Copyright Joliet, IL Patch
Other schools release results on their websites. LTHS has decided to keep the results under wraps. LA GRANGE, IL – Lyons Township High School's taxpayers foot the bill to survey teachers about the school. But the school has chosen to bar the public from finding out the results. Last week, Patch requested last spring's survey results for teachers and noncertified staff. The school denied the request. It cited an exception under the state's open records law for records that "constitute preliminary recommendations in which actions are formulated." This is in sharp contrast with neighboring Hinsdale High School District 86. It posts on its website all the results for staff, students and parents going back five years. Both districts pay Boston-based Panorama Education to conduct the online surveys. This was the second time that Lyons Township High denied Patch's request. Patch first did so two years ago. In both cases, Patch filed its requests after the school released one component of the survey results in a school board presentation. The item was the rate of teachers and noncertified staff who feel a "sense of belonging" at the school. In early 2023, the attorney general's office ruled that written responses to a survey can be kept secret under the exemption that the high school cited. But the attorney general's opinion did not apply to the survey questions themselves and the numerical results. A 2013 attorney general's opinion may also apply. In that case, a Chicago Tribune reporter requested the crime data that the city of Harvey submitted to state police. The attorney general sided with the reporter over the state police, saying the law did not exempt "purely factual information" from disclosure. "The records do not touch upon any aspect of any deliberative process relating to the compilation or publication (of the data)," the office said in 2013. Lyons Township High also surveys students. On Tuesday, Patch filed a request for those results.
