Lisa Smith, a Sycamore resident, told the Sycamore Community Unit School District 427 Board of Education that a former Spartan TV supervisor who faced criminal charges was in Sycamore High School in February while students were present and that school officials did not promptly notify police or parents.

Smith said the staff initially told students and parents the man was not in the building even though, she said, he entered through the TV station door and was present for at least 15 minutes. "He could have gone in there with a gun or a knife and they all would have been dead. All of them," Smith said during public comment, attributing her concern to what she described as delayed notification and a lack of immediate police involvement.

Smith recounted a timeline in which a police investigation began Feb. 11, and she said the suspect was later charged with multiple counts of aggravated battery. She told the board that, at sentencing earlier this year, felony counts were reduced to a single misdemeanor battery charge conditioned on counseling and restitution. "He got sentenced to 10 months of counseling, $3,200 of restitution, and he will have 6 felony charges reduced to 1 battery charge," Smith said. She said the reduced charge would be removed from his record if he completed counseling, and she told the board she had discussed the case with the state's attorney and others involved.

Smith criticized the district's hiring and oversight practices, asking why a person she described as having troubling behavior had been placed in positions with access to minors. "If he was weird and awkward, why was he put in a position to have control and power over a group of younger children?" she asked.

Board members voted to extend Smith's public-comment time by three minutes to allow her to finish. The meeting record shows no formal board action in response to Smith's allegations during that session beyond allowing additional speaking time.

The speaker named the Sycamore Police Department and two local prosecutors in describing her conversations after the events; the board did not announce follow-up steps on the record at the meeting. The public-comment period then concluded and the board moved on to other agenda items.