Education Matters US

More documents are missing from Gavin Elementary District 37 in Ingleside, casting further suspicion on what exactly was discussed during a school board meeting in January.

Gavin officials admitted Thursday all written minutes from the open and closed sessions of the Jan. 10 board meeting are missing. They also said tape recordings of the open session of that meeting are gone. The statement came two days after those officials said the tape recording of the meeting’s closed session was lost.

All public bodies are required by law to take written notes and tape record open and closed sessions of each board meeting. Losing the minutes or the tapes would be a violation of the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

Lake County deputy state’s attorney Meg Marcouiller expressed concern Tuesday after district officials said the closed session tape recording of the Jan. 10 meeting was missing.

At the time, Marcouiller said she could never remember a board losing any meeting tape. She would not comment on the statement that other meeting minutes and tapes are lost.

School board president Barb Mende said Thursday a student disciplinary issue was discussed in the closed session.

Superintendent Pam Rockwood and other administrators were asked to leave that session. Rockwood, who said she’s never been asked to leave a closed session since she arrived in the district in July, thinks there’s more to the story than Mende is saying.

“The next morning, Ms. Mende came in to speak with the administration, but we did not discuss student discipline,” said Rockwood, who is leaving the district. “It leads me to believe that something else was discussed because if student discipline were the topic, I would certainly hope the administration would have been included as we deal with student discipline every day.”

Rockwood said the district has tried its best to locate the tapes and meeting notes, but has been unsuccessful.

“Two board members have indicated Ms. Mende took the tape home, but we are unsure if that is true,” Rockwood said.

Mende said she has not taken any district tapes home, but has searched her house as a precautionary measure.

“I do not recall ever taking a tape from that building,” Mende said. “Just in case, I have checked my house and will do it again.”

District administrative assistant Delcie Griffin normally types notes for each board meeting, but she was absent Jan 10. The duty would then fall to board secretary Kristine Johnson, but she also was absent that night.

“I do not recall if someone was taking minutes for this meeting,” Mende said. “I’m sure minutes were taken, but I can’t recall who was doing it. It was five months ago.”

Mende said she could not remember why Rockwood and other administrators were asked to leave the closed session, but insisted the board only discussed a student discipline case behind closed doors.

Rockwood later resigned from the district, but has not explained her reasons for leaving. Her last day is June 30.