D-102 Official Gets No Money For Testing Program: Records

LA GRANGE, IL — La Grange School District 102 has spent $307,000 on its coronavirus testing program since last semester.

None of that money has gone to school board member Ed Campbell, who has played a big role in starting the program, according to district records. That includes his company, SafeGuard Screening LLC.

La Grange Patch filed a public records request for information on who is getting paid as a result of the testing.

The biggest recipient is New England Bio Labs,$137,787. Coming in second is Campbell's employer, Loyola University Chicago, receiving $63,849.

In response to the request, the district stated no money has gone to Safeguard Screening or anyone affiliated with the organization. In response to a Patch inquiry in early December, Superintendent Kyle Schumacher said the same thing.

"The lab and work in 102 has been used a model for what can be done," Schumacher said.

Also in early December, Campbell, who teaches immunology and microbiology at Loyola, responded to Patch's inquiry in an email.

"(SafeGuard) is not associated with what the district is doing, and I have not been compensated in any way by 102 for starting up their program, nor any work I've done to ensure that two neighboring districts (105 and 96) could also run tests out of that facility," said Campbell, who is in his first term as a board member.

He explained Loyola made expenditures on behalf of the district with some of the same vendors in the first stage of the program, which explains the $63,000. Loyola had accounts with the vendors, he said.

"If you are an established customer, these companies will ship thousands of dollars worth of supplies or equipment tomorrow. If you have never ordered from them before, it is more of a process, and we didn't have that kind of time," he said in a message to Patch.

Campbell said he created SafeGuard because District 102 could only handle so much testing. The number of outside districts interested in surveillance testing far exceeded the ability of the District 102 facility to accommodate them, he said.

"Our company is working with a number of special needs schools and nursing homes that reached out to me when they heard about our program, as well as other districts like 102," Campbell said.

He said he and his partners invested $200,000 in the company, with the knowledge that a vaccine or a $5 "lick and stick" could put them out of business at any moment.

District 102 had offered a blend of in-person and remote learning since the beginning of the school year.

Campbell is credited with training the staff on how to handle the testing. Because it's all done in-house, it's saving the district money, Schumacher told Patch in December.

The tests give an indication of "significant clinical findings," not an absolute determination that a person is positive for the coronavirus, Schumacher said. Those who show such findings are quarantined for 10 days as if they test positive.

The test is saliva-based, involving spitting into a tube, with no nasal swabs required.

Since the beginning of the school year, the testing program has yielded 59 significant clinical findings, according to district data. No false positives have been reported.

District 102, which serves elementary and middle school students, has an enrollment of more than 3,000. Board members are unpaid in Illinois.

Here's how much each organization has received from La Grange School District 102 in relation to the coronavirus testing program: