'Burden' Of Old Hinsdale D86 Records Explained

HINSDALE, IL – All but one member of the Hinsdale High School District 86 board on Thursday favored destroying the results of public records requests from 2013 to 2015.

The dissenting member called for a "pause" on such an action because of concerns over openness.

For years, the district has been unusually open in that it has posted online the results of most requests. But on New Year's Eve 2023, the district quietly removed a decade's worth of records from the website – a process it called "archiving."

It now says that every New Year's Eve, it will remove an additional year's worth of documents, so it would end up keeping the current year and the two previous calendar years. District 86 remains among only a handful of public bodies statewide that unveil most records requests online.

At Thursday's meeting, member Liz Mitha called for a "pause" in any destruction of records.

"I feel like this is a great opportunity to advocate for transparency," she said.

When told that the proposal complied with state law, Mitha didn't disagree.

"It's not a question of whether we are following the laws or recommendations. It's that the perception of the community matters a lot," she said.

Mitha asked about the cost of keeping the records.

In response, Deb Kedrowski, the district's records officer, said the "burden is the liability of maintaining records that you don't have to."

Member Bobby Fischer said he, too, wanted to be open. But he said a few people are driving an "enormous expense" for the district with their records requests.

"We're confusing a small number of people in the community for the community that wants to spend money on students," Fischer said.

Mitha said advocating for transparency was a good use of money for students. She said she still wanted to "put a pin" on the destruction proposal for the time being.

The other members, however, said the district should apply to the secretary of state to destroy the records in question.