The West Aurora Unit School District 129 board this week reconfirmed a controversial vote on a boundary plan that some parents complained had violated the Open Meetings Act.
At the special meeting Monday, board members were faced with two challenges: a suggestion from the Kane County state’s attorney’s office that the Open Meetings Act may have been violated, and a protest from about 30 parents who said their children were being deprived of the opportunity to attend middle school with their elementary-school peers.
In late July, an attorney for a group of North Aurora parents approached the state’s attorney’s office about a Dec. 4 middle-school boundary vote they felt was taken in violation of the Opening Meetings Act.
Public notice of the meeting referred to discussion of the proposal but did not mention the possibility of a vote.
On Monday, the board said it planned to reconfirm, ratify and re-adopt the boundary plan resolution approved Dec. 4. Unlike the first vote on the issue, passed 4-3, Monday’s vote was unanimous.
In an Aug. 13 statement, Assistant State’s Atty. Joseph Lulves said “if corrective action is not taken by the board within 30 days, this office will seek to void the action of the board taken” at the Dec. 4 meeting.
Board president Rick Slocum said he believes the board did abide by open-meetings laws. But by taking a reaffirmation vote, he said, the district would avoid “the unnecessary spending of time and resources.”
Parents told the board Monday that they didn’t want their children in the Tanner Trails subdivision to be separated from elementary-school friends.
“Children belong with their friends,” Patty Garrity said. “They need to be with peers as they take that important step to middle school.”
She was one of three parents to address the board.
The boundary changes will take effect in fall 2005 when the district opens Herget Middle School to address overcrowding.
Parents said there are just a “handful” of middle-school pupils in their subdivision and they should be able to attend Jewel Middle School with their friends.
It may be just a handful now, the board said, but the subdivision is growing even more quickly than developers anticipated.
After the meeting, Garrity said the issue was not over for her.
“I don’t feel as a parent I’m ready to tell my daughter to suck it up and move on,” she said.
