West Cook News

The River Forest School District 90 superintendent said he doesn’t feel the public should be able to review details of curriculum changes he has made over the past decade.

Ed Condon denied a May 3 freedom of information request asking for a list of school subjects and curriculum names "before and after" wholesale changes spearheaded in 2016 by "equity" advocates on the school board.

This is a "non-qualifying request," Condon wrote in an email obtained by West Cook News.

"I’m looking for a representation of all curriculum changes across grades and subject areas for a 10-year period," the request said. "How is up to you – receipts, typed list etc."

"But the request for curriculum names over time should be clear," it read.

The email shows Condon denying an earlier January 2019 request for the same information, stating "no document exists that would be responsive to that (FOIA) request."

River Forest’s K-8 District has two elementary schools and one middle school, all of them ranked by the Illinois State Board of Education as "Exemplary" up until 2018 and after the "equity" changes to curriculum and instructional practices.

The states' Exemplary status is "a school in which no subgroup is performing at or below the level of the 'all students' group in the lowest-performing 5% of Title I-eligible schools, a graduation rate of greater than 67% and whose performance is in the top 10% of schools statewide."

By 2019, all three schools were downgraded to "Commendable," signaling no subgroup was performing below the level of the "all students" group, but all three schools had fallen out of the top 10% in Illinois.

Before the "equity" initiative of 2016, just 31% of third through eighth grade students were not meeting expectations in math and English language arts, compared to the state average of 67% of students not meeting expectations.

By 2019, English language arts "Readiness" fell by 7% for non-low income students and 16% for low-income students.

In math, non-low income student "Readiness" gained 1% while low-income students lost 3%.

Condon is in the spotlight over an alleged "lack of compliance" with the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

The Liberty Justice Center specifically citing:

• Failed to properly notify the public of upcoming meetings, including at least one instance when the board "neglected to even publish the existence of a meeting" on its website.

• Failed to properly file minutes from meetings that meet the standards spelled out in the Open Meetings Act, including at times, not publishing a summary of what was discussed at the meeting, "who was present at the meeting, what they said or how they voted."

• Failed to properly record proceedings of District 90 committees meeting in closed session.

• Failed to abide, at times, by the district’s own policies, which require the board to post audio of board meetings on the district’s website. River Forest District 90 operational spending per student was $14,966 in 2016, $16,380 in 2019 and $18,682 in 2021, according to Illinoisreportcard.com. 

Condon earned $246,602 in the last year with River Forest School District 90.

The percentage of third through eighth River Forest District 90 students "Ready" in English language arts and math has been dropping.

% Students Identified for "Readiness"
Year	ELA - Non-Low Income	ELA - Low Income	Math - Non-Low Income	Math - Low Income	% Low-Income Students in District
2016	78	53	65	29	5
2017	75	45	65	29	6
2018	72	45	65	28	5.9
2019	71	37	66	26	4.8

River Forest District 90 has been accused of violating Illinois’ open meetings law in the past few years, allegedly failing at times to post required records from the meeting, and failing at times to notify the public that a meeting was being held, even as the district changed its strategic plans and curriculum in the name of promoting equity.