Richmond-Davis Lawsuit Awaits Judge’s Ruling

With the start of school less than three weeks away, it is now up to a Kane County judge to decide whether St. Charles Community Unit District 303 acted legally when it reorganized two schools in a move that sparked the lawsuit by some parents.

Testimony in the trial ended Thursday, according to the Kane County Chronicle, which reported that Judge David Akemann gave both sides until Aug. 12 to outline what they believe his ruling should be on the changes the district made at the former Richmond and Davis elementary schools.

This week’s portion of the trial was long-anticipated by some who wanted to hear Superintendent Dr. Donald Schlomann’s testimony on the reorganization of the two schools and how well he would fare under cross-examination.

Parents sued the school district in March 2011, originally with the intent of halting the reorganization of the two elementary schools into learning centers, according to the Daily Herald. The lawsuit was dismissed, and District 303 implemented the changes for the 2011-12 school year.

The changes made Davis, 1125 S. 7th St., a learning center for kindergarten through second grades, and Richmond, 300 S. 12th St., a third- through fifth-grade learning center.

The lawsuit, however, was reinstated by an appeals court almost a year ago, setting the stage for the trial in a lawsuit that now seeks to restore Richmond and Davis as elementary schools.

The Daily Herald reports that the premise of the suit is that  the reorganization was an effort by the district to duck the consequences of the federal No Child Left Behind Act on the two schools, which were failing to meet federal benchmarks.

But state education officials testified last week that the school district acted within the law when it reorganized in 2011-12.

And Schlomann, during three hours of testimony Thursday, said the district’s decision to reorganize the two schools was about using the district’s resources responsibly, according to the Daily Herald. Schlomann also testified, the paper reported, that neither he nor the district’s board of education are focused on the No Child Left Behind Act’s adequate yearly progress requirements. He has made similar remarks in the past year during board and board committee meetings.

Further, the Daily Herald reported, Schlomann testified that even if adequate yearly progress under the federal law had been a goal of the reorganization, it would not have worked.

For more details, check out the Kane County Chronicle’s story or the Daily Herald’s story, both of which were filed Thursday evening.