Discovery deadlines pushed back in U-46 suit

Disputes over experts in the lawsuit accusing Elgin Area School District U-46 of racial bias have resulted in more delays of the already drawn-out discovery process.

Magistrate Judge Michael T. Mason has, in recent weeks, pushed back several deadlines in expert discovery, the last phase of the costly pretrial exchange of evidence.

Reports by the district's experts are now due June 5. Expert documents are due June 19. The final deadline for expert depositions is July 26.

The impetus for many changes along the way has been the inability of both sides to agree on times for designated experts to conduct site inspections of district classrooms. Inspections must take place by March 2, Mason ruled.

Oral discovery, where both sides interviewed a number of key witnesses in the case, ended in mid-October. After nearly three years, the discovery portion dealing with paper and electronic documents formally closed last March.

On Feb. 7, the lawsuit became four years old. Filed by five Elgin families, it originally arose out of U-46's 2004 decision to redraw district boundaries. The families charge that the new boundaries violated the constitutional rights of black and Hispanic students by placing them in crowded, older schools; busing them farther and more often than white students; and providing them inferior educational opportunities.

Now a class-action case, more than 17,000 U-46 students would be affected if the plaintiffs prevail.

The district has spent more than $6.7 million defending itself against the suit.

If attorneys from both sides fail to come to a settlement agreement in the coming months, Judge Robert W. Gettleman, who oversees the case, has said he plans to order the parties to begin preparing for trial at a July 7 hearing.