Families in bias case want settlement talks with U-46

The lawyer for the families accusing Elgin Area School District U-46 of racial bias has asked a judge to force the district to join court-supervised settlement talks.

The motion filed Monday is the families' second attempt to force the district to discuss settlement.

The judge denied the initial request in December 2005.

In August, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Mason urged the lawyers to schedule a settlement conference, and advised them that his docket was filling up quickly.

At the time, the U-46 attorney told Mason the district was willing to discuss settlement.

As of Monday, according to the motion, the district has not proposed any dates for a settlement conference or agreed to attend a conference.

Pattie Whitten of the Chicago-based Franczek and Sullivan law firm, which represents U-46, declined to comment on the issue until the district files a response to the families' motion.

The district has until Oct. 1 to respond to the motion.

First filed in February 2005, the lawsuit claims the district discriminated against black and Hispanic students by placing them in more crowded schools, busing them farther and more often than white students and providing them with inferior educational opportunities.

Since 2005, both the families and the district have repeatedly stated their willingness to discuss settlement -- while blaming the other for impeding the process.

Lawyers for the district have said they would not consider settlement talks until the families provide them with a written list of settlement terms.

And lawyers for the family have said they would not produce a written agreement unless the district agreed to court-supervised talks.

At an Aug. 15 court appearance, Mason broke the stalemate, asking Michael Hernandez of Franczek Sullivan if U-46 would be open to discuss settlement if the families would produce the terms.

Hernandez said the district would be open to talks.

Mason then ordered the lawyer for the families to produce the terms.

On Sept. 7, the lawyer for the families, Carol Ashley of the Futterman and Howard law firm, sent the district a written settlement proposal.

Ashley declined to disclose the content of that letter.

But at an August court appearance, Ashley indicated that her settlement terms would include having her legal team work with a team of educational experts to develop a district improvement plan that U-46 would be bound to uphold.

Mason has counseled the lawyers to consider settlement on the grounds that they are embarking on a particularly costly phase of the already costly lawsuit.

To date, U-46 has spent more than $3.2 million in its defense of the lawsuit.