District tallies FOIA requests and legal fees, citing one frequent requester

The board received a summary of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and related legal fees for a recent 12‑month period. District staff reported that one frequent requester, identified in the presentation as Tom Schroeder, accounted for a large share of external legal fees and requests for review to the Illinois Attorney General's Public Access Counselor.

The superintendent said legal fees related to FOIA production and reviews were concentrated: approximately $43,037 in outside legal fees tied to requests from the frequent requester, additional $25,800 in fees for requests for review, and smaller fees from other requesters during the same period. District staff also produced an internal estimate of staff time spent responding to FOIA requests: 17 staff members reported an estimated minimum total of about 685 hours; applying hourly rates yielded an internal time cost estimated at roughly $60,000 for the period cited.

Combined external legal fees and internal staff‑time estimates for the period were presented to the board as part of transparency reporting on public‑records demands. Board members asked clarifying questions about the Public Access Counselor review process and options for responding to repetitive requests; staff noted that some request reviews remained open and that no PAC findings had been issued against the district in the cited period.