Meeting opened in compliance with law

PLAINFIELD -- Plainfield School Board will now hold its talks on how to cut $16 million from the budget in front of the public at Thursday's special meeting.

School board President Rod Westfall said Friday the meeting could be held behind closed doors since the board will be discuss cuts that could affect personnel and didn't want to cause panic.

The Herald-News informed the school board and administration that the issue would be taken to the Office of Illinois State's Attorney for review as a possible violation of the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

On Tuesday, Westfall said the board will discuss the financial data related to the budget deficit in an open meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at the administration building, 15732 Howard St.

Westfall said board members will bring up general ideas for cutting the $16 million deficit.

"Individuals you can't discuss in open session. That is where our misunderstanding was and I apologize," Westfall said.

"There were some people that said they wanted to come to the next board meeting to bring us some ideas, so that's basically the bottom line. We are open to all suggestions," Westfall said.

"We have never had an illegal meeting. We follow the letter of the law as far as the Open Meetings Act. We have never violated the act," he said.

After the open discussion, the board plans to close the meeting for the appointment, employment, compensation, performance or dismissal of specific employees and for collective negotiation matters and salary schedules for one or more classes of employees.

Westfall said the board wants to be open with the public about the deficit. The district has posted its deficit reduction plan at www.psd202.org . There is also a link on the Web site for people to send suggestions for budget cuts.

"(Board member) Mike Kelly is spearheading a meeting with Tom Cross to see what we can do in Springfield to secure more money for District 202," Westfall said. "What we are going to kick around is some ideas about how to get the public involved because we really feel strongly that the public should be involved because we are all in the same boat together.

"I hope we can work with the media and pressure some of these legislative leaders to get off their rear ends and do something for education funding," Westfall said.

"People are getting tired of paying higher property taxes. ... We are not getting the growth any more and we are not getting the revenue from people that had to move out. People have walked away from their homes. It's a mess."

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