Double Down On Secrecy, Lyons Township High Advised

LA GRANGE, IL – By late February 2023, the Lyons Township High School board had endured weeks of criticism over its secretive effort to sell the school's Willow Springs land to an industrial developer.

Behind closed doors, the superintendent called the previous month a "s---show."

So the board turned to its public relations professionals for advice at its first of two closed sessions on Feb. 21, 2023.

In short, the PR team told members to err on the side of giving little information – "less is more," one professional said.

In early January, the board opened bids for the 70 wooded acres next to houses and an elementary school in Willow Springs. Two industrial buyers took part.

For the better part of a year, Superintendent Brian Waterman was in backroom talks with one of the developers, Bridge Industrial. In spring 2022, the firm had secretly offered $65 million for the land, though it mistakenly included acres that the school did not own.

Bridge ended up being the low bidder in January 2023, at the board's minimum price of $55 million. The public then realized that the school was seeking industrial development, which was contrary to Willow Springs zoning. Residents objected.

Four days before the February 2023 meeting, the other bidder, San Francisco-based Prologis, increased its offer to $60.5 million, from $46.5 million.

During an hour-long closed session, board members grappled with what to tell the public at the open meeting to follow. They wondered what the board's president, Kari Dillon, should say about the Prologis offer.

Connected to the meeting by phone was Jerry Gallagher. He is a former news anchor who is a partner at The Donovan Group, a public relations firm.

Also attending was Mary Lin Muscolino, the school's in-house director of community relations.

Gallagher, whose firm was getting $4,000 a month from the school, suggested saying nothing.

"Almost anything you say tonight, which has to be benign, would be construed as empty words, and so until you have news to share, I really wouldn't say anything," he said.

"I would second that," Muscolino said. "How does it benefit the board from the lens of the community? The more you say the same thing over and over, it conveys you're not really confident in what you're saying."

The board, she said, was being "highly scrutinized" and that any words it uses would be "manipulated" and "twisted."

She advised the board to say it was listening and that it appreciated the feedback.

"I think if we go past that on any level, you're opening up the door for just more scrutiny that is not going to benefit anyone right now," Muscolino said. "It's just too hot of a topic."

Gallagher agreed.

"The people in the room tonight want to use your words against you," he said, referring to the public. "To some degree, this is a situation that less is more. Transparency is not a one-size-fits-all-type situation. There are times when you are fully transparent. There are times you can't be, until this is news you can share legally."

He did not explain why the board could not legally reveal the Prologis offer.

Muscolino advised the board to avoid mentioning that the discussion on the land needed to be in closed session.

"I think that would aggravate people," she said. "I don't think they would take it and hear it for what your intended purpose is. I think they would manipulate it and say that you're trying to defer information to justify not being transparent. I don't see the win there for the board."

In two decisions, the attorney general later found the board broke the law in closing the doors in a dozen sessions about the land.

After the Feb. 21 closed session, Dillon, the board's president, followed the PR team's advice. She gave a short statement about how members were listening to comments about the Willow Springs site. She said nothing about the Prologis offer.

The board released information about the offer a month later. That was after it had abandoned its effort to sell the property to an industrial buyer.

Under state law, the board was allowed to hold closed sessions for the limited purpose of setting the price of the land. But members went far afield, even discussing enrollment studies, the school's long-term building renovation plan and future bond sales.

After the attorney general's latest ruling in October, the board blamed its former law firm Franczek for the violations. The firm's attorney, Ares Dalianis, attended all but one of the meetings in question.

The board replaced Franczek after the attorney general's first ruling in 2023.

Before the closed meetings, board members had undergone training in the Open Meetings Act, which governs closed sessions.

In the more than 10 hours of closed meetings, no one ever questioned whether the board could legally discuss such matters outside public view.

At the attorney general's request, the school board released the closed session recordings in December.

Recordings of the closed sessions are available on the "Neighbors of Pleasantdale" YouTube page.