Schools chief on leave; officials mum

NORTH CHICAGO -- The North Chicago School District superintendent has been suspended from her post -- reportedly without pay -- but not because she was accused of attempted shoplifting at a downstate Wal-Mart.

School officials remain mum on why Sandra Ellis, hired by the North Chicago School Board in December 2005, has been placed on administrative leave.

The Lake County News-Sun has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the minutes of the Feb. 7 board meeting during which the action was taken.

According to one source, the suspension is not related to Ellis' legal problems stemming from an accusation that she attempted to steal $445 in food and liquor from a Springfield Wal-Mart store on July 17, 2005.

While Ellis maintained her innocence and said the incident was the result of "an overzealous, inexperienced clerk," she was arrested and eventually faced a charge of felony retail theft. Her case received three continuances in Sangamon County Circuit Court.

Sangamon County Prosecutor Gabe Grosball said he received a call from a security official with Wal-Mart last month who told him the company was no longer interested in pursuing the charges.

"I said 'I'm not scared to try it,'" Grosball related, "that I need someone from corporate to get a hold of me."

Grosball said a Wal-Mart official from Arkansas said "he didn't want to push forward with the case" because "my witness has been terminated."

"He was talking about the original clerk," Grosball said. "That hurts my case and Wal-Mart is scared of any liability issues because he's been terminated."

Sharon Weber, spokesperson for Wal-Mart, declined comment on the situation. "We don't discuss the circumstances surrounding matters of this nature," she said.

The case against Ellis -- who allegedly attempted to conceal food and liquor in tied plastic bags -- will be dropped. Grosball said the action "is not all that common" in retail theft cases. "When it's between private individuals they're dropped alot as long as they get their property back," he said.

School district attorney Michael Hernandez would not comment publicly on the "personnel matter."

However, the superintendent's suspension appears to be temporary.

Ellis, 52, is a past superintendent of Gillespie, Fulton, Pulaski and Brooklyn school districts. Before coming to North Chicago, she worked as an emergency preparedness trainer in Illinois schools for the Governor's Terrorism Task Force.

She is listed as a member of the advisory council of the National Institute of Justice, the research and development agency of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Ellis' two full-time predecessors, Patricia Pickles and John Sawyer III, both left the district abruptly and for unexplained reasons in 2002 and 2004, respectively.

North Chicago