Lessons Learned from the School Board — the Hard Way.

By: Debra Rade

CHAPTER THREE — Transparency and documentation.

As indicated from the outset, this report is about holding our Board of Education and its individual members accountable for their leadership of Township High School District 113 in Highland Park and Deerfield. Ultimately, in carefully following the facts, readers should be able to identify lessons learned to help ensure the success of District 113's mission. It is essential to focus on "the tone at the top" and to evaluate the Board of Education's performance from beginning to end in the actual scenario that the report details. 

This report is not about resurrecting allegations against a principal and two assistant principals that are long gone from District 113. To focus on them as individuals is a distraction. Yet, there are people responding to this blog on social media who dispute the facts, without providing any facts in rebuttal, or who will admit the facts may be true, but even so, they would have you think that the the document destruction by these school administrators are no longer relevant. As a result, posting these documents today, along with further comment, is necessary.

This report is primarily intended to provide transparency and constructive discourse in the community about our School Board's performance and relationship with the community. Hopefully, it will help enable existing and future members of the School Board to improve a governance system that is evidently sorely lacking, These improvements are for the betterment of our children’s education. They will also help foster a better environment for administrators, teachers, staff, and contractors who are essential resources in achieving the mission of District 113.

Transparency is a key element of sound management in business, not for profits, and government. Yet, there was no transparency when only a select group of people in Highland Park and Deerfield were aware of the existence of the major document destruction in June 2017. The thousands of documents that each of the perpetrators discarded included personal student documents that District 113 is required to keep, and entrusted to keep private, as well as their own personal documents that should not have been in the school district's records in the first place (but, yes, many people clog their emails at work with personal correspondence). District 113 owned all of these documents.

The School Board was aware of the theft from the outset. It does not appear that the matter was ever referred to the Highland Park police. Identifying the missing records required a lot of work by various administrators and staff. Even still, nothing was reported to the community, not a word of it communicated outside of an inner circle. The City of Highland Park also assigns a council member to serve as liaison to the District 113 who must report the City Council as a whole, but it does not appear that the liaison was welcome to attend special closed meetings (at least, not the one reported on here). It would be reasonable to inquire of our City Council how many of them knew about these facts, but in an "unofficial" capacity.

The Whistleblower Letter called it what it was — a cover up. There appears to have been an inner circle that knew all the details — the School Board, Anthony Loizzi, and Superintendent Digman. Of those three, there was only one person dedicated to holding the perpetrators accountable, Superintendent Digman.  It appears from details in the Whistleblower Letter that the Superintendent was shackled by the Board from disclosing the information, moving forward in cooperation with the Lake County State's Attorney's investigation, and penalized.

There was also a relatively wider circle of people in the school system who knew all about this incident, as well as what the School Board did and didn't do to hold people accountable. One might say that the fact that administrators, staff and teachers learned that there was this major wrongdoing, and that the School Board didn't hold anyone accountable for it, may be even more egregious than the criminal destruction of property. This leaves a lasting impression on the school's governance.

Imagine how administrators, teachers and staff feel when they go to work in an environment where they are too scared to report wrongdoing because they reasonably fear they will be the next person to be fired for doing the right thing. The community should be grateful to the Whistleblowers for ultimately disclosing facts that would have otherwise been buried. 

 

To those who think this is all water under the bridge and irrelevant, there is, in fact, a case currently pending, in 2022, now, in Federal Court, filed by Amy Burnetti, a former District 113 assistant principal. In this litigation, Ms. Burnetti claims, in part, that she was fired in retaliation for providing evidence and testimony to assist with the investigation into the June 2017 destruction of school records, as well as in retaliation for another compliance matter which is not part of this report (readers are encouraged to read the complaint).

In July 2017, when the School Board would have been notified of the document destruction, these were the members of the Board of Education:

Michelle Culver, President

Elizabeth Garlovsky

Julie Gordon

Debra Hymen

Alena Laube

Stacey Meyer

David Small

In 2019, the Lake County State’s Attorney was prepared to move ahead with its investigation and prosecution for the alleged crimes. They reached out to confirm that the School District would fully cooperate. The LCSA and members of his office told me, in one of several meetings, that without the School Board's cooperation, his office could not have a successful prosecution and the matter would be dropped. In 2019, the following people served as elected officials on the District 113 School Board:

Elizabeth Garlovsky, President

Stacey Meyer, Vice President

Gayle Byck

Michelle Culver

Debra Hymen

Alena Laube

Ken Fishbain

On March 20, 2019, there was a Special Board of Education Meeting (minutes of meeting), all board members in attendance. Also attending that meeting was Anthony Loizzi, of the HLERK law firm. The closed session included, as an agenda item, the “appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the District or legal counsel for the District, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity. 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(1).”

It is reasonable to assume (but, for obvious reasons —this was a closed meeting —this has not yet been confirmed) that the School Board discussed the Lake County State's Attorney's investigation on March 20, 2019.  On March 22, 2019, Anthony Loizzi issued a "no harm-no foul" letter to the State's Attorney.  In that letter, he told the LCSA that  ..."since the inception of this matter, [the School Board had] no interest in pursuing any criminal charges or further criminal investigation against the former administrators."

If the purpose of the Closed Meeting at the Special Board of Education Meeting was to discuss the Lake County State's Attorney's criminal investigation against three former employees of the District, this raises the significant possibility that the School Board violated the Open Meetings Act that evening. Indeed, it is likely that this matter was discussed at, at least, several Closed Meeting of the Board of Education after the incidents took place in June 2017. There may have been numerous violations of the Open Meetings Act. 

The primary purpose of the Open Meetings Act is to "ensure that the actions of public bodies be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly," so it would seem unlikely that it would protect discussions about former employees. All three of the administrators alleged to have committed the document destruction were former employees before the school ever discovered that the documents were missing. On its face, the Open Meetings Act appears to provide confidentiality only for current employees. 

At long last, to those who have questioned the facts in Lessons Learned from the School Board, the are provided below, accessible through their links to Google Documents. All documents were acquired through FOIA requests to District 113 and the Lake County State’s Attorney’s office (some of the FOIA requests had to be appealed up through the Attorney General's office). Any redactions (some in white, some in black) were made by the FOIA officers, ostensibly in compliance with FOIA law.

Robbins Schwartz letter to Lake County States Attorney, Michael G. Nerheim, dated December 6, 2017: “Given the severity of the conduct at issue (thousands of documents are involved), we are referring this matter to the Lake County State's Attorney to review and determine the proper course of action and whether any criminal investigations or prosecutions should be commenced. Please contact me with any questions you may have.”

 

Records involved in Record Destruction HPHS 2017

Grand Jury Subpoena January 2018

Anthony J. Loizzi letter to Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office, dated March 22, 2019 "..the Board wishes to inform the Lake County State's Attorney's office that it believes it did not suffer any harm from the former administrators' conduct, and, as has been the case since the inception of this matter, it has no interest in pursuing any criminal charges or further criminal investigation against the former administrators."

Links to all chapters of this report:

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two 

Chapter Three  

Chapter Four
Chapter Five

 

About the author of the Down the Drain in HP blog:

Debra Rade is a practicing lawyer, has served as an independent director on the board of a publicly traded global testing and certification company, and is a former c-suite executive in global company. For more than 20 years, Debra taught ethics and professional responsibility as an adjunct professor at a top tier law school. A lifelong resident of Highland Park, IL, Debra blogs from time to time about serious matters that arise in the community. 

Readers may contact Debra: debra.rade@gmail.com

 

Lessons Learned from the School Board — the Hard Way.

By DEBRA RADE

CHAPTER TWO -- Criminal Acts and Cover Ups

 

Readers are reminded that Chapter One reviewed the preliminary part of the Whistleblower Letter sent to Gerry Meister and me in October 2018 — “Background and Overview.” That section focused on the results of an initial independent investigation conducted by Robbins Schwartz in 2016. As a result of that investigation, School Board of Township School District 113 directed Superintendent Christopher Dignam to issue a “Confidential Memorandum and Final Warning Resolution” to the Highland Park High School (HPHS) Principal who had intentionally falsified a school report and submitted it to the State of Illinois. The Resolution was issued in July 2016, and included a five-day, unpaid suspension as the primary reprimand.

The Principal returned to the job and continued in his position throughout the next academic year. In March 2017, he announced his departure from District 113 at the end of the school year 2017 and that he had accepted a job as principal at a nearby high school.

 

Reasonable minds might differ on the appropriate discipline of a principal for any variety of possible non-compliance or malfeasance. People might disagree on whether a principal, or a superintendent, should ever be disciplined with an unpaid suspension — if it was conduct egregious enough to be suspended, it may be conduct bad enough to be worthy of termination. In any event, intentionally falsifying records is a significant act, violates Illinois law, and goes to the very core of character. Yet, this report would likely have never been written if the saga stopped at this point.

