Contact Info & FOIA

Community Consolidated School District 62 is a school district located in Des Plaines, Illinois. The District is organized under the laws of the State of Illinois for the purpose of providing and operating the eleven schools within its geographical boundaries.

The mission of the Community Consolidated School District 62 Board of Education is: Cultivate an inclusive, innovative learning environment that inspires students to explore robust academics, advance their potential and to be compassionate lifelong learners.

The District is governed by a seven-member Board of Education. The present members of the Board of Education are:

Ronald Burton, President

Elizabeth Massa, Vice-President

Stephanie Duckmann

Tina Garett

Gene Haring

Beth Morley

Jeanetter Weller

Community Consolidated School District 62 shall make available, for inspection and/or copying, all public records, except as exempted under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

All requests are to be submitted, in writing, to:

• The requested informations is stored at a different location;
• The request requires the collection of a substantial number of documents;
• The requested records havre not been located and require additional effort to find;
• The requested records need to be reviewed by staff who can determine whether they are exempt from FOIA;
• The requested records cannot be produced without unduly burdening the district or interfering with it's operations; or
• The request requires the district to consult with another public body that has substantial interest in the subject matter of the request.

If additional time is needed, the district will notify the requestor in writing within 5 business days after the receipt of the request of the statutory reasons for the extension and when the requested information will be produced.

The district will not charge a copying fee for the first 50 pages of black and white, letter or legal sized copies. Copies of additional pages will cost $.15 per page. Color copies or information produced on a CD will be provided at the actual cost of copying.

A commercial request is when the requestor seeks to use part or all of the public records for sale, resale, or solicitation or advertisement for sales or services. Requests by the news media, not-for-profit organizations, scientific or academic institutions are not considered commercial information requests. The district has 21 business days to respond to a request for information that is made for a commercial purpose. The district may either:

1. Provide the requested records;
2. Advise when the records will be provided and the costs;
3. Deny the request (if falls under an exception); or
4. Advise the requestor that the request is unduly burdensome.

The FOIA law has a presumption that all information is public but there are several exceptions to public disclosure that include but are not limited to:

• Private information – “Private information” is exempt from disclosure under FOIA. FOIA defines “private information” as “unique identifiers, including a person’s social security number, driver’s license number, employee identification number, biometric identifiers, personal financial information, passwords or other access codes, medical records, home or personal telephone numbers, and personal e-mail addresses.” Under FOIA, “private information also includes home addresses and personal license plate numbers, except as otherwise provided by law or when compiled without possibility of attribution to any person.”
• Personal information that, if disclosed, would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, unless the person who is the subject of the information consents to the disclosure in writing. Under FOIA, the “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” means the “disclosure of information that is highly personal or objectionable to a reasonable person and in which the subject’s right to privacy outweighs any legitimate public interest in obtaining the information.” Disclosing information that relates to the public duties of public employees is not considered an invasion of personal privacy.
• Information that, if disclosed, might endanger anyone’s life or physical safety.
• Preliminary drafts or notes in which opinions are expressed or policies are formulated, unless the record is publicly cited and identified by the superintendent or school board.
• Business trade secrets or commercial or financial information that is proprietary, privileged or confidential and disclosure would cause competitive harm to the person or business.
• • Proposals and bids for any contract, until a final selection is made.
• Requests that are “unduly burdensome.” A request may be considered unduly burdensome if there is no way to narrow the request, and the burden on the public body to produce the information outweighs the public interest in the information. However, before relying on this exemption, the public body must first give the requestor an opportunity to reduce the request to a manageable size. If it is still unduly burdensome, the public body must explain in writing the reasons why the request is unduly burdensome and the extent to which compliance will burden the operations of the public body. Such a response is considered a denial.

If the district determines that a denial of the request is justified, the requestor will be informed in writing, and reference to the specific legal reason under FOIA justifying non-disclosure will be provided. The requestor has the right to seek review of the issue by the Public Access Counselor (PAC) in the Attorney General’s office, as well as the right to seek judicial review by filing a court case.

A Request for Review is a letter that a requestor may submit to the PAC if they believe that the district has not followed FOIA. This letter is a formal way of asking the PAC to take a look at the request and the district’s response (or lack thereof) and determine if a FOIA violation has occurred. The request must be in writing, must be signed by the requestor, and must include a copy of the FOIA request for access to records and any responses from the district. It must be submitted within 60 calendar days of the district’s final response (or date upon which the response was due).

The Public Access Counselor is a part of the Public Access Bureau in the Attorney General’s Office and may be contacted at: