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Resident asks District 97 to pause extension of employee—s leave and to cooperate on FOIA about outside work
Summary
An Oak Park resident urged the Board to halt any further extension of a long-term leave for an employee named Gina Harris and asked the district to assist with his FOIA requests into possible outside contracting and payments involving a third party.
Nick Bonatti, an Oak Park resident and former District 97 parent, used the public-comment period to ask the board to intervene on two related matters he said his investigation uncovered.
Bonatti said he filed a Freedom of Information Act request to District 200 and found communications showing a contractor for a private organization solicited money from a D200 employee. He said a similar FOIA to District 97 was deemed "unduly burdensome" because of the volume of records and asked the district to "work with me on fulfilling that request in a way that would not be burdensome."
Bonatti also raised concerns about a specific District 97 employee, Gina Harris. He said Harris took a highly paid executive role outside the district in 2023 and has remained on long-term leave that was initially granted for the 2023—2024 school year and later extended through 2024—2025. "I ask that the school board put any extension or renewal of this leave on hold," he said, because he believes an indefinite leave harms staffing and is unfair to other candidates and taxpayers.
He requested that the board either require a near-term return date that corresponds with the start of the next school year or terminate the leave if no return date can be provided. Bonatti offered to work with board members or staff offline to explain his findings and to help craft a less-burdensome FOIA search.
The board did not announce any immediate action in response at the meeting. Bonatti—s requests appeared during public comment; the transcript records his appeal and the offer to collaborate but no formal board direction or vote was recorded on either his FOIA request or the leave-extension request.