 

The Whistleblowers did not mince words about what happened next: “Criminal Acts and Cover Ups.” This next section of the Whistleblower Letter alleges wrongdoing the following year, in June 2017, not just by the Principal, but also by Assistant Principal No. 1 (AP#1) and Assistant Principal No. 2 (AP#2) who departed District 113 at the same time. What followed next appears to be a coordinated, conspiratorial event among this group of former District 113 administrators. There is no intention to protect these individuals by not referring to them by name. Rather, this report is about holding the School Board accountable, not about school administrators who are long gone from District 113.  

Before starting to read the section of alleged “Criminal Acts and Coverups,” please remember:

 

This report is based on allegations from the Whistleblower Letter. Even though some allegations are confirmed in supportive documents, readers are reminded that, ultimately, no one mentioned in this report has ever been charged with an alleged crime(s) or convicted of one.

 

 

The Whistleblowers provided detailed, serious allegations:

 

• “On June 30, 2017, what would turn out to be one of the worst acts of vandalism and destruction of school district property and record destruction in Illinois history by employed principals was discovered by incoming principal Liz Robertson… “

 

• “In June 2017 (between approximately June 12 - 28), [Principal, AP#1, and AP#2] destroyed tens upon tens of thousands of pages of public documents (threw them in the dumpster and removed documents/files/materials from HPHS's property) upon resigning from District 113. They destroyed district property and records and left their offices almost 100% empty with nothing in them for the new principal and assistant principals.

 

• “[AP#2] also destroyed and trashed 44,555 emails and went into the district's server and deleted and trashed 1,233 documents and the district's Google drive and deleted and trashed 1,007 electronic documents. These criminal acts were memorialized as "electronic trail" evidence and their identification and retrieval was performed and attested to by district witnesses…”

 

• “When the acts of destruction, vandalism, and theft were discovered and documents could not be found, the new HPHS administration and superintendent Dignam reported it to the board of education. Both [AP#1’s] office and [AP#2’s] office were next to completely empty. [Principal’s] office was almost completely empty. New principal Liz Robertson found student records in the recycle bin in the principal's office. One set of records was for a student who had hired an attorney regarding a discipline matter and another for a student who experienced a … injury during a football game …[details deleted for privacy reasons] and was still experiencing the physical effects of the injury ([their] files were destroyed and thrown away). The student's medical records were in the trash along with some notes but the vast majority (95%) of the student's entire file was destroyed…”

 

• “The empty offices, documents in the recycle bin and the retrieval of materials from the compactor were all memorialized in video and still images. The actual removal of documents from the assistant principals' offices in a gondola to be placed in the garbage compactor was also captured in security video footage. In addition, [AP#2] was captured on security cameras removing two enormous cartloads of documents, files, etc. to [their] automobile. These were all property and work products of the district.”

 

• “By the end of September/early October 2017, the superintendent, the superintendent’s assistant…, and [other, remaining] HPHS principals had sorted and organized the materials from the compactor. This was work that should have never had to be performed by senior school leaders and took time away from them performing normal, expected duties, not those as the result of criminal misconduct performed by former principals/administrators.”

 

• “In November 2017, [Superintendent Christopher Dignam] reported to the board yet again about the crimes and vandalism committed and informed the board of education that he would be hiring an independent law firm to once again handle a matter due to Tony Loizzi's conflict of interests. Robbins Schwartz would be handing the reporting of potential crimes to the state's attorney. The law firm would be providing an impartial review and identifying any statutes that were broken to protect the district and community. In addition, if statutes were broken the superintendent reported to the board he fully intended on pressing charges and reporting it the police and ISBE (the Illinois State Board of Education) and ROE (the Regional Office of Education). Board members [Julie] Gordon, [Debra] Hymen, [Stacey] Myer [sic], and [Elizabeth] Garlovsky were not supportive and very unhappy that the superintendent was moving forward with investigating the incident. Dr. Dignam informed the board he "was not asking for permission" as he believed ‘crimes were committed and had to retain the law firm and report the findings.’”

 

• In December 2017, Robbins Schwartz determined several crimes may have been committed and statutes violated and eventually referred the matter to the States Attorneys Office for an investigation.

 

• “An independent law firm (other than the district's firm HLERK) had to be hired because [Principal] is friends with the district's law firm attorney, Mr. Tony Loizzi, who used to also be an employee at the district (he was the district's HR director). Mr. Loizzi was and still is to this day, conflicted. He is a former employee and has multiple conflicts of interest with his position.”
  
  
• “On January 16, 2018, District 113 received a Grand Jury Subpoena from the Lake County States Attorney’s Office for documents related to the acts of vandalism and destruction of public records/document.”

