School District 67 Hires Independent Counsel to Investigate Principal Resignation

• See related story: Lake Forest Group Seeks Legal Guidance Against District 67 School Board Members, Superintendent

voted unanimously to conduct an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the resignation of Deer Path Middle School principal John Steinert at Tuesday night’s board meeting in Lake Forest.

The vote was followed by a second vote by just four board members to appoint an independent counsel, Ronald Safer, a former prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, to lead the investigation.

The four voting board members were John Julian, Lesley Fisher, Bill Andersen and Rick Schuler, who were not on the school board when for sexually explicit text messages, voice mails and a lewd photo from his school district-issued cell phone in 2009.

after new information came out Nov. 16 in a article detailing his actions toward a 22-year-old student, who was an intern with the .

The three board members who were on the board at the time, including current board president Julie Wold, plus Jeff Pinderski and Laurie Rose, recused themselves from the voting.

Julian, vice president of the board and speaking for the subcommittee of the four board members, said he expects the investigation to be completed within a month.

“I anticipate this will be a short review,” Julian said. “Quite frankly, we are hoping to have this done not later than mid-January.”

Safer, a managing partner with Schiff Hardin in Chicago, will be asked to investigate three areas:

• To determine whether the school district’s policies and procedures were followed.

• To determine if those policies and procedures need to be revised and what are the recommendations for the revisions.

• To determine if any wrongdoing was committed with the matter at that time.

“We want to make sure there was no wrongdoing,” Julian said. “We certainly want to affirm that for ourselves and the public.”

Julian said the four-member subcommittee interviewed several firms and lawyers before choosing Safer.

“We certainly want all indications to be that this is above board,” Julian said. “We are going at it with the best advice we feel we could get, and hopefully that will address any concerns the community may have. We certainly feel we should have someone who is well regarded as we can get under these circumstances, and we feel Mr. Safer is that person.”

Safer’s contact on the board will be Julian, but he will not report to him.

“He will be giving a report to the board,” Julian said. “He’s independent counsel. He is in charge to do as he sees fit. I certainly will not be directing him in any way. I will be overseeing the process.”

Until that report is given, Julian said the board will not act on the Steinert case. In addition, Wold said the task force committees comprised of board and community members to look into district policies and procedures originally discussed at one of the first community meetings are on hold until Safer’s investigation is completed.

Julian indicated no budget had been set on how much Safer will be paid.

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During public comment prior to the board’s action, Lake Forest residents Terry Desmond, Art Lewis, Scott Phelps and Shirley Jiles Miller gave support to

Desmond believes Griffith would be at the top of the list of superintendents to be employed in Lake Forest.

“In my eyes, he always had the best interested of the school district at heart,” he said.

Desmond added that several periphery issues, such as Griffith’s compensation package, have been brought into the issue where they don’t belong.

“This has nothing to do with how much someone makes,” he said. “If you’re going to get someone to oversee two school districts, you’re going to have to pay the same amount to find the same caliber of person you have right now.”

Lewis agreed, saying “this is not the time to be bringing other baggage into this circumstance.”

“The same people who are upset here have other axes to grind,” he added. “We need to learn from this and implement the necessary watchdogs and controls.”

Phelps, who has had four children attend Lake Forest schools, admires Griffith’s leadership.

“Everything he has done has been with the best of intentions,” he said.

Miller, who has had three children attend Lake Forest schools, noted that while hindsight on the Steinert case is 20/20, she said that every executive, like Griffith, make a decision believing it is the right one.

"And you've apologized for this," she said.

She also said the community's anger surrounding the issue is, in a broader sense, a reflection of events going on globally.