After 5 years, U-46 racial bias suit finally going to trial

After five years and millions of dollars in legal fees, the Elgin Area School District U-46 racial bias lawsuit has gotten a shove from a recently released capital planning study.

Federal Judge Robert W. Gettleman granted a motion this week by the Elgin families suing the district to bring the suit to trial, which will begin by determining whether U-46 is liable of intentionally discriminating against black and Hispanic students.

Since February of 2005, the suit has slowly worked its way through the discovery phase - the costly pretrial exchange of evidence. It was granted class-action status last August and could affect more than 17,000 current U-46 students and thousands of former students if the plaintiffs prevail.

The families charge that the district's 2004 decisions to redraw boundaries and create a neighborhood schools model - sending most children to classrooms closest to home - violated the constitutional rights of black and Hispanic students.

Those students, the families say, are placed in older, more crowded schools; bused farther and more often than their white peers; and provided with inferior educational opportunities.

The capital planning study was conducted by Chicago-based architecture and engineering firm Wight and Co. and Texas-based facility assessment firm Magellan Inc. and presented to the school board this summer. Its results prompted U-46 to look at boundary changes for some of the schools cited as most overcrowded.

"We need to address the over-utilization of some schools for the 2010-11 school year and then begin discussions ... developing a long-term strategy regarding facility usage," Superintendent Jose Torres said July 20.

New boundaries before a verdict on the racial bias lawsuit, the families say, could cause a host of problems.

If the plaintiffs were to ultimately prevail in the suit, a court-ordered remedy could force U-46 to adopt different boundary changes than the ones being considered.

"This would cause additional disruption for the thousands of Hispanic and African-American students who are ... members (of the class action defined by the suit) and thousands of other non-class members who are students throughout the district," they wrote in the motion.

In their report, the plaintiffs also cited the study's results as further proof of their claims.

Of the elementary and middle schools identified as the most overcrowded, all but three feature high minority student populations, according to 2008 state school report cards.

With 656 students, Hillcrest Elementary in Elgin is by far the most overcrowded, at 130 percent capacity this past school year. Its student body also is 72.1 percent Hispanic and black.

Garfield Elementary, also in Elgin, was at 106 percent capacity. Its percentage of students who are Hispanic and black is 92.8 percent.

Lords Park, in Elgin, at 109 percent capacity, and Laurel Hill, in Hanover Park, at 104 percent capacity, have 88.3 percent and 83.7 percent of students who are Hispanic and black, respectively.

The three schools without a majority of minority students that were considered overcrowded were Fox Meadow in South Elgin, Nature Ridge in Bartlett and Kenyon Woods in South Elgin.

Fox Meadow has 22.8 percent black and Hispanic students at 101 percent of capacity, Nature Ridge has a 37.4 percent minority population at 109 percent capacity, and Kenyon Woods has a 29.2 percent minority population at 111 percent capacity.

The district's Citizens Advisory Council is responsible for reviewing the report and making recommendations on boundary changes to the school board. Changes for the most overcrowded schools are expected to be approved by December.

Patricia Whitten, who represents U-46, called the plaintiffs' motion "strange." School desegregation suits are commonly split into several trial phases, she said.

However, like the plaintiffs, the district wants to move the case along, she said.

The plaintiffs had requested that the trial begin in March. A date has not yet been determined by Gettleman, but a Jan. 15 pretrial conference where the parties will talk about trial dates, among other things, is set.

"It's premature to say when it will be going to trial but it's in sight. Let's put it that way," Whitten said.

According to figures released Thursday to the Daily Herald, the suit to date has cost U-46 $8.2 million.