Lawyers both intend to use boundary study in U-46 racial bias suit

Numbers don't lie.

But they can be manipulated to support very different points.

Attorneys on either side of the lawsuit accusing Elgin Area School District U-46 of racial bias both say the results of a capital planning and facilities study will back their arguments in the drawn-out case.

"This confirms plaintiffs' allegations. This is exactly what we alleged in 2004," said Carol Ashley, the plaintiffs' lawyer.

But Patricia Whitten, who represents the district, uttered a near verbatim phrase. "It shows what we've been saying all along," she said.

Who's right? And will be the effect of the study on the lawsuit?

The suit and boundaries

The five-year-old racial bias lawsuit stemmed out of the district's decision to redraw boundaries in 2004 to create a neighborhood schools model - sending most children to classrooms closest to home.

By doing so, a group of Elgin families charged, U-46 violated the rights of black and Hispanic students by placing them in older, more crowded schools; busing them farther and more often than their white peers; and providing them with overall inferior educational opportunities.

U-46 hasn't changed boundaries since the 2004-05 school year. But a capital planning and facilities study by Chicago-based architecture and engineering firm Wight and Co., and Texas-based facility assessment firm Magellan Consulting Inc., found 10 elementary schools and one middle school to be far over capacity.

"We need to address the overutilization 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.

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.

The plaintiffs' side

Of the elementary and middle schools identified as needing immediate help, all but three - Fox Meadow, Nature Ridge and Kenyon Woods - 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.

Lincoln Elementary in Hoffman Estates and Coleman Elementary in Elgin are not far behind, at 113 and 112 percent capacity, respectively. Like Hillcrest, they also feature high percentages of Hispanic and black students - 59 percent and 75.8 percent, respectively.

"It just confirms what we already knew, that this is intentional or at least partly intentional discrimination," Ashley said.

A demographer from Massachusetts-based Gann-McKibben who helped U-46 redraw its attendance boundary map to feature neighborhood schools in 2004 underestimated population growth in heavily Hispanic neighborhoods, former executive director of operations Jeff King said in 2006.

"The fact that they are allegedly fixing it now does address their failure to have done it in the past," Ashley said.

The district's side

Whitten maintains that the boundary study shows the district has done its due diligence.

While a number of the district's 53 schools are well over capacity, the report called the districtwide capacity for students in elementary and middle schools "adequate."

The 65 classroom trailers in use across the district, Magellan President Sam Wilson told the board, "is pretty low compared to other urban districts."

The district has the capacity for 21,123 elementary students, while its actual enrollment for 2008-09 stood at 20,627. For middle schools, enrollment is was 7,020 but capacity is 6,108.

All told, the district's five high schools, however, are over capacity by 1,562 students.

Additionally, although the study found that U-46's schools are in relatively good condition, the district could be looking at more than $300 million in facility needs.

The cost breaks down into $215 million in general building needs and $85 million in what the firms call "educational facility deficiencies" - support for programs, technology and instruction. Approximately $1.5 million in work needs to be done quickly, the report noted. The bulk of the renovations - about $200 million - should be completed over the next one to three years.

"Our facilities are in good shape compared to other districts across the country. We've got capacity at the elementary level. We know there's a problem at the secondary level," Whitten said. "But you know they've done what they've supposed to do. To have it analyzed."

Areas with greater percentages of minority students, Whitten said, "tend to be more concentrated anyway. There's nothing wrong legally with neighborhood schools. And when you've got a neighborhood school system, you've got to realize how to keep things at capacity. You've got to adjust boundaries from time to time."

Sure, she said, the capital planning study could likely come up in future court hearings.

"It could come up ... to the extent that (the plaintiffs) are critical of it ... we would point out things that would bode positively."

The sides next appear before Judge Robert W. Gettleman Nov. 19. In recent hearings, the judge has urged they consider using neutral experts in working toward a settlement to avoid going to trial.

The suit - which has racked up more than $7.8 million in legal fees for U-46 - is currently at the tail end of discovery, the pretrial exchange of evidence.

"This is an old case," Gettleman remarked July 7. "I'd rather have the resources going to the kids."

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