HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale High School District 86 is a rare government body that posts many of its responses to public records requests to an online log. So does Hinsdale School District 181.
Recently, though, District 86 removed all Freedom of Information Act responses before 2022. It’s unclear why. By contrast, District 181’s public records log goes back a decade.
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At a meeting of a school board committee earlier this week, resident Yvonne Mayer noted the quiet elimination of public documents from the website. Patch has left a message with the district’s spokesman about the issue.
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Two years ago, the district’s former law firm, Itasca-based Hodges Loizzi, proposed doing away with the log, saying it opened the district to unnecessary liability. A board majority opposed the idea.
During the debate, then-board member Debbie Levinthal said she “vehemently” disagreed with the log’s elimination. She said the portal contained a wealth of information that helped her do her job.
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Soon, District 86 may cut out the public from a wealth of other information online. A couple of months ago, the district transitioned to a new system for its meeting agendas and minutes, but the new arrangement only includes documents going back to November. The old system contains the records involved in the school board’s business going back to 2015.
In an email last week, the district’s spokesman, Alex Mayster, told Patch the older information “won’t be up forever, as we need to move away from that platform.”
Since Friday, Mayster has not responded to Patch’s inquiries about whether the district will find a place online for the years worth of records once the old system, known as BoardDocs, goes away.
Hinsdale District 181 has an online database of agendas and minutes dating back two decades. Elmhurst School District 205’s documents go back to 2008, while Lyons Township High School’s date back to 2019.
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