Community Consolidated School District 15 will not pick up the tab for weekend stays at the Hyatt Chicago for school board members and district staff attending conferences.

Prior school boards allowed such overnight stays during events such as the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB) annual conference.

Board member Peggy Babcock, who has gone back and forth as well as stayed overnight for local conferences, said she wasn’t comfortable coming back at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. on the Metra. She added that she likes the convenience of the hotel when sessions typically begin early in the morning and last through the evening.

School board member Manjula Sriram said she understood Babcock’s concerns and is not familiar with the format of the IASB conference, but she said commuters do it everyday in the corporate world. 

“I have taken the train in the morning and come back at 10 o’clock at night.  It is perfectly safe for women to travel at night. There is taxi service available to the Metra. I just don’t feel personally justified paying $300 a night to stay there,” she said.

School Board Vice President Scott Herr  said the school district is "deficit spending now so we really need to look at this as an austerity period.  My opinion may be different if we weren’t in the situation where we are now.”

Both Babcock and fellow board member Richard Bokor said they plan on attending the November conference and staying overnight – but they will pay the cost of lodging themselves.

District 15 also ended its membership with the National School Boards Association whose dues are about $5,750. The district will remain in the Illinois Association of School Boards which costs about $14,000 a year.