LA GRANGE, IL – Lyons Township High School board members earlier this year seemed to minimize the part of the school’s attendance zone that opposed the board’s controversial effort to sell land in Willow Springs.
Noting the opposition among Willow Springs residents, then-board President Kari Dillon said, “That was all focused on one small community, and not the voices of the other 10.”
She was speaking during a Jan. 23 closed session on the land deal. In May, the attorney general ordered the board to release the recording because members illegally closed the doors.
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In another part of the meeting, board member Alison Kelly, who has since left the board, asked how many Lyons Township High students were from Willow Springs.
Superintendent Brian Waterman responded 124 “current students” were from the village, saying he just looked up the information.
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When some residents heard the recording, they said they thought the number was actually higher. They were likely right.
Recently, Patch filed a public records request seeking the number of students who come from Willow Springs.
The school responded that 124 households in Willow Springs contain students attending the high school. Many households may have more than one in high school, so it appears Waterman meant to refer to households, rather than students.
Also, a portion of Willow Springs is in Argo Community High School’s attendance zone.
Willow Springs, later joined by four other towns, opposed the school’s plan to sell to an industrial developer. Zoning barred industrial uses for the area in question.
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In the face of the opposition, the high school board later abandoned the effort to sell.
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