darien City Council was the lowest, at 1 percent. Of its 29 hours of meetings in the last year, just 21 minutes were spent in a single closed session.

Patch asked Athena Arvanitis, the Elmhurst school board's president, about the reason for its closed sessions.

In an email Wednesday, Arvanitis said the district had experienced "a few moments in the last year warranting more board discussion in closed session."

She did not identify those moments. But she may have been referring to the facilities director, Todd Schmidt. In early December, Schmidt resigned shortly after being accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from his mother.

After that, Patch reported Schmidt used his government credit card to spend about $50,000 for such things as booze, cigars, restaurant meals, groceries, airfare, and payments to sororities and country clubs.

Over the next couple of months, the board held closed meetings before entering a severance agreement with Schmidt's supervisor, Chris Whelton, assistant superintendent of finance.

Arvanitis also indicated the board's open meetings may be shorter now.

"(W)e have been working to deliver focused and concise presentations to the Board, which may be resulting in fewer meeting minutes," she said.

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.

Under the law, a majority of a public body's members cannot meet to discuss public business outside an advertised meeting.

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

In 2019, 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's findings in both cases were in response to complaints from a watchdog, Edgar Pal.

Pal also got a favorable ruling from the attorney general when he complained that the Elmhurst City Council broke state law in 2020 when it discussed a nursing home's special use permit in closed session.

In 2023, the Hinsdale High School District 86 board decided behind closed doors to suspend the superintendent. Patch filed a complaint, contending the action should have been taken publicly. A year later, the attorney general sided with Patch.

In 2022 and 2023, the Lyons Township High School board met repeatedly in closed session about selling its land in Willow Springs to an industrial developer. When that became apparent, residents complained. The attorney general found the board broke state law. In response, the board released the closed session recordings.