D-86 Officials Shift Seats To Make Point

Darien IL

19 January, 2022

10:37 AM

Description

DARIEN, IL — For much of the last year, the two alliances on the Hinsdale High School District 86 board have sat on different sides of the meeting table. That changed last week. At the beginning of a meeting, board member Peggy James switched seats with her colleague, Erik Held. "As you may have noticed, I switched seats tonight to give me a little bit of a perspective and help eliminate the one-side-vs.-the-other-side feel," she said. "I look forward to the day when we as a board are able to maintain our focus and our resources where they belong — on our students and maintaining our tradition of excellence." In April, voters elected four new board members — James, Jeff Waters, Debbie Levinthal and Terri Walker. The board's holdovers were Held, Kathleen Hirsman and Cynthia Hanson. Walker was elected board president and became more aligned with the holdovers, although she teamed up with Levinthal in her campaign. The other new members opposed some changes made by their predecessors, particularly in the controversy over the science curriculum. Walker and the holdovers have tended to support the administration and its actions. At one end of the board table was the three-member minority. On the other was the majority, with the two sides divided by Superintendent Tammy Prentiss. That was apparently not by design. Held and Hanson simply sat where they did when the old board was still in office. Hirsman, who was elected the board's vice president, moved to her predecessor's seat, on the president's left. This resulted in a seating arrangement that kept the two sides physically divided. In a story last month, Patch noted Hanson had been missing from the video camera's frame for all but one meeting over the last few months. She was seated to the right of the frame. At last week's session, she was finally included again. But that was to the detriment of Levinthal, who was not seen throughout the meeting. Waters entered the frame at times, depending on how he was positioned in his seat. A school employee mans the camera during meetings, but rarely shifts it to include members outside the frame who are speaking. Other speakers, including students being honored, are almost never in the frame.