Staff Reports
The new FOIA emails just released show something parents and taxpayers should care about: the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy’s diversity office helped organize a separate “Black Graduation” for graduating Black seniors and discussed using school-related accounts to pay for custom sashes and a dinner. The documents include a $640 invoice for 12 customized sashes and emails that mention up to $1,200 for a graduation lunch — about $1,840 on the table for a race-specific event. That is the development reporters are writing about, and it deserves plain answers.
What the FOIA documents actually show
The records from Defending Education include an invoice dated March 27 for “Black Sarape Sash with Yellow Gold custom embroidery” — 12 items at $50 each plus $40 shipping, $640 total. Emails show IMSA’s Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Unity, Adrienne Coleman, and DEI staff discussing dates, room scheduling, and funding sources. The thread even notes the Cherry Endowment or a “Multicultural Retention Undesignated” account as possible payers, with talk of reimbursements if someone fronted the cost. The school calendar also listed a Black Graduation Celebration hosted by student and alumni groups, and students flagged a time conflict with other senior events.
Money, accountability, and the real questions
Here’s the headline that matters: the FOIA proves the event was planned and invoiced in a way that involved IMSA staff and IMSA accounts. What we don’t yet know is whether the $640 and the up-to-$1,200 dinner were actually charged to IMSA or the IMSA Fund, which exact fund codes were used, who signed off, and whether proper procurement rules were followed. Taxpayers and parents deserve to know whether endowment or retention accounts were tapped to pay for a race-specific ceremony on a taxpayer-supported campus.
Why this matters beyond the invoice
Schools run many student-led and cultural events, and celebrations for different groups are common. But when a state-supported academy’s diversity office helps organize and possible institutional funds are discussed for an event limited to one race, it raises obvious concerns about fairness and legal exposure. This comes on the heels of earlier complaints and scrutiny over IMSA’s DEI programming, so transparency is not optional — it’s necessary. If the school’s diversity office is using public or endowment funds to back separate, race-based ceremonies, officials must explain the policy and the approvals behind that choice.
Demanding answers and moving forward
IMSA should answer three plain questions: was the sash invoice and the dinner paid from IMSA or IMSA Fund accounts; if so, which account and who approved it; and was the event officially school-sponsored or only supported logistically while funded entirely by alumni or private donors? Parents, donors, and taxpayers should expect a clear accounting and a statement from the DEIU office. Until IMSA provides that paper trail, critics are right to demand accountability, and the rest of us are right to expect schools to focus on academics — not on funding separate ceremonies that divide students by race.
