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Schools

District 97 Case Heads for Appeal, Fees Will Mount

Case so far has cost as much as educating three students, district says.

will return to court – and be forced to spend more money - as anti-tax advocates who unsuccessfully attempted to overturn results of the April referendum have filed an appeal.

An appeal was filed on July 7. Noel Kuriakos and Taxpayers United of America will now try to convince judges in the First District Appellate Court that ballot language intentionally misled voters about the impact of the referendum on their property taxes and that the district failed to use the equalizer in determining the real cost to the taxpayers.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Mary Mikvathe case July 1 with prejudice, meaning that the only action that TUA can take in this case is to appeal. Thewas filed shortly after the rate hike was approved by nearly .

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The legal action so far has cost the district upwards of $47,000, more than the cost of educating three students for an entire year; as of June 30, 2010, the operating expense per pupil was $13,318.58, district officials said.  Legal fees come out of the education fund, district officials said.

School board president Peter Barber said the district was disappointed that these individuals have chosen to appeal Judge Mikva's decision.

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“While we hoped the judge’s ruling would preclude us from having to waste additional resources that would be better spent on meeting the needs of our students, we will continue to strongly defend the important decision residents of this village made on April 5, 2011,” Barber said.

In a statement, provided to the Wednesday Journal, Kuriakos said “it is our constitutional right to appeal a judicial decision and we intend to exercise this right,” he said.

A similar case against , which was late last month by Circuit Court Judge Rita Novak, is also up on appeal. And according to TUA’s attorney, Andrew Spiegel, the group would try to expedite and both cases, a move that was tossed out late in May by another Cook County Circuit Court judge.

Karen Donnan, president of the District 39 school board, called it unfortunate that they must continue to respond to this charge.

“This referendum passed by a significant margin (garnering of the vote). “Now we have a community member who has aligned himself with an outside anti-tax group, and together they are trying to overturn the will of the voters,” she said.

District 39 so far has spent $32,000 on its case, district officials said.

TUA unsuccessfully attempted to get ain May, which would have blocked results of the referendum from taking effect. That was rejected by another Cook County judge.

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