D-86 Leader Blasts Referendum Spending Plan

HINSDALE, IL — The president of the Hinsdale High School District 86 board last week took the district to task for lacking a plan to spend referendum money on Central High's boiler system.

For two winters in a row, the boilers went down at Central, resulting in no heat, President Kevin Camden said at a board meeting Thursday.

Meanwhile, he said, the district failed to look at the boiler system as part of its significant upgrades paid for with referendum money.

"To me, that makes absolutely no sense," Camden said.

Camden said he didn't know why the decision was made or how to apportion blame.

"As a taxpayer, I would like to know how we got to this point in construction where suddenly in the second bid phase we got the oh-my-goodness moment that we didn't plan on fixing the physical plant with respect to steam or boiler or heating," Camden said. "That's a $500,000 concern to me that's a little bit more than an oops with respect to the big referendum spending."

He said he believed it was fair to bring up the issue.

"How did we get to this point where this wasn't accounted for? And it's not an insignificant oops," he asked.

When he asked other board members whether they wanted to comment on the issue, none did.

In response to a Patch inquiry, district spokesman Chris Jasculca said the district's facilities committee would discuss the boilers at Central at its May 21 meeting.

"The conversation will be focused on the potential financial benefits of replacing them now — i.e., are the efficiencies and improvements associated with moving from steam to hot water worth the investment at this time?" Jasculca said in an email. "The boilers are actually not at the end of their useful life, which is why they were not part of the referendum."

In April 2019, District 86 voters approved a $140 million bond issue for facility improvements.

Camden lost his bid for re-election April 6, as did two other board incumbents. The new board majority takes office Monday.