By Kevin Gosztola, Editor
A little more than a week ago, the Elmwood Park school district removed all videos of school board meetings from the district’s YouTube channel. Families and residents still have no explanation from school officials as to why the archive was purged.
On October 21, Ann Lindsay, a contributing writer for the Elmwood Park Advocate, emailed Nancy Lasselle, who is the board recording secretary and an administrative assistant to Superintendent Dr. Leah Gauthier.
“I’ve checked the District website, BoardDocs and the YouTube channel to view the Oct 15th Board Meeting recording and it’s not posted. When will the recording be made available to the public?” Lindsay asked.
Lasselle replied, “I am sorry, the next Board Meeting recording will be available on November 19.”
“Where is the last board meeting? Why hasn’t that been posted?” Lindsay asked in a followup email.
To which Lasselle answered, “It was posted that night and already removed.”
The next day Lindsay sent Gauthier and school board trustees an email that protested the recent removal of board meeting videos. She asked “why the recording were removed,” “who authorized the removal,” and when the school district planned to “restore public access to both current and archived meetings.”
But no one from the school board or the superintendent’s office provided a response.
The Elmwood Park Advocate submitted a request for comment to Lasselle and the superintendent’s office. At the time of publication, the request had not been acknowledged.
Upon learning about the removal of board meeting videos, the newsletter submitted a Freedom of Information Act request and obtained the video recording of the October 15, 2025 meeting held by the Board of Education. This is the video that was posted and then secretively taken down. (The video at the top of the article is the full meeting.)
The board meeting on October 15 was largely a typical meeting. Gauthier recognized Elm Middle School’s softball championship team and the drone technology program at Elmwood Park High School. Building updates from the high school, middle school, and elementary schools were shared.
But when it came time for public comment, Sarah Korntheuer, a mom of four children in the school district and a 25-year public school teacher, addressed the board. She took the superintendent and school board trustees to task for failing to address federal immigration enforcement in the Chicagoland area.
Korntheuer highlighted a PTA meeting at John Mills Elementary School, where a group of moms proposed purchasing a rainbow pin for teachers to wear that said “You Are Safe With Me.” There was an immediate backlash from the community, and PTA board members met with the principal and the superintendent. She applauded them for listening and supporting whatever they wanted to do to move forward.
“Unfortunately, our PTA did not decide to go through with these pins due to fear for backlash and potential threats to the staff and students,” Korntheuer recalled. “But that’s not what I am focusing on. I want you to know that our administration was brave. They were fair, and they were willing to listen to this group of moms that had a concern.”
That’s when Korntheuer pivoted to ICE activity and the lack of response so far from the school district—despite pleas from residents in Elmwood Park.
Korntheuer read an email that she received from the Rhodes School District in River Grove, where she works:
Dear families, over the past several days, we have seen an escalation of federal law enforcement in the Chicago area. From downtown Chicago to various cities and neighborhoods and the suburbs. There’s talk of a federal military presence in the city, and we know that anxiety remains high for people in our community. We want to remind everyone why our schools remain the safest place for students, and once again provide guidance for staying safe outside of school.”
Back in January, we forwarded information to families from ISBE [Illinois State Board of Education] regarding individuals’ rights in Illinois when it comes to immigration issues. The ISBE message was titled so forth, and talked about keeping our students safe and emergency planning. We also offered additional resources for families.
In this very unsettling time, our district’s absolute top priority is making sure that your children feel safe, supported, and valued at school no matter where they were born or what community they now call home. In this time of uncertainty for some, we want to reiterate and continue to believe in and promote our school’s mission statement, which is our community shall provide students with positive educational experiences and a safe and supportive environment.Please continue to take care of yourselves and each other. We will get through this time together, and our community will come out stronger on the side.
She plainly stated, “The wild thing is this email was not from this district. This email came from my district right next door at Rhodes school.”
Korntheuer then strongly urged the school district to put together literature and make it clear to parents that they will be safe going to school and coming home from school, and that they “won’t be taken from school.”
“This is not about politics, and it’s not how you feel federal money should be spent. This is about civil rights. It’s about families, and it’s about schools,” she declared.
“I guarantee you as an English teacher and math teacher if you look up the word school in Webster it’s not going to state to educate white English-speaking students. As a matter of fact, our history states, and the wonderful students we saw this evening, that it’s actually the opposite. As I look at your names and see Italian, Irish, [and] German names, I can’t help but think what would your relatives think knowing that this is how we’re treating people that make our neighborhoods look more beautiful, more unique—not less.”
Korntheuer closed by imploring the school district to be on the “right side of history” and to act fairly and in a resolute manner just as they did in support of the PTA.
Without any explanation from the superintendent’s office, it is difficult to know for certain whether the video was taken down because of this public comment. But it is worth recognizing that the school district received messages from families and residents for around a month. Officials resisted calls to provide a more meaningful response beyond a boilerplate statement that the newsletter covered.
On October 29, the school district finally held an assembly at the high school to inform students of their rights. A presentation made it clear that the school district would never let any ICE agents into school buildings nor would they let an ICE agent know if a student they were looking for was in school.
There also is a moment at the end of the meeting, where Peter Volpe, the vice president of the school board, showed that the comment from Korntheuer got under his skin.
Volpe defensively replied, “I’ve been happily married to a Cuban American for 41 years. Judge me by my last name and assuming what my heritage is really isn’t fair. And I’ll just leave it at that.”
