Plaintiffs in U-46 suit want more classroom visits

Lawyers for the five families suing Elgin Area School District U-46 on charges of racial bias have asked a federal judge to allow them more classroom visits in order to level the playing field between both sides' education experts.

The Nov. 25 court filing claims that the plaintiffs' experts, Alba Ortiz and Donna Ford, have conducted 10 classroom visits as part of expert discovery - the final phase the pretrial exchange of evidence.

Ortiz, a professor at the University of Texas, is the plaintiffs' expert for the district's English Language Learners program. Ford, a professor at Vanderbilt University, is the gifted and talented program expert.

The district's own experts, Beatriz Arias, Richard Figueroa and Carolyn Callahan, have together conducted 68 classroom visits.

Last February, a judge ruled Ortiz and Fords could not conduct interviews during classroom visits, though the district's experts could.

The plaintiffs are now requesting that Ford and Ortiz be allowed 19 more classroom visits.

Both sides have had heated exchanges over the issue in recent weeks. The district offered to allow more classroom visits between Nov. 5 and 16, but without interviewing school officials. That offer was declined.

Expert reports are set to be exchanged by Dec. 7, and depositions are to be completed by Jan. 1. If U.S. District Court Judge Robert W. Gettleman grants the plaintiffs' request, it likely will require modification of that schedule.

The case is expected to go to trial next year.

The class-action lawsuit arose out of the district's 2004 decision to redraw U-46's attendance boundaries. The families claim 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.

To date, the litigation has cost U-46 more than $8.2 million in legal fees.