 

The Whistleblowers provided a list of laws that they considered relevant to the destruction of District 113’s records: [all will be hyperlinked]

 

• Illinois Criminal Code – Tampering with Public Records (720 ILCS 5/32-8)
• Illinois Criminal Code – Theft (720 ILCS 5/16-1)
• Illinois Criminal Code – Criminal Damage to Government Supported Property (720 ILCS 5/21-1.01)
• Illinois Criminal Code – Official Misconduct (720 ILCS 5/33-3); and,
• Local Records Act (50 ILCS 205/1 et seq.)

 

They did not mention other laws that may have been violated, including federal and state privacy laws such as FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), HIPAA Privacy and Illinois School Student Records Act 105 ILCS 10.

 

The Whistleblowers now had my full attention. Next steps were clear. I arranged to meet with the Lake County States Attorney’s office to hand over the Whistleblower Letter and register a complaint as a resident of Highland Park.

Links to other chapters of this report:
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Three
Chapter Four


PS Some readers are asking how to subscribe to my blog posts. Frankly, this Google platform is old and they removed some functionality since the last time I posted -- that had an excellent subscription widget. Not sure how well the new widget works but, please do try it. Also, you can find my direct email address here.

 

Lessons Learned from the School Board — the Hard Way.

 

CHAPTER ONE — The Whistleblower Letter Arrives from A. Friend

(Click to read Prologue here)

On October 18, 2018, a letter was posted to Mr. Gerry Meister, an outspoken critic of the Township High School District 113 (District 113) School Board, particularly with regard to spending tax funds. An architect, Gerry is known to ask questions and express concerns about the bricks and mortar of our schools -- how they are maintained, renovated, razed, rebuilt or built, as well as how the budgets for projects are managed. Gerry is one of the trio who brought the "Cash & Carry" abuses to my attention.

The return address on the envelope read “Andrew Friend, 1040 Barry Bolek West, Highland Park, IL 60035”. Of course, this was not a real person (think, "A. Friend") or real address (the address incorporating the name of treasurer/CFO Bolek of the School District into the street name of the location of the administrative offices on Park Ave. West). The letter it contained was directed to me and Gerry, even though a copy was never addressed to my home. Gerry delivered a copy to me. 

This was a powerful whistleblower letter making serious allegations. The authors (the Whistleblowers) displayed genuine and reasonable fear of losing their jobs in retaliation by the School Board and certain administrators. The letter was divided in sections, the first read: “District 113 Cover Up of Very Recent Crimes.” Following are excerpts from the first page of the Whistleblower Letter:

 

“Hello Ms. Rade and Mr. Meister, We are contacting you in strict confidence with the hope you will review information being sent to you and assist with unveiling several very serious events that are [allegedly] criminal and have occurred at District 113. Very recently, as we are certain you are aware, our superintendent, Dr. Christopher Dignam, left the district. What you are probably unaware of is the exact reasons he was forced out, recent actions by the Board of Education (and specific members of the board still in power), and the fear of remaining administrators that there will be employment and legal consequences for sharing this information with you...

 

“…We saw your blog article from the summer and none of us knows anyone else to turn to for help or who to trust...

 

“…The [alleged] reason Chris [Dignam] is gone is because he stood up to the Board of Education to move ahead with pressing criminal charges against three former Highland Park principals who [allegedly] all broke the law, but ... are all friends with Board of Education members. The dozen-plus administrative team members left behind in the district are terrified regarding what [allegedly] happened to Chris (any of us could be next) and hope you can confidentially use this information to make specific FOIA requests, ask specific questions at Board of Education meetings, and perhaps work with the media to pressure the Lake County States Attorney’s Office to move forward with the indictments and charges already brought to their attention by the Grand Jury Subpoena received by the district earlier this year...

 

“If you make FOIA requests and ask questions, you will verify 100% of everything being shared with you. Chris ended up losing his job for nothing, as all the [alleged] criminal wrongdoing he [allegedly] uncovered has been [allegedly] covered back up by the Board of Education because they are friends with the [alleged] criminals…” 

 

“Please maintain this information in confidence and verify what is being shared with you. Like Chris, none of us want to lose our jobs or be targeted next."  [Everything in brackets are my editorial comments.]

 

The next seven pages were chock-full of hair-raising details alleging violations of law by certain District 113 administrators, as well as providing details about the School Board's response and alleged cover up.

