D303 suit moves to federal court

The lawsuit between St. Charles Unit District 303 and 13 families trying to stop a plan to turn two schools into grade-level centers is now headed to federal court, at least for now.

Judge Harry D. Leinenweber of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois now controls the fate of the case at the request of school district officials. The rationale behind the move is the case involves federal No Child Left Behind laws.

The first appearance before Leinenweber is Wednesday.

At that time, Tim Dwyer, the attorney for the 13 families, will enter a motion to move the case back to a state-level court. Dwyer said that’s were the case belongs.

Dwyer said the federal No Child Left Behind law is similar to federal clean air and water laws in requiring states to adopt regulations identical in substance to the federal law. The difference is, federal courts tend to be much busier with large criminal cases than a state court, Dwyer said.

“This is really a delay tactic on their part,” Dwyer said. “They know time is on their side. First, the school district said their plan had nothing to do with NCLB, but now they are saying it has everything to do with NCLB. So now we having a moving target. Who knows what they’ll say next week.”

District 303 officials Friday said future comment on the case will be handled by district attorneys. However, staff wasn’t sure exactly which attorney would handle the case now that it’s moved to the federal courts.