CHICAGO – Taxpayers are fuming over the Calumet Park school board’s $37,000 travel tab to attend out-of-state conferences over the last year, leaving some board members scrambling to explain the benefit of the frequent five-figure excursions.

“It’s a waste of time. It’s a joke. They don’t take it seriously,” district parent and board critic Synathia Harris said of the conferences. “It’s like a time away from home. It’s vacation time.”

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Harris, who won a seat on the school board in the recent April election, told The Daily Southtown the professional development conferences for board members seem like an unnecessary expense – especially for veteran board members – at a time when students are struggling academically.

“If they were new board members … I can understand, I can see that,” she said. “But just about everyone on the board has been there over 10 years. And nothing has changed, so why spend that kind of money going to these places unless you’re wanting a getaway?”

An analysis of district spending records by the Southtown revealed the seven-member board spent a total of $34,092.06 on numerous all-expense paid trips to Boston, Miami, Denver and downtown Chicago for conferences and workshops between April 2016 and March 2017.

The travel expenses – which covered registrations, airfare, ground transportation, lodging, fine dining, a per-diem allotment, and personal items – also paid for some board members to stay several days longer than the actual conferences they attended.

The Southtown reports:

Every out-of-state conference Calumet board members attended this past year ran for three days, but attendees regularly stayed additional nights on the district’s dime, according to hotel receipts.

Ivey, who attended a conference in Florida last fall for the Council of Urban Boards of Education, logged a five-day, four-night stay at a JW Marriott hotel in Miami, records show.

Wilson similarly spent five days and four nights at an Embassy Suites in Boston for the three-day National School Boards Association conference last April, according to hotel receipts. He said he shouldn’t have to explain why he arrived in Boston two days before the conference started.

All three board members who attended the recent NSBA conference in Denver — Ivey, Carr and William Connor — arrived two days before the conference started and left the day after it ended, turning a three-day conference retreat into a six-day, five-night affair that came to nearly $13,000, all-inclusive, records show.

Janice Harrison was the only board member who did not attend a single conference over the last year, because she doesn’t think it’s a wise use of resources when only 14 percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards.

“We should be using that money constructively to help the children,” she said. “That’s what we’re supposed to be on the board for, to help the children.”

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Harrison said she has attended the Illinois Association of School Boards’ Joint Annual Convention in Chicago in the past, but doesn’t think it’s always appropriate for board members to attend such events.

“I agree it’s important to go (to conferences),” she said. “But is it necessary to go every year? Is it necessary to go when kids are not learning?”

Board president Karen Ivey attended four conferences – including three out-of-state – over the last year, but was unwilling to discuss what she learned with the Southtown.

Despite spending more than $11,000 in taxpayer money on the questionable travel, she dispatched district superintendent Elizabeth Reynolds on her behalf to explain why it was necessary.

When asked for examples of things board members implemented in the district from what they learned at the conferences, Reynolds wrote:

“Board members attended board governance workshops and were able to implement what was learned by productively executing a board meeting which resulted in the passing of motions that provide growth and development for the students.”

Reynolds defended the six-figure travel budget as “a reasonable expense to educate board members on the district’s educational growth.”

Sarah Brune, executive director of Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, believes taxpayers deserve better answers, arguing that the money could have hired an entry-level employee.

“If there’s community pushback by parents or taxpayers, that needs to be taken into consideration,” she said. “I think it’s important to have policies in place about these types of activities and perhaps have a public hearing … to discuss these issues and let the taxpayers weigh in.

“It’s their money, so they should be able to decide.”

Meanwhile, some school board members are labeling the public outrage over the travel budget as “fake news.”

“What they’re talking about is dreamed-up stuff,” board member Abe Wilson told the Southtown. “Hove you ever heard of fake news? That’s what this is. Fake news.”

Wilson alleged “there’s a system” for paying for the conferences, and the money doesn’t come from the district, but would not discuss the secret system.

“I’m not going to try to explain it,” he said.

Board members also don’t think they have to explain what they learned at the lavish retreats.

“I asked them afterward what they learned,” new board member Harris said. “And they really didn’t want to give me any information.”