Judge: U-46 suit will be over by summer

The lawsuit accusing Elgin Area School District U-46 of racial bias will likely come to a close by the end of summer, a federal judge said Wednesday.

If attorneys from both sides fail to come to a settlement agreement this spring, Judge Robert W. Gettleman said, he plans to order the parties to begin preparing for trial at a July 7 hearing.

Representatives from the Elgin families suing and the U-46 board of education, Superintendent Jose Torres and legal counsel Pat Broncato sat down for an initial four-hour settlement talk Dec. 15.

No agreement has yet been reached; nor has Magistrate Judge Michael T. Mason yet set a date for another conference.

In the meantime, "We're continuing to move forward with several motions," Michael Hernandez, one of the lawyers representing U-46, told Gettleman.

Defending itself in the four-year-old suit has been a costly undertaking for U-46, with more than $6.7 million spent to date on legal fees.

The lawsuit stemmed from the district's 2004 decision to redraw its attendance zones. Key allegations include sending black and Hispanic students to older, more crowded schools; busing them farther and more frequently than white students in the district; and providing them with inferior educational opportunities, including inadequate bilingual services.

The case is now a class action, including the 17,000 current black and Hispanic students attending U-46 schools, as well as thousands of former U-46 bilingual students.

If plaintiffs win at trial or gain a settlement, the changes will affect the entire district, and prove even more costly to taxpayers.

As one of the first major school discrimination cases to be decided since the 2007 Supreme Court ruling struck down voluntary integration plans in two public school districts, the effects of the U-46 suit, experts have said, are likely to be far-reaching.

"Let's try to get this case resolved this year," Gettleman said.