Martha Mueller
Martha Mueller will take back her seat on the Glenbard High School District 87 school board after what one official has called a “big misunderstanding.”
Mueller will be sworn in at the next board meeting on Sept. 8, two months after she emailed her resignation, only to attempt to rescind it less than an hour later.
As a result, the board advertised an open seat. A total of 28 people applied for the vacancy, according to a district spokesperson.
After a closed session, school board members voted 5-0 Monday to appoint Mueller to the spot she previously held. She first joined the board in 2015.
“We really want to thank the community for a wonderful set of candidates,” school board President Margaret DeLaRosa said. “It speaks volumes about the work we do in District 87. It speaks volumes about this board. And I just want to thank people for taking the time to do the work, and we know it’s work, and we appreciate everyone’s time.”
Mueller recently took a job as a routing coordinator for busing provider Safeway, the district’s regular and special education transportation contractor, Glenbard Superintendent Jessica Santee said last month.
Her relationship with Safeway is solely as an employee without any ownership or economic interests, other than as a nonexecutive employee, Santee stressed.
But “on the mistaken assumption that this created an unlawful conflict of interest,” Safeway advised Mueller that she had to either resign from her job or resign from the board, Santee said.
Without seeking advice from the district’s administration, “but in good faith toward Glenbard and Safeway,” Mueller emailed her resignation from the board at 3:15 p.m. July 7, Santee said.
She immediately informed Mueller that her job may not have required her resignation, and at 3:59 p.m. that same afternoon, Mueller sent an email rescinding it.
The board’s attorneys advised that Mueller’s employment by Safeway was not an unlawful conflict of interest that required her resignation. They also said that while there’s a sustainable position that her resignation was not effective due to the mistaken assumption of an unlawful conflict, and that her prompt rescission may be effective, “the more transparent and legally sound interpretation of the law” is that there’s a vacancy, Santee told board members.
“This is a very big misunderstanding,” she said.
DeLaRosa has said Mueller was “trying to do the right thing.”
Mueller was the top vote-getter in her April 2023 school board contest, ahead of eight other candidates for three 4-year seats.
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