Published July 29, 2010

Barrett sues Dist. 86 officials
for records

By Ken Knutson
kknutson@thehinsdalean.com

   Two Hinsdale High School District 86 officials are the target of a lawsuit filed by board member Dianne Barrett, who alleges she has been wrongly denied documents concerning the district’s special education department.
   The complaint, filed July 16 in DuPage County Circuit Court, names board President Dennis Brennan and Superintendent Nick Wahl as defendants. It accuses them of “actively refusing to fulfill their duties to make documents ... available to a board member upon proper request or demand.”
   In July and September of 2009, according to the lawsuit, Barrett asked for transcripts and other materials about parent complaints and settlements related to the special education department. She eventually received “a limited number of documents, substantially redacted” and was prohibited from disclosing the information to anyone.
   In a statement, Brennan rejected Barrett’s claims, saying he and Wahl have fulfilled her requests in a “timely and comprehensive manner with the appropriate and necessary redaction of student and employee information to protect mandated privacy and confidentiality.”
   Barrett said she needs the documents to verify state board of education statistics that the district’s special education department has the most complaints per capita in Illinois.
   “This is about the taxpayers and money being efficiently used and not wasted and about getting to the root of why there are so many complaints,” Barrett said. “If I did not take action, the district would continue to have runaway legal expenses.”
   But Brennan said Barrett’s action is motivated more by her personal agenda than public interest.
   “It is unfortunate that Ms. Barrett would choose to divert the district’s limited human and financial resources to litigation that will prove to be nothing more than a publicity stunt, rather than fulfill her role as a responsible steward of educational quality and fiscal stability,” Brennan stated.
   Terry Norton, director of the Center for Open Government at Chicago-Kent College of Law and one of Barrett’s attorneys, said the case is representative of those where elected public officials are denied information they need to do their job.
   “She wanted to look at certain records and determine if money is being spent wisely in the special education department,” Norton said. “Our position is that as a board member, she has a right to see whatever records exist in order to help her do the job that she was elected to do.”
   Attorney Justin Petrarca, who is representing Brennan and Wahl as the district’s legal counsel, said he was not surprised that the suit was filed based on the history between Barrett and district officials regarding the documents.
   “She’s received everything she’s asked for from the district,” he said.
   Barrett said she “seriously considered” the legal expenses the district would incur as a result of the suit but believed she had no other recourse.
   The complaint does not ask for monetary damages, and Norton said he hopes a resolution can be reached before the case gets too far.
   The district has 30 days from the date the suit was filed to respond.