Divided Hinsdale D86 Board Keeps Leader; Dissenters Allege Micromanagement

DARIEN, IL – The Hinsdale High School District 86 board on Thursday decided to keep President Catherine Greenspon for a fourth year.

But the board's two dissenters suggested Greenspon had been micromanaging the district. They also said many view the board negatively, saying that it calls for new leadership.

In recent years, the district has seen much administrator turnover. And the district is now fighting its former law firm in court.

Earlier this year, Greenspon asked Superintendent Michael Lach to work remotely four days a week and reduce his involvement with the district's leadership. A new superintendent, Chip Pettit, is set to take the helm in July.

At Thursday's board meeting, member Mary Satchell nominated her colleague, Liz Mitha, for president. They both served on elementary school boards previously and campaigned as a team in their April 2025 election.

In her speech, Satchwell said the board's actions and missteps have dominated the district's narrative. She suggested the board president's micromanagement had been an issue.

"It's critical that old patterns of dysfunction do not follow into Dr. Pettit's tenure in our district," Satchwell said.

Mitha said a district survey last year showed that a large percentage of residents are dissatisfied with the board.

As of Thursday evening, she said, the district had received 89 emails about the leadership vote. And more than a dozen people – all in favor of Greenspon – spoke during the meeting's public comments section.

By Mitha's calculation of the emails and public speakers, 70 percent wanted a leadership change.

"We may not want to believe this, but community perception of the board is largely negative," Mitha said.

That perception, she said, is hurting property values and the district's ability to recruit, among other things.

"As elected officials, we should listen to our constituents," Mitha said.

However, member Bobby Fischer said the board's opponents are "deeply unhappy," inspired by social media negativity. He said board members should not let a few with "axes to grind" haunt them.

One of the few, he said, lost a school board election in 2019. He was referring to Yvonne Mayer, a longtime board critic who recently encouraged residents to contact the board to change its leadership.

"The emails we got today were manufactured," Fischer said. "They were almost exactly carbon copies of each other in many ways."

He said he believes Mitha would be a good president, but he said Greenspon has done a good job for three years.

"We have so many new administrators that now is not the time to change the leadership at the top," Fischer said.

Member Jeff Waters said Satchwell and Mitha were playing "a little game of show and tell, where you're showing me nothing and you're telling me everything."

He said critics' statements on social media are often false and baseless.

"The only drama that exists is on a Facebook page called Straight Talk and often manifests itself through a publication called the Patch, which, in my estimation and I'm only one person and I have no facts to verify this, is force-fed articles generating clickbait because everyone's got to make a buck," Waters said.

Mitha, who was a board member at Darien-based Cass District 63, said she has worked on a strong board before. She said she would never have seen the "sorts of things and behaviors" that she has witnessed in District 86. She did not provide details.

Greenspon said Mitha was not comparing apples to apples, contending that District 86 has far more scrutiny than other districts.

"It's a whole different experience," she said.

Mitha said it's inappropriate for the board to dismiss comments it dislikes.

"We need to be better about taking feedback and stop being defensive about it," she said.

The board voted 5-2 to keep Greenspon at the helm, with Satchwell and Mitha voting for Mitha.

Greenspon, Waters, Fischer, Asma Akhras and Baron Leacock all favored Greenspon.

For vice president, Fischer, who has held the role for the last year, nominated Satchwell, with the board unanimously backing her. Akhras was elected secretary, replacing Mitha.

Last year, Mitha nominated Satchwell for president over Greenspon. The members' votes fell along the same lines.