Western Springs Schools Want Turf Battle To End

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL — The litigation between Lyons Township High School and the Lyons Township Treasurer's Office lasted eight years until a judge ruled late last month.

It could be revived if the loser in that battle, the treasurer's office, decides to appeal.

But the leader of Western Springs School District 101 said his district has always opposed the litigation.

"Since the lawsuits started, we've said it needed to stop," Superintendent Brian Barnhart said in an interview in his office. "We're paying both sides of the legal fees."

Barnhart was referring to the district's mandated contributions to the treasurer's office, which handles finances for districts in Lyons Township. And he was also referring to Western Springs taxpayers, who pay property taxes to Lyons Township High School.

Lyons Township seeks to separate from the treasurer's office, while the office wants the state requirement of the high school's membership to continue.

In Barnhart's view, District 101 and other districts should not be forced by state law to belong to the treasurer's office.

"If the township treasurer's office is delivering a good product at a good price, we may want to stay," said Barnhart, District 101's superintendent for 19 years.

He said he believes the current treasurer, Ken Getty, is doing a good job.

That's in contrast to the disgraced former treasurer, Robert Healy. In 2015, Healy was convicted of stealing $1.5 million in school money and sentenced to nine years in prison for the theft.

In the litigation, Lyons Township High School contended the treasurer's office board refused to conduct forensic audits in 2012 and 2013 when Healy's issues started coming to light.

In the interview, Barnhart said he had no definitive position on whether a forensic audit should be done, saying he does not know how much one would cost.

"If someone could wave a magic wand and give us a forensic audit, I would imagine that would be a good thing," he said.

Because of the litigation, the district expects to pay about $300,000 of the $4.1 million in legal costs incurred by the treasurer's office. The rest of the bill will be picked up by the other 11 member districts.

"The only winners are the lawyers," Barnhart said. "That also would have been the case if the township treasurer's office had won."

Last week, Lyons Township High School's superintendent, Timothy Kilrea, urged the public to pressure the treasurer's office not to appeal. No decision has been made.

In 1999, the high school and the treasurer's office agreed that the school would no longer have to pay for services it did not access from the office.

But in 2013, in the wake of the embezzlement, the treasurer's office told the high school it would no longer recognize the 1999 agreement. That's when the litigation started.