U-46 board members, plaintiffs must meet on federal suit

Despite their differing opinions of next steps, a federal judge plans to force parties in the lawsuit accusing Elgin Area School District U-46 of racial bias to sit down to settlement talks.

Magistrate Judge Michael T. Mason said he will to set a date for a settlement conference at a Dec. 2 hearing.

The plaintiffs in the case, along with school board members, must be present at the conference, Mason said. On the table is a settlement counteroffer, delivered to the plaintiffs at the end of September. That counteroffer was written in response to an Aug. 1 proposal asking U-46 to change a number of its policies and practices.

The district's lawyers called the first plan unreasonable.

The plaintiffs' response to the second plan, sent to the district last week, was rejected at a closed session school board meeting Monday night.

"The board did not consider it a step forward," district lawyer John Borkwoski said.

Sparked by 2004 boundary changes, the lawsuit alleges that U-46 violated the rights of black and Latino students by placing them in older, more crowded schools; forcing them to ride buses farther and more often than their white peers; and giving them inferior educational opportunities.

Now a class-action case, U-46 could be forced to implement districtwide changes in the treatment of its minority students if plaintiffs prevail. With 17,000 current black and Latino students, changes, experts have said, would be very costly.

The suit has already cost the district more than $5.9 million in legal fees.

Before the settlement conference takes place, Mason ordered the parties to talk to one another.

"Ask the questions that you have," he said.