District 15 Could Censure Bokor for Sharing Confidential Emails

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from a District 15 resident provided to Palatine Patch found that District 15 School Board member Richard Bokor shared confidential information about ongoing negotiations with the Distict Transportation Union (DTU) with a private citizen. 

The confidential communications were shared via a forwarded email to former District 15 School Board President Gerald Chapman, who also is the former District 211 superintendent. 

Current School Board President Tim Millar said the communications Bokor shared with Chapman have put the school board in an uncomfortable position. 

"These actions can cause legal problems with the DTU; in other cases, anyone who is party to confidential information must keep that information between the board," Millar said. 

Millar said the action is an ethics violation, but there are no teeth to the rules that would require Bokor's ouster from the board or other types of sanctions. 

Bokor said he reached out to Chapman because he was seeking clarification on how transportation bids that were read aloud at the Wednesday, February 13 board meeting could then, on Friday, February 15 through an email from Millar, be rejected a mere 36 hours later. 

He added that he was unable to receive clarification from board leadership or District 15 administration, and reached out to Chapman because he has been a mentor, and someone who had been through the bidding process countless times. 

The email, sent by Millar, and recieved through the FOIA request read, "We also added an agenda item to Wednesday's [February 20] meeting. to reject the transportation bids due to not meeting our specifications. The district will then rebid as we normaly would if we vote to reject them," Millar said in the email.

Additional information detailing what other communications were included, were redacted. 

That email was received by Bokar and all other board members on Friday, February 15 at 4:39 p.m., and was then forwarded by Bokor to Chapman at 5:08 p.m. that same day. 

When asked if he believed it was appropriate to forward the information from Millar to Chapman, Bokor said, "if I had to it again, I probably would not have."

Negotiations in .

Most recently, the school board voted to issue Reduction in Force (RIF) notices to the roughly 200 bus drivers and assistants.  

Millar said despite the board vote to issue the RIF notices, the action does not mean the employees will actually be laid off. 

“April 16 is our next meeting with the DTU and the results are uncertain at this time. Our [ultimate] actions will depend on the results of the negotiation process,” Millar said.