Due to controversy surrounding closed meetings and the now defunct District 205 Budget Reduction Committee, Superintendent Ralph Grimm has made the decision to form a committee that reports directly to him.
Last night, an area media source raised objection to not being allowed to enter a closed meeting of the recently formed committee, which was formed to tackle the $2 Million deficit the district currently faces.
The committee was made up of various administration officials, community and union members, parents, and two board members. The district disbanded the committee and legality issues are in question over whether or not the decision was needed.
Under the Open Meetings Act, it states that any pending public information intended to be brought to the board must be discussed in an open meeting.
However, Board President Bob Lindstrom has commented on past closed committee meetings, saying that because no more than two board members sit on any committee, the district has the right to keep them closed.
Regardless, Grimm tells WGIL, that he will ask the board to officially disband the reduction committee next week to make way for the new group.
“It will not be a board committee and it will not be approved by the board, it will be a committee that I have put together,” says Grimm. “It may very well have some of the same members, it may have different members, it may have fewer members. We will try and meet from now until the first of December and see what we can come up with in terms of input from the community.”
The Open Meetings Act states that a committee appointed to advise a superintendent would not have to allow the media or the public to attend meetings.
