Hinsdale D86 Legal Bills May Fuel Criticism

HINSDALE, IL – The president of the Hinsdale High School District 86 board has discussed "pending student matters" with the district's attorneys, which may further fuel criticism that she is micromanaging day-to-day affairs.

President Catherine Greenspon's contacts with the attorneys also appear to contradict comments made at a board meeting last year.

Last year, the board enacted a policy that gave the board president, an unpaid elected official, a greater role in the district's dealings with its law firms.

A year ago, Greenspon's predecessor, Erik Held, joined in the criticism of her involvement with the attorneys.

In a June 2024 email to the board, Held, who left as board president a year earlier, said, "I personally blocked more than a few requests from board members who wanted to know more and more student information, including going to attorneys, and in the process, they would be uncovering student-identified information."

At a meeting shortly after, Greenspon asked Kari Smith, assistant superintendent of student services, whether board members have "requested student information or to sit in or been informed about private student matters."

Smith responded, "There's not been a request to sit in on student meetings with myself or the attorneys."

That may have been the case then, but recently released records indicate the practice has changed.

In six cases between last December and February, Greenspon was involved in contacts with representatives of the Oak Brook-based Engler law firm, which specializes in special education matters.

Those communications mostly involved teleconferences. The law firm's invoices said the subject was "pending student matters."

With the district's other attorney, the Evergreen Park-based Odelson law firm, Greenspon in January reviewed "select student records."

Greenspon and Superintendent Michael Lach did not return Patch's emailed message for comment on Monday.

From December to February, the invoices listed Greenspon as having 102 contacts with the law firms, compared with Lach's 86.

The district originally blacked out the information from the invoices showing which officials communicated with attorneys, a departure from past practice. This happened after the district switched law firms.

Former school board member Debbie Levinthal's husband, Daniel Levinthal, who had sought the invoices, complained to the attorney general. He alleged the redactions violated the state's Freedom of Information Act.

In June, the attorney general agreed. The district then released the records with fewer redactions.

In March, the school board approved an $80,000 settlement with the Levinthal family. Daniel Levinthal later said the district violated their parental rights as well as the student privacy of all three of their children in the district.

He said Greenspon used his son's private student records as legal leverage in the ouster of then-Superintendent Tammy Prentiss.