There’s a certain latitude, even attitude, that comes with being the “co-interim superintendent” of a school district. We saw that earlier this month when the determinedly steady Patrick Patt, co-interim superintendent of Lyons School District 103, took multiple hard and public shots at the village of Lyons and its elected and appointed officials. And by that we mean Village President Christopher Getty.
We’ve covered the dismal politics of Lyons only as Getty has worked industriously in recent years to infect an elementary school district that Lyons shares with Brookfield as well as Forest View, McCook and Stickney. First, Getty had success in stacking the school board with his political minions/hacks. When locals, concerned with actual education, retook the board majority in the last election, Getty got petty — more petty than usual.
And it was the most recent manifestation of that pettiness, refusing to have village government sign off on an intergovernmental information-sharing pact, that led Patt to speak out. The agreement, already signed by the other four villages served by D103, allows the schools and local villages to share information related to student safety, discipline and criminal matters.
D103 has gotten the word that Lyons will not be signing on and further, through something of a back channel, the district has been told Lyons won’t sign any sort of cooperative agreement with the school district.
Pitiful really, but par for the course when it comes to the Getty family and their perverse view of governance. We’re talking a small town here and a small school district. Truly not the place to play out political ambitions, even if they are so grand as to nail a few custodial positions, playground workers, or lunch supervisors.
