Did Hinsdale D86 Official Violate Closed-Session Rule?

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale High School District 86 board member Asma Akhras' taking of notes from a closed session recording has come under scrutiny.

At the April 24 board meeting, she told her colleagues that she listened to the recording of a September 2023 closed meeting. She said she took five pages of notes.

She later emailed her statement to Patch.

After that, a public records request was filed for the "confidentiality acknowledgement" required to listen to a closed-session recording, as well as Akhras' notes.

This week, the district produced the acknowledgement for Akhras' listening of the recording. She was supervised by Deb Kedrowski, the administrative chief of staff. It lasted about an hour in the early evening of April 22.

The acknowledgement states that board members are not allowed to bring any recording or note-taking devices into the room where they listen to recordings.

Patch emailed Akhras on Wednesday, asking about whether any violation may have occurred with the note-taking. She did not respond.

As for the notes, the district said it had no such records. That calls into question whether Akhras took notes.

Any documents produced by board members in the course of their public duties are considered government records. Still, if the notes existed, the district could have legally declined to release them, citing exceptions to the open records law such as preliminary drafts and attorney-client privilege, among others.

Akhras spoke up at last month's meeting after the attorney for former board member Debbie Levinthal accused her of intimidation during the closed meeting in question.

The person who filed the public records request for the acknowledgement and notes was Deborah Weiss, Levinthal's lawyer.

After the release of the acknowledgement, Burr Ridge resident Yvonne Mayer, a longtime critic of the board, emailed the board and suggested Akhras be disciplined through a censure if she were found to have violated the confidentiality acknowledgement.

"Wouldn't it be easier and less costly to the D86 taxpayers if now that community members have raised a red flag about Ms. Akrhas' possible serious breach of closed session security protocols, that she simply provides a comprehensible public explanation, and if she did violate the protocol, just admit it, apologize for it, and promise not to do it again?" Mayer said.

She also questioned the contradiction between Akhras' public statement on note-taking and the district's assertion no such records exist.