Lyons Township High's Secret Plan To 'Spin' Land Deal

LA GRANGE, IL – For much of 2022, Lyons Township High School board members were privately told that selling the school's Willow Springs land to an industrial developer would anger neighbors.

They proceeded anyway.

In so doing, members followed the superintendent's advice: Keep the plan under wraps for as long as possible.

Such secrecy did not end well for the board. The attorney general later found the board's closed sessions before and after nine board meetings violated state law.

On Nov. 30, 2022, the board unveiled its plan to go out to bid for the 70-acre site, which is next to houses and an elementary school. Even then, members did not say anything about their desire to sell to an industrial buyer, Bridge Industrial. They even privately got an appraisal for industrial uses only.

The public found out about that desire in January 2023. And as predicted months earlier, an outcry ensued. Residents did not want industry next to their houses and the grade school.

They spoke of their opposition during meetings, while board members sat stone-faced. Months earlier, the board hired a public relations firm to prepare for the moment.

In spring 2023, the attorney general ordered the board to release recordings from its January 2023 closed sessions, which the board did. In November, the attorney general requested the audio from sessions before and after eight open meetings be disclosed. Again, the board complied.

Patch reviewed the latest infusion of nine hours of recordings.

The first closed session about the possible land sale was April 18, 2022. At the session, Superintendent Brian Waterman made no bones about what the board faced.

A month earlier, Bridge secretly offered $65 million for the land, although it had mistakenly added a few park district acres to its proposal. Under the Willow Springs code, industrial uses are banned for the area in question. But the board was assured Bridge believed it could get an exception.

The $65 million offer was considered a lot more than what the school could get from a residential or retail developer.

Waterman, who became superintendent less than a year earlier after serving as principal, advised the board to expect a "major community backlash" from Willow Springs residents. He noted a previous sale effort that failed more than 15 years earlier.

Asked what a sale would do to neighboring property values, Brian Stachacz, the school's top finance official, told members, "Generally speaking, if you put some sort of industrial facility there or warehouse, it's not going to raise their property values, let's put it that way."

'Bigger side of our community'

The proceeds, officials said, would be spent on improving the high school's two campuses. They also said the interests of the entire high school area should be taken into account, not just one particular town.

As for an industrial development, then-board member Dawn Aubert said, "The bigger side of our community won't be directly impacted," likely referring to La Grange, La Grange Park and Western Springs.

When the plan became known in January 2023, Willow Springs residents argued the board, which had no members south of Joliet Road, failed to look out for their area. They said the board would never entertain an industrial facility next to, say, La Grange's Cossitt Elementary School.

During the April 2022 session, Waterman advised the board to tell no one about the idea of selling the land. He said he considered calling a couple of former superintendents about the land, but thought better of it.

"I think a lot of people would know immediately," he said.

Attorney Ares Dalianis, whose firm was ousted after the attorney general's first ruling, backed up Waterman. He said the board did not have to reveal anything until it put an item on the public agenda to sell the land.

In later closed meetings, Waterman would pass out documents about the land to members, but then pick them up after adjournment, saying he did not want them to "float" around.

In the closed meetings, Dalianis cited the provision in the state Open Meetings Act that allows a public body to set the price of real estate behind closed doors.

The attorney asserted anything connected to the sale could stay secret. For instance, the board held a closed discussion about hiring a consultant to project the school's long-term enrollment.

The board wanted the study to show that enrollment would remain flat. If that were the case, the school did not need the Willow Springs property, which it bought 60 years ago for a third campus.

Waterman asked for verbal authorization from the board to hire the consultant. He said he feared a public vote may tip off residents that a land sale may happen.

The board gave its blessing.

'Fewer people in circle'

Throughout the closed meetings, members repeatedly indicated they favored secrecy. For example, member Jill Beda Daniels urged her colleagues to find a positive way to present the land sale.

"That's why you need a PR person to spin it – to make it positive for people," she said, adding she did not want to "tip anyone off."

Waterman agreed that hiring a PR firm was a "must."

At one meeting, then-member Julie Swinehart said, "The fewer people in the circle, the better for now."

Waterman added, "Once it's out, it's out."

The school board has blamed the lawyer for the Open Meetings Act violations.

Through a school spokesperson, board President Jill Grech responded Wednesday to Patch's inquiry from last week, saying she was speaking on behalf of the board. The superintendent, the attorney and other board members did not respond to messages.

"(I)nformation that could have negatively impacted a potential sale at the time was withheld publicly as is normal in real estate transactions of this nature," Grech said. "Due to the fiduciary responsibilities of the Board to the entire (high school) community as a whole, the Board needed to consider all options for a land sale."

The board, Grech said, "acted and reacted" based on the advice from the lawyer and public relations firm at the time.

In January 2023, two developers submitted bids for the land, with Bridge ahead at $55 million.

But after the uproar, the board pulled the plug on the effort in March 2023, just weeks ahead of the board election. The two incumbents running were re-elected.

The board is still looking to sell the land, but not to an industrial developer. It has held discussions in public.

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