 

 Background and Overview 

 

After their introductory comments, the Whistleblowers articulated their complaint. However, first, they provided a Background and Overview section before getting to the heart of the matter. They referred to a matter dating back to June 2016 stating that a HPHS principal had been investigated for [allegedly] “forging” a fake teacher evaluation required by PERA (Performance Evaluation Reform Act) law in Illinois. The teacher was absent on the evaluation date and (bravely) complained up the line that the principal had (1) falsified her evaluation document, (2) attested to a walk-through observation with her that never happened, and (3) filed the falsified document with the State of Illinois.

An independent law firm, Robbins Schwartz, was retained to investigate the facts. The investigation determined that, indeed, the principal had falsified the teacher’s observation in violation of the PERA law and the Illinois School Code. According to the Whistleblowers, the Principal "received a Warning Resolution as a result of the investigation that took place. This [investigation] cost taxpayers approximately $15,000. The Warning Resolution was issued on July 11, 2016 for deceptive practice with a one week unpaid suspension. [The Principal] could have been fired but since the district had been up in arms just a year prior over previous superintendent George Fornero firing the former HPHS principal Brad Swanson, the Board of Education directed Chris to issue the Warning Resolution. Board members were also friends with [the Principal]."

Later, in researching the Whistleblowers claims through FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests to District 113 and the LCSA's offices, a document was discovered that confirmed the Warning Resolution. Robbins Schwartz determined the Principal had intentionally falsified a teacher’s walk-through observation as contained in a December 6, 2017 letter to Michael G. Nerheim, then Lake County States Attorney (LCSA). Robbins Schwartz wrote that former Superintendent Dignam issued the Principal “a Confidential Memorandum and Final Warning Resolution that detailed the investigative findings, identified conduct deficiencies which, if not remedied, could result in charges for dismissal, issued directives for improvement, and placed the [the principal] on a five-day suspension without pay.” (Letter, Robbins Schwartz lawyer to Michael G. Nerheim, Lake County State’s Attorney, 12/06/2017, RE: Township High School District 113 — Records Destruction). 

In this same letter, Robbins Schwartz continues "It is our understanding that [Principal] was vocal about his displeasure with this investigation and discipline, telling his administrative team that he had been disciplined for 'getting the date wrong' — not the truth, which was that he had falsified the walk-through observation in its entirety." 

Children are suspended from school for bad behavior, but a principal being suspended? Suspended for just five days without pay for falsifying records as well as violating of PERA law? One can only wonder who was advising this School Board, and who on the board was supportive of this decision.

The Whistleblowers convey that the Principal returned to work as usual, and into the next school year, but was "angry all school year and told all of his assistant principals, and retiring administrators (assistant superintendents Barry Bolek, and [others]) that he got written up because he simply 'got a date wrong.'" Clearly the Whistleblowers knew the real facts, and, likely, so did many teachers. Perhaps even some residents and students were aware? Quite the message the School Board sent with its "Principal suspension." This is taking place in a community where we say, “Character Counts" and some of us wonder, does it really matter to our leaders?

The Whistleblowers state that in March 2017, the Principal announced his plans to leave the district, having secured a position as principal of a school in another suburb. One is left to wonder whether the School Board gave the Principal a great recommendation, or if certain members of the Board did this on their own initiative. Surely it is difficult to get another position as a principal without a good recommendation.

So ends Chapter 1. Readers may ponder: Should residents be informed whenever a principal or assistant principal has engaged in some conduct worthy of an unpaid suspension or termination, such as falsification of records? Is suspension ever an appropriate discipline for a superintendent, principal or assistant principal — anyone at the top of the administration? If so, is suspension ever an appropriate discipline for a school administrator or teacher who has intentionally violated State laws and regulations for educators?

Readers may have noticed that, so far, this report redacts the name of the Principal, and two Assistant Principals. There are various reasons for omitting their names — protecting them is not one of them. In essence, this report is not about the school administrators but is focused entirely on the actions of the School Board.

In every organization, every school district, the tone is set at the top. It appeared from the outset of the Whistleblower Letter that the tone at the top of District 113 was creating an environment in which staff and educators who are trying to protect the School District are fearful of retaliatory discharge, and the ones who aren't doing the right thing are supported by the School Board. Was it a superintendent or a School Board that was creating a toxic environment? Lessons learned. Create an environment where whistleblowers can share information about wrongdoing anonymously and without fear, and trust that a School Board will do the right thing. A School Board has to earn that trust and, once lost, it may take a long, long time to earn it.

Chapter 2 will cover the next section of the whistleblower letter sent to Gerry and me: Criminal Acts and Cover Ups.

Links to all chapters of this report:

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two 

Chapter Three  

Chapter Four
Chapter